Recent days have brought many more Best Books lists from major newspapers and magazines. Among those that we are adding to our aggregated Best of the Best of 2011 tabulation are lists from: Chicago Sun-Times critics Houston Chronicle Men’s Journal Miami Herald New York Daily News Pittsburgh Post-Gazette San Francisco Chronicle (top 10) San Francisco Chronicle (top 100)
Best of
Favorite Books of 2011, From the News Editor
This year I made a conscious effort to read fewer books while also reading more widely, succeeding in both instances (bearing in mind that my definition of “fewer” is at least three standard deviations higher than normal. For what it’s worth, I’ve read about 320 books with ten more days to go in 2011.) The list of ten books – six fiction, four non-fiction – appear below, in alphabetical order, mostly because it was hard to pick a flat-out favorite book. (For brevity’s sake, my favorite crime novels appear elsewhere.) Fiction Alan Hollinghurst, THE STRANGER’S CHILD (Knopf) — not for […]
Random House CEO Dohle Highlights “Another Successful Year” For the Company
Year-end letter time continues with Random House ceo Markus Dohle’s missive to staff, in which he highlights “another successful year” for the company at a time of “enduring change and challenges for our industry.” He points to a culture and organization that’s more “collaborative, team-oriented, flexible, efficient, and agile” and allows Random House staffers to implement strategies more effectively. “In short, we aren’t reacting to change, we are driving it.” Dohle called Random House’s continuing success “all the more impressive in light of the prevailing weak economy.” He highlighted “hundreds” of bestsellers in the US, UK, Germany, and Spain including […]
S&S Celebrates A Good Year
It’s year-end letter time, and Simon & Schuster ceo Carolyn Reidy wrote to employees on Friday, celebrating that the company “is poised to deliver excellent financial results including significant growth in profits over our 2010 levels.” One key has been “opportunity titles” that “were not originally in the budget” for this year but have gone on to comprise four of their ten bestselling titles: STEVE JOBS by Walter Isaacson, A STOLEN LIFE by Jaycee Dugard, THE 17 DAY DIET by Mike Moreno, and GABBY by Gabrielle Giffords and Mark Kelly Reidy acknowledges one of the year’s significant developments, as well […]
The Best of the Best of 2011, So Far, Updated
With more lists rolling in–the WSJ, People and Entertainment Weekly among them–the consensus best of the best of 2011 list is acquiring real shape and clarity. As always happens, both the fiction and nonfiction lists have neatly produced two clear groups of top 10 picks. Continuing the pattern from the beginning of this year’s voting, the top novels are acquiring far more votes, with fiction claiming 7 of the top 8 slots overall. Tea Obreht’s THE TIGER’S WIFE remains the runaway pick for book of the year. We’re still waiting on lists from a few major sources, including USA Today […]
Still More Bests of 2011
Kobo named about 30 titles as their ebooks of the year: Fiction The Sisters Brothers, Patrick deWitt 1Q84, Haruki Murakami Ten Thousand Saints, Eleanor Henderson The Free World, David Bezmozgis When She Woke, Hillary Jordan The Night Circus, Erin Morgenstern The Art of Fielding, Chad Harbach The Sense of an Ending, Julian Barnes Touch, Alexi Zentner Snowball Dragonfly Jew, Stuart Ross Blood Red Road, Moira Young Monoceros, Suzette Mayr Caribou Island, By David Vann The Illumination, Kevin Brockmeier The Stranger’s Child, Alan Hollinghurst The Submission, Amy Waldman Ready Player, One Ernest Cline State of Wonder, Ann Patchett The Fates Will […]