Wednesday, December 4, 2013

The Best Lists of the Best Books of 2013

We here at Reading Envy just love a good list, and starting December 1, lists of the best books of 2013 start appearing.  This is your one-stop shop for those lists, and this post will be updated as the days go by.  And since you might need something to listen to to accompany all your new reads, check out the Count Me Out's Top 50 Albums of 2013.  He's one of my favorite music blogs, and I love his pick for #1.

Amazon.com's Best Books of 2013 List
Beware, I'm pretty sure they'll try to sell you something.  This is a longer list, of 100 books. You can also view a kids list.

Book Riot's Best of 2013 List

Brain Pickings Top 13 Books of 2013
They describe their post as "Soul-stirring, brain-expanding reads on intuition, love, grief, attention, education, and the meaning of life."

Fiction Advocate: Books That Mattered in 2013
A list of laudable books by women in 2013. 

The Globe Books 100: The Best Canadian Fiction
We shouldn't forget our neighbors to the north!  Thanks to Robyn for the link.

GoodReads Choice Awards 2013
While GoodReads creates the original pool,  users vote on and select winners for several categories.  Margaret Atwood won best sci-fi for MaddAddam, so I will give that the ironic award of the year (she refuses to call it science fiction.)

The Guardian: Writers and Critics on the Best Books of 2013
I love this list.  Adichie picked Five Star Billionaire, one of my favorites from this year, and Jonathan Franzen makes me want to read about nuclear power.  Thanks to Robyn for this one too!

Huffington Post Best Books of 2013
Two of the book editors make their recommendations, and remind me that I really want to read that Scientology book. 

NPR Best Books of 2013
This is a bit of a farce, they are wanting to try their exploration machine based on their recommendations for the year, but that's still somewhat of a list!

NY Times - The 10 Best Books of 2013
I've read 3/10 this year. They have just as many non-fiction as fiction titles for the best of the best, but if that isn't enough, they did have a list of 100 Notable Books of 2013.

Paul Weimer's Personal List - the Best of 2013
I definitely hadn't heard of some of the books on this list!

Publishers Weekly Best Books of 2013
A very concise, highly selective list.  The one book from it that I've read will be on my best books of 2013 list, so I feel like this is a good indicator of quality overall.

Slate Staff Picks 
They also have lists for best first lines, best poetry, best overlooked books, and will eventually narrow down to a top 10.
 
Tor.com - Reviewers' Choice 2013
Interesting picks from their most active reviewers, very eclectic even within science fiction and fantasy.

Have a favorite best-of list?  Leave it in the comments and I'll add it.

2 comments:

  1. ever since falling in love with "the sisters brothers" by patrick dewitt, i have followed the candian author lists. here's the globe's list of 100:
    http://www.theglobeandmail.com/arts/books-and-media/globe-100-best-canadian-fiction/article15566945/

    i also read the UK book reviews, and i love it when authors talk about their favorite books of the year. here's a list from the guardian: http://www.theguardian.com/books/2013/nov/23/mantel-franzen-catton-writers-critics-best-books-2013. barbara kingsolver loved "the golem and the jinni" by helene wicker, which was my favorite of the year. i feel special!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Thanks Robyn, I definitely didn't have the Canadians represented yet.

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