Free Samples from NBCC Finalists

By Jason Boog 

Tonight the National Book Critics Circle (NBCC) will reveal the winners of their annual awards–we’ll be reporting live from the ceremony. Below, we’ve created a list linking to free samples of every critically acclaimed book on the list.

If you want more books, we made similar mixtapes linking to free samples of 2011 Edgar Awards finalists, the 2011 ALA Youth Media Awards winners, the 2011 Book Critics Circle Awards finalists, the Best Translated Books Longlist, the Believer Book Awards shortlist, and the Best Books of 2010.

This alphabetical list combines books from the following NBCC categories: fiction, biography, autobiography, criticism, nonfiction, and poetry.  What books do you hope will win?

National Book Critics Circle Finalists

How to Live: Or A Life of Montaigne in One Question and Twenty Attempts at an Answer by Sarah Bakewell

Crossing Mandelbaum Gate: Coming of Age Between the Arabs and Israelis by Kai Bird

The Possessed by Elif Batuman

Nox by Anne Carson

The Professor and Other Writings by Terry Castle

Lyric Poetry and Modern Politics: Russia, Poland, and the West by Clare Cavanagh

Nothing to Envy: Ordinary Lives in North Korea by Barbara Demick

The Autobiography of an Execution by David Dow

A Visit from the Goon Squad by Jennifer Egan

Freedom by Jonathan Franzen

The Eternal City by Kathleen Graber

To The End Of The Land by David Grossman

Empire of the Summer Moon: Quanah Parker and the Rise and Fall of the Comanches, the Most Powerful Indian Tribe in American History by S.C. Gwynne

The Secret Lives Of Somerset Maugham: A Biography by Selina Hastings

Lighthead by Terrance Hayes

Hitch-22: A Memoir by Christopher Hitchens

Apollo’s Angels: A History of Ballet by Jennifer Homans

Charlie Chan: The Untold Story Of The Honorable Detective And His Rendezvous With American History by Yunte Huang

The Cruel Radiance by Susie Linfield

Comedy In A Minor Key by Hans Keilson

Vanishing Point: Not a Memoir by Ander Monson

The Emperor of All Maladies: A Biography of Cancer by Siddhartha Mukherjee

Skippy Dies by Paul Murray

The Killing Of Crazy Horse by Thomas Powers

Hiroshima in the Morning by Rahna Reiko Rizzuto

The Best of It by Kay Ryan

Simon Wiesenthal: The Lives And Legends by Tom Segev

Just Kids by Patti Smith

Half a Life by Darin Strauss

The Warmth of Other Suns: The Epic Story of America’s Great Migration by Isabel Wilkerson

One with Others: [a little book of her days] by C.D. Wright

Excellent cassette tape photo via Kumar McMillan.

Full Disclosure: This GalleyCat editor is a NBCC member.