Play Book Tag discussion

It's starting! I love seeing all the published lists of best books that start popping up around now. Please share them here if you come across any!

From Time Magazine:

10. The Overstory
9. Florida
8. Gun Love
7. There There
6. Washington Black
5. Circe
4. My Year of Rest and Relaxation
3. An American Marriage
2. Asymmetry
1. The Mars Room

Wow! I’ve read 8, and Florida was a DNF. I’ve got Gun Love on my ereader ready to go. I definitely do not agree with the whole list!! Asymmetry is nowhere near my top ten.

And The Mars Room as number one? Whhhhaaaaaattttt?

Gosh; I've only read one!

I've read 4, two of them will make my 10 best books read this year.

From Washington Post:

https://www.washingtonpost.com/graphi...

https://www.washingtonpost.com/entert...

https://www.washingtonpost.com/entert...

https://www.washingtonpost.com/entert...

https://www.washingtonpost.com/lifest...

https://www.washingtonpost.com/entert...

publisher’s weekly
1. by Lisa Halliday
2. by Tara Westover
3. by Kiese Laymon
4. by Alexander Chee
5. by Gina Apostol
6. by Denis Johnson
7. by Sarah Perry
8. by Bob Spitz
9. by Juan Gabriel Vásquez
10. by Carl Zimmer

Thank you, Claire and Theresa, for posting these! Interesting how Publisher's Weekly mixes in fiction and non-fiction into one top list. I must confess that I've only read ONE on that list whereas I've read three (and am into a fourth) on the Time Magazine list. However, the one I read (Educated) will make my personal top reads of the year - -no doubt.

On the Time list, I really liked Washington Black, but not sure I see it as a best book of the year type book . . .

I'm going to post the top 10 from Washington Post, also a mix of fiction and non fiction, here just to facilitate discussion. The other WP links (kindly posted by Theresa above) are for different genres and are also super fun to look at.

Good and Mad: The Revolutionary Power of Women's Anger

The Library Book

The Line Becomes A River: Dispatches from the Border

The Maze At Windemere

On Desperate Ground: The Marines at The Reservoir, the Korean War's Greatest Battle

One Person, No Vote: How Voter Suppression Is Destroying Our Democracy

The Overstory

A Place for Us

There There

Washington Black

I have only read Circe from the first list, and absolutely nothing from the rest. And yet I have 20 books competing for my top ten, and my top five has already been defined. Those five feel so obvious and incontrovertible to me, that its hard for me to imagine any of these others could compete. Its funny that tastes are so different. Or perhaps I am narrow. I spent some time in an Amazon Book Store yesterday, and I can see how much i think I am on top of everything that's popular. Well only in my genre's seemingly. I do plan to read a Place for Us in early winter.

PW has me with only one read, and it’s again Asymmetry.

I’m finding the mix of fiction and non-fiction disconcerting!

Please excuse my language and WARNING for those that take offense to cursing, but....

This fucking Mars Room book, I DO NOT get it!
It is so dull and adds no fresh perspective in regards to our criminal justice system and prison life / culture...

I've only read 3 from the Time Magazine list and one from the Washington Post list.

Anita wrote: "I'm going to post the top 10 from Washington Post, also a mix of fiction and non fiction, here just to facilitate discussion. The other WP links (kindly posted by Theresa above) are for different g..."
I've read 4 of those.

Another list, but a recap from the 2018 National Book Awards.

https://www.bustle.com/p/the-2018-nat...

