National Book Awards Winners & Finalists

The Worst Hard Time, written by New York Times journalist Timothy Egan, won the National Book Award for Nonfiction (2006) and the Washington State Book Award (2006). Egan chronicles the history of the Dust Bowl from the late 1800s to 1939, unfolding the tragedy of errors that led to the environmental and economic disasters of the 1930s. Readers experience historical events through stories of survivors: farmers, cowboys, ranchers, merchants, investors and professionals. Egan chooses survivors... Read The Worst Hard Time Summary

Joan Didion’s memoir, The Year of Magical Thinking, explores her experiences mourning the death of her husband and the severe illness of her daughter in 2003. Didion, an American journalist and essayist, first gained popularity during the 1960s and 70s covering counterculture and Hollywood, but in The Year of Magical Thinking she turns to more intimate material. Didion’s husband John Gregory Dunne died of a heart attack while he and Didion were caring for their... Read The Year of Magical Thinking Summary

The Yellow House is a nonfiction memoir published in 2019 by the American author Sarah M. Broom. In a narrative centered around her childhood home, “The Yellow House,” Broom chronicles the history of New Orleans through three generations of her family. The Yellow House won the 2019 National Book Award for Nonfiction and the National Book Critics Circle’s John Leonard Prize for best debut book.Plot SummaryIn 1961, Broom's mother, Ivory Mae, becomes a widow at the... Read The Yellow House Summary

Tressie McMillan Cottom’s Thick: And Other Essays (2019) is a collection of personal essays that explore race, gender, and class in the US. McMillan Cottom is a professor of sociology at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and an influential public intellectual whose writing has appeared in The Atlantic, Slate, The New York Times, and The Washington Post. Thick situates McMillan Cottom’s personal experiences within sociological and structural analysis to link her experiences to... Read Thick: And Other Essays Summary

... Read This Other Eden Summary

... Read Tokyo Ueno Station Summary

... Read Too Bright to See Summary

... Read Truman Summary

... Read Underworld Summary

... Read Victory. Stand! Summary

... Read Wayward Lives, Beautiful Experiments Summary

... Read We Are Not Free Summary

... Read When Stars Are Scattered Summary

When the Sea Turned Silver by Grace Lin takes readers on a journey through a richly imagined world full of imagery and Chinese folklore. The novel follows the adventures of Pinmei and Yishan as they navigate themes of Finding and Creating Identity, The Power of Stories, and how Perception Shapes Reality. Recognized for its storytelling and cultural depth, When the Sea Turned Silver was a 2016 National Book Award Finalist. Critics praise the novel for... Read When the Sea Turned to Silver Summary

... Read When We Cease to Understand the World Summary

Where the Lilies Bloom (1969) is a middle-grade historical fiction novel written by married authors Vera Cleaver and Bill Cleaver. The couple collaborated on stories and novels for middle-grade and young adult readers throughout their life, believing that writing for adolescent age groups was a meaningful endeavor. They often wrote about realistic settings and themes, exploring the intricacies of human nature. Where the Lilies Bloom is their most famous work. It is a coming-of-age novel... Read Where the Lilies Bloom Summary

White Noise is a 1985 novel by American author Don DeLillo. A significant entry in the canon of postmodern literature, White Noise tells the story of a small-town college professor whose suburban routine is shattered when a train crash results in a massive chemical spill. As the characters struggle to accept their own mortality, the book explores a range of contemporary issues including consumerism, mass media, and conspiracy theories. In 2005 Time Magazine included White... Read White Noise Summary

... Read Witness Summary