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.