2009 National Book Awards Finalists Announced

Full list is on the National Book Foundation website. Highlights...

Fiction nominees:
Bonnie Jo Campbell, American Salvage (Wayne State University Press)
Colum McCann, Let the Great World Spin (Random House)
Daniyal Mueenuddin, In Other Rooms, Other Wonders (W. W. Norton & Co.)
Jayne Anne Phillips, Lark and Termite (Alfred A. Knopf)
Marcel Theroux, Far North (Farrar, Straus and Giroux)

YA nominees:
Deborah Heiligman, Charles and Emma: The Darwins’ Leap of Faith
(Henry Holt)
Phillip Hoose, Claudette Colvin: Twice Toward Justice
(Farrar, Straus and Giroux)
David Small, Stitches (W. W. Norton & Co.)
Laini Taylor, Lips Touch: Three Times (Arthur A. Levine Books/Scholastic)
Rita Williams-Garcia, Jumped (HarperTeen/HarperCollins)

Comments

I haven't read a one.

Feeling hopelessly pedestrian, here.
Joni Rodgers said…
Me too. Sheesh.

This list baffles me every year. I guess they want to avoid obvious choices? Or maybe commercial success is a subconscious strike against a book like...well, I'd better not say.

Congrats to all the nominees!
Joni Rodgers said…
On the nonfiction list, I did read/skim two -- Remarkable Creatures and Fordlandia -- and wish I'd had more time to spend with both. Excellent writing and fascinating subject matter.