Here are the 20 books you need to read this year, according to the National Book Award nominations

The race to the National Book Awards is heating up.

On Wednesday, the National Book Foundation revealed the finalists for the 2017 National Book Awards, narrowing down its list of nominated books from 40 to 20 titles. Each year, the National Book Award honors the best and brightest new literature in fiction, nonfiction, poetry, and young people’s literature.

One standout finalist on this year’s finalist list is Danez Smith’s and their sophomore poetry collection Don’t Call Us Dead. The book starts with a breathtaking 25-page long poem about boys murdered by the police titled “Summer, Somewhere,” which imagines a paradise afterlife for those who were killed. Part elegy for those who were murdered, part indictment to American culture, “Somewhere, Summer” is a must read poem in 2017, and Don’t Call Us Dead is a book to watch. Read more…

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Source: Mashable | Here are the 20 books you need to read this year, according to the National Book Award nominations