Monday, December 17, 2012

The Best of the Best List: 2012 Critics’ Top Books


Dec 16, 2012 The Book Beast

We collect all the year-end best-of lists published by major critics and publications to find out which work wins the title of ‘the single best book of 2012.’

And the winners is… Bring Up the Bodies by Hilary Mantel. The winner for nonfiction is Behind the Beautiful Forevers by Katherin Boo. Here is our tally for all the books with at least three mentions in the best-of lists.
Books
Ursula Klawitter / Corbis
Fiction
1. Bring Up the Bodies by Hilary Mantel (14 mentions—our review)

2. Billy Lynn’s Long Halftime Walk by Ben Fountain (7 mentions—our review)
2. The Yellow Birds by Kevin Powers (7 mentions—our review)

4. NW by Zadie Smith (6 mentions—our review)
4. Canada by Richard Ford (6 mentions—our review and interview)
4. Dear Life by Alice Munro (6 mentions)

7. Arcadia by Lauren Groff (5 mentions—our review)
7. Building Stories by Chris Ware (5 mentions—our review)
7. Gone Girl by Gillian Flynn (5 mentions—our interview)
7. The Round House by Louise Erdrich (5 mentions—our interview)

11. At Last by Edward St. Aubyn (4 mentions—our review)
11. The Fault In Our Stars by John Green (4 mentions)
11. This Is How You Lose Her by Junot Díaz (4 mentions—our review)
11. Where’d You Go, Bernadette by Maria Semple (4 mentions—our review)

15. Beautiful Ruins by Jess Walter (3 mentions)
15. Object Lessons edited by Lorin Stein and Sadie Stein (3 mentions—our excerpt)

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