New York Times Fiction

An American Marriage
Asymmetry
Cherry
Crudo
Early Work
Eternal Life
Everything Under
The Female Persuasion
Freshwater
Friday Black
The Friend
Go, Went, Gone
The Great Believers
The House of Broken Angels
Immigrant, Montana
Improvement
In Every Moment We Are Still Alive
The Kites
Kudos
Lake Success
The Largesse of the Sea Maiden
Last Stories
Macbeth
The Mars Room
Mirror, Shoulder, Signal
My Struggle: Book 6
My Year of Rest and Relaxation
The Neighborhood
The Odyssey (Emily Wilson translation)
Only to Sleep: A Philip Marlowe Novel
The Overstory
The Parking Lot Attendant
The Perfect Nanny
A Princess in Theory
Property: Stories Between Two Novellas
Pure Hollywood: And Other Stories
Sabrina
Severance
Slave Old Man
The Sparsholt Affair
Spinning Silver
A State of Freedom
There There
A View of the Empire at Sunset
Warlight
Washington Black
The Witch Elm
Your Duck Is My Duck: Stories

Guess they weren't much for winnowing it down . . .wish I had known that before I started typing it!

Anita wrote: "New York Times Fiction
I've read 7 and have 2 on my TBR

Read

Improvement
Go, Went, Gone
The Mars Room
The Overstory
There There
Warlight
Washington Black

TBR
Cherry -TBR
The Friend- TBR

Thank you for your hard work, Anita ;)

Macbeth, huh? Surprised to see that on there for some reason. I liked it, but I love Shakespeare and love to read Shakespeare adaptations though. It was cleverly done.

I've only read like 2 on the NYT list.

I have read Spinning Silver, and have The Friend on December pile.

Anita wrote: "New York Times Fiction

An American Marriage
Asymmetry
Cherry
Crudo
Early Work
Eternal Life
[book:Eve..."


I've only read two of these, but they will both make my top 10:

Warlight and Overstory

I’ve read The Mars Room and Educated from the combined lists. I have a couple of the others books and will be reading There, There for February bookclub.

I seem to have read very few from any list...not surprising since I tend not to read much other than fluff when it initially is published.

My count is none from either NYTimes or Publishers Weekly or the recast WP.

I read Circe from Time -thanks to buddy read here!

I have also read very few of these. Looking forward to what our PBT group has as their top 10 this year.

4 from the PW list.

6 off the NYT list, mostly care of the cross-over with the Booker longlist (and Meli, I am soooo with you on The Mars Room. I have a WTAF moment every time I see it on one of these ‘best ofs’ 😁).

I’ve read fifteen from the NYT list, and have about six others from it. Eight from the Time list. Three from the Washington Post. One from PW. I don’t usually read newer books as much as I have this year. But there have been so many good ones!

LibraryReads "Favorite of Favorites 2018" List

LibraryReads is a program where librarians pick the books. Publishers send out ARCs and librarians around the USA vote on their favorites each month. THIS list is the favorites among the 2018 monthly favorites. (Hope that made sense.)

Book Concierge wrote: "LibraryReads "Favorite of Favorites 2018" List

LibraryReads is a program where librarians pick the books. Publishers send out ARCs and librarians around the USA vote on their favorites each month...."

I don't see The Wedding Date appearing on many lists by my wife really enjoyed that read on our vacations this summer.

I've got The Immortalists, The Death of Mrs. Westaway (I think), and The Woman in the Window on my TBR.

i've read quite a few of these. Happy to see Rest and Relaxation making some lists, and I'm in the anti-Mars Room camp. I've got Windermere on my tbr and eager to read it ...someday.

here is New York Public Library: 10 Best Books of 2018

- If They Come for Us – Fatimah Asghar
- French Exit – Patrick deWitt
- Woman World – Aminder Dhaliwal
- Barracoon: The Story of the Last “Black Cargo” – Zora Neale Hurston
- Heart Berries – Terese Marie Mailhot
- I’ll Be Gone in the Dark: One Woman’s Obsessive Search for the Golden State Killer – Michelle McNamara
- Circe – Madeline Miller
- A State of Freedom – Neel Mukherjee
- Spinning Silver – Naomi Novik
- There There – Tommy Orange

and a website that collects lists...
their 2018 colllection is small at the moment but will keep on growing in the coming weeks

but here's 2017

Idit wrote: "here is New York Public Library: 10 Best Books of 2018

- If They Come for Us – Fatimah Asghar
- French Exit – Patrick deWitt
- Woman World – Aminder Dhaliwal
- Barracoon: The Story of the Last “Bl..."

