Publishers Weekly is having a meaningless poll to pick the best book of 2011. I think the choice in this list is kind of obvious — everyone else can chime in with your preferences.
Vote for the best book of 2011
Arguably: Essays by Christopher Hitchens 34.67%
Other: 17.59%
After the Apocalypse by Maureen McHugh 16.08%
Bossypants by Tina Fey 9.05%
State of Wonder by Ann Patchett 8.54%
The Devil All the Time by Donald Ray Pollock 5.03%
The Marriage Plot by Jeffrey Eugenides 4.52%
There but for the by Ali Smith 2.01%
Catherine the Great by Robert K. Massie 1.51%
One Day I Will Write About This Place by Binyavanga Wainaina 1.01%
Hemingway’s Boat by Paul Hendrickson 0%
Is he into that?
Glen Davidson
I voted — and in good conscience, too, because I bought the book and have read much of it. A very good book indeed.
You’re a Tina Fey fan as well? Because that’s who I’m voting for.
Since I’ve only read two of the books on the list, I cannot in good conscience vote. However, having said that, I recommend Massie’s book on Catherine the Great. It’s well researched and well written.
Apparently neither of you have heard the aphorism that “if you don’t vote, you can’t complain”.
Somehow I feel democracy would be better served if people took your attitude, though I wonder where that would leave the Rock The Voters, who think everything that’s ever gone wrong ever is the fault of voter apathy as measured by voter turnout.
Will everyone vote for my book when it comes out next year? The Pharynguloid hordes might actually force my publisher into a second printing! (The mind reels.)
Vote? Hell, I might even buy it.
Yow, Brownian! Are you sure you want to go that crazy? (Publication date is currently set for July 1, 2012. Holding one’s breath not recommended.)
I’m part way through Hitchens book. Thank god my reader has a dictionary.
Arguably: Not available for Kindle, but is for Nook. Yay. Purchased.
Why? Is it going to be insanely expensive or something? Made from the skin of Pete Rooke’s loved one?
Or is it a book about math? Because I like books about math.
Phew. Thanks for warning me. The longest I’ve ever held my breath was two minutes and fifteen seconds, but I had the benefit of having already sat through most of a class in comparative European politics and was in that sort of state of low oxygen need that victims of hypothermia often experience.
I haven’t read Hitchens book, plus his book was already at 84%, so I had to maintain my ethical standards and write in my own book.
I’m a big booster of Small Beer Press, the small publisher behind “After the Apocalypse.” It’s on its way to my house right now, in the mail, I hope. I wish it had arrived today.
I can’t Pharyngulate Hitchens.. he doesn’t need the help as much. I don’t know which of the candidates is really the best book of the year- the only other book on that list I’ve read is “State of Wonder,” which kicked ass- but I’m voting my loyalty.
Small Beer! W00t!
i don’t know if i can vote. they didn’t include the bible. or Principia Discordia.
Zeno
Is “Zeno” the author of your book?
I am shocked – shocked! – to find that “The Complete Homeopathic Guide to Fighting Cancer and Herpes” didn’t make the shortlist!
I think Hitchens has had enough help. His book is the only one of the list that we actually have.
“Someday I will write about this” sounds interesting.
Just to be clear, you did want us to vote for Hemingway’s Boat, right?
Nope. It will appear under my real name, thereby “outing” me in the spring.
My publisher says it will list for $19.95, so it won’t be outrageously expensive. I’ve asked the managing editor if there’ll be a Kindle edition. No answer yet. It’s a novel about a contentious family and scheming by people who are not as smart as they think they are.
Brownian: I also have an unpublished math ms. It’s about calculus!
I see SF/Fantasy literature is, as always, well-represented… or not. The Wise Man’s Fear by Pat Rothfuss, anyone?
That poll is so totally Pharyngulated now, I think they’ll suspect something is up.
Looking forward to Zeno’s book – hopefully a Kindle edition (keep asking!) – but would have also like to see Max Barry’s Machine Man on a list of must-reads.
Just sayin’
I haven’t read any of these. I’m poor now (T_T), so I’m on waiting lists at the library for a lot of recent books. I hadn’t heard of One Day I’ll be Writing about This, so now I’ll have to add that to my lengthy request queue. Who knows. Maybe I’ll be the only one who’s ever asked for it at the library!
Well I might have voted for Arguably if I had read it (I just ordered it.) I have read Bossypants and I really enjoyed it… so that’s how I voted.
The worst thing that’s happened to the United States in the past decade was invading Iraq and Afghanistan and all the torture, drone action and national security state lockdowns they entailed. Hitchens was one of the major cheerleaders for this, which overshadows any service he has performed in support of atheism, his main attraction for visitors to this site. He represents a big net loss to the forces of enlightenment.
re: Kindle & Nook, etc.
Download the great free software Calibre.
Lets you convert ebook formats, so you can take epuds (which kindle doesn’t like (and with one click turn them into mobis which it does, etc.
It “knows” what your reader is, and converts everything with that model in mind – formatting, etc.
We are the 92%.
Well, considering that most people who dislike Hitchens for his anti-religious views probably don’t consider his opinions on anything valuable, I don’t see that his Iraq War opinions had much of an impact on anyone else’s opinions. I don’t see how you can claim he was a “major” cheerleader for this. I read just about everything Hitchens writes, and I am confident in saying that his good ideas vastly overshadow his mediocre ideas.
And even then, when he’s discussing the Iraq War, he is still pushing rational thought. His reasons for supporting it are more valid than anyone else I’ve heard supporting it.
The choice in this list is kind of obvious, given the number of SF enthusiasts in the community: Maureen McHugh. Show celebs like Fey and Hitchens that they can’t rely on their myrmidons for an easy win.
Yeah, I’d agree that there were scores of cheerleaders for those policies and Hitchens’s only distinction is that his accent lends an air of respectability to them for those who are into such things. I mean, he does the bellicosity and imperialist disninformation thing very well, but you know what? Other people do it better. And he does the athiest polemic thing very well, and you know what? Nobody alive does it better.
¡Caray! That’s so interesting. But tell me, have you read any of those books listed, or did you vote for any of them? Maybe you just came here to have a swipe at Hitchens on his stance on those wars which you appear to know little about.
Is this the same Christoper Hitchens that penned this essay?
http://www.slate.com/articles/news_and_politics/fighting_words/2011/11/herman_cain_hamid_karzai_and_the_importance_of_being_honest_.html
And if so, why are we, as feminists, in favor of his writings?
Regarding Bossypants, sex worker blog Tits and Sass has thoroughly documented Tina Fey’s mean-spirited and misogyny-perpetuating contempt for sex workers, including examples from the book.
I voted for One Day I Will Write About This Place by Binyavanga Wainaina, an excellent book. For more info: rave review and excerpt in the Times. (I stopped being impressed by Hitchens circa his article on the “Ebonics” controversy.)
Because 1 or 2 articles where he gets it wrong is enough to invalidate his entire life’s work?
Or is it because anyone who even hints at any ill towards women is automatically evil?
I’m all for feminism, but we can’t expect everyone to be an expert on the topic.
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