It’s that time of year when a writer’s mind turns to best-of lists.

And so we have the annual PopMatters best books feature, which compiles arguments for some of their writers’ favorite fiction and nonfiction titles of the year.

I contributed several of the books that knocked my hair back this year (The Deluge, Brooklyn Crime Story, Poverty by America, Prophet) and wrote the intro. You can read it here:

There’s a reductive, hall-of-infinitely-receding-mirrors quality to the concept of critiquing the critics. That doesn’t mean it hasn’t been done (the vastness of YouTube must contain a show wherein critics judge different episodes of Siskel & Ebert & the Movies) or isn’t worth doing, especially when there is so much rich criticism out there to devour…