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!

Forbes Magazine has published their annual list of the “World’s Most Powerful Celebrities” and guess who tops the list? I’ll give you a hint: her name rhymes with Moprah. In related news, Angelina Jolie was #3 on the power list, while signif-other Brad Pitt slid in at #10. That’s gonna be awkward around the mansion…

To read more about Brangelina, Oprah, Miley, and Heidi, click HERE.

Do you have a powerful article Forbes should know about? Why don’t you submit an awe-inducing query letter to Forbes Magazine today? WordHustler wants to help get you published…and eventually on that Top 100 List.

Where have all the literary critics gone? After Oprah’s Book Club, customer comments, and celebrity talking heads, is there no room for a professional critic?

Read the whole article on Salon.com HERE. 

Are you a budding critic? Why not write a book review for a prestigious publication like American Book Review? The magazine specializes in reviewing books published by independent presses. Perfect for a WordHustler like you!