Are you in the market for some holiday reading? Or looking for books to give the reader in your family? Look no further!

Publisher’s Marketplace put together best books of 2008 lists from Amazon.com (their top 25), the Boston Globe, the Christian Science Monitor, the Los Angeles Times, New York Magazine, the New York Times, the National Book Awards finalists, PW, Salon, Time magazine, the Washington Post, plus lists from critics Michiko Kakutani and Janet Maslin to determine the consensus picks from among all the lists (numbers in parenthesis correspond to how many best-of lists the book is on, hence the ties):



Fiction

1. 2666, by Roberto Bolano (Translated by Natasha Wimmer) (8)

2. Netherland, by Joseph O’Neill (6)


3. A Mercy, by Toni Morrison (5)


4. When Will There Be Good News?, by Kate Atkinson (5)


- Lush Life, by Richard Price (5)


- The Likeness, by Tana French (5)


7. Home, by Marilynne Robinson (4)


- The Story of Edgar Sawtelle, by David Wroblewski (4)


- Unaccustomed Earth, by Jhumpa Lahiri (4)


10. Serena, by Ron Rash (4)



Nonfiction


1. The Forever War, by Dexter Filkins (6)


2. This Republic of Suffering, by Drew Gilpin Faust (5)


- The Hemingses of Monticello, by Annette Gordon-Reed (5)


4. The Suicide Index: Putting My Father’s Death in Order, by Joan Wickersham (4)


- The Dark Side: The Inside Story of How the War on Terror Turned into a War on American Ideals, by Jane Mayer (4)


- The Ten-Cent Plague: The Great Comic-Book Scare and How It Changed America, by David Hajdu (4)


- Pictures at a Revolution: Five Movies and the Birth of the New Hollywood, by Mark Harris (4) 



Some interesting facts from Publisher’s Marketplace about the above titles: 


- Aside from Edgar Sawtelle, the only other title on the two lists above to hit No. 1 on a NYT bestseller list was Jhumpa Lahiri’s Unaccustomed Earth.
- The only two titles that didn’t at least appear for one week on an NYT extended bestseller list are The Hemingses of Monticello and The Suicide Index (this did not appear on any of the nat’l or regional bestseller lists tracked by PM).

- Of these 17 titles, only 4 of the 10 fiction titles and 3 of the 7 nonfiction titles were in the top 10 of an NYT bestseller list for at least one week.

Happy Holiday Reading (and Shopping)!

Do you have a future best-seller brewing in your brain? Why not send a query to Jhumpa Lahiri’s agents at Janklow & Nesbit Associates? They’ve gotten best-sellers published (many times) and maybe yours is next! Good luck and Happy Holidays from your fans at WordHustler!

Ever since our President-Elect’s highly-rated appearance on 60 MINUTES last week, the publishing industry has been in a tizzy. No, not because Barack mentioned that he’s writing another book. The fuss is about another book Barack mentioned: “a new book out about F.D.R.’s first 100 days.” A smart, provocative man mentions a smart, provocative book he’s just read about another world leader who he’s constantly being compared to? What is it?!?! Who wrote it?!?!

That’s the rub. Obama didn’t mention the title or the author. Hence the tizzy in the publishing industry. In the days following the 60 Minutes mention, several books have stepped forward, each claiming to be the one Obama mentioned. The mystery has resulted in increased book sales for many FDR books. The New York Times reports that the answer, fittingly, has a twist worthy of the best mystery stories: it wasn’t just one book Obama was referencing. It was two. The winning tomes are Jonathan Alter’s “The Defining Moment: F.D.R’s Hundred Days and the Triumph of Hope” AND “FDR” by Jean Edward Smith.

Is this riddle’s resolution surprising? Not really, when you remember that politics, like a good mystery plot, never has a simple answer.

Read the full article HERE.

Do you have a brilliant biography destined to be mentioned by a world leader and sought after by the world’s readers? Why not submit it to Bancroft Press? They’re looking for biographies, you’re looking to get published, and WordHustler is looking to help. It’s perfect!

Amit Chatwani, a 26-year-old author and blogger, either has the best or worst timing in publishing history. Maybe a little of both. Writer of the popular Wall Street blog Leveragedsellout.com, just published a satirical book entitled “Damn It Feels Good to be a Banker.” Does it NOW, though?

The New York Times reports that Mr. Chatwani wrote the book “a sort of fake how-to guide to understand and join the realm of young investment bankers, as if written by a young investment banker.” But now that banking (and all sorts of other financial institutions) are heading the way of dot.coms in the early 1990s, will this book be thought of as a joke or a bad investment?

Chatwani says he hopes “Damn It Feels Good” will one day be seen as the book that crystalized the moment right before the crash. Or the last hurrah in a bankrupt time…

To read the whole article, go HERE.

Do you have a memoir of sorts (hopefully about a culture that’s NOT imploding) you’d like to share with readers everywhere? Why not enter the New Rivers Press MVP Competition? They’re looking to award the winning memoir a prize of $1000. Now that’s a WordHustler-inspired thought that doesn’t break the bank…

This new wave of thinking means that Hollywood development deals would now be included in the publishing deal, instead of waiting until after the book has been published. Who knows if this film-oriented end goal will muddy the publication process, or bring it to a higher level? Only time (and some well-paid marketing/PR gurus) will be able to tell….

Read the entire article HERE.

Do you have a YA book that’s ripe for publishing (and the cineplex)? Why not send a query letter to Farrar, Straus & Giroux Books for Young Readers? The sooner you send your work out, the sooner you’ll be going straight from your book signing to your premiere. WordHustler wants to help you get a big ol’ piece of the success pie.

The Wall Street Journal has got the scoop on a paperboy, er, man, who’s been taking the New York Times for a ride. Michael Holtet, a 50-year-old Wisconsin man, has been arrested in connection with a scheme he concocted in which he embezzled over $220,000 from the New York Times. It seems Holtet, a newspaper deliveryman, decided to invent thousands of alleged NY Times subscribers, pocketing the money the paper paid him to deliver it each day and recycling all of the superfluous newspapers. Holtet faces up to 20 years in prison.

But hey, at least he recycled the papers…

Read the full story HERE.

Do you have a tale of a conniving bandit that would entertain the masses (though not actually defraud them)? Why not use WordHustler to submit your well-plotted short story to the Southern California Review Fiction Prize? Keep the espionage on the page and it may pay off well in real life.

There were gathered outside in the moonlight, pale faces poking out from underneath dark hoods. The clock was about to strike midnight as the thirsting hoard pushed forwards, long-taloned hands reaching out greedily, trying to grab something just out of reach. Their kohl-rimmed eyes were determined as they licked the crimson, still-wet specks of blood in the corners of their mouths.

Okay, it wasn’t real blood. But last Friday night bookstores around the country really did experience a rush of rabid fans, mostly teenaged girls, who lined up at the strike of midnight to celebrate with vampire-esque joy the release of “Breaking Dawn,” Stephanie Meyer’s fourth installment to her “Twilight” series. The New York Times attended some of these gruesome celebrations and has the full report on this YA series’ ability to draw fans from every walk of life. “Twilight” has just been adapted into a much-buzzed about movie that will be hitting theaters soon, so even more vampire-lovers can get sucked in.

Read the whole article HERE.

Do you have a horror screenplay that contest judges will sink their teeth into? Why not submit your script to the Terror Film Festival? The deadline is August 24^th so you’ll need to pull some graveyard shifts to finish your masterpiece. Don’t worry, WordHustler promises it’ll be bloody worth it.