New York Times Most Notable Books

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NYT Critics' Picks

The New York Times lists of top ten books from their book critics and reviewers, and the Times' Book Review's List of 2010 Notable Books.

A special congratulations to Lee Child and Tana French, Crime Fiction Writers who made the list this year.  You do us all proud. 

From Michiko Kakutani:

Nonfiction

LIFE by Keith Richards with James Fox

CLEOPATRA: A LIFE by Stacy Schiff

LETTERS by Saul Bellow. Edited by Benjamin Taylor

FRANK: THE VOICE by James Kaplan

CRISIS ECONOMICS: A CRASH COURSE IN THE FUTURE OF FINANCE by Nouriel Roubini and Stephen Mihm

YOU ARE NOT A GADGET: A MANIFESTO by Jaron Lanier

Fiction

SUPER SAD TRUE LOVE STORY by Gary Shteyngart

FREEDOM by Jonathan Franzen

THE LOST BOOKS OF THE ODYSSEY by Zachary Mason

THE THOUSAND AUTUMNS OF JACOB DE ZOET by David Mitchell

From Janet Maslin:

Nonfiction

JUST KIDS by Patti Smith

A GREAT UNRECORDED HISTORY: A NEW LIFE OF E. M. FORSTER by Wendy Moffat

FIFTH AVENUE, 5. A.M.: AUDREY HEPBURN, BREAKFAST AT TIFFANY'S, AND THE DAWN OF THE MODERN WOMAN by Sam Wasson

THE WARMTH OF OTHER SUNS: THE EPIC STORY OF AMERICA'S GREAT MIGRATION by Isabel Wilkerson

THE DEATH OF AMERICAN VIRTUE: CLINTON VS. STARR by Ken Gormley

Fiction

THE IMPERFECTIONISTS by Tom Rachman

SAVAGES by Don Winslow

FAITHFUL PLACE by Tana French

61 HOURS by Lee Child

MAJOR PETTIGREW'S LAST STAND by Helen Simonson

From Dwight Garner:

Poetry

THE BEST OF IT: NEW AND SELECTED POEMS by Kay Ryan

Nonfiction

HITCH-22: A MEMOIR by Christopher Hitchens

THE IMMORTAL LIFE OF HENRIETTA LACKS by Rebecca Skloot

SIMON WIESENTHAL: THE LIFE AND LEGENDS by Tom Segev

MOURNING DIARY by Roland Barthes

THE LAST HERO: A LIFE OF HENRY AARON by Howard Bryant

I.O.U.: WHY EVERYONE OWES EVERYONE AND NO ONE CAN PAY by John Lanchester

THE POSSESSED: ADVENTURES WITH RUSSIAN BOOKS AND THE PEOPLE WHO READ THEM by Elif Batuman

OPERATION MINCEMEAT: HOW A DEAD MAN AND A BIZARRE PLAN FOOLED THE NAZIS AND ASSURED AN ALLIED VICTORY by Ben Macintyre

PARISIANS: AN ADVENTURE HISTORY OF PARIS by Graham Robb.

Dwight Garner's Books

Most Notable Books  

Who's That Hiding Behind the Foster Grants?

Is it Iphegenia in Brooklyn? No! It's Grapeshot in Florida at the Sleuthfest Mystery Conference. What a fun way to spend a few days with mystery and mayhem and seafood dinners and good company.

http://www.mwa-florida.org/sleuthfest.htm

Lee Child is always a great guest of honor, accessible and fun and what a raconteur! He dispenses good writing advice as well. The writing team of PJ Parrish gave a great seminar, and the editors and agents were awesome, friendly, too.

Mystery writers are such wholesome types because they kill on paper and hence have fewer

"issues."

Onward. Lots of writing to do. I always come home "all fired up." Then there's the laundry, shopping, mail, etc. to deal with, but before the mood leaves, must write!

Today is cat blog day. Of course we've had to dispense extra affection after being away almost a week. Thisbe and Annie have settled down to the business of being spoiled companions of the feline persuasion again. Catnip has been offered generously, the old "smoking the peace pipe" routine.

Off to write.

Series Versus Standalone Part II

Location. Location. Location. If you've been writing a series, the setting is probably fixed, with a few forays per book into new places, but you know where your character hangs out--think Stephanie Plum's New Jersey with the office and her apartment and her parents place; think Evanovich in St. Teresa with the garage apartment, the Hungarian restaurant and Henry's kitchen. Spenser's Boston. Of course Jack Reacher has no place to hang his hat.

But normally in a series, the characters and the setting are familiar, at least for a portion of the book. You can describe the places your character hangs out in your sleep, and if he or she moseys somewhere else, well, you can just go there and do your own research. Maybe she eats at a nice restaurant. Hey,you could try out the menu offerings, too.

But in a stand alone novel, not only are the characters new, but so are the places. 1928 California! They're tearing down those old houses as we write. So much has been lost. Yet one wants authentic details. This is hard work, she whined. Grapeshot does a lot of whining when she's not sucking it up, and chances are, she's whining then, too. For shame!

So I have a trip to California planned, hoping that some of 1928 remains. That's when the Los Angeles City Hall was completed. They are still a few little places and some houses left. We thank the heavens for historical societies and photographs and the web. Images of old Mexicali are scarcer than hen's teeth. One will have to dig.

So, onward into the past. I hope you have saved all the old family photo albums. Did you know you can sell slide collections on EBAY? It's a piece of history, and so much the better if you have Disneyland, Yellowstone and Coney Island. Who would have thunk.

Wondering,

Grapeshot