We’ve logged another dozen lists on our aggregated Best of the Best of 2013 lists — most recently the Wall Street Journal’s favorite fiction and nonfiction; and picks from Lucas Wittmann and the annual can’t-miss from our own very well read Sarah Weinman. In fiction, the favorites continue to pull away from the rest, but the competition remains very tight — with an unprecedented five titles all among the top selections of the year. (Usually by this time a particular book — Bring Up the Bodies, The Tiger’s Wife, or Freedom — has pulled away from the pack.) Best of the […]
Best of
2013: The Year We Gaveled On
We don’t usually play the game of making broad simplistic declarations about players of the year, but in our newsroom 2013 was truly the “Year of the Gavel.” New York Southern District Court Judge Denise Cote — recently the focus of a scathing editorial in the WSJ calling her “a disgrace to the judiciary” — was the dominant Publishing Person of the Year, and no matter what the OED claims, the “word of the year” was certainly not “selfie.” It was “spiderweb,” a term that speaks volumes about the DOJ’s winning trial against Apple on ebook price-fixing charges that was the […]
More Best Books from NYTBR, Time
The New York Times Book Review published their 10 best books of the year online on Wednesday equally separated between fiction and nonfiction. (Individual critics’ lists are still tk.) Fiction AMERICANAH, Chimananda Ngozi Adichie LIFE AFTER LIFE, Kate Atkinson THE FLAMETHROWERS, Rachel Kushner TENTH OF DECEMBER, George Saunders THE GOLDFINCH, Donna Tartt Nonfiction DAYS OF FIRE, Peter Baker AFTER THE MUSIC STOPPED, Alan S. Blinder THE SLEEPWALKERS, Christopher Clark WAVE, Sonali Deraniyagala FIVE DAYS AT MEMORIAL, Sheri Fink Time also presented its Best of Lists for fiction and nonfiction. Overlapping with the NYT’s selections, Atkinson, Saunders, and Kushner led the otherwise genre-heavy fiction […]
NPR’s Concierge, and More Bests
NPR realized their list of year-end book picks had gotten a little out of hand, with 20 lists in late 2012. “You love lists. We love lists. Everyone loves lists. And in the past five years, NPR has brought you more than 80 year-end book lists — the best book club books, the best cookbooks, the best gift books, the best guilty pleasures. We listed. You clicked. Everyone was happy.” So this year, after some “list fatigue,” they are trying a new approach. They’ve taken recommendations for over 200 notable titles from the year and built a Book Concierge app […]
The Best of the Best of 2013 — So Far
Having noted a steady stream of award winners and “best of 2013” lists, it’s time to launch our annual tracking of the consensus “Best of the Best of” books of the year. By aggregating lists from all over rather than reflecting one set of critics’ or judges’ picks, we’re able to derive terrific lists that reflect a much broader consensus. (You can revisit previous years’ lists at Bookateria, including the top fiction and nonfiction from 2012.) We have already logged selections from 24 different sources so far this season (spanning booksellers, newspapers, magazines, major awards and more), and so far […]
The Goodreads Choice Winners, and More
In the latest “Best of 2013” lists, Goodreads.com announced the winners of their Goodreads Choice Awards, based on close to 2 million online “votes.” The biggest adult vote-getters were Neil Gaiman (with roughly 43,500) and Malala Yousafzai (with almost 33,000 votes), while YA winner Veronica Roth garnered over 36,000 votes and middle grade winner Rick Riordan received almost 43,000. Among the 20 winners: Fiction: And the Mountains Echoed, Khaled Hosseini Mystery & Thriller: Inferno, Dan Brown Historical Fiction: Life After Life, Kate Atkinson Fantasy: The Ocean at the End of the Lane, Neil Gaiman Science Fiction: MaddAddam, Margaret Atwood Horror: Doctor Sleep, Stephen King Memoir & Autobiography: I Am […]