People magazine cut back their review coverage this year, so we wondered if they were going to do a best books list this year.

Those fears were unfounded. This week’s year-end roundup includes People’s picks of the Top Ten Books. This late in the game, most of the titles have already received multiple best books nods, but with a few differences.

Roz Chast gets her first #1 pick for her National Book Award finalist, the graphic novel, Can’t We Talk About Something More Pleasant?

At number two is a book of essays that has been on only one other list, The Unspeakable: And Other Subjects of Discussion, by Meghan Daum. Published in mid-November, it has received significant but belated attention this week . It is reviewed in Wednesday’s New York Times, and in the upcoming NYT Book Review. It is #10 on  Entertainment Weekly’s 10 Best Nonfiction list. The reviews universally praise Daum’s lead essay on her mother’s death, “Matricide.” An edited version is available in The Guardian.

The full list:

1)   Can’t We Talk About Something More Pleasant? Roz Chast, (Macmillan/Bloomsbury)

2)  The Unspeakable : And Other Subjects of Discussion, Meghan Daum, (Macmillan/FSG; Dreamscape Audio)

3) Not That Kind of Girl: A Young Woman Tells You What She’s “Learned”, Lena Dunham, (Random House; RH Audio)

4) Redeployment, Phil  Klay, (Penguin Press; Penguin Audio)

5)  Love, Nina: A Nanny Writes Home, Nina Stibbe (Hachette/Little, Brown; Hachette Audio) — a LibraryReads pick, it did not appear on other  best books lists

6)  All the Light We Cannot See, Anthony Doerr (S&S/Scribner, May 2014; Audio exclusive from Midwest Tape)

7)  The Paying Guests, Sarah Waters, (Penguin/Riverhead; BOT, read by Juliet Stevenson)

8)  What if? Serious Scientific Answers to Absurd Hypothetical Question , Randall  Munroe, (HMH; Blackstone Audio)

9)  Nora Webster, Colm Toibin, (S&S/Scribner)

10)  Big Little Lies, (Penguin/Putnam/Einhorn; Penguin Audio; Recorded Books; Thorndike)

Last night was the premiere of The Interview, a satire about an assassination attempt on the leader of North Korea. Recently, through a series of hacked emails, it’s been revealed that Sony ordered that the movie be toned down due to fears about reactions from North Korea.

The night before, Jon Stewart’s audience gained some perspective on the North Korean culture from Suki Kim, author of Without You, There Is No Us: My Time with the Sons of North Korea’s Elite,  (RH/Crown; BOT; OverDrive Sample). As a teacher in a private school, Kim saw how the future leaders of the country are being trained.  “All their lives are about ‘The Great Leader’ — they took ‘Great Leader’ classes every day. They did ‘Great Leader Duties’.” She says they had no knowledge of the outside world and her students didn’t have access to computers and hadn’t even heard of the internet.

Stewart ended the interview with, “It’s a book like no other book I’ve ever read. It’s a look into a society, a culture but objective and humanizing and terrifying. Really, an amazing book.”

Libraries we checked are showing heavy holds on light orders.

For the past ten days librarians have been doing their own year-end roundup of the best books by tweeting their favorites. The votes have now been tallied and EarlyWord can exclusively announce the results (eat your heart out, Entertainment Weekly!).

There were over 1,000 total votes for over 600 titles, just another indicator of how widely librarians read. As opposed to other best books lists, the titles on this list reflect librarians’ appreciation for the genres, particularly science fiction, and Young Adult titles.

With the number of titles, there was little overlap, but the number one title, also the number one LibraryReads Favorite of Favorites, is Gabrielle Zevin’s The Storied Life of A.J. Fikry, (Workman/Algonquin Books; Highbridge Audio, OverDrive Sample) a book librarians embraced early on. Close behind it is a book that began as a self-published science fiction title and has since made its way to on multiple best books lists,  The Martian, Andy Weir, (RH/Crown) OverDrive Sample.

