Paul Beatty’s wickedly funny and thoughtful novel The Sellout — first published by FSG in the US in 2015, but issued in the UK by independent Oneworld in 2016 — won the Booker Prize. Oneworld also published last year’s winner, Marlon James’s A Brief History In Seven Killings. That makes the 54-year-old New Yorker the first American to ever win the prize, which opened to American contestants in 2014. An emotional Beatty told the crowd at the awards ceremony, “I wasn’t expecting this I have to say…. I can’t tell you guys how long the journey this has been for me.” He […]
Best of
Another Best of 2016 So Far, and More
In a departure, the Pennie’s Pick at Costco for July is not a single title — or indeed a printed book of any kind. Rather, the warehouse club’s top book buyer recommends trying an audiobook. (While audiobooks have indeed been booming, the market growth is in digital audio while Costco is trying to sell customers cds.) iBooks has joined the trend of picking and promoting favorite books for the first half of the year, offering four lists of 10 picks from Favorite Bestsellers and Standout Debuts to Books that Lived Up to the Hype and Surprise Hits We Loved. The […]
Amazon Picks Lab Girl As Their Favorite Book So Far This Year
Amazon posted their annual mid-year “best books of the year so far” lists on Tuesday. Topping their picks is Hope Jahren’s Lab Girl (their April “featured debut”). The rest of their top 20 (including 6 titles previewed in our first Buzz Books sampler of the year*) overall features: The Girls, by Emma Cline Before the Fall, by Noah Hawley* When Breath Becomes Air, by Paul Kalanithi The Gene, by Siddhartha Mukherjee Barkskins, by Annie Proulx Valiant Ambition, by Nathaniel Philbrick* Grunt, by Mary Roach The Nest, by Cynthia D’Aprix Sweeney* The Fireman, by Joe Hill* LaRose, by Louise Erdrich* Girls & Sex, by Peggy Orenstein Evicted, by Matthew Desmond I’m Thinking of […]
The Absolutely Best of the Best Books of 2015
We are calling the voting final a little early this year for our comprehensive aggregation of the very best books of the year since so many of the “best of 2015” lists have already run (with an asterisk for USA Today, which is still holding out for the very end of the year; post updated later to include USA Today’s top 10). Between the World and Me by Ta-Nehisi Coates is the clear winner of “book of the year” honors, taking more votes than any book since we started these compilations many years ago (surpassing Katherine Boo’s record of 29 picks), […]
People
Tara Parsons will join Touchstone as editor-in-chief on January 4, reporting to Susan Moldow. Previously she was editorial director, fiction at Amazon Publishing. Moldow said in the announcement: “Tara’s range of commercial acquisitions combined with the unique experiences she has gained from working within an array of publishing models will make her a valuable and dynamic leader of the Touchstone editorial team.” Sally Kim had been editorial director at Touchstone until leaving for Putnam earlier this year. It’s the first time Touchstone has used the title editor-in-chief for a number of years. Mark Tavani will join Putnam as vp, executive […]
Favorite Books of 2015, From the News Editor
Our tally of the Best of the Best Books of 2015 already points to a consensus, and as it so happens, I, too, count Between the World and Me by Ta-Nehisi Coates, Fates and Furies by Lauren Groff, and A Little Life by Hanya Yanigihara among my favorites for the year. These books are emblematic of major themes in my reading (as well as publishing zeitgeist): Between the World and Me crested the wave, then led subsequent ones, on the country’s lingering, unresolved issues of race and the urgency with which we must reckon with those issues. On the surface, Fates […]