Page Against the Machine Book Group (April 2026 Theme)

Check out this space for suggested titles of Page Against the Machine book group's current month's theme!

For April 2026 , the theme is: The National Book Critics Circle Awards (Winners and Finalists): Read any winner or finalist (or longlisted title) of the NBCCA from any year. This list shows the 2025 nominees.


Updated March 3, 2026
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Palos Verdes Library District
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America, América : a new history of the New World
Grandin, Greg
Paper Book
A New York Times bestseller * A finalist for the National Book Critics Circle Award, 2025 Kirkus Prize, 2025 Cundill History Prize, and 2026 Andrew Carnegie Medal for Excellence in Nonfiction * Named a Best Book of the Year by The New Yorker,The New Republic,...
The antidote
Russell, Karen
Paper Book
NATIONAL BESTSELLER * FINALIST FOR THE NATIONAL BOOK AWARD * From Pulitzer finalist, MacArthur Fellowship recipient, and bestselling author of Swamplandia! and Vampires in the Lemon Grove Karen Russell: a gripping dust bowl epic about five characters whose fates...
Audition
Kitamura, Katie M.
Paper Book
NAMED A 2025 "ESSENTIAL READ" BY THE NEW YORKER AND A TOP 10 BOOK OF THE YEAR BY TIME MAGAZINE AND PUBLISHERS WEEKLY NAMED A BEST BOOK OF THE YEAR BY THE WASHINGTON POST, THE NEW YORKER, NPR, THE NEW YORK PUBLIC LIBRARY, VOGUE, TIME...
The book of records : a novel
Thien, Madeleine
Paper Book
Lina and her father arrive at an enclave called The Sea, a staging post between migrations, with only a few possessions. In this mysterious and shape-shifting place, a building made of time, pasts and futures collide. Lina befriends her neighbors: Bento, a Jewish scholar in seventeenth-century...
Daughters of the bamboo grove : from China to America, a true story of abduction, adoption, and separated twins
Demick, Barbara
Paper Book
NEW YORK TIMES BOOK REVIEW EDITORS' CHOICE * The heartrending story of twin sisters torn apart by China's one-child policy and the rise of international adoption--from the author of the National Book Award finalist Nothing to Envy "Remarkable . . . Barbara Demick...
Empire of AI : dreams and nightmares in Sam Altman's OpenAI
Hao, Karen
Paper Book
A New York Times Notable Book * Finalist for the National Book Critics Circle Award * An Instant New York Times Bestseller * Named a Best Book of the Year by Smithsonian, Scientific American, and Elle * Porchlight 2025 Business Book Award Winner "A...
Heart the lover : a novel
King, Lily
Paper Book
INSTANT NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER FINALIST FOR THE PEN/FAULKNER AWARD A BEST BOOK OF THE YEAR: TIME Magazine, New York Times, Washington Post, Boston Globe, Harper's Baazar, NPR, Vogue, Oprah Daily, People Magazine, USA TODAY, Literary Hub,...
King of kings : the Iranian revolution : a story of hubris, delusion and catastrophic miscalculation
Anderson, Scott
Paper Book
A NEW YORK TIMES NOTABLE BOOK * NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER * FINALIST FOR THE NATIONAL BOOK CRITICS CIRCLE AWARD FOR NONFICTION * KIRKUS PRIZE WINNER * From the author of the landmark bestseller Lawrence in Arabia comes a stunningly revelatory narrative history...
Memorial days : a memoir
Brooks, Geraldine
Paper Book
NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER · A National Book Critics Circle Award Finalist A New York Times Notable Book of 2025 · A Washington Post Notable Nonfiction Book of 2025 · A Time Best Memoir of 2025 · Named a Best Book of 2025 by NPR,...