But the real fun of exploring this list is the amazing range of titles (how many have you even heard of, yet alone read?).

Thanks to the librarians who started this project three years ago, Stephanie Chase, Robin Beerbower and Linda Johns, it has now grown by leaps and bounds. And thanks to the people who helped with the vote counting, Janet Lockhart, Vicki Nesting, Melissa Samora and Gregg Winsor.

We urge you to take a look at  the full list to make your own discoveries (please let us know about them in the comments section); #LibFaves14 — Full List

To see the actual tweets, with some great 140 character recommendations, e.g., “WOMEN IN CLOTHES. I want 2 roll around in the book like it was money & I was Demi Moore in Indecent Proposal,”, check our Storify transcripts:

Days 1 through 7

Day 8 

Day 9

Day 10

Following on the success of the STARZ 2010 adaption of Ken Follett’s Pillars of the Earth, ABC is planning a 10-episode series based on the first book in the author’s Century Trilogy, Fall of Giants, (Penguin/Dutton, 2010).

According to The Hollywood Reporter, if it does well, the other two books in the trilogy, Winter of the World (Penguin/Dutton, 2012) and Edge of Eternity, (Penguin/Dutton, 2014) will each get their own series.

The script is being written by Ann Peacock, who will also executive produce. She wrote the adaptation of Alice Hoffman’s The Dovekeepers, (S&S/Scribner tie-in, 3/17/15) for Mark Burnett and Roma Downey, which is set to air on March 31 and April 1 on CBS.

First look, below (Downey’s dove seems a bit anxious).

Announcing her next book via a tweet, picked up by Entertainment Weekly‘s “Shelf Life” column, Rainbow Rowell says,

In another tweet, Rowell teases that more news is coming.

I’m not trolling you. I mean, I WOULD troll you. But I’m not right now: Real live Simon Snow book. PLUS MORE FANGIRL NEWS LATER THIS WEEK! — Rainbow Rowell (@rainbowrowell) December 10, 2014

Fans, of course will be speculating. Could it be a movie? Film rights have been picked up for Eleanor & Park, but there have been no announcements for  Fangirl (don’t be confused by that Meg Ryan movie in the works, Fan Girl. It is not an adaptation, but an original script).

UPDATE: Turns out the news is about the special collector’s edition which we noted below.

Ordering information for Carry On won’t be available until early spring. A sneak peek will be featured in a new “collector’s edition” of Fangirl,  coming in May, described as including “Fan Art, a ribbon bookmark, an exclusive author Q&A, and an excerpt from her upcoming book Carry On.“

Fangirl: A Novel by Rainbow Rowell

St. Martin’s Griffin: May 12, 2015

9781250073808, 1250073804

Hardcover; $18.99 USD

The latest trailer for the MTV adaptation of R.L. Stine’s standalone adult novel, Eye Candy (RH/Ballantine, 2004) was just released. The 10-episode series begins on Monday, January 12.

Our preference is for the previous trailer, which focuses on the darker side of social media (that hasn’t stopped MTV from doing an Eye Candy Facebook page, however).

Twilight‘s Catherine Hardwicke is the executive producer of the series that stars Victoria Justice.

The $6.99 mass market paperback (cover at left) is still available.

The film version of Stine’s famous series for kids, Goosebumps, starring Jack Black, is scheduled for release on August 7, 2015.

Stills from it were recently released.

The film adaptation of Stephen King’s It just moved from “In Development” to “Pre-production.”

Vulture reports that the project’s producer Dan Lin confirmed It will be his next project, with filming planned for this summer.

As first announced in 2012, before the he had became a household name for True Detective, Cary Fukunaga will direct at least the first of the planned series of two movies.

Lin says King gave the thumbs-up on the script, saying “This is the version the studio should make.”

In addition, last month it was announced that another of King’s books The Stand is being planned as four films, directed by Josh Boone (The Fault in Our Stars) directing, with Matthew McConaughey rumored to star.

If you need an antidote to all the best books list, check Entertainment Weekly‘s Worst Books of 2014.

