Holy Cow! This is Quite the Top Ten of the Year on the The New York Times Book Review

Here's the Top 10 of The New York Times Book Review.

fiction first...

Both Ways is the Only Way I Want It, by Maile Meloy

Ooh, I have to read Meloy someday. Book is very out of stock at the moment.

Chronic City, by Jonathan Lethem

I read this as did Conrad. In fact, his quote was used for the Indie Bound pick.

A Gate at the Stairs, by Lorrie Moore

The first time I've mentioned this book in the blog. Just kidding.

Half-Broke Horses, by Jeannette Walls

Don't forget, we're hosting Walls at Alverno on January 9th!

A Short History of Women, by Kate Walbert

I read her short stories from Sarabande years ago and really liked them. But I haven't kept up, to my dismay.

nonfiction

The Age of Wonder: How the Romantic Generation Discovered the Beauty and Terror of Science, by Richard Holmes.

A nice subtitle makes the book's content self-explanatory. Isn't that nice?

The Good Soldiers, by David Finkel.

Voices of soldiers in Iraq.

Published by Sarah Crichton, we just exchanged emails over my love of Blame.

Lit, by Mary Karr.

That's the thing with sequels, I feel I can't read this until I have at least read The Liar's Club. Yes, another embarrassing confession.

Lords of Finance: The Bankers Who Broke the World, by Liaquat Ahamed.

The perfect book for our financial meltdown section (note to Jason), giving a historical perspective.

Raymond Carver: A Writer's Life, by Carol Sklenicka.

You can read what I think on my NPR rec list.

Wow! I'm usually lucky to read one of the top ten on this year end list. And this year I've sometimes felt like I'm reading all the wrong books. Congrats to Scribner, who got 3 books on the list (and 7 front page reviews, but my count is sometimes off). It isn't quite the sweep of Knopf last year (who nonetheless had decent representation.)

6 out of ten women. Very different from the PW list, which had no women at all, for which they got a bit of flack.