Mother Mary comes to me
Roy, Arundhati
Paper Book
Named One of The New York Times Book Review's Top Ten Books of the Year Finalist for the National Book Critics Circle Award and the Kirkus Prize One of the best-reviewed books of the year, a raw and deeply moving memoir that "pulses with...
No more tears : the dark secrets of Johnson & Johnson
Harris, Gardiner
Paper Book
NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER * An explosive, deeply reported exposé of Johnson & Johnson, one of America's oldest and most trusted pharmaceutical companies--from an award-winning investigative journalist "A damning portrait."--Associated Press "A page-turning...
On the calculation of volume. III
Balle, Solvej
Paper Book
SHORTLISTED FOR THE NATIONAL BOOK AWARD FOR TRANSLATED LITERATURE SHORTLISTED FOR THE NATIONAL BOOK CRITICS CIRCLE AWARD IN FICTION SHORTLISTED FOR THE PEN TRANSLATION PRIZE In the marvelous third installment of Balle's "astonishing" (The Washington Post) septology, Tara's...
Paper girl : a memoir of home and family in a fractured America
Macy, Beth
Paper Book
Urbana, Ohio, was not a utopia when Beth Macy grew up there in the '70s and '80s-certainly not for her family. Her dad was known as the town drunk, which hurt, as did their poverty. But Urbana had a healthy economy and thriving schools, and Macy had middle-class schoolmates whose families became her...
Queen Mother : Black nationalism, reparations, and the untold story of Audley Moore
Farmer, Ashley D.
Paper Book
FINALIST: NATIONAL BOOK CRITICS CIRCLE AWARD FOR BIOGRAPHY * A LIBRARY JOURNAL BEST BOOK OF 2025 From an award-winning historian of Black radical politics comes the definitive biography of Audley Moore--mother of modern Black Nationalism and trailblazer in the fight for...
The slip : a novel
Schaefer, Lucas
Paper Book
NATIONAL BESTSELLER | WINNER OF THE KIRKUS PRIZE | NBCC JOHN LEONARD PRIZE FINALIST One of The New York Times Book Review's 100 Notable Books of 2025 One of The Washington Post's 10 Best Books of 2025 For readers of...
The south : a novel
Aw, Tash
Paper Book
Long-listed for the Booker Prize and the National Book Critics Circle Award for Fiction Named one of The New York Times' Notable Books of the Year One of The Washington Post's Best Fiction Books of the Year A radiant,...
Troublemaker : the fierce, unruly life of Jessica Mitford
Kaplan, Carla
Paper Book
FINALIST FOR THE PEN/JACQUELINE BOGARD WELD AWARD FOR BIOGRAPHY AND LONGLISTED FOR THE NATIONAL BOOK CRITICS CIRCLE BIOGRAPHY AWARD A NEW YORK TIMES EDITOR'S CHOICE · A TOWN & COUNTRY "BEST BOOK" · A BLOOMBERG "BEST" BOOK Troublemaker tells the wild and...
The wax child
Ravn, Olga
Paper Book
LONGLISTED FOR THE INTERNATIONAL BOOKER PRIZE 2026 SHORTLISTED FOR THE NBCC GREGG BARRIOS BOOK IN TRANSLATION PRIZE In seventeenth-century Denmark, Christenze Kruckow, an unmarried noblewoman, is accused of witchcraft. She and several other women are rumored to be...
We do not part : a novel
Han, Kang
Paper Book
WINNER OF THE NOBEL PRIZE NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER FINALIST FOR THE NATIONAL BOOK CRITICS CIRCLE AWARD IN FICTION FINALIST FOR THE ANDREW CARNEGIE MEDAL FOR EXCELLENCE IN FICTION LONGLISTED FOR THE NATIONAL BOOK AWARD AND THE NBCC BARRIOS BOOK...
The wilderness : a novel
Flournoy, Angela
Paper Book
NATIONAL BESTSELLER FINALIST FOR THE KIRKUS PRIZE FOR FICTION FINALIST FOR THE NATIONAL BOOK CRITIC CIRCLES AWARD FOR FICTION LONGLISTED FOR THE NATIONAL BOOK AWARD FOR FICTION LONGLISTED FOR THE ASPEN WORDS LITERARY PRIZE ...

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