How many of 2014's National Book Award finalists have you read?
On Tuesday, the finalists for the 2014 National Book Awards were revealed:
Fiction
1. An Unnecessary Woman, by Rabih Alameddine
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2. All the Light We Cannot See, by Anthony Doerr
3. Redeployment, by Phil Klay
4. Station Eleven, by Emily St. John Mandel
5. Lila, by Marilynne Robinson
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Nonfiction
1. Can't We Talk About Something More Pleasant?, by Roz Chast
2. No Good Men Among the Living: America, the Taliban, and the War through Afghan Eyes, by Anand Gopal
3. Tennessee Williams: Mad Pilgrimage of the Flesh, by John Lahr
4. Age of Ambition: Chasing Fortune, Truth, and Faith in the New China, by Evan Osnos
5. The Meaning of Human Existence, by Edward O. Wilson
Poetry
1. Faithful and Virtuous Night, by Louise Glück
2. Second Childhood by Fanny Howe
3. This Blue, by Maureen N. McLane
4. The Feel Trio, by Fred Moten
5. Citizen: An American Lyric, by Claudia Rankine
Young Adult Literature
1. Threatened, by Eliot Schrefer
2. The Port Chicago 50: Disaster, Mutiny, and the Fight for Civil Rights, by Steve Sheinkin
3. Noggin, by John Corey Whaley
4. Revolution: The Sixties Trilogy, Book Two, by Deborah Wiles
5. Brown Girl Dreaming, Jacqueline Woodson
Being nominated for a National Book Award is more than just an honor — it's a major source of revenue, with a significant boost in sales for pretty much every book that ends up on the shortlist. The winners will be announced on November 19.
Scott Meslow is the entertainment editor for TheWeek.com. He has written about film and television at publications including The Atlantic, POLITICO Magazine, and Vulture.
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