World Book Night asked people to nominate their top ten books to create a list that would feed into the selection of next year’s titles to be given away. Here is the list, usual rules apply.

1 To Kill a Mockingbird Harper Lee
2 Pride and Prejudice Jane Austen
3 The Book Thief Markus Zusak
4 Jane Eyre Charlotte Bronte
5 ( Read more... )

Poll

#29 Swords & Dark Magic, edited by Jonathan Strahan and Lou Anders

Read for review for SF Site.

#30 By George by Wesley Stace

Recommended by ajr as his book of 2009. My wife got about half way through before putting it down as boring but I'm not sure what her problem was. It is a family mystery told by characters from two different generations, one ( Read more... )

Books: March - July

Oh man, I have fallen so far behind.

#15 Pig Tales by Marie Darrieussecq (translated by Linda Coverdale)

A modern version of Candide and that is high praise indeed.

#16 The Magus by John Fowles

I think perhaps I was too old for this but I still loved it. More Fowles for me in the near future.

#17 The Hundred Thousand ( Read more... )

Poll

I am taking a leaf out of coalescent's book and doing these on a monthly basis now. Films listed here.

#1 The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins

I devoured this in a day. However, as well as being highly readable, it is also highly manipulative. I recommend this piece by Abigail Nussbaum which compares the novel to The Knife Of Never Letting Go by Patrick ( Read more... )

#1 Doctors & Nurses by Lucy Ellman
#2 The Astonishing Life of Octavian Nothing, Traitor to the Nation, Volume II: The Kingdom on the Waves by MT Anderson
#3 Journey Into Space by Toby Litt
#4 The Final Solution by Michael Chabon
#5 Astrotruckers by Mikael Niemi (translated by Laurie Thompson)
#6 You Don't Love Me Yet by Jonathan Lethem
#7 Fools' ( Read more... )

The final two of the year...

#60 The Rapture by Liz Jensen

Read for review for Strange Horizons.

#61 Witpunk, edited by Claude Lalumière and Marty Halpern

Discussed here. Dire.

My winners and losers of the year are up on my blog.

#56 Sex In The System, edited by Cecilia Tan

(Belatedly) read for review for SF Site. Discussion of the individual stories here.

#57 The Apple by Michel Faber

This is a sort of rarities and B-sides collection to accompany The Crimson Petal And The White. I've often been curious about such a thing and Crimson is the kind of novel which deserves ( Read more... )

Despite reading The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo (literal translation of the title: Men Who Hate Women) years after everyone else, it appears that it was actually a timely choice. The Guardian picks up on a short post by Jessica Mann:Authors must be free to write and publishers to publish. But critics must be free to say they have had enough. So ( Read more... )