The Best Books Of 2013 (Tom Ashbrook, On Point)

It’s been a good year for books.  Cute kitties may dominate the web, but good writers are breaking out all over.  Critics are smiling.  Readers, too.  We’ve got a big John Dos Passos-style American deep dive in George Packer’s “The Unwinding.”  Motorcyles and avant-garde art in Rachel Kushner’s “The Flamethrowers.”  Men down, in Jesmyn Ward’s “The Men We Reaped.”  White girls in Hilton Als’ “White Girls.”  A freed slave and John Brown in James McBride’s “The Good Lord Bird.”  And a whole lot more. This hour On Point: the best books, great reads, of 2013.

– Tom Ashbrook

Interview:  http://onpoint.wbur.org/2013/12/13/best-books-2013-collection