The National Book Critics Circle has just published their first of what will soon be monthly top 5 lists of “best recommended” books in three categories. How were the lists compiled? The NBCC explains:

Polling our nearly 800 members, as well as all the former finalists and winners of our book prize, we asked, What 2007 books have you read that you have truly loved?

As a member, I get to vote, too. Which might be the coolest part about the whole thing.  Here are the NBCC’s fiction selections for 2007:

Fiction

  1.  Junot Diaz, The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao (Riverhead)
  2. Denis Johnson, Tree of Smoke (Farrar Straus & Giroux)
  3. Michael Chabon, The Yiddish Policeman’s Union (HarperCollins)
  4. Philip Roth, Exit Ghost (Houghton Mifflin)
  5. Per Petterson, Out Stealing Horses (Graywolf)

Hey, look at that, Oscar Wao, which we reviewed just yesterday, is in at number 1.  Check out the Non-Fiction and Poetry Selections at the NBCC blog.