National Book Award Nominees

The National Book Award nominees were announced today. I had only heard of one of them before (and it’s one I really want to read).

Here they are:

Then We Came To The End, by Joshua Ferris, about layoffs and office life at an ad agency at the end of the ’90s boom.

Fieldwork, by Mischa Berlinski, a psychological thriller set in Thailand.

Varieties of Disturbance, by Lydia Davis, which appears to be a collection of "absurdist" short fiction.

Tree of Smoke, by Denis Johnson, a very long novel about Vietnam.

Like You’d Understand, Anyway, by Jim Shepard, a collection of stories spanning a wide geographic and chronologic range.

I have to be honest – the only one of these I have any desire to read is Ferris’.

Any thoughts?