The next reason I'll be in NYC this week: the National Book Awards ceremony/dinner on Wednesday night.
I'm not even going to get in to the Peter Mathiessen controversy here. Instead, I'd like to take time to champion two books on the shortlist. I can't make the committee vote for them, but I can recommend them heartily -- and if even one reader out there takes a look because of my recommendations, I consider that a win.
In the Fiction category, I'd like to shine a spotlight on the remarkable novel by Aleksandr Hemon, The Lazarus Project. Layered, modern, and complex, this examination of a very cold-case murder combined with a modern-day hunt for the victim's story across Eastern Europe with immigrant friends Brik and Rora. It's not like anything else you've ever read, but it's incredibly readable. Hemon has managed to combine style with substance, something I see in so few new novels.
In Nonfiction, I urge you to read Final Salute by Jim Sheeler. I reviewed it several months ago over here, and it's one of the most moving books you can read about the war. While its focus is on how families cope with the loss of servicemembers killed in wartime, Sheeler is careful to keep the lost ones alive through memories, descriptions, and detail. Sheeler, a Pulitzer-winning reporter for The Rocky Mountain News, allows each rank and tradition its dignity in grief. It's a very special tribute to those who, as one man in the book points out, rarely get this kind of notice while alive and serving.
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