It's the most wonderful time of the year!

It’s that time of year when all the “best of” lists come out. In particular, all of the end-of-year best book lists. Plus, more holidays from work equals more time to read. Yay! I rarely read any book when it first comes out - usually I’m on the waiting list at the library, or I wait until it comes out in paperback (and down in price). But I like to plan ahead. So here are some of the lists, and what I think looks interesting:

The Daily Beast, 10 Books That You Might Have Missed but Shouldn’t: All ten of these look interesting, but some more than others. In particular, A History of The World in 100 Objects, by Neil MacGregor; Assassins of the Turquoise Palace, by Roya Hakakian; and What it is Like to Go to War, by Karl Marlantes (not to mention Matterhorn: a Novel of the Vietnam War, also by Marlantes, which made many “best of” lists last year). Anatomy of a Disappearance, by Hisham Matar, also looks intriguing. As far as Keynes Hayek goes, I already know which camp I’m in. But maybe I should read it anyway, to clarify my thinking.

Then there’s the NY Times’s 100 Notable Books of the Year, helpfully broken down by category. One of the novels that’s making all of the “best of” lists is Chad Harbach’s The Art of Fielding, but since the only thing more boring to me than baseball is reading about baseball, I’ll probably skip this one. Tom Perotta’s The Leftovers is on there, which, conveniently, I just got from the library. Also on my list: The Last Werewolf, by Glen Duncan (the only sci-fi or fantasy novel to make the fiction list, as far as I can tell), The Marriage Plot, by Jeffrey Eugenides, and The Tiger’s Wife, by Tea Obrecht. A few others look interesting as well.
 
For the non-fiction selections, many of the same books are popping up on multiple “best of” lists: And So It Goes. Kurt Vonnegut: a life is getting a lot of press. I probably won’t read this one, because Vonnegut is one of my favorite writers and this book shows him in a less than flattering light (cowardly of me, I know). Blue Nights by Joan Didion is another one that looks too grim for me to tackle right now. Maybe in the summer when I’m in a better mood. High on my list is 1493: Uncovering the New World Columbus Created, by Charles C. Mann, because I read its predecessor, 1491, and really liked it. I’m eager to read In the Garden of Beasts: Love, Terror and an American Family in Hitler’s Berlin, by Erik Larson. Also of interest: Catherine the Great: Portrait of a Woman, by Robert K. Massie, Destiny of the Republic: a Tale of Madness, Medicine and the Murder of a President - Candice Millard’s tale of the assassination of James Garfield; and Jerusalem: the Biography, by Simon Sebag Montefiore. Refreshingly, Paul Isaacson’s biography of Steve Jobs did NOT make the NY Times Notable Books list, though it made plenty of others.

Oprah’s Best Fiction of 2011 list includes Rules of Civility, by Amor Towles, which I’ve wanted to read since it came out this summer, as well as the Tiger’s Wife and The Leftovers, which I’ve already mentioned. Ten Thousand Saints, by Eleanor Henderson, is also on the list, but I can’t bring myself to read anything that starts off with the death of a child.

Then there is the 2011 Good Reads Choice Awards, which will be announced December 6. Over 6,000 readers vote on every imaginable genre, so this list usually reflects more popular (pedestrian?) tastes. Stay tuned...