Thanks so much for sharing this list, Idit! I just finished I'll Be Gone in the Dark . . .personally, I think there were some better non-fiction books out there this year, but I understand the appeal. Looks like There There is the book to read! It's on a lot of lists.

Anita wrote: "I just finished I'll Be Gone in the Dark . . .personally, I think there were some better non-fiction books out there this year, but I understand the appeal. "

Same.
I think the circumstances and timing really increased the appeal.
I think I gave it 3 stars. Loved the idea and that it was released mere months before he was caught, but since it was completely posthumously, it was really disjointed.

I think you are both right. The timing make it into a hot topic. Also the wave of true crime podcast adds to the hype and interest

Meli wrote: "Anita wrote: "I just finished I'll Be Gone in the Dark . . .personally, I think there were some better non-fiction books out there this year, but I understand the appeal. "

Same.
I think the circ..."

Yes, the timing was quite remarkable . . .also three stars for me, and I feel as though perhaps if Michelle had the chance to finish it and be the final editor that it would have been perhaps four stars. The pacing and organization just didn't seem quite right to me . . .

Idit wrote: "I think you are both right. The timing make it into a hot topic. Also the wave of true crime podcast adds to the hype and interest"

Definitely!
When he was caught, every podcast I listen to had a special episode to discuss it and of course each time McNamara's book was mentioned.

NPR's picks for 2018-FYI it is a long list(and the book you all love to hate Milkman is on this one too)

https://link.bookriot.com/click/15230...

Wow, what a massive list! I’ve read many but it has given me a lot more to investigate. Thanks Idit!

I always enjoy Npr's list.

NPR's list has a tag for "It's All Geek To Me." Might be helpful for those stuck on what to read in December.

Fab, Cora - great idea. Ooh there’s one on termites and robotics!!! Now that could be seriously cool

Time Magazine: 10 Best Non-Fiction Books

1. Bad Blood
2. Barracoon: The Story of the Last "Black Cargo"
3. Educated
4. The Order of Time
5. How to Write an Autobiographical Novel: Essays
6. These Truths: A History of the United States
7. Frederick Douglas by David W. Blight
8. All You Can Ever Know: A Memoir
9. Ninth Street Women: Lee Krasner, Elaine de Kooning, Grace Hartigan, Joan Mitchell, and Helen Frankenthaler: Five Painters and the Movement That Changed Modern Art
10. How Democracies Die: What History Reveals About Our Future

Kirkus best of 2018...

https://www.kirkusreviews.com/issue/b...

Amazon's best books of 2018 (as chosen by Amazon editors)

1. Educated
2. Washington Black
3. Indianapolis: The True Story of the Worst Sea Disaster in U.S. Naval History and the Fifty-Year Fight to Exonerate an Innocent Man
4. Elevation
5. The Line Becomes A River: Dispatches from the Border
6. The Woman in the Window
7. Once Upon a River
8. Children of Blood and Bone
9. Virgil Wander
10. There There
11. The Great Alone
12. Dopesick: Dealers, Doctors, and the Drug Company
that Addicted America
13. Wolves of Eden
14. My Year of Rest and Relaxation
15. Frederick Douglass: Prophet of Freedom
16. 21 Lessons for the 21st Century
17. The Witch Elm
18. Girls Burn Brighter
19. The Tattooist of Auschwitz
20. Bad Blood: Secrets and Lies in a Silicon Valley Startup

https://www.amazon.com/b?node=1727680...

Thank you so much, Anne, for creating all those links!!

Once upon a river is number seven! Duly noted...

An English take on the best books of 2018 as suggested by authors and critics.

https://www.standard.co.uk/lifestyle/...

I feel like I didn't really hear anything about Asymmetry and now it is on every list!

Meli wrote: "I feel like I didn't really hear anything about Asymmetry and now it is on every list!"

Maybe I should give it another chance. I started, then abandoned it over the summer.