Daily NYT Book Critics Picks of 2012
How often do the NYT daily book reviewers agree with their colleagues on the Sunday NYT Book Review?
Only about a third of the time, judging by the overlap between best books selections by the two publications.
Download our Excel files compiling the various Best Books lists here:
- 2012 — Adult Fiction Best Books Collated
- 2012 — Adult Nonfiction, Collated
- 2012 — Childrens Best Books Collated
The daily reviewers go their own way. Of the total 30 picks, 8 have not appeared on other Best Books lists we’ve been tracking (we don’t track all of them, focusing on the most influential consumer lists and those from library publications).
Critic Michiko Kakutani breaks ground by being the first to choose a self-published title as a best book, The Revolution Was Televised by hitflix.com’s TV critic Alan Sepinwall.
Michiko Kakutani’s 10 Favorite Books of 2012 — Unique picks:
The Idea Factory: Bell Labs And The Great Age Of American Innovation, by Jon Gertner (Penguin Press).
The Twelve Tribes Of Hattie, Ayana Mathis, (Alfred A. Knopf) — this is also the current Oprah pick.
The Revolution Was Televised: The Cops, Crooks, Slingers And Slayers Who Changed Tv Drama Forever, Alan Sepinwall, (self-pubbed under the nameWhat’s Alan Watching?)
Janet Maslin’s 10 Favorite Books of 2012 — Unique picks:
Ike’s Bluff: President Eisenhower’s Secret Battle To Save The World, Evan Thomas (Little, Brown)
Dwight Garner’s 10 Favorite Books of 2012 — Unique picks:
Poems 1962-2012, Louise Glück (Farrar, Straus & Giroux)
Fire In The Belly: The Life And Times Of David Wojnarowicz, Cynthia Carr (Bloomsbury).
In Praise Of Messy Lives: Essays, Katie Roiphe (Dial)
The Richard Burton Diaries , Edited By Chris Williams (Yale University Press)
Alien Vs. Predator: Poems, Michael Robbins