We’ve updated our downloadable spreadsheet, 2014-Best-Books-Adult-Fiction-V-5 with the following,

Entertainment Weekly, Top Ten

National Public Radio Staff Picks

New York Times Book Review 10 Best Books

Time Magazine, Top Ten, Fiction

Meanwhile, two more best books lists have arrived. We’ll update our Nonfiction and Children’s lists with those titles this week.

Horn Book Fanfare

Kirkus Best Nonfiction

The seven-year run of FX’s  Sons of Anarchy ends tomorrow night, but it seems some fans already know the ending because of an unauthorized release of the tie-in (see the story in Entertainment Weekly’s TV blog).

No problem for libraries; the few that ordered it haven’t received their copies yet.

Sons of Anarchy : The Official Collector’s Edition
Tara Bennett
Time Home Entertainment: December 10, 2014
9781618931276, 161893127X
$29.95 USD

The number one librarian Favorites of the year for 2011 was the debut science fiction novel, Ready Player One by Ernest Cline (RH/Crown), a book that was also a Librarian’s BEA Shout ‘n’ Share pick that year (good going, Robin Nesbitt, Columbus Metropolitan Library (OH).

Rumors were swirling last week that Warner Brothers, who bought the film rights prior to publication, are courting Intersteller director Christopher Nolan to tackle this one. Other sites scoffed at the idea (Nolan doesn’t do adaptations), but then Ain’t It Cool News reported that Nolan is just one of many the studio is considering, including Robert Zemeckis, Peter Jackson, Edgar Wright and Matthew Vaughn.

The only thing that seems certain is that a script has been submitted. The rumors may indicate that it’s been accepted.

Cline’s second novel Armada was sold to RH/Crown in 2012 and Universal quickly snapped up the film rights.

The audio version is listed on Edelweiss for release on September 29, 2015. The hardcover is noted on an  accompanying “Comp. Title” list, from Crown, with the same release date and ISBN 9780804137256.  Below is the publisher description:

A cinematic, inventive, heartwarming, and completely nerdtastic adventure from the best-selling author of Ready Player One.

Zack Lightman is daydreaming through another dull math class when the hightech dropship lands in his school’s courtyard-and when the men in the dark suits and sunglasses leap out of the ship and start calling his name, he’s sure he’s still dreaming. But the dream is all too real; the people of earth need him. As Zack soon discovers, the videogame he’s been playing obsessively for years isn’t just a game; it’s part of a massive, top-secret government training program, designed to teach gamers the skills they’ll need to defend earth from a possible alien invasion. And now…that invasion is coming.

Soon Zack and and a handful of top gamers find themselves in a bunker beneath the Pentagon, hearing about our planet’s vast secret history over the last forty years-ever since a NASA probe first discovered evidence of intelligent life in our solar system, hidden beneath the ice of Jupiter’s moon, Europa.

As he and his companions prepare to enter their ships and do battle, Zack learns that the father he thought was dead is actually a key player in this secret war. And together with his father, he’ll uncover the truth about the alien Europans, race to prevent a genocide, and discover a mysterious third player in the interplanetary chess game he’s been thrown into.

Librarians are tweeting their favorites titles of the year in a countdown that ends on Wednesday. It’s not too late to join in.  The rules are simple:

Count down your top 10 fave books of 2014, one per day. TITLE in caps, tag #libfaves14.

If you haven’t started yet, you can “cheat” and tweet your #10 through #3 picks today and pick up with #2 tomorrow.

We’ve Storified the 799 tweets that have arrived through this morning (scroll through them, not only for title recommendations, but to see how creatively librarians use 140 characters or fewer)

See the latest tweets here.

The roundups of the previous year’s tweets result in some fascinating lists, quite different from the critics’ picks for those years:

Year Three, 2013

Year Two, 2012

Year One, 2011

In the midst of all the assessments of the best books of the year, it’s refreshing to look forward to some new titles coming out next week.

