1. Which one book in each category would you be most interested in reading?
2. Which book in each category do you think would most strongly connect to King Lear?
3. After doing a bit of poking around to learn more about the authors/books, make a prediction for
the winner in each category!
http://artsbeat.blogs.nytimes.com/2014/10/15/shortlists-for-national-book-awardsannounced/?_php=true&_type=blogs&ref=books&_r=0
Shortlists for National Book Awards Announced
By ALEXANDRA ALTER OCTOBER 15, 2014 9:20 AM
October 15, 2014 9:20 am
The National Book Foundation announced finalists for the 2014 National Book Awards in poetry,
young adult literature, nonfiction and fiction on Wednesday morning. The winners will be
recognized at a ceremony on Nov. 19, headlined by Daniel Handler, better known as Lemony
Snicket. The five finalists in each category are:
FICTION
Rabih Alameddine, “An Unnecessary Woman,” Grove Press
Mr. Alameddine’s fourth novel, “An Unnecessary Woman,” is narrated by Aaliya Saleh, a reclusive
72-year-old woman in Beirut who translates works by Nabokov, Rilke, Donne and others into
Arabic and stashes them away in her apartment without showing them to anyone.
Anthony Doerr, “All the Light We Cannot See,” Scribner
Mr. Doerr’s novel unfolds during World War II in France. A blind girl and her father flee Nazioccupied Paris and move to a seaside town, taking with them a precious jewel from a natural
history museum. The father is arrested by the Germans, and a Nazi treasure hunter tries to track
down the jewel.
Phil Klay, “Redeployment,” The Penguin Press
Mr. Klay, a former Marine who fought in Iraq, captures the terror, boredom and occasional humor
of war in his debut collection of short stories, some set in the Anbar Province of Iraq and others in
America as soldiers struggle to readjust to civilian life after combat.
Emily St. John Mandel, “Station Eleven,” Alfred A. Knopf
“Station Eleven,” a quiet dystopian novel, unfolds in North America after a deadly superflu has
wiped out most of humanity; a band of Shakespearean actors travels to scattered camps of
survivors to perform plays.
Marilynne Robinson, “Lila,” Farrar, Straus and Giroux
“Lila” — the third in Ms. Robinson’s series of novels set in fictional Gilead, Iowa — centers on Lila,
the troubled young woman who marries the elderly Reverend Ames, the conflicted Calvinist
minister and narrator of “Gilead.”
POETRY
Louise Glück, “Faithful and Virtuous Night,” Farrar, Straus and Giroux
This new collection from Ms. Glück, a Pulitzer Prize-winning poet and a three-time National Book
Award finalist, tackles the subjects of aging and creativity.
Fanny Howe, “Second Childhood,” Graywolf Press
Ms. Howe has published more than 20 books of poetry and prose. Her latest collection “channels
childlike marvel,” a reviewer for Publishers Weekly wrote.
Maureen N. McLane, “This Blue,” Farrar, Straus and Giroux
Ms. McLane’s third collection includes poems about nature and travel, and poems with cheeky
titles like “They Were Not Kidding in the Fourteenth Century” and “Quiet Car.”
Fred Moten, “The Feel Trio,” Letter Machine Editions
Mr. Moten’s verse is packed with slang and contemporary language as well as jazz references.
Claudia Rankine, “Citizen: An American Lyric,” Graywolf Press
In “Citizen,” which has been described as “a provocative mediation on race,” Ms. Rankine mixes
current events and pop culture references with personal narratives.
NONFICTION
Roz Chast, “Can’t We Talk About Something More Pleasant?,” Bloomsbury
In her graphic memoir, Ms. Chast, a cartoonist for The New Yorker, details her parents’ final years
and their struggles with dementia, illness and financial instability. “No one has perfect parents and
no one can write a perfect book about her relationship to them. But Chast has come close,” Alex
Witchel wrote in a review in The New York Times.
Anand Gopal, “No Good Men Among the Living: America, the Taliban, and the War through
Afghan Eyes,” Metropolitan Books
Mr. Gopal looks at the impact of America’s war against the Taliban and Islamic extremists from the
perspective of three Afghans: a Taliban commander, a warlord who is backed by the United States
military and becomes rich and powerful, and a village woman who lives in fear of combatants from
all sides.
Evan Osnos, “Age of Ambition: Chasing Fortune, Truth and Faith in the New China,” Farrar,
Straus and Giroux
Drawing on his reporting as the Beijing correspondent for The New Yorker, Mr. Osnos examines
China’s continuing transformation into a global economic superpower, and the clash between its
economic reforms and its government’s authoritarian attacks on free speech.
John Lahr, “Tennessee Williams: Mad Pilgrimage of the Flesh,” W.W. Norton & Company
Mr. Lahr’s biography of Tennessee Williams explores the nexus of the playwright’s private life and
his creative output, and draws on newly uncovered sources, including previously unknown letters.
Edward O. Wilson, “The Meaning of Human Existence,” Liveright Publishing Corporation
Mr. Wilson, the Pulitzer Prize-winning biologist, ventures into philosophical territory here, building
on his explorations of how humans are altering the planet, and how we should view our place in
the cosmos. Mr. Wilson, who has published more than two dozen books, was last a finalist for the
National Book Award in 1972.
YOUNG PEOPLE’S LITERATURE
John Corey Whaley, “Noggin,” Atheneum Books for Young Readers
A tragicomic novel in which a 16-year-old boy dies of leukemia — but comes back to life five years
later when his parents, who had his head cryogenically frozen, find a donor body to reattach his
head to.
Deborah Wiles, “Revolution,” Scholastic Press
Set in Mississippi in 1964, “Revolution” blends a fictional coming-of-age story with historical
documents from the civil rights era, including leaflets, brochures and newspaper clippings.
Jacqueline Woodson, “Brown Girl Dreaming,” Nancy Paulsen Books
Ms. Woodson’s memoir in verse details her experience growing up as an African-American in
South Carolina and New York during the 1960s and ’70s
Eliot Schrefer, “Threatened,” Scholastic Press
In Mr. Schrefer’s novel, an orphan named Luc who is struggling to get by in the African country of
Gabon joins an expedition to study chimpanzees and heads deep into the jungle, where he finds a
family of sorts among the apes.
Steve Sheinkin, “The Port Chicago 50: Disaster, Mutiny and the Fight for Civil Rights,”
Roaring Books Press
Mr. Sheinkin, a former National Book Award finalist, tells the true story of a port in California where
an accidental explosion killed more than 300 sailors in 1944. The Navy and the rest of the military
were segregated at the time, and most of the dead and injured were African-American. The sailors
protested unsafe working conditions and some were charged with mutiny.