Giving a sneak peek at their 2010 best book selections, coming in the combined Jan. 1 & 15 issue, Booklist announces the top title in each category. Their adult editors agree with most of their fellow critics, but there’s a couple of surprises in children’s selections (you can download our spreadsheet of all the titles picked so far — one for adult titles and one for children’s).
Adult Fiction
Jennifer Egan’s A Visit from the Goon Squad received rapturous reviews (Bookmarks shows 20 in total). Time picks it as the #2 book of the year (after Franzen’s Freedom); the NYT Book Review, the Washington Post and PW all rank it in their top ten of the year.
While it hasn’t appeared on the NYT Best Seller list (we’re betting it will when it comes out in paperback next year), it hit the IndieBound list shortly after publication and stayed on it for thirteen weeks, going back on again last week.
Libraries are still showing holds, heavy in some areas.
 |
| Retail Price: |
$25.95 |
| Hardcover: |
288 pages |
| Publisher: |
Knopf – (2010-06-08) |
| ISBN / EAN: |
0307592839 / 9780307592835 |
|
Audio; BBC AudioBooks; 9780792771746; 8 CD’s; $79.95
Adobe EPUB eBook from OverDrive
Adult Nonfiction
Author Rebecca Skloot is not only featured on many best books’s lists (The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks ties with Isabel Wilkerson’s The Warmth of Other Suns for the most mentions), she is also being hailed as a leader for her persistence in telling the story of a poor black woman who died of cervical cancer in 1951, but lives on through her cells which are still used, without her consent, in medical research. Skloot also established a scholarship fund for Henrietta Lacks’ heirs. Oprah Winfrey and True Blood producer Alan Ball signed it for an HBO film back in May.
 |
| Retail Price: |
$26.00 |
| Hardcover: |
368 pages |
| Publisher: |
Crown – (2010-02-02) |
| ISBN / EAN: |
1400052173 / 9781400052172 |
|
Random House Audio; UNABR; 9780307712509; $35
Audio and e-book available from OverDrive
Youth Fiction
The top pick in this category has not appeared on any of the other lists.
 |
| Retail Price: |
$15.99 |
| Hardcover: |
256 pages |
| Publisher: |
Little, Brown Books for Young Readers – (2010-08-16) |
| ISBN / EAN: |
0316068195 / 9780316068192 |
|
Youth Nonfiction
With this selection, They Called Themselves the K.K.K. now ties for the most picks for a children’s nonfiction title with Ballet for Martha: Making Appalachian Spring, by Jan Greenber, & Sandra Jordan, illustrated by Brian Floca (Flashpoint/Roaring Brook).
 |
| Retail Price: |
$19.00 |
| Hardcover: |
176 pages |
| Publisher: |
Houghton Mifflin Books for Children – (2010-08-23) |
| ISBN / EAN: |
061844033X / 9780618440337 |
|
Youth Picture Book
Although this one received admiring reviews, it has not appeared on any of the other best books lists.
 |
| Retail Price: |
$17.99 |
| Hardcover: |
40 pages |
| Publisher: |
Knopf Books for Young Readers – (2010-09-14) |
| ISBN / EAN: |
0375858806 / 9780375858802 |
|
Video
Audio
 |
| Retail Price: |
$40.00 |
| Audio CD: |
|
| Publisher: |
Books on Tape – (2010-05-25) |
| ISBN -13: |
9780739377710 |
|
Reference Source
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March 15th, 2012 at 10:29 pm
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