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Sunday, Dec 23, 2012 3:55 PM UTC

What To Read Awards: Roxane Gay

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Topics: Books, What To Read Awards, Best of 2012,

What To Read Awards: Roxane Gay

Roxane Gay’s criticism has appeared in the New York Times, the Wall Street Journal and many other publications.

Roxane’s top 10:

1. “The Twelve Tribes of Hattie” by Ayana Mathis
2. “How Should a Person Be” by Sheila Heti
3. “Battleborn” by Claire Vaye Watkins
4. “Beautiful Ruins” by Jess Walter
5. “I Am a Magical Teenage Princess” by Luke Geddes
6. “NW” by Zadie Smith
7. “The Round House” by Louise Erdrich
8. “Gone Girl” by Gillian Flynn
9. “Forgotten Country” by Catherine Chung
10. “How to Get Into the Twin Palms” by Karolina Waclawiak

1. Explain why your No. 1 book was your favorite title of the year: My No. 1 book is “The Twelve Tribes of Hattie” by Ayana Mathis because the story of this sprawling family felt honest in a way I don’t see enough of. We see the best and worst of Hattie, who spawns the novel’s tribe, and that same intimacy of revelation is shown in the portrayals of her children and husband. Mathis has a lot of empathy for her characters and really understands the historical moment in which she placed them.

2. What was the strongest debut book of 2012? “Battleborn” by Claire Vaye Watkins.

3. What book sits outside your list, but has either been overlooked or deserves more attention? “The Sovereignties of Invention” by Matthew Battles.

4. Was there one book, either on your list or off your list, fiction or nonfiction, that seems to best encapsulate America in 2012? “Fobbit” by David Abrams.

5. What was the single most memorable character from a 2012 book?

6. What is the book from 2012, either from your list or not, fiction or nonfiction, that is most likely to join the canon, or still be discussed 20 years from now? Zadie Smith’s “NW” is going to enter the canon for the sheer audacity of the book’s project.

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Roxane Gay's writing has appeared in Best American Short Stories 2012, Oxford American, the Rumpus, the Wall Street Journal and many other publications More Roxane Gay.

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  • 10. "The Guardians" by Sarah Manguso: "Though Sarah Manguso’s 'The Guardians' is specifically about losing a dear friend to suicide, she pries open her intelligent heart to describe our strange, sad modern lives. I think about the small resonating moments of Manguso’s narrative every day." -- M. Rebekah Otto, The Rumpus

  • 9. "Beautiful Ruins" by Jess Walter: "'Beautiful Ruins' leads my list because it's set on the coast of Italy in 1962 and Richard Burton makes an entirely convincing cameo appearance. What more could you want?" -- Maureen Corrigan, NPR's "Fresh Air"

  • 8. "Arcadia" by Lauren Groff: "'Arcadia' captures our painful nostalgia for an idyllic past we never really had." -- Ron Charles, Washington Post

  • 7. "Gone Girl" by Gillian Flynn: "When a young wife disappears on the morning of her fifth wedding anniversary, her husband becomes the automatic suspect in this compulsively readable thriller, which is as rich with sardonic humor and social satire as it is unexpected plot twists." -- Marjorie Kehe, Christian Science Monitor

  • 6. "How Should a Person Be" by Sheila Heti: "There was a reason this book was so talked about, and it’s because Heti has tapped into something great." -- Jason Diamond, Vol. 1 Brooklyn

  • 4. TIE "NW" by Zadie Smith and "Far From the Tree" by Andrew Solomon: "Zadie Smith’s 'NW' is going to enter the canon for the sheer audacity of the book’s project." -- Roxane Gay, New York Times "'Far From the Tree' by Andrew Solomon is, to my mind, a life-changing book, one that's capable of overturning long-standing ideas of identity, family and love." -- Laura Miller, Salon

  • 3. "Billy Lynn's Long Halftime Walk" by Ben Fountain: "'Billy Lynn's Long Halftime Walk' says a lot about where we are today," says Marjorie Kehe of the Christian Science Monitor. "Pretty much the whole point of that novel," adds Time's Lev Grossman.

  • 2. "Bring Up the Bodies" by Hilary Mantel: "Even more accomplished than the preceding novel in this sequence, 'Wolf Hall,' Mantel's new installment in the fictionalized life of Thomas Cromwell -- master secretary and chief fixer to Henry VIII -- is a high-wire act, a feat of novelistic derring-do." -- Laura Miller, Salon

  • 1. "Behind the Beautiful Forevers" by Katherine Boo: "Like the most remarkable literary nonfiction, it reads with the bite of a novel and opens up a corner of the world that most of us know absolutely nothing about. It stuck with me all year." -- Eric Banks, president of the National Book Critics Circle

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