This time of year, I’m always perusing the many best of book lists that are online looking for a good book to cozy up with or as a possible gift giving idea. First, I check out what The New York Times and other booksellers are touting, then I visit my local bookstore and for lack of better terminology, finger the books themselves. Often books that critics praise in print end up not resonating with me at all once I get a hold of a copy and read a few excepts. I want a book to sing to me on those first few pages. The following books did just that and hopefully I’ll have a little choir wrapped up under the tree for me and my family come Christmas morning.
Thrillers/Mysterys: What the Dead Know by Laura Lippman / Tin Roof Blowdown by James Lee Burke / Tree of Smoke by Denis Johnson;
Historical Fiction: Signed, Mata Hari by / Fieldwork by / Mr Pip by Lloyd Jones
Non Fiction: Agent Zigzag: A True Story of Nazi Espionage, Love and Betrayal by Ben Macintyre / The Nine: Inside the Secret World of the Supreme Court by Jeffrey Toobin
Lifestyle: Catching the Big Fish: Meditation, Counsciousness, and Creativity by David Lynch / Eat This Not That: Thousands of Simple Food Swaps That Can Save You 10, 20, 30 Pounds or More! by David Zinczenko and Matt Goulding
Work: The No Asshole Rule by Robb Sutton /Getting Unstuck by Timothy Butler / Microtrends by Mark Penn
Humour: Then We Came to the End by Joshua Ferris / Abstinence Teacher by Tom Perrotta / Absurdistan by Gary Shteyngart (2006)
Pop Culture: The Diana Chronicles by Tina Brown / Heat: An Amateur’s Adventures as Kitchen Slave, Line Cook, Pasta-Maker, and Apprentice to a Dante-quoting Butcher in Tuscany by Bill Buford / Wonderful Tonight: George Harrison, Eric Clapton and Me by Patti Boyd
And finally, this from Publishers Weekly
Best Book by Stephen Colbert: I Am America (And So Can You!) by Stephen Colbert
P.T. Barnum Marketing Award: If I Did It: Confessions of the Killer by The Goldman Family
Best Breakout: Game of Kings: A Year Among the Geeks, Oddballs, and Geniuses Who Make Up America’s Top High School Chess Team by Michael Weinreb
Doorstopper Worth the Heavy Lifting: Nureyev by Julie Kavanagh
Body Parts Special: Stacked: A 32DDD Reports from the Front by Susan Seligson
The Bigger They Are… The Almost Moon by Alice Sebold
Worst-Kept Secret: The Secret by Rhonda Byrne