All the titles covered here, and a few other notable titles arriving next week, are listed, with ordering information and alternate formats, on our downloadable spreadsheet, EarlyWord New Title Radar, Week of Dec. 8, 2014

 The Boston Girl, Anita Diamant, (S&S/Scribner; S&S Audio; Thorndike)

Diamant’s fifth novel arrives just after the airing of a Lifetime two-part series based on her first and most well-known novel, The Red Tent.  The author is profiled in the Boston Globe (unfortunately, a review of Lifetime‘s adaptation, in the same issue is not positive). The story of a Jewish immigrant growing up in early-20th-century Boston, as told by her 85-year-old self to her granddaughter. Booklist, calls it, a “graphic, page-turning portrait of immigrant life in the early twentieth century” and it has a significant amount of “love” on Edelweiss.

Here, Richard McGuire, (RH/Pantheon)

McGuire broke new ground when his 1989 comic strip was first published in Art Spiegelman’s Raw magazine. This new book-length version is being celebrated with an exhibit at the Morgan library, which has been covered in the Atlantic magazine and in the New York Times. An interview with the author is coming on NPR’s Weekend Edition Sunday.

Moriarty, Anthony Horowitz, (Harper)

We urged you back in October to read the galley of this book. It is People’s Book of the Week, 12/15/14 and an IndieNext pick:

“I’ve been reading Sherlock Holmes pastiches for 20 years, but I’ve never read anything as devious as this! After the famous encounter between Holmes and Moriarty at Reichenbach Falls, Inspector Athelney Jones and Pinkerton Agent Frederick Chase are thrown together to combat the rising shadow of an American crime boss looking to take over Moriarty’s empire. Horowitz wisely does not try to imitate Doyle’s style, but instead comes up with a unique voice with several parallels to the Holmes and Watson dynamic. As soon as you finish, you’ll want to read it again with a new appreciation for Horowitz’s masterful plotting. Exquisitely done!” —Steven Sautter, Books Inc., San Francisco, CA

Irene: The Commandant Camille Verhoeven Trilogy, Pierre Lemaitre, (Quercus/MacLehose)

IndieNext, Dec — “This extremely suspenseful, fast-paced crime novel is not for the fainthearted. Its graphic violence may turn some readers away, but those who stick through the opening scenes will be richly rewarded by following Commander Verhoeven’s pursuit of a monstrous serial killer who models his gruesome crimes on scenes from classic crime novels. The intense action is enriched by scenes from Verhoeven’s domestic life, as well as the interactions among the distinct personalities of his Paris detective squad.” —Joe Strebel, Anderson’s Bookshops, Naperville, IL

The cover boy for Entertainment Weekly‘s year-end wrap up was asked to comment on his favorites of the year.

Waxing eloquent about his favorite book, I Am Pilgrim, by Terry Hayes (S&S/ Atria/Emily Bestler, 5/27; trade paperback just released), he said,

”Dude, freak out. That’s my new Gone Girl. Gone Girl was the last book that I couldn’t put down. Seriously, email me when you read it. You’ll be five chapters in, and you’ll look up and be like, ‘Dude!”’

The next title in the series is coming in June.

Watch for galleys, Dude!

Entertainment Weekly's Best Book of The Year

Emily St. John Mandel, STATION ELEVEN (RH/Knopf)

#1 Book of the Year

Phil Klay, REDEPLOYMENT, (Penguin Press

LibraryReads #1 Favorite of Favorites

Gabrielle Zevin, THE STORIED LIFE OF A. J. FIKRY, (Workman/Algonquin)

Amazon Editors' Book of the Year

Celeste Ng, EVERYTHING I NEVER TOLD YOU, (Penguin Press)

Time Magazine -- #1 Y.A. Book

E. Lockhart, We Were Liars, (RH/Delacorte)

Time Magazine -- #1 Nonfiction

Helen Thorpe, SOLDIER GIRLS, (S&S/Scribner)

Time Magazine -- #1 Fiction

Tana French, THE SECRET PLACE, (Penguin/Viking)

Now that most of the adult best books lists have appeared (still to come in January, the various ALA lists and Booklist‘s picks), we can put them all together for a “Best of the Bests (So Far).”

