Thursday, December 02, 2010

Books of the Year

For readers, it's delicious to read through the 'Books of the Year' features in the press coming up Christmas, partly when you discover something new. So here's a handy list of recent lists, including recommendations for the season; click the publication's title to read the original articles, followed in some cases by just three of those who are recommending books. More links will be added as they appear.

  1. The Guardian: John Banville, Julian Barnes, Jackie Kay, and readers' favourites here, with a round-up of critics' fiction favourites here.
  2. The Irish Times: Joseph O'Connor, Tim Parks, Claire Keegan, and their Children's Books of the Year. And Science Books for Christmas from Dick Ahlstrom, Technology Books from Karlin Lillington, literary critic Eileen Battersby's Books of the Year
  3. The New York Times: 100 notable books of the year, and the 10 Best Books of 2010 (including Freedom and Room).
  4. The New Statesman: Alain de Botton, Emma Donoghue, Margaret Drabble.
  5. The Observer: Sebastian Faulks, Hari Kunzru, John Lanchester.
  6. The Daily Telegraph (part 1 and part 2): Anthony Horowitz, Justin Cartwright, Sadie Jones. Plus the Top 10 Books of 2010, including Lydia Davis's Collected Stories.
  7. The Atlantic: from Benjamin Schwartz (click at the bottom of the post to see 'runners-up').
  8. Times Literary Supplement: John Ashbery, Paul Muldoon, Ali Smith.
  9. School Library Journal: divided into Fiction, Non-Fiction and Picture Books
  10. The London Independent: the paper's regular reviewers. See also Children's Books, Travel Books, Literary Fiction, Biography and Memoir, Cinema, Teenagers.
  11. Financial Times: fiction by regular reviewers.
  12. The Economist: the magazine's selection, across all genres.
  13. School Library Journal: 'Best Adult Books for Teens, 2010'.
  14. New York Magazine: Sam Anderson's Top 10 books of 2010.
  15. Book Trust: Books of the Year (with links to reviews) and Translated Fiction.
  16. The New Yorker: 'Books Briefly Noted: a year's reading'.
  17. The Atlantic Monthly: 'The Best Book I Read This Year'.
  18. The Sydney Morning Herald: Christos Tsiolkas, Helen Garner, Brenda Walker
  19. Irish Independent: 'A feast of fiction'- John Boland's top 10 novels of 2010, and Children's Books by Sarah Webb.
  20. The Scotsman: Fiction by Allan Massie (3 pages), Children's Books by Jane Sandall (4 pages), Non-Fiction by Stuart Kelly (2 pages), Travel by Tom Adair (2 pages).
  21. Washington Post: Best 10 books gallery (including David Grossman & Emma Donoghue), Best Fiction & Poetry, Best Non-Fiction, Best 10 Books for Young Readers gallery, Jonathan Yardley's Best Books.
  22. New Zealand Herald: includes Damon Galgut's superb In a Strange Room.
  23. Salon (starting some web only lists now): Dave Eggars, Curtis Sittenfeld, Laura Lippman.
  24. Slate: regular reviewers, over 3 pages.
  25. Boston Globe: Best Fiction (including Peter Carey), Best Non-Fiction (including Ian Frazier's Travels in Siberia), Top 10 Children's Books.
  26. The Anti-Room blog: including Paul Murray's Skippy Dies and Natasha Walter's Living Dolls.
  27. Huffington Post: The 10 Best Books, including J.M. Coetzee's Summertime.
  28. The Millions: Maud Newton's 'Year in Reading' (and other contributors).
  29. National Public Radio: Best Books of 2010. Many lists (some audio too), including Year's Best Teen Reads, Maureen Corrigan's list and The Complete List. Word Power- the Year's Best Poetry includes Anne Carson and Charles Simic, and has extracts from the poetry.
  30. Young Adult Library Services Association: Best Books for Young Adults, and 2010 Great Graphic Novels for Teens.
  31. Chicago Tribune: Mary Schmich's Top 9 Books, including Tom Rachman's The Imperfectionists.
  32. Poetry books of the year, from the VĂ©hicule Press Blog, including Derek Walcott's White Egrets.
  33. Los Angeles Times: book critic David Ulin's favourite books of 2010, including The Collected Stories of Deborah Eisenberg.
  34. San Francisco Chronicle: Top 10 Books of 2010 by John McMurtrie, including Room and William Trevor's Selected Stories.
  35. Front Row (BBC Radio 4)- text and audio - Children's, Older Children's, Sports and Crime Fiction.
  36. Ready Steady Book: Best of 2010, including John Lanchester's Whoops!
  37. Brainpickings: Best Children's Books of 2010 by Maria Popova.
  38. Asylum Blog: John Self's Twelve from the Shelves, including several 'old' books, such as Bernard Malamud's excellent The Magic Barrel (short stories).
  39. Inside Higher Ed: The Year in Reading.
  40. Daily Beast: Shannon Donnelly's Best Young Adult Novels.
  41. January Magazine: including Non-Fiction, Children and Young Adults, Art and Culture, Crime Fiction 1, Crime Fiction 2, Fiction.
  42. Granta Books: Fiction, Non-Fiction and Poetry, More Non-Fiction.
  43. Amazon.co.uk: Editors' Picks: top 100 books. From the bookseller, a choice genuinely based on quality - 15th place goes to Tony Judt's The Memory Chalet.
  44. The Children's Book Review: Best Kids' Picture Books 2010.
  45. ANZ LitLovers LitBlog: 'Top Tens 2010', concentrating on Australian and New Zealand literature.
  46. Reading Matters blog: Best Reads of 2010. Another mention here for Room, with some interesting other choices, including Lee Rourke's The Canal.

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

For an Australian books of the year list, visit http://anzlitlovers.wordpress.com/top-tens/top-tens-2010/

SCC English Department said...

Thanks - added!

Lizzy Siddal said...

Absolutely delighted to see that cover of Alice Thompson's "The Existential Detective" at the top of this post. It was my crime fiction read of the year. As for the rest cf:

http://lizzysiddal.wordpress.com/2010/12/28/the-best-of-2010/

Susan Thomsen said...

This is a fantastic list. Thanks so much for rounding up all those links. I have compiled a best of 2010 for children's books, at my blog, Chicken Spaghetti: http://bit.ly/dBw1MB

Also, don't miss Larghearted Boy's enormous roundup of best books lists at http://www.largeheartedboy.com/blog/archive/2010/11/online_best_of_3.html