Amazon.com has gone first with their editors’ picks for top books of the year. The top 10 (including Laura Hillenbrand’s yet-to-be-released book) are: 1. The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks, Rebecca Skloot2. Faithful Place, Tana French3. Matterhorn, Karl Malantes4. Unbroken, Laura Hillenbrand5. The Warmth of Other Suns, Isabel Wilkerson6. Freedom, Jonathan Franzen7. The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet’s Nest, Stieg Larsson8. To the End of the Land, David Grossman9. Just Kids, Patti Smith10. The Big Short, Michael Lewis The full top 100 list is here. As usual, they offer many category top 10 lists as well. “Customer favorites” is their […]
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People and More: Schnittman to New Bloomsbury Post, Harper Uses NetGalley; and Much More
Oxford University Press vp of corporate and business development (and thus digital dealmaker) Evan Schnittman is joining Bloomsbury in newly-created position of managing director, group sales and marketing, print and digital, starting August 2. He will lead Bloomsbury’s sales and marketing in the UK, US, and Germany across all divisions of the group, and will take a lead role in Bloomsbury’s digital efforts. Chief executive Nigel Newton, to whom Schnittman reports, underscores in the announcement, “The creation of the role of a worldwide head of sales and marketing and the appointment of a highly experienced American with considerable digital experience […]
Summer Books to Watch
We always enjoy the Wall Street Journal’s detailed preview of summer books which runs today. Along the same vein, USA Today ran their summer preview package earlier in the week, and the NYT’s Janet Maslin stuffs her beach bag with “fangs and other fluff, completely guilt free,” calling summer “the time to stop lying about what you read for fun.” In a short ebook preview, the Journal notes that the designers of the iPad version of Alice of Wonderland will sell a version of The Wizard of Oz next, while Vook has a two-part thriller series that features 36 chapters […]
Bookselling: Bankruptcy for Canada's McNally Robinson; Eso Won Expects Another Tough Year; Northshire Hails Haslett Novel
Much-admired Canadian indie McNally Robinson Booksellers has entered bankruptcy and will close two of its four stores immediately: one in Polo Park in Winnipeg and their Toronto store in the new Shops at Don Mills mall. 170 of the bookseller’s 425 full- and part-time employees will lose their jobs as result. Co-owner Paul McNally says that as long as the company’s bankruptcy plan is approved the other two stories, in Winnipeg and Saskatoon, will remain open. “They make money,” he said. “They have a loyal following,” while the other two “new stores absolutely did not perform.” The Winnipeg Free Press […]
More on 2009 and Stories
The Guardian echoes a suggestion of ours from earlier this month, saying that 2009 “was the year of the short story.” They add, “the consensus running through the end-of-year reviews is that it’s been a vintage year for short fiction.” On top of the releases we already mentioned, they cite collections from Kazuo Ishiguro, Ha Jin, James Lasdun, and AL Kennedy–plus the reissued versions of Raymond Carver’s stories. They praise David Vann’s Legend of a Suicide, “supposedly a novel [but] originally published as a story collection in America.”Guardian
On the Year and the Decade
USA Today picked The Help as their book of the year, and added these ten top critics’ picks:Spooner, By Pete DexterThe Physick Book of Deliverance Dane, By Katherine HoweStitches, By David SmallUnder the Dome, By Stephen KingTriangular Road, By Paule MarshallLet the Great World Spin, By Colum McCannLosing Mum and Pup, By Christopher BuckleyDorothea Lange: A Life Beyond Limits, By Linda GordonRevelation, By C.J. SansomHow to Be a Movie Star: Elizabeth Taylor in Hollywood, By William J. MannUSAT And the newspaper’s Bob Minzesheimer wrote on a essay on the decade in books. Looking further forward, “asked about 2019, Stephen King […]