1. The Forest for the Trees, Written by: John M.
(Staff Picks/Nonfiction)

By Betsey Lerner (Riverhead, $15.00) Every single writer I've given this to has called to thank me. Every. Single. One. Ignoring the not-so-fashionable accessory of sleep deprivation that comes with

2. The Life You Save May Be Your Own, Written by: John M.
(Staff Picks/Nonfiction)

By Paul Elie (FSG, $16.00) This is an unusual book and as difficult to pull off as a broad-daylight heist of Fort Knox. The narrative glides along on a structural high wire juggling apples and orang

3. Clockers, Written by: John M.
(Staff Picks/Fiction)

By Richard Price (Picador, $16.00) As you pick up this book you can almost smell the musty station house with its stale coffee and burning cigarettes; you can almost feel the bone-aching fatigue of

4. Elia Kazan: A Life, Written by: John M.
(Staff Picks/Nonfiction)

By Elia Kazan (Da Capo Press, $32.95) "You’re the nigger now Gadg," James Baldwin told Elia Kazan this after the opprobrium heaped on him in hot, steaming platefuls because of his te

5. A Fire You Can't Put Out, Written by: John M.
(Staff Picks/Nonfiction)

By Andrew M. Manis (University of Alabama Press, $22.95) Check your dictionary. If next to "fearless" there isn’t a picture of Fred Shuttlesworth, make sure it’s an English di

6. The Most Famous Man in America, Written by: John M.
(Staff Picks/Nonfiction)

By Debby Applegate (Doubleday, $16.95) The bumptious, angry, confused adolescence that America went through in its first 100 years is brought resplendently to life in this biography of Beecher who,

7. Talking at the Gates, Written by: John M.
(Staff Picks/Nonfiction)

By James Campbell (University of California Press, $21.95) This is a graceful and candid book that, while affectionate and scrupulously researched (his coverage of the period before Baldwin left for

8. Easy Riders, Raging Bulls, Written by: John M.
(Staff Picks/Nonfiction)

By Peter Biskind (Touchstone, $18.00) A zeitgeist captured with all its can-doism, maverick ethos and naiveté drawing sharp observations on what it meant for the world of film then, as well a

9. The Metaphysical Club, Written by: John M.
(Staff Picks/Nonfiction)

By Louis Menand (FSG, $16.00) As I was reading this, a thought came to mind: if Harold Bloom had reviewed this he might have titled it: "The Anxiety of Emerson, Darwin and Kant." That&rsqu

10. Tumbling, Written by: John M.
(Staff Picks/Fiction)

By Diane McKinney-Whetstone (Touchstone, $14.00) Such a charming book! So warm, and wise. Knowing it's like sitting down in front of a roaring fire with heap of your grandmother's peach cobbler and

11. Whose Song? And Other Stories, Written by: John M.
(Staff Picks/Fiction)

By Thomas Glave (City Lights, $12.95) "So devastating, so economical!" James Baldwin was describing Pride and Prejudice, but he could easily have been talking about Thomas Glave's luminous

12. King of the Cats, Written by: John M.
(Staff Picks/Nonfiction)

By Wil Haygood (Amistad, $15.95) In an op-ed in the New York Times, Sarah Vowell relates how she cried when Caroline Kennedy pointed out Sen. Ted Kennedy's important role in the creation of the Head S

13. American Psycho, Written by: John M.
(Staff Picks/Fiction)

By Bret Easton Ellis (Vintage, $15.00) This is one of the best books I’ve ever read. It's one of those books that seem to be better known than actually read--that's unfortunate. Though it's of

14. Ralph Ellison: A Biography, Written by: John M.
(Staff Picks/Nonfiction)

By Arnold Rampersad (Vintage, $17.95) Arnold Rampersad is one of the finest biographers around, and with this latest portrait he joins the ranks of Leon Edel, Richard Ellmann, and R.W.B Lewis. He is

15. Brightness Falls, Written by: John M.
(Staff Picks/Fiction)

By Jay McInerney (Vintage, $14.95) I read this book twice–-something I rarely do. It’s a super-sized, roller coaster ride of a novel about that most American of themes--the loss of inno

16. Notes of a Native Son, Written by: John M.
(Staff Picks/Nonfiction)

By James Baldwin (Beacon Press, $15.00) Sui generis. The Baldwin Manifesto in a neat compact volume: the loneliness of the artist's quest, the urgent necessity of love, the search for identity and t

17. Hopes and Impediments, Written by: John M.
(Staff Picks/Nonfiction)

By Chinua Achebe (Anchor, $14.00) A gem of a book. Literally. That’s what you’ll be left holding, in all its mesmerizing beauty, as the heat from Achebe’s prose blasts away the myt

18. The Power Broker, Written by: John M.
(Staff Picks/Nonfiction)

by Robert A. Caro (Knopf, $24.00) Think Machiavelli in a hard hat wielding a Wye Level in his hand. A big, greedy, outsize gulp of a book about the intersections of power, politics and personality,

19. Ready for Revolution, Written by: John M.
(Staff Picks/Nonfiction)

by Stokely Carmichael (Scribner, $19.95) Before Barack Obama was a gleam in his mother's eye, Stokely Carmichael was "Fired Up and Ready to Go!" A riveting and electrifying mem

20. Anna Karenina, Written by: John M.
(Staff Picks/Fiction)

by Leo Tolstoy (Penguin Putnam, $16.00) The Standard. What else is there really to say?