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 […]
Awards
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.
USA Today Honors
The newspaper forsakes a “book of the year” to pick Stephenie Meyer as their author of the year. And the staff picks their 10 favorite reads of the year: The White Tiger, by Aravind AdigaThe Story of Edgar Sawtelle. by David WroblewskiOlive Kitteridge, by Elizabeth StroutAn Exact Replica of a Figment of My Imagination. by Elizabeth McCrackenThe Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society. by Mary Ann Shaffer and Annie BarrowsThe House at Sugar Beach. by Helene CooperLush Life. by Richard PriceThe Blue Star, by Tony EarleyFor the Thrill of It, by Simon BaatzThe Forever War, by Dexter Filkins USAT
Critics Challenge Newbery Selections
The Washington Post covers the debate over the value of the Newbery Medal, “asking whether the books that have won recently are so complicated and inaccessible to most children that they are effectively turning off kids to reading. Of the 25 winners and runners-up chosen from 2000 to 2005, four of the books deal with death, six with the absence of one or both parents and four with such mental challenges as autism. Most of the rest deal with tough social issues.” Associate professor of literacy education at St. John’s University John Beach “studied 30 years of book lists chosen […]