National Book Critics Circle picks 2010's best

These authors’ books — some of 2010’s best — were just anointed by the National Book Critics Circle. So if you haven’t read them yet, now’s the perfect time to pick one up and start.

A Visit from the Goon Squad, Jennifer Egan
Novel
This stylishly postmodern work explores the lives of a ragtag assortment of music-industry professionals.

Half a Life, Darin Strauss
Memoir
”Half my life ago, I killed a girl,” begins this raw and eloquent look back at the author’s high school car accident, which left a classmate dead.

The Warmth of Other Suns, Isabel Wilkerson
Nonfiction
Wilkerson’s vibrant history traces the Great Migration, when blacks left the South for other parts of the country.