The National Book Critics Circle Awards announced the finalists today for its 2018 awards. These include ‘Dallas Morning News’ architecture critic Mark Lamster’s biography of architect Philip Johnson, ‘The Man in the Glass Booth,’  and Austin author Lawrence Wright’s ‘God Save Texas,’ his drive-by assessment of the current state of the Lone Star State. ‘Glass Booth’ is the first book written by Lamster to be selected by the NBCC’s award committee, while the Pulitzer Prize-winning Wright was a finalist (but not a winner) for his 2013 expose of Scientology, ‘Going Clear.’ Also included in this year’s announcement was an honorary prize, the Ivan Sandrof Lifetime Achievement Award, for Arté Publico Press, the Houston-based publisher of US-based Latin authors – the largest such in the country – and the Nona Balakian Citation for Excellence in Reviewing for NRP book critic Maureen Corrigan.