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Maureen Corrigan Picks Books To Close Out A Chaotic 2017

Fresh Air | By Maureen Corrigan

Published December 12, 2017 at 12:13 PM EST

For a chaotic year, I'm offering a chaotic "Best Books" list — but I think my list is chaotic in a good sense. These books zing off in all directions: They're fresh, unruly and dismissive of the canned and contrived.

You can't go wrong with any of these books. As one of Dashiell Hammett's dangerous dames might have said: They're all the bees' knees.

Maureen Corrigan

Maureen Corrigan, book critic for NPR's Fresh Air, is The Nicky and Jamie Grant Distinguished Professor of the Practice in Literary Criticism at Georgetown University. She is an associate editor of and contributor to Mystery and Suspense Writers (Scribner) and the winner of the 1999 Edgar Award for Criticism, presented by the Mystery Writers of America. In 2019, Corrigan was awarded the Nona Balakian Citation for Excellence in Reviewing by the National Book Critics Circle.

See stories by Maureen Corrigan

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The author's mother was a Red Cross volunteer assigned to Patton's 3rd Army — she was with the troops who helped liberate Buchenwald. Urrea's new woman-centered wartime novel is Good Night, Irene.
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Do geniuses get a "hall pass" for their behavior? Or, do we "cancel" the art of artists who've done "monstrous" things? That's the question Claire Dederer tackles in her new book.
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The IRA planted the bomb at the Grand Hotel, in the seaside resort of Brighton, targeting the British prime minister. There Will Be Fire, by journalist Rory Carroll, reads like a political thriller.