Wicked good reads

The National Book Critics Circle has issued its spring Good Reads list, which is voted by the reviewer-organization's 825 members. Read more about it on the NBBC blog, "Critical Mass." The list is intended as a different way, beyond bestseller lists, to highlight worthy books.

This season's list has only a few new faces, which perhaps suggests that NBBC members are as susceptible to bestsellerdom, publicity, and review buzz as everyone else. Or it may simply mean that a great less-well-known book is likely to catch the eye of one member, but not of enough to win a poll. Oddly, seven titles on the fiction list (note asterisks) were listed as tied for fourth place. It's a bit of a puzzle to me how that many books, in a poll of 825 people, could get exactly the same number of votes, but perhaps that will be explained later on. The list follows.

Fiction:

1. Richard Price, "Lush Life"
2. Jhumpa Lahiri, "Unaccustomed Earth"
3. Steven Millhauser, "Dangerous Laughter."
*4. Charles Baxter, "The Soul Thief."
*4. Peter Carey, "His Illegal Self."
*4. J. M. Coetzee, "Diary of Bad Year."
*4. James Collins, "Beginner's Greek."
*4. Brian Hall, "Fall of Frost."
*4. Roxana Robinson, "Cost."
*4. Owen Sheers, "Resistance."

Nonfiction:

1. Nicholson Baker, "Human Smoke: The Beginning of World War II, the End of Civilization."
2. Drew Gilpin Faust, "This Republic of Suffering: Death and the American Civil War."
3. Mark Harris, "Pictures at the Revolution: Five Movies and the Birth of the New Hollywood."
4. Honor Moore, "The Bishop's Daughter."
5. Susan Jacoby, "The Age of American Unreason."

Poetry:

1. Grace Paley, "Fidelity."
2. Frank Bidart, "Watching the Spring Festival."
3. Eric Gansworth, "A Half-Life of Cardio-Pulmonary Function."
4. Marie Howe, "The Kingdom of Ordinary Time."
5. Robert Pinsky, "Gulf Music."