Have you read any of the books on the 2014 National Book Award Shortlist? It contains some great reads and the winners will be announced on November 18.
2014 Fiction Finalists
Rabih Alameddine, An Unnecessary Woman
Anthony Doerr, All the Light We Cannot See
Phil Klay, Redeployment
Emily St. John Mandel, Station Eleven
Marilynne Robinson, Lila
2014 Non-Fiction Finalists
Roz Chast, Can’t We Talk About Something More Pleasant?
Anand Gopal, No Good Men Among the Living
John Lahr, Tennessee Williams: Mad Pilgrimage of the Flesh
Evan Osnos, Age of Ambition: Chasing Fortune, Truth and Faith in the New China
Edward O. Wilson, The Meaning of Human Existence
I highly recommend two books from these lists. For fiction, All the Light We Cannot See is a fine novel about a blind girl, a German boy and a secret stone during World War II. The author does an amazing job of detailing the emotional and physical torture of war, yet he also finds pockets of tenderness. Wonderful storytelling!
Can’t We Talk About Something More Pleasant? by Roz Chast, is a hysterically funny, sometimes sad, always honest memoir of caring for her two aging parents until their death. The cartoon format enhances each emotion the reader feels.
Happy reading!