It was a year of enormous upheaval in the world of newspaper book reviewing, and yet in many respects everything stayed exactly the same. As monitored by our Book Review Index, tracking full-length reviews in the nation’s most widely circulated newspapers, total reviews declined approximately 7.5 percent during the year, with 7,855 reviews tabulated in all. With the same astonishing regularity that we have statistically demonstrated in the past, book editors across the country worked very hard to come to the same conclusions as always. One out of every twelve full-length reviews (or 8.5 percent) went to books by Knopf. […]
Awards
Costa Winners Include Athill, 91
Recently given an OBE on the Queen’s annual honors list, Diana Athill has won the Costa Award for biography for SOMEWHERE TOWARDS THE END, a contemplation of the advantages and disadvantages of advanced age. The other category winners are: First NovelSadie Jones, The Outcast, scoops Novel Sebastian Barry, The Secret Scripture PoetryAdam Foulds, The Broken Word Children’sMichelle Magorian, Just Henry The overall book of the year winner will be selected from among the category honorees later this month. Guardian
Barnes' Best
BN.com has posted a variety of top ten lists for 2008 (fiction debuts; haunting historicals; stories on the edge; luminous lives in fiction; history; sumptuous books; our modern world; and life stories). Among their Number One selections: Child 44 by Tom Rob SmithPeople of the Book by Geraldine BrooksA Most Wanted Man by John Le CarreUnaccustomed Earth by Jhumpa LahiriThe Forever War by Dexter FilkinsThe Dark Side: The Inside Story of How the War on Terror Turned into a War on American Ideals by Jane MayerMy Stroke of Insight: A Brain Scientist’s Personal Journey by Jill Bolte TaylorThe Hunger Games […]
Amazon's Bestsellers
Amazon has posted their annual lists of bestselling items for 2008 from a variety of categories. Stephenie Meyer’s BREAKING DAWN was their bestselling book (in units) while the Kindle was the top-selling item in the electronics category (alongside such other hits as the top home and garden item, the Oster 4207 electric wine opener.) In “products that were reviewed most positively,” Ron Paul’s THE REVOLUTION: A Manifesto led all others among books, while the Kindle lost out in electronics to a Samsung 46-inch LCD television. In their list of “products most frequently purchased as gifts” during the year, Kindle led […]
The Lists Don't Stop: EW's Top 10s
Entertainment Weekly presents an entirely Bolano-free list of the best fiction and nonfiction of the year: Fiction1. SAY YOU’RE ONE OF THEM, Uwem Akpan2. THE BOOK OF DAHLIA, Elisa Albert3. OLIVE KITTERIDGE, Elizabeth Strout4. LUSH LIFE, Richard Price5. BOTTOMLESS BELLY BUTTON, Dash Shaw6. THE HOUSE ON FORTUNE STREET, Margot Livesey7. DISQUIET, Julia Leigh8. THE STORY OF EDGAR SAWTELLE, David Wroblewski9. AMERICAN WIFE, Curtis Sittenfeld10. WHAT HAPPENED TO ANNA K., Irina Reyn Nonfiction1. BEAUTIFUL BOY, David Sheff2. NIXONLAND, Rick Perlstein3. THE FOREVER WAR, Dexter Filkins4. PICTURES AT A REVOLUTION, Mark Harris5. THE BIN LADENS, Steve Coll6. BOTTLEMANIA, Elizabeth Royte7. THE AGE […]
Still More Best of Lists, from the SF Chronicle
They picks 50 top nonfiction books and 50 fiction and poetry works. A separate piece lists notable books by Bay Area authors.