An Addiction and an Award

“Because I am, essentially, a reading addict, my impulse is simply to rip right through a book, fiction or nonfiction, just for the animal pleasure of it. But sad experience has shown that if I abandon myself in this way, I will finish the book without being able to say much except: Boy was that ever good, you should read it.” — BNR columnist Katherine A. Powers, this year’s recipient of the National Book Critic’s Circle’s Nona Balakian Citation for Excellence in Reviewing.