Best Books of 2011 Honor Roll: Narrative Nonfiction, How-To, and Art Books
Posted by: Neil Hollands
And finally, the last post of all on the best books of 2011! Here are the most frequently mentioned titles in best-of-the-year coverage in the categories of narrative nonfiction (excluding memoirs and biographies, which were featured earlier this week) and the catch-all of how-to, art, cooking, and crafts books.
The final version of the 2011 ABBC (All-the-Best-Books Compilation) is available for download as an Excel spreadsheet via Blogging for a Good Book at Williamsburg Regional Library. The spreadsheet lists 3328 titles published in 2011 in 11 genres and subject categories, each annotated to show which of 237 newspapers, magazines, awards, blogs, and other web sites named them a best book of 2011.
NARRATIVE NONFICTION
35 mentions Erik Larson In the Garden of Beasts: Love, Terror, and an American Family In Hitler’s Berlin
23 mentions John Jeremiah Sullivan Pulphead: Essays
Stephen Greenblatt The Swerve: How the World Became Modern
22 mentions James Gleick The Information: a History, a Theory, a Flood
21 mentions Susan Orlean Rin Tin Tin: the Life and Legend
20 mentions Michael Lewis Boomerang: Travels in the New Third World
Candice Millard Destiny of the Republic: a Tale of Madness, Medicine, and the Murder of a President
19 mentions Joshua Foer Moonwalking with Einstein: the Art and Science of Remembering Everything
18 mentions Christopher Hitchens Arguably: Essays
17 mentions Daniel Kahneman Thinking, Fast and Slow
16 mentions Mitchell Zuckoff Lost in Shangri-La: a True Story of Survival, Adventure, and the Most Incredible Rescue Missions of World War II
Jon Ronson The Psychopath Test: a Journey through the Madness Industry
Adam Hochschild To End All Wars: a Story of Loyalty and Rebellion, 1914-1918
15 mentions Simon Sebag Montefiore Jerusalem: the Biography
14 mentions David McCullough The Greater Journey: Americans in Paris
13 mentions Charles C. Mann 1493: Uncovering the New World Columbus Created
12 mentions Karl Marlantes What It Is Like to Go to War
11 mentions Steven Pinker The Better Angels of Our Natures: Why Violence Has Declined
Janet Reitman Inside Scientology: the Story of America’s Most Secretive Religion
10 mentions David Eagleman Incognito: the Secret Lives of the Brain
Amanda Foreman A World on Fire: Britain’s Crucial Role in the American Civil War
HOW-TO, ART, COOKING, and CRAFTS
9 mentions Yotam Ottolenghi Plenty: Vibrant Vegetable Recipes from London’s Ottolenghi
8 mentions Phaidon Press The Art Museum
David McMillan et al. The Art of Living According to Joe Beef: a Cookbook of Sorts
7 mentions Andrew Bolton Alexander McQueen: Savage Beauty
6 mentions Andrew Carmellini American Flavor
Mourad Lahlou Mourad: New Moroccan
Jennifer McLagan Odd Bits: How to Cook the Rest of the Animal
Annie Leibowitz Pilgrimage
5 mentions Brad Thomas Parson Bitters: a Spirited History for a Classic Cure-All
Jacques Pepin Essential Pepin
Ferran Adria The Family Meal: Home Cooking from Ferran Adrià
Paula Wolfert The Food of Morocco
Nathan Myhrhold et al. Modernist Cuisine: the Art and Science of Cooking
Michael Ruhlman Ruhlman’s Twenty: the Ideas and Techniques that Will Make You a Better Cook
April 23rd, 2012 at 8:53 am
I’d feel worse about not being included on this list if it weren’t for the fact that I count only 3 or 4 works of creative nonfiction on here, and that I’m excluded along with many of my favorite works of creative nonfiction from 2011, including Deborah Baker’s The Convert and Laura Redniss’ Radioactive, both finalists for the NBCC Award, Joe Sacco’s Footnotes in Gaza, Brook Wilensky-Lanford’s Paradise Lust, and many others. This list is illiterate: Hitchens, for all his vices and virtues, was not a writer of narrative nonfiction. Most of the rest of the list is popular history. Nothing wrong with that, but it’s sad to see a books publication sleight a major genre.
April 23rd, 2012 at 11:32 am
Mr. Sharlet, with due respect, you need to understand the nature of this list before you criticize. It’s a compilation of mentions for books in awards and best-of-the-year coverage, not opinions from Booklist. If it’s illiterate, that reflects the tastes of 237 different sources, not just Booklist. Your book was on the larger list, but the 2 mentions as a best-of-the-year that it received in the sources compiled were not enough to get it onto the honor roll, which as you can see required 10 mentions. Download the full Excel list through the link on the page and you can see where mentions were found for each of the titles you enjoyed.
As for the other books you mentioned, Laura Redniss’s Radioactive was on the graphic works list, with 7 mentions. The Convert with 6 mentions was close, but didn’t quite make it on the memoirs and biographies honor roll. Neither book was a finalist for the NBCC Awards, which can be found here. Paradise Lust had one mention on the narrative nonfiction list. Footnotes in Gaza was published back in 2009 and thus wasn’t eligible for this list.
April 24th, 2012 at 7:06 am
[...] Narrative Nonfiction Honor Roll Compiled by Book Buzz. [...]