What a wonderful list! Bravo!

It may be a great list but none of the links work :-(

Some of the links do work. Of course, those that I first wanted to read, didn't. So I read the others and they were, as the first comment says, great.

Small correction: To the End of the Land does not encompass the 2006 Lebanon war. It takes place in 2003 during an army operation in the occupied territories. Perhaps the confusion might stem from the fact that the book was partly written after Grossman's own son died in the 2006 Lebanon War.

Five women in 42 or so names? Just out of curiosity, were there any females on your selection committee?

Teach me not to draw general conclusions from a small sample! The first 3 I tried all failed.

Sirs,

I would like to add Ken Follett's "Fall of Giants" to your fiction section.

I have never read an author as....captivating as Ken Follett. His ingenious, candid & bare-knuckle crafting and molding of the complex dynamics inherent in human relations is both educative and thrilling - a perfect mixture.

I've read all his books and will continue to do so!

Sensational and discriminating list, simply amazing.

Now why would people, in this Advent season, be critical about so few women appearing on the list, or complain about links that do not work... For Pete's sake, this is a gift to us readers.

Dr. J.C. Paquin Vancouver British Columbia paquinjc63@yahoo.co.uk

Sensational and discriminating list, simply amazing.

Now why would people, in this Advent season, be critical about so few women appearing on the list, or complain about links that do not work... For Pete's sake, this is a gift to us readers.

Dr. J.C. Paquin Vancouver British Columbia paquinjc63@yahoo.co.uk

Two Statements Separated by a Colon: The Key for a Great Book Title

Is there an achieve of previous years Books of the Year?

here is last years list..

http://www.economist.com/node/15009715

Cleopatra: A Life by Stacy Schiff should have been included in the biography section. It is a very profound and well written book, challenging the stereotypical (and incorrect) views about a powerful historical figure.

i thought obama, as a subject matter, was already out of style...

A typical THe Economist list......A book about a famine involving Mao is chosen, but not the book by Madhusree Mukerjee shattering the reputation of Churchill by showing how he deliberately allopwed three million Indians to starve to death in 1943. Churchill now ranks with Hitler as a mass murderer.

PrHow many realise that well over 90 per cent British Empire deaths in World war Two were INDIANS who starved to death in the 1943 Bengal Famine engineered by Winston Churchill the supposed Brit war hero?

Some excerpts from reviews of Madhusree Mukerjee's new historical study about Churchill and the Indian Famine ("Churchill's Secret War: The British Empire and the Ravaging of India During Word War Two", Basic Books 2010):

"Ramachandra Guha, author of "India after Gandhi":

“Winston Churchill’s dislike of India and Indians has been known to scholars. But now, in Churchill’s Secret War, we have, for the first time, definitive evidence of how a great man’s prejudices contributed to one of the most deadly famines in modern history. In her book, Madhusree Mukerjee writes evocatively of how hunger and rebellion in rural Bengal was a product of cynicism and callousness in imperial London. Deeply researched and skillfully constructed, this is a major contribution to Indian history and to the history of the Second World War.”

Mike Davis, Professor of Creative Writing at University of California–Riverside:

“An epic indictment of British policies that cold-bloodedly caused the death of millions of ordinary Indians during the Second World War. With impeccable research, Mukerjee debunks the conventional hagiography of Churchill, showing ‘the last imperialist’s’ monstrous indifference to the peoples of the sub- continent.”

John Horgan, Director, Center for Science Writings, Stevens Institute of Technology:

“Churchill's Secret War is a major work of historical scholarship, which reveals that one of the 20th century's greatest heroes was also one of its greatest villains. Mukerjee's elegant, precise prose and meticulous research make her tale of colonial brutality all the more gripping and horrific.”

Kirkus:

“An important though uncomfortable lesson for readers who think they know the heroes and villains of World War II.”

Publishers Weekly:

““[W]ell-researched…This gripping account of historical tragedy is a useful corrective to fashionable theories of benign imperial rule, arguing that a brutal rapaciousness was the very soul of the Raj.”

Providence Journal:

“A clearly written and well-researched study…Mukerjee writes with a careful hand, avoiding an easily dismissible rant and smartly allowing Churchill’s closet advisors to color in the dark details.”

Roll Call:

“Mukerjee’s work is an important tool in repudiating the dominant legacy of Churchill.”

Indian Express (India):

“[Mukerjee’s] main point comes through persuasively…never has anything quite this persuasive demonstrated how devastating for the world were Churchill’s personal failings.”

The Independent (UK):

“Mukerjee has researched this forgotten holocaust with great care and forensic rigor…Her calmly phrased but searing account of imperial brutality will shame admirers of the Greatest Briton and horrify just about everybody else.

Sunday Times (UK) (Max Hastings):

“[A] significant and – to British readers – distressing book…the broad thrust of Mukerjee’s book is as sound as it shocking.”

Washington Times:

“Churchill’s Secret War is a disturbing read, and one that I recommend.”

Instead of "Parrot and Olivier," I'd suggest another highly readable historical novel of 2010, this one an examination of race relations in 19th-century America: "Deep Creek," by Dana Hand (which is the pen name of a female/male writing team, Will Howarth and Anne Matthews of Princeton). A fine, provocative narrative.

Terrific selections, but I would recommend a wonderful gem from Verso Books: None of Us Were Like This Before - American Soldiers and Torture -- http://noneofuswerelikethisbefore.com/book/ I spotted a strong reviews about it in the LRB in the Independent. Bravo to the author. It