National Book Critics Circle
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Honoring outstanding writing and fostering a national conversation about reading, criticism, and literature since 1974.
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NBCC memberCharles Green reviewed Bill Janovitz's "The Cars: Let the Stories Be Told" for The Lexington Observer:
Local author Bill Janovitz’s definitive biography of one of Boston’s biggest bands, The Cars
Local author Bill Janovitz’s definitive biography of one of Boston’s biggest bands
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December 27, 2025 at 11:00 PM
NBCC memberCharles Green reviewed Bill Janovitz's "The Cars: Let the Stories Be Told" for The Lexington Observer:
NBCC member Tom Peebles reviewed University of Maryland history professor Richard Bell’s "The American Revolution and the Fate of The World" on his personal blog:
A World War in All But Name
Richard Bell, The American Revolution and the Fate of The World (Riverhead Books, 2025) The 4th of July in the fast-approaching new year 2026 has been billed as America’s 250th birthd…
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December 27, 2025 at 10:00 PM
NBCC member Tom Peebles reviewed University of Maryland history professor Richard Bell’s "The American Revolution and the Fate of The World" on his personal blog:
NBCC member Paul Wilner reviewed "Even Ghosts Can Be Shared: The Collected Letters of Jack Spicer" for ZYZZYVA:
Vocabulary Lesson: 'Even Strange Ghosts Can be Shared: The Collected Letters of Jack Spicer' – ZYZZYVA
“I am thinking that a poem could go on forever,’’ Jack Spicer wrote in “Psychoanalysis: An Elegy.’’ The brilliant, troubled figure identified with the
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December 27, 2025 at 9:01 PM
NBCC member Paul Wilner reviewed "Even Ghosts Can Be Shared: The Collected Letters of Jack Spicer" for ZYZZYVA:
NBCC member Robert Rubsam reviewed Joe Sacco's "The Once and Future Riot" for The Atlantic: buff.ly/6UKDk1t
The Riot That Foretold an Unstable Future
In his newest book, Joe Sacco worries about what political violence might lead to.
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December 27, 2025 at 8:00 PM
NBCC member Robert Rubsam reviewed Joe Sacco's "The Once and Future Riot" for The Atlantic: buff.ly/6UKDk1t
NBCC member Britta Stromeyer reviewed "Skylighting" by Charles Hansmann for Bending Genres:
Review of Skylighting by Charles Hansmann by Britta Stromeyer
by Britta Stromeyer | Dec 11, 2025 | Bending Genres, Blog, Fiction, News, Poetry, Reviews
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December 27, 2025 at 7:00 PM
NBCC member Britta Stromeyer reviewed "Skylighting" by Charles Hansmann for Bending Genres:
NBCC member George Yatchisin reviewed "The Future of Truth" by Werner Herzog for the California Review of Books:
The Future of Truth by Werner Herzog
Penguin Review by George Yatchisin Who better than Werner Herzog, the Bavarian mad genius, to take us on a heady time-travelling exploration on what truth might mean/be/permit? The Future of Truth is…
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December 27, 2025 at 6:02 PM
NBCC member George Yatchisin reviewed "The Future of Truth" by Werner Herzog for the California Review of Books:
NBCC member Hope Reese wrote about five books to help you through a breakup for The New York Times:
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December 27, 2025 at 5:00 PM
NBCC member Hope Reese wrote about five books to help you through a breakup for The New York Times:
NBCC member Dan Kois wrote about the best cookbooks of the year for Slate:
The 10 Best Recipes of 2025—Including the Last Condiment You’ll Ever Need
These dishes are the most delicious.
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December 27, 2025 at 4:01 PM
NBCC member Dan Kois wrote about the best cookbooks of the year for Slate:
NBCC Emerging Critic Fellow Lauren Yu-Ting Bo reviewed Lydi Conklin's "Songs of No Provenance" for Rain Taxi:
CURRENT PRINT EDITION - Rain Taxi Review of Books
Volume 30, Number 4, Winter 2025 (#120) To purchase issue #120 using Paypal, click here.To become a member and get quarterly issues of Rain Taxi delivered
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December 27, 2025 at 3:00 PM
NBCC Emerging Critic Fellow Lauren Yu-Ting Bo reviewed Lydi Conklin's "Songs of No Provenance" for Rain Taxi:
NBCC member Linda Hitchcock reviewed Anthony Hopkins’ "We Did OK, Kid" for BookTrib:
Anthony Hopkins’ Honest Memoir of Art and Adversity | BookTrib.
