Amazon editors have posted their annual package of picks for best books of the year — from a top 100 books list to a roster of top 20 picks across more than 20 categories. Their top 20 books overall (including four books first previewed in one of our Buzz Books samplers: 1. Fates and Furies, by Lauren Groff* 2. Between the World and Me, by Ta-Nehisi Coates 3. Becoming Nicole, by Amy Ellis Nutt 4. An Ember in the Ashes, by Sabaa Tahir* 5. The Nightingale, by Kristin Hannah 6. The Wright Brothers, by David McCullough 7. H is for […]
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People
Millicent Bennett will join Grand Central as executive editor on November 30. Previously she was a senior editor at Simon & Schuster’s adult trade imprint. Penguin Random House Asia Pacific ceo Gabrielle Coyne is leaving, effective immediately after more than 25 years with the company, in what Australia’s The Age calls, “a move that has taken authors and fellow publishers by surprise.” Succeeding her is Julie Burland, previously director, children’s division, Random House Australia and business development, Random House Australia. Separately, Margie Seale has been named non-executive chairman for Penguin Random House Australia and New Zealand. As a result of the […]
PW’s 10 Best of 2015
Also following tradition, PW goes early with their list of the 10 best books of 2015. Always a little quirky, this year’s list leans male (seven of the titles) and international (including three novels in translation): Nonfiction Between the World and Me, Ta-Nehisi Coates (Spiegel & Grau) The Invention of Nature: Alexander von Humboldt’s New World, Andrea Wulf (Knopf) Barbarian Days: A Surfing Life, William Finnegan (Penguin Press) The Argonauts, Maggie Nelson (Graywolf) Black Earth: The Holocaust as History and Warning, Timothy Snyder (Tim Duggan Books) Fiction The Story of the Lost Child, Elena Ferrante, trans. by Ann Goldstein (Europa) Delicious Foods, James Hannaham (Little, Brown) Imperium, Christian Kracht, […]
Best ofs Begin, with the NYT’s Illustrated Children’s Favorites
We officially start transitioning from awards season to best of the year season, as the NYT Book Review takes the traditional lead with their list of the Best Illustrated Children’s Books. (Two are written by Mac Barnett, and two of the books on the list are about the Eiffel Tower.) Big Bear Little Chair, by Lizi Boyd A Fine Dessert: Four Centuries, Four Families, One Delicious Treat, by Emily Jenkins, illustrated by Sophie Blackall Funny Bones: Posada and His Day of the Dead Calaveras, by Duncan Tonatiuh Leo: A Ghost Story, by Mac Barnett, illustrated by Christian Robinson Madame Eiffel: The Love […]
The Final Best of the Best Books of 2014
All the “best of 2014” lists are finished and so we are ready to note for the record our final aggregation of the very Best Books of 2014. Anthony Doerr’s novel remains at the top as the consensus “book of the year,” with works of fiction claiming 7 of the top 10 slots overall. Our final lists are quite similar to the last installment from December, though Lily King’s Euphoria rose on the fiction chart and Leslie Jamison’s essays moved up on our nonfiction chart. As in the past, our final lists also note the editors and agents who worked on […]
People, Etc.
Nan Vermylen Thornton will join Zachary Shuster Harmsworth as an agent. Previously, she was in-house counsel practicing copyright law at Pearson Education. The January Pennie’s Pick at Costco is BOSTON GIRL by Anita Diamant. More Best of 2014 lists keep coming in as the year draws to a close. Vanity Fair offers “11 Best Books of 2014 You Can Spend 2015 Reading” while the SF Chronicle‘s Top 10 list leads off with current “Best of the Best” fiction frontrunner ALL THE LIGHT YOU CANNOT SEE by Anthony Doerr. On that theme, the NYT recently featured Anthony Doerr’s long journey to […]