If you’re itching to get your favorite books recognized, tweet them using the hashtag #libfaves14.

Based on the various top ten lists — NYT Book Review, Entertainment Weekly  (list not online; titles on this downloadable spreadsheet, Ent. Wkly Top Ten Best Books), Time magazine, Library Journal, Publishers Weekly, and the Amazon editors (who rank their entire list of 100 titles — imagine those discussions) — plus other best books picks, we’ve come up with a ranked list (please don’t question us on our method; it combines art and science) of the top 55 titles of the year, 2014-Best-Books-Ranked, allowing us to announce the #1 book of the year.

First, a review of those publications who had the guts to declare #1 titles.

Number One Picks, By Publication:

Entertaiment Weekly  — #1 Book of the Year

Emily St. John Mandel, Station Eleven, (RH/Knopf; BOT), OverDrive Sample

Time Magazine — #1 Fiction

Tana French, The Secret Place (Penguin/Viking; BOT)), OverDrive Sample

Time Magazine — #1 Nonfiction

Helen Thorpe,  Soldier Girls, (S&S/Scribner; Dreamscape Audio), OverDrive Sample

Time Magazine,  #1 YA Book

We Were Liars, E. Lockhart, (RH/Delacorte; Listening Library), OverDrive Sample

Amazon Editors, #1 Book of the Year

Celeste Ng,  Everything I Never Told You, (Penguin Press; Blackstone Audio), OverDrive Sample

LibraryReads #1 Favorite of Favorites

Gabrielle Zevin, The Storied Life of A. J. Fikry, (Workman/Algonquin Books; Highbridge Audio), OverDrive Sample

As a result of weighing all the lists, we are able to declare the …

Overall Number One Book of the Year:

Phil  Klay, Redeployment, (Penguin Press; Penguin Audio), OverDrive Sample

The New York Times Book Review just completed their best books selections by releasing their Notable Childrens Books.

We’ve added their 25 picks to our downloadable spreadsheet, for your use in ordering and creating displays, 2014-Best-Books-Childrens-and-YA-V.6, bringing the total number of titles on the list to 280.

Two books continue to be the leaders in the number of picks, Jacqueline Woodson’s National Book Award winning memoir, Brown Girl Dreaming (Penguin) and E. Lockhart’s Y.A. novel, We Were Liars. (RH/Delacorte).

Middle Grade Leaders

The two leading middle grade books are about kids learning to deal with disabilities, Cece Bell’s graphic memoir, El Deafo (Abrams) and Ann M. Martin’s novel about a girl with Asperger’s, Rain Reign (Feiwel & Friends)

Leading Picture Book

Two-time Caldecott Honor winner Marla Frazee’s The Farmer and the Clown leads in the number of best books picks for the category.

The NYT BR describes this wordless book as ” visually poetic.”

NYT BR Unique Picks

The majority of the 280 titles on our collated list were picked by just one source. The NYT BR adds their own 3 unique picks (annotations from the Times):

Arcady’s Goal. Written and illustrated by Eugene Yelchin, (Macmillan/Holt; ages 9 to 12.)

“In this memorable illustrated novel, the Russian-born, Newbery Honor-winning Yelchin tells the story of an orphan in Stalinist Russia whose skill at soccer offers an opportunity to transform his life.”

The Storm Whale . Written and illustrated by Benji Davies, (Macmillan/Holt; ages 3 to 8.)

“This charmingly illustrated picture book tells a simple but powerful story about a lonely boy, his hard-working single dad and a stranded baby whale that helps parent and child grow closer.”

The Jacket,  Kirsten Hall. Illus.by Dasha Tolstikova, (Enchanted Lion, $17.95; ages 4 to 8.)

“A character named Book is distraught when his jacket is ruined by his owner’s dog, but she makes him a new one in this ingenious and poignant tale.”