We Did OK, Kid is that rare substantive revelatory memoir sharing more than is typically glimpsed behind the gilded gates of Hollywood as told in gossip columns or seen in interviews. Anthony Hopkins...
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December 26, 2025 at 11:00 PM
NBCC member Linda Hitchcock reviewed Anthony Hopkins’ "We Did OK, Kid" for BookTrib:
NBCC member Diane Scharper reviewed Michael Drout's "The Tower and the Ruin" for the Washington Examiner:
How Tolkien built worlds
In his new book, English professor Michael Drout delves into Tolkien’s life and work while reminiscing about his own father and son.
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December 26, 2025 at 10:00 PM
NBCC member Diane Scharper reviewed Michael Drout's "The Tower and the Ruin" for the Washington Examiner:
NBCC member Jim Schley contributed a remembrance of three Vermont poets who died in October—David Huddle, Ellen Bryant Voigt, and Baron Wormser—for Seven Days:
Remembering Three Vermont Writers We Lost in 2025
Contributor Jim Schley reflects on the legacies of three Vermont poets and writers — David Huddle, Ellen Bryant Voigt and Baron Wormser — who died in October.
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December 26, 2025 at 9:01 PM
NBCC member Jim Schley contributed a remembrance of three Vermont poets who died in October—David Huddle, Ellen Bryant Voigt, and Baron Wormser—for Seven Days:
NBCC member Rebecca Brenner Graham reviewed Christine Kuehn's "Family of Spies: A World War II Story of Nazi Espionage, Betrayal, and the Secret History Behind Pearl Harbor" for The Washington Post:
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December 26, 2025 at 8:00 PM
NBCC member Rebecca Brenner Graham reviewed Christine Kuehn's "Family of Spies: A World War II Story of Nazi Espionage, Betrayal, and the Secret History Behind Pearl Harbor" for The Washington Post:
NBCC member McKenzie Watson-Fore reviewed "Hymn to Moray Eels," written by Mireille Best and translated from the French by Stephanie Schechner, for Full Stop:
Hymn to Moray Eels – Mireille Best
Why love a boy just on the basis of his boy-ness?
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December 26, 2025 at 7:00 PM
NBCC member McKenzie Watson-Fore reviewed "Hymn to Moray Eels," written by Mireille Best and translated from the French by Stephanie Schechner, for Full Stop:
NBCC member Marcie Geffner reviewed "Cursed Daughters" by Oyinkan Braithwaite for the Washington Independent Review of Books:
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December 26, 2025 at 6:01 PM
NBCC member Marcie Geffner reviewed "Cursed Daughters" by Oyinkan Braithwaite for the Washington Independent Review of Books:
NBCC Emerging Critic Fellow Lauren Yu-Ting Bo reviewed "Our Precious Wars," written by Perrine Tripier and translated from the French by Alison Anderson, for World Literature Today:
Our Precious Wars by Perrine Tripier
Trans. Alison Anderson. Europa Editions. 2025. 160 pages.
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December 26, 2025 at 5:00 PM
NBCC Emerging Critic Fellow Lauren Yu-Ting Bo reviewed "Our Precious Wars," written by Perrine Tripier and translated from the French by Alison Anderson, for World Literature Today:
NBCC member Roberto Carlos Garcia was interviewed about his essay collection, "Traveling Freely," by Alex Rivera of Letras Latinas:
"What colonialism wants to do is prevent us from moving freely through our lives and through who we are": A Conversation with Roberto Carlos Garcia on Traveling Freely: Essays
Alex River talks to Roberto Carlos Garcia about his essay collection Traveling Freely.
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December 26, 2025 at 4:01 PM
NBCC member Roberto Carlos Garcia was interviewed about his essay collection, "Traveling Freely," by Alex Rivera of Letras Latinas:
Acentos Review published “Near the river cherry blossoms ripe pink as wounds against the sky: Tiffany Troy in conversation with Isabella DeSendi":
Tiffany Troy and Isabella DeSendi — The Acentos Review
Isabella DeSendi’s Someone Else’s Hunger begins: “Once, while disemboweling the chicken/ readying it for my lover’s dinner, I remembered/ my abuela slashing the rooster’s throat.” In the opening…
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December 26, 2025 at 3:01 PM
Acentos Review published “Near the river cherry blossoms ripe pink as wounds against the sky: Tiffany Troy in conversation with Isabella DeSendi":
NBCC member Charles Green reviewed Daniel Pollack-Pelzner's "Lin-Manuel Miranda: The Education of an Artist" for DC Theater Arts:
‘Lin-Manuel Miranda: The Education of an Artist’ is all that (book review)
An entertaining, easy read, the new bio illustrates the possibilities that arise when talent and eagerness meet opportunity.
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December 26, 2025 at 12:00 AM
NBCC member Charles Green reviewed Daniel Pollack-Pelzner's "Lin-Manuel Miranda: The Education of an Artist" for DC Theater Arts:
NBCC member Linda Hitchcock reviewed Daniel Pollack-Pelzner’s "Lin-Manuel Miranda: The Education of an Artist":
Lin-Manuel Miranda’s Education in Art and Ambition | BookTrib.
Lin-Manuel Miranda: The Education of an Artist is a must read for theater lovers, historians, performers and aspiring artists alike. The author Daniel Pollack-Pelzner explores his subject’s passion,…
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December 25, 2025 at 11:00 PM
NBCC member Linda Hitchcock reviewed Daniel Pollack-Pelzner’s "Lin-Manuel Miranda: The Education of an Artist":
NBCC member Paul Wilner contributed a book roundup on the first months of the new year for Alta:
The Best New Books to Start 2026
From neo-Nazi true crime to George Saunders’s latest and a long-awaited Vollmann epic, here are the books we can’t wait to read in the coming months.
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December 25, 2025 at 10:00 PM
NBCC member Paul Wilner contributed a book roundup on the first months of the new year for Alta:
NBCC member Jim Schley reviewed Peter Orner’s "The Gossip Columnist’s Daughter" for Seven Days:
Book Review: ‘The Gossip Columnist’s Daughter,’ Peter Orner
The Norwich author’s third novel combines historical figures with fictional ones to delve into a midcentury mystery involving a Chicago celebrity journalist.
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December 25, 2025 at 9:00 PM
NBCC member Jim Schley reviewed Peter Orner’s "The Gossip Columnist’s Daughter" for Seven Days:
NBCC member Tamara MC wrote about the sensory delights of Christmas for Motley Bloom:
The Sensory Chronicles of Christmas - Motley Bloom
A defense of Edmond from Love Is Blind Season 9, exploring his joyful energy, the viral cabinet scene, and why his exuberance deserves appreciation.
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December 25, 2025 at 8:00 PM
NBCC member Tamara MC wrote about the sensory delights of Christmas for Motley Bloom:
Publishers Weekly reviews editors, including NBCC members Meg Lemke and David Varno, picked faves from 2025 not to miss:
9 Books from 2025 You Shouldn't Overlook
As our editors continue to look back on the books published this year, we thought it would be worth shouting out these under-appreciated gems.
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December 25, 2025 at 7:00 PM
Publishers Weekly reviews editors, including NBCC members Meg Lemke and David Varno, picked faves from 2025 not to miss:
NBCC member Dean Rader reviewed "ABLAZE (did Rodin like chandeliers?)" by photographer Ewa Monika Zebrowski and novelist/poet Anne Michaels for The Brooklyn Rail:
Ewa Monika Zebrowski and Anne Michaels’s ABLAZE | The Brooklyn Rail
A lovely collaboration between artist and writer, these poems and images recast the everyday as the curious.
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December 25, 2025 at 6:01 PM
NBCC member Dean Rader reviewed "ABLAZE (did Rodin like chandeliers?)" by photographer Ewa Monika Zebrowski and novelist/poet Anne Michaels for The Brooklyn Rail: