Amazon.com has revealed its choices for the best books of 2011, with The Art of Fielding – Chad Harbach’s debut novel – topping the list. “Well-known authors like Haruki Murakami and Jeffrey Eugenides really delivered this year, but 2011 was also a time for notable debuts,” stated Chris Schluep, Senior Editor of Books at Amazon.com, in the press release announcing their picks for the best of 2011. “There are three first-time novelists among our top 10 picks, led by our choice of Chad Harbach’s The Art of Fielding as Best Book of the Year. We welcome the opportunity to introduce our customers to voices that will entertain and inform for years to come, and with choices from literary masterworks to genre fiction to nonfiction, there’s something for everyone.”
Amazon’s Top 10 Editors’ Picks of the Year:
1. The Art of Fielding by Chad Harbach: The Art of Fielding is the veritable baseball book that’s actually about much more than baseball, and it’s on par with the work of Bernard Malamud and David James Duncan. It’s rare to see a debut so confident, intimate, unpredictable and wholly memorable.
2. 1Q84 by Haruki Murakami: Murakami has created a sensation: a nearly 950-page novel that is ordered and scrupulous, and reads like a meditation. 1Q84 is the story of two people living in parallel, who we know must meet each other eventually, and their twisting arcs drive this magnum opus by one of the world’s finest novelists.
3. What It Is Like to Go to War by Karl Marlantes: The veteran marine and best-selling author of Matterhorn draws on his brutal experiences in foreign jungles to look at the nature of combat with unflinching honesty. Balancing novelistic descriptions of fear, power games and courage with a thoughtful prescription for our soldiers’ well being, Marlantes lifts the bar for understanding the experience of war.
4. In the Garden of Beasts by Erik Larsen: Master storyteller Larsen describes the life of America’s first and only ambassador to Nazi Germany, along with the scandalous adventures of the ambassador’s carefree daughter. In the Garden of the Beasts is an historical portrait that is as entertaining as it is important, and it reads like the best of political thrillers.
5. The Marriage Plot by Jeffrey Eugenides: Eugenides’ third novel, and his first after the Pulitzer Prize-winning Middlesex, describes the lives of three college seniors at Brown in the early 1980s. It is a thoughtful, and at times disarming, novel about life, love and discovery, set during a time when so much of life seemed filled with deep portent.
6. Daughter of Smoke and Bone by Laini Taylor: With this young adult novel, National Book Award finalist Taylor has created a magical world that will sweep up even the most jaded of readers. The story of 17-year-old Kalou is an enchanting tale of magic, star-crossed love and difficult choices with heartbreaking repercussions that could make it the next hot YA sensation.
7. Before I Go to Sleep by S.J. Watson: Suspenseful from start to finish, Watson’s Before I Go to Sleep — the story of Christine, who wakes up every day not knowing who she is — presents profound questions about identity and is one of the best literary thrillers of the past few years. Compelling, immersive and chilling.
8. Steve Jobs by Walter Isaacson: Few in history have transformed their time like Steve Jobs has. In this timely book, Isaacson paints a vivid, compelling portrait that pulls no punches — the end result is satisfying, complete, and gives insight into a man who managed to turn his contradictions into potent strengths.
9. Lost in Shangri-La by Michael Zuckoff: A riveting story of survival and deliverance from a notorious valley in the New Guinea jungle, Zuckoff’s Lost in Shangri-La deserves its place among the great survival stories of World War II.
10. The Tiger’s Wife by Téa Obreht: Croatian native Obreht tells the story of a young doctor seeking answers around her grandfather’s death, delving into a land of storytelling, mythology, and conflict in her extraordinary debut.
For more of Amazon’s best books of the year, visit www.amazon.com/bestbooks2011
Source: Amazon.com – November 8, 2011
