At noon today, in Chicago’s Steppenwolf Theater, novelist Scott Turow announced the nominees for the 2008 National Book Awards. Out of a mind-boggling 540 titles submitted by publishers, the Nonfiction nominees are:
Drew Gilpin Faust for This Republic of Suffering; Annette Gordon-Reed for Thomas Jefferson and Sally Hemings: An American Controversy; Jane Mayer for The Dark Side; Jim Sheeler for Final Salute: A Story of Unfinished Lives; and Joan Wickersham for The Suicide Index: Putting My Father’s Death in Order.