Never Too Early
Amazon just released their list of the Best Books of 2010.
That is, the Best of 2010…So Far.
It consists of four lists; the overall Editors’ Top Ten, plus the top ten in Fiction, Nonfiction, and Kids and Teens, of the books published from January through June.
Many on the Editor’s Top Ten list are already familiar titles (The Passage leads the pack), but there are some unexpected picks. The one with the lowest Amazon sale ranking is Country Driving, which is described by the editors this way,
Peter Hessler has observed the past 15 years of change in China with the patience and perspective–and necessary good humor–of an outsider who expects to be there for a while. He takes to the roads, as so many Chinese are doing now for the first time, driving on dirt tracks to the desert edges of the ancient empire and on brand-new highways to the mushrooming factory towns of the globalized boom. He’s an utterly enjoyable guide, with a humane and empathetic eye for the ambitions, the failures, and the comedy of a country in which everybody, it seems, is on the move.
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July 9th, 2010 at 3:35 pm
Anyone know why SHIP BREAKER by Paolo Bacigalupi is on the Fiction list and not the Kids and Teens list? It’s a terrific read but it’s a teen book.
July 9th, 2010 at 9:25 pm
yes, I agree that “country driving” is an excellent glimpse of the realities of today’s China. It has a firsthand freshness that is engaging- the reader ends up learning important things painlessly.
July 10th, 2010 at 9:31 am
I know what you mean, Sharon, but it was such an incredible read, I am almost frustrated that it is being marketed as YA- it was a wonderful dystopian novel that in many ways read as more ‘adult’ (whatever that means) than The Passage! :)