Book Awards: Nonfiction
The finalists in the Nonfiction category of this year’s National Book Awards represent an array of powerful and often controversial stories.
The winner, Annette Gordon-Reed’s The Hemingses of Monticello has been praised as “epic” and “mesmerizing,” as it traces the intertwined family roots of Thomas Jefferson and his house slave and mistress, Sally Hemings. Gordon-Reed describes the world of American slavery with a broad focus beyond the story of Jefferson and Hemings’s 38-year relationship. The book takes into account the backdrop of the American Revolution, the troubled lives of Hemings’s siblings, and the extensive and fascinating history of “race-mixing” among the slaveholders of the American south.
Another Nonfiction nominee, Jane Mayer’s The Dark Side, tells the disturbing and dramatic tale of the U.S. government’s decision-making from the earliest days of the War on Terror following September 11, 2001. Mayer is unhesitating in her condemnation of un-Constitutional actions taken by White House officials, and she argues that the treatment of U.S.-held prisoners has actually hampered the global pursuit of al-Qaeda. Mayer’s meticulously researched book attempts to illustrate the balance between acquiring intelligence through the use of torture and the greater price paid by resorting to such tactics.
Kitty has mentioned that local author Tim Tharp was nominated for a 2008 National Book Award for his brand new Young Adult novel The Spectacular Now. I have read and greatly enjoyed his previous novel, Knights of the Hill Country, which is a riveting story of an Oklahoma high school football hero with a complicated personal life, and I’m really looking forward to reading his highly praised new release.
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