In a world of massive amounts of information, I am a sucker for top ten or best-of lists. I appreciate when someone else condenses something into a short and sweet list, something easy to scan and hopefully points you in the right direction.
November brings the earliest end-of-the-year best-of lists and both Amazon and Publisher's Weekly are some of the first to announce their top ten books of the year. Maybe not too shockingly, Amazon's list [1] is pretty predictable with a lot of best sellers, or other books that got a lot of buzz, including debut-darling Téa Obreht [2], Erik Larson [3], and the new Steve Jobs bio [4].
This year Publisher's Weekly's list [5] is a little more eclectic. Of course Tina Fey's Bossypants [6] and my favorite pop-lit book of the year, State of Wonder [7] by Ann Patchett made the PW list, but so did a lot of other books I haven't heard of. I am pleased to note that one of my favorite Russian historians, Robert K. Massie has a new book out. 600 pages of Catherine the Great [8]? Yes, please.
The only book that made both lists? The Marriage Plot [9] by Jeffery Eugenides.
