This is probably the first of several such lists, but Benjamin Schwarz lists his “books of the year” in the December issue of The Atlantic. A book of the year “is one from which you should be able to derive pleasure and profit a decade hence. That eliminates books that are important only for the moment—that is, most political and policy books … and also a lot of books that I think are getting undeserved attention and winning undue praise—among them Philip Roth’s The Plot Against America,” writes Schwarz. In presenting his picks, Schwarz notes the lack of attention to serious nonfiction; only one of his picks was reviewed in the New York Times. Here is his list:
The Origins of the Final Solution, by Christopher R. Browning
The Reformation: A History, by Diarmaid MacCulloch
Oxford Dictionary of National Biography: From the Earliest Times to the Year 2000, edited by H.C.G. Matthew and Brian Harrison
The Birth of the Palestinian Refugee Problem Revisited, by Benny Morris
Runaway: Stories, by Alice Munro
Cataclysm: The First World War as Political Tragedy, by David Stevenson
Honored Guest: Stories by Joy Williams
