Honor the Best Books Published in the Past Year in the U.S. - Check Out the 2014 National Book Critics Circle Awards

The National Book Critics Circle honors outstanding writing and fosters a national conversation about reading, criticism and literature. It was founded in April 1974 at the Algonquin Hotel in New York City. The NBCC awards are given each March and honor the best literature published in the United States in six categories - autobiography, biography, criticism, fiction, nonfiction and poetry. What I find exciting is that these are the only national literary awards chosen by critics themselves. The NBCC awards finalists' reading and the NBCC awards ceremony bring together authors, reviewers, publishing people, and passionate readers celebrating the best literary offerings of the year.

The results for 2014 are in and the recipients are:

Fiction
Americanah by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie
This is a dazzling new novel from the award-winning author of Half of a Yellow Sun. It's the story of love and race centered around a young man and woman from Nigeria who face difficult choices and challenges in the countries they come to call home.

Nonfiction
Five Days at Memorial: Life and Death in a Storm-Ravaged Hospital by Sheri Fink
This is Pulitzer Prize winner Sheri Fink's landmark investigation of patient deaths at a New Orleans hospital ravaged by Hurricane Katrina - and her suspenseful portrayal of the quest for truth and justice.

Biography
Jonathan Swift: His Life and His World by Leo Damrosch
In this deeply researched biography, Leo Damrosch draws on discoveries made over the past thirty years to tell the story of Swift's life anew.

Autobiography
Farewell, Fred Voodoo: A Letter From Haiti by Amy Wilentz
A foreign correspondent on a simple story becomes, over time and in the pages of this book, a lover of Haiti, pursuing the essence of this beautiful and confounding land into its darkest and brightest corners. It's a spiritual journey into the heart of the human soul.

Poetry
"Metaphysical Dog" by Frank Bidart

Criticism
"Distant Reading" by Franco Moretti

Give one or more categories a read and see if  you support the choices of some of the most influential critics and editors of the day.