Amazon’s editors have posted their “best books of the year so far” lists across multiple categories. Their overall top 10 so far includes four titles first available to readers in our spring/summer edition of Buzz Books 2013 (published right before the ABA’s Winter Institute), asterisked below: 1. Life After Life, Kate Atkinson* 2. The Son, Philipp Meyer* 3. Frozen in Time, Mitchell Zuckoff 4. The Interestings, Meg Wolitzer* 5. And the Mountains Echoed, Khaled Hosseini 6. Eleanor & Park, Rainbow Rowell 7. Gulp, Mary Roach 8. After Visiting Friends, Michael Hainey 9. Tenth of December, George Saunders 10. The Golem […]
Best of
The Final Lists: Announcing The Best of the Best of 2012
We have aggregated and tabulated over 50 “Best Books of 2012” lists from retailers, newspapers, magazines, trades, individual critics, major awards and more to once again announce the consensus, absolute Best of the Best of 2012. The two top titles, Katherine Boo’s BEHIND THE BEAUTIFUL FOREVERS and Hilary Mantel’s BRING UP THE BODIES, will come as no surprise. Every time we’ve done this a relatively small group of titles feel like they are on “everyone’s” lists, though this year Boo and Mantel were indeed found on more lists than ever before. (Last year’s No. 1, Tea Obreht’s THE TIGER’S WIFE, would […]
A Spin Through My Favorite Books of the Year
Yes I know, another favorite books of 2012 list. And truth be told, many of those on mine mirror our consensus “Best of the Best” tabulation. To save some time and space, I’d like to take a cue from the game show Wheel of Fortune and the beginning of every final round since 1988: giving contestants the six most commonly picked letters — R,S,T,L,N,E — so that they can choose six additional ones before guessing the missing vowels and consonants: R: BEHIND THE BEAUTIFUL FOREVERS, Katherine Boo S: BRING UP THE BODIES, Hilary Mantel T: GONE GIRL, Gillian Flynn L: […]
More 2012 Tops: USA Today, People and Google
USA Today agrees with a good part of the consensus on some of the best books of the year, though they add some other contenders in their list of favorites for 2012. 1. Flight Behavior, by Barbara Kingsolver 2. Bring Up the Bodies, by Hilary Mantel 3. Are You My Mother?, by Alison Bechdel 4. Gone Girl, by Gillian Flynn 5. The Unlikely Pilgrimage of Harold Fry, by Rachel Joyce 6. The Patriarch: The Remarkable Life and Turbulent Times of Joseph P. Kennedy, by David Nasaw 7. The Fault in Our Stars, by John Green 8. What It Was, by […]
More Views on The Best of 2012
The Wall Street Journal published their lists of best fiction and nonfiction over the weekend. Their picks are a bit more distinctive than some of the other “best of” lists, with independent presses comprising a good portion of the fiction picks (including titles from the University of Chicago Press, Small Beer Press, Soho Press, and Grove/Atlantic). Fiction The People of Forever Are Not Afraid, Shani Boianjiu Tell the Wolves I’m Home, Carol Rifka Brunt A Naked Singularity, Sergio De La Pava Earth and Air, Peter Dickinson Absolution, Patrick Flanery The Orphan Master’s Son, Adam Johnson The Thief, Fuminori Nakamura John […]
iBookstore Likes Heller and Boo
Apple’s iTunes named their top 10 lists for the year across all product categories, including their favorite books–with Peter Heller’s The Dog Stars their top novel, John Green’s The Fault In Our Stars their favorite YA book, and Katherine Boo’s much-heralded Behind the Beautiful Forevers their top nonfiction title. Fiction The Dog Stars, Peter Heller The Yellow Birds, Kevin Power The Round House, Louise Erdrich Billy Lynn’s Long Halftime Walk, Ben Fountain How Should a Person Be, Sheila Heti Shine Shine Shine, Lydia Netzer This Is How You Lose Her, Junot Diaz The Light Between Oceans, ML Stedman Heft, Liz […]