Katherine Boo

The Books That Made the Most ‘Best Of 2012′ Book Lists

December means a lot of things. Our normally latent shopping gene starts itching like crazy, mint-flavored coffee starts sounding like a good idea, and every single media outlet (ourselves included) puts up their “best of” everything lists. Well, ’tis the season. In an effort to distill all those year’s end book round-ups — and let’s face it, be a little meta — we looked at 16 lists from 14 media organizations and counted up the books that tickled the most critics this year. Turns out, they had quite a few differing opinions — on those 16 lists alone, we noted more than 150 unique titles — but also agreed across the board on a few knock-outs. After the jump, feast your eyes on the most popular books of the 2012 best book list season — and let us know if you agree with consensus or think the world’s gone mad in the comments. … Read More

2012 National Book Award Winners Announced

Last night, the 2012 National Book Award winners were announced, laying to rest all the heated speculation that has cropped up since the announcement of the finalists last month. Though the nominees frequently include a mix of well-established authors and newer names, this year’s competition was abnormally tough, including big-name authors like Junot Díaz and Dave Eggers on the fiction list and four (out of five!) Pulitzer prize-winners on the nonfiction list. Whew. All in all though, we’re pretty happy with the results. Click through to find out the winners, and let us know which of these you’re most excited for (or whether you disagree with the judges’ decisions) in the comments. … Read More