Have you, like me, been binging on year-end best-of lists for the past two weeks? Have you, like me, made a New Years Resolution to stop putting so much stock in year-end best-of lists, having been put together by strangers and editorial boards that consistently give first, second, or third place to some of your biggest cultural disappointments of the year? (I’m looking at you, Ready Player One.) Have you, like me, decided to put together your own lists, gee-dee-it, based on your uniquely sensitive and highly-evolved cultural palate, or else your passing whimsy, or else the mind-bogglingly enormous list of book titles you have to sort through each week for your job? Sure you have! And if you haven’t, why don’t you take a look at mine? It’s the very first of my Weekly Superlatives, a potentially semi-regular feature I may be returning to on an occasional basis, depending on reactions from you—the viewer at home—and also on my tendency to forget completely about my New Years Resolutions by the middle of January.
Please: if you find the weekly Superlatives List that follows in any way inspiring, or provocative, or totally off-base, I’d love for you to cruise this week’s On-Sale Calendar (now with its own page!) and use the comments to award some superlatives of your own.
Superlatives List for the Week of January 9
Sentimental Favorite of the Week
More Room in a Broken Heart: The True Adventures of Carly Simon by Stephen Davis (Gotham)
Subtitle of the Week
Sealab: America’s Forgotten Quest to Live and Work on the Ocean Floor by Ben Hellwarth (Simon & Schuster)
Supertitle of the Week
Real Wifeys Get Money by Meesha Mink (Touchstone)
Best Book for Shaming the Writer in Your Life
Writer, M.D.: The Best Contemporary Fiction and Nonfiction by Doctors edited by Leah Kaminsky(Vintage)
Trend of the Week: Manners, Revised and Expanded
How to Be a Lady: A Contemporary Guide to Common Courtesy, Revised and Expanded by Candace Simpson-Giles (Thomas Nelson)
A Gentleman Entertains: A Guide to Making Memorable Occasions Happen, Revised and Expanded by John Bridges and Bryan Curtis (Thomas Nelson)
As a Lady Would Say: Responses to Life's Important (and Sometimes Awkward) Situations, Revised and Expanded by Sheryl Shade (Thomas Nelson)
As a Gentleman Would Say: Responses to Life's Important (And Sometimes Awkward) Situations, Revised and Expanded by John Bridges and Bryan Curtis (Thomas Nelson)
Indie Publisher I’m Just Now Hearing About For The First Time of the Week
Wyrm Publishing of Stirling, NJ (Myths of Origin: Four Short Novels by Catheryne M. Valente)
Non-Required List Reading of the Week
The Great Book of Nascar Lists by John Roberts (Running)
Most Likely to Be Bought, By MeChew: The Omnivore Edition, Vol. 2 by Rob Guillory (Image)
