Year in Review

As our reading becomes more and more connected to the screen, there is a danger that discussion of books will resemble television's favorite food groups: scandal, sex, bankruptcy, glamour and the cult of personality.

So there are two ways to look at the year in books, 2007. On the one hand, the emergence of a new generation of American novelists was honored and Jack Kerouac's journey on the road was remembered, while literary giants such as Kurt Vonnegut were silenced.

Austin's Lawrence Wright nabbed a Pulitzer, as did Texas-tied Cormac McCarthy, who had a trifecta with an Oprah appearance and a critically acclaimed movie adaptation of No Country for Old Men.

On the other hand, the year also saw the ongoing saga of megalomaniac publisher Judith Regan, whose imprint was shut down after a furor over O.J. Simpson's If I Did It (which went on to sell 100,000 copies anyway), and a potential "Queer Eye for the Straight Reader" version of Harry Potter.

Here, then, is an attempt to thread a line between these poles and pick out what was truly notable about books in 2007.

John Freeman is president of the National Book Critics Circle.

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Keegan Walsh and mom Sarah read Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows at an Ontario bookstore.

1 The ones to watch. Granta magazine announced its once-a-decade list of the 20 best young American writers, seven of whom – such as Uzodinma Iweala and Gary Shteyngart – were born outside the United States. Others – such as Dara Hornand Nicole Krauss – take some cues from Jewish history. Here are the chroniclers of our new America, whose roots stretch from sea to shining sea.

2 'All was well.' With several hundred million copies sold, and publication-day events that resembled a Kiss concert for children, J.K. Rowling went out with a bang with Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows , and then tantalized readers by suggesting she might publish one more book regarding the lives of her characters.

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Doris Lessing celebrates her Nobel with a gin and tonic outside her London home while talking to reporters.

3 Doris Lessing wins the Nobel. The prize's oldest living recipient – Persia-born, South-Africa-raised and a longtime resident of England – has been a genre-bending fantasist for years. "She points the way to a future when "mystery" or "science fiction" and "literary" need not be mutually exclusive."

4 Norman Mailer and David Halberstam die. One died a literary lion, his fight and fury behind him, the other in a tragic accident, but they were linked by Vietnam, which forged their best writing and humanist indignation.

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Norman Mailer at a lecture in New York in June

5 The Vietnam syndrome returns. The fiction and nonfiction winners of the National Book Award – Denis Johnson's Tree of Smoke and Tim Weiner's Legacy of Ashes – revisited that nation and looked at the conflict in the light of intelligence failures that created a prolonged fight in a foreign climate against a poorly armed but better informed enemy.

6 Eat, pray, sell. When it was published in 2006, Elizabeth Gilbert's memoir of getting divorced and traveling around the world to reacquaint herself with the possibilities of living was a modest success. In paperback, Eat, Pray Love has become a phenomenon, putting down redwood roots at the No. 1 spot atop the New York Times list and racking up nearly 4 million in paperback sales with no signs of slowing down.

7 Spotlight on translation. Though only 3 percent of books published in the United States come from other languages, numerous endeavors – from the Frankfurt Book Fair to the festival of world writing hosted by PEN/America to the University of Texas at Dallas' own Center for Translation Studies, host of a major conference this year – are starting to break down this barrier.

8 Roberto Bolano discovered. He has been a secret handshake among writers around the world, but in 2007, with the publication of his massive novel, The Savage Detectives, the late Chilean writer went nearly mainstream, which ought to prepare people for a half-dozen of his books still making their way into English.

9 New life for poetry. As award winners such as Adrienne Rich continue to turn out incredible poetry into their old age, a new group of unknowns is gaining recognition, from young poets such as Troy Jollimore, winner of the 2007 National Book Critics Prize for poetry, to poets in their 60s, such as Michael O'Brien, the little known author of Sleep and Waking.

10 Anger runs its course. After seven years, Bush-bashing and liberal-baiting have exhausted their power, and a group of serious nonfiction writers, including Naomi Klein, author of The Shock Doctrine, and Robert Kaplan, who is visiting American military bases around the world, have been looking seriously at the state we're in.

The National Book Critics circle polled its members and past award winners to compile a "Best Recommended List" for 2007. Here are the five top vote getters in fiction, nonfiction, and poetry:

Fiction

The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao, Junot Diaz

Tree of Smoke, Denis Johnson

The Yiddish Policeman's Union, Michael Chabon

Exit Ghost, Philip Roth

Out Stealing Horses, Per Petterson

Nonfiction

Brother, I'm Dying, Edwidge Danticat,

The World Without Us, Alan Weisman,

The Shock Doctrine, Naomi Klein,

Schulz and Peanuts, David Michaelis,

Legacy of Ashes, Tim Weiner

Poetry

Time and Materials: Poems 1997­2005, Robert Hass,*

Collected Poems: 1956-1998, Zbigniew Herbert*

Gulf Music, Robert Pinsky*

Next Life, Rae Armantrout

Elegy, Mary Jo Bang

*Tie

Fiction

The Road, Cormac McCarthy

History

The Race Beat, Gene Roberts and Hank Klibanoff

Biography

The Most Famous Man in America, Debby Applegate

Poetry

Native Guard, Natasha Trethewey

General nonfiction

The Looming Tower, Lawrence Wright

*Tie

Fiction

Tree of Smoke, Denis Johnson

Nonfiction

Legacy of Ashes: The History of the CIA, Tim Weiner

Poetry

Time and Materials, Robert Hass

Young people's literature

The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian, Sherman Alexie