you may be hunting for gifts To help narrow down the many# best books of the year lists,## Jeffrey Brown speaks to two "NewsHour" regulars# for our arts and culture series, Canv JEFFREY BROWN: And joining me again this year# are two top readers and reviewers, Gilbert Cruz,## books editor of The New York Times, and Maureen# Corrigan, book critic of NPR's "Fresh Air."

It's nice to see both of you again.

MAUREEN CORRIGAN, NPR Book# Critic: It's goo MAUREEN CORRIGAN: Sure.

Why not?

JEFFREY BROWN: Give us two MAUREEN CORRIGAN: It's been# a great year, so Alice McDermott's "Absolution."

sh e usually writes about my people, Irish# Catholics, working-class background, New York.

JEFFREY BROWN: You're not biased, are you?

MAUREEN CORRIGAN This time, she takes those ch main character is a newlywed, a young wife# who is pulled into this group of women who## are doing charitable works in Vietnam while# their husbands are busy doing something else.

And without being heavy-handed, McDermott# manages to make a connection between the## insistent charity of these women and# early American intervention in Vietnam.

JEFFREY BROWN: Yes, because that's something# else turns out to be the Vietnam War.

MAUREEN CORRIGAN: Right.

Right.

You gave it away.

JEFFREY BROWN: OK. Store" by James McBride.

I think he's one of our# most nuanced, but clear-eyed writers about race.

This is set in Pottstown, Pennsylvania,# around 1925 in a historically immigrant## Jewish neighborhood and African American.# And I will stop there.

It's amazing.

JEFFREY BROWN: Gilbert, you want# to give us two fiction, two novels?

GILBERT CRUZ, Books Editor,# The New York Times: Sure thing So one of book called "The Bee Sting" by Paul Murray.# Paul Murray is an Irish author.

His book## was short-listed for the Booker Prize# this year.

And it's a family saga.

It## is a book about four family members who# formerly were riding high on the hog,## and the 2008 financial crisis is hitting# Ireland, it's hitting them and their little town.

And it's a book that sort of digs# deep down into their internal lives,## their emotional lives.

There are sections that# go between all of the different characters.

And## it's a book about sort of the unknowability of# people that you love.

You can live with someone## for a very long time and still not get to know# them because you can never truly know a person.

It's funny, it's sad, it's# tragic.

It's a lot of things,## and you really fall in love with all of# the characters.

So that's my first one.

JEFFREY BROWN: OK. And it is set over 300 years and rather than focus# on any individual character, this plot of land and## this house in Western Massachusetts is the main# character.

It takes you through three centuries,## and it gives you all these different characters.# And through these characters, Daniel Mason## writes through several different genres and# several different types of literary sty It's constantly surprising and it's just a# delight to read.

His writing is so beautiful.

JEFFREY BROWN: Interesting.

All four# of these books have a lot of history,## as well as the family life to them.

MAUREEN CORRIGAN: Yes.

Yes.

JEFFREY BROWN: How about MA UREEN CORRIGAN: Yes, well, "The Wager" by David Grann.# He's having such a big JEFFREY BROWN: With "Killers of the Flower Moon."

MAUREEN CORRIGAN: "Kil This work of histo a mutiny, survival on a rocky island.

A# bunch of British sailors are on a ship## called the Wager.

That ship goes --# breaks apart in a storm in 1741 off## the coast of Patagonia.

And for a# while, they survive on this island,## and then a group of the sailors patches together# a rickety vessel and sails 2,500 miles to Brazil.

And that's only part of the# story.

So that's one of them.

And then Safiya Sinclair's memoir, her# debut memoir, "How to Say Babylon," I## thought was outstanding.

It tells# that kind of familiar story about## breaking out of a repressive childhood# context into a wider world.

In her case,## she grew up in a strict Rastafarian# household.

She's a lovely writer.

She's## a poet and her nature descriptions of Jamaica# along with everything else are really stunning.

JEFFREY BROWN: OK. Gilbert, two nonfiction?

GILBERT CRUZ: I have to second# Maureen's re the books she is talking about are# great, but I One I will talk about is "Master Slave# Husband Wife" by Ilyon Woo.

pi ece of historical narrative nonfiction.# It is about a couple in 1848.

They live## in Georgia.

They are an enslaved# couple.

And right before Christmas,## they decide to make a run for it, to leave# Georgia and try to escape to the And the way that they do this is by# disguising the wife, Ellen Craft,## who is a light-skinned African American,# as a wealthy white man.

And her husband## serves or play-acts her servant.

And# they make this four-day journey.

It's## very tense.

It's amazingly researched.# That's just the first part of the story.

You get a peek into their lives# after they make it to the North,## the way they got involved in anti-slavery# advocacy.

It's a historical a love story that reads like a# novel.

It's quite an amazing book.

The second nonfiction book I will talk# about is a book called "Fire Weather.

"## This one is set now.

This one is set in# present time.

It is a climate "F ire Weather" by John Vaillant.

It's# ostensibly about the 2016 Fort McMurray## wildfire, which took place in Canada.# Fort McMurray is an oil boomtown.

It is a place that popped up and has# made great wealth for people based on## extraction of oil from the ground.

That# extraction has led to climate change,## and that climate change has led to a giant# wildfire that resulted in the evacuation## of almost 100,000 people in 2016.

And,# again, it's a book that reads like a novel.

It mixes a beat-by-beat account of# a wildfire with the history of oil## extraction, climate change.# It's just masterfully done.

JEFFREY BROWN: I want to ask you, just in our# short time left here, about seeing any trends, either in your own reading or# in the writing t Maureen.

we're living in a time that's# very much like the '30s.

Our fiction, especially our literary fiction,## is very much centered on social issues and social# problems.

I thought this year that some novels that I wouldn't# have expected to see social issues crop up in,## especially reproductive rights, all# of a sudden, those novels veered into## an abortion rights plot, which was Megan# Abbott's suspense novel "Beware the Woman."

And, also, to a certain extent,# Ann Patchett's novel "Tom Lake" had## that.

So we're very much socially# conscious in our art these days.

JEFFREY BROWN: Gilbert, what are you seeing?

GILBERT CRUZ: There are tons an I feel like this genre, if you can call it# a genre, just continues to grow and grow.

To## mention a book that Maureen just mentioned,# "Tom Lake," that is one of at least three## books set during the pandemic that came out# this summer and fall.

Michael Cunningham had## a book.

Sigrid Nunez had a book.

I think we will# continue to see a book set during the pandemic.

And then there is this -- this# subgenre that has been around for## a while and has ruled sort of part# of the bestseller list this year,## which is romantasy.

We have written about it at# The Times.

Lots of places have wh ich is a mix of romance and fantasy.# And the author Rebecca Yarros with her## books "Fourth Wing" and "Iron Flame" sort of# really dominated the bestseller list this year.

JEFFREY BROWN: All right, some# of the best books of the year.

Gilbert Cruz of The New York Times,## Maureen Corrigan of NPR' MAUREEN CORRIGAN: Thank you.

GEOFF BENNETT: And you can check out the full book# list o