It’s time for the first tabulation of our annual aggregation of selective lists from all over — newspapers, reviewers, booksellers, librarians, book clubs, major awards and more — to provide a clear consensus on the year’s very best books. Last year Isabel Wilkerson’s CASTE led as “book of the year” from start to finish, and Brit Bennett’s THE VANISHING HALF was the clear top novel the entire way, but this year the leading picks are all tightly packed for now. In a bit of good news, a year ago when we first listed the top 11, four of the six […]