A list of the high points in this year's fiction, poetry, nonfiction, children's books, mysteries and science fiction. By Annie Proulx Disgrace. This year, in the dark of winter, all nine editors began worrying that fewer outstanding books seemed to be coming their way than before. In fact, the mantra became useful.
Large newspapers run on too many meetings.
The best of this year include three novels and a collection of stories, three biographies, a volume of science, a history of World War I and two extended essays, one an examination of law and the impeachment of Bill Clinton and the other an analysis of who has written about the Holocaust over 50 years and how they have approached it, along with radical proposals for taking very different approaches. Of the nonfiction books, four of seven were written by Americans. Seven best books have male authors and four were written by women. One novel is the first installment of what will be a trilogy, and one biography is the second volume of a pair. Other genres never nominated for this list are letters and diaries, and this year that group did not move anyone here to demand a change in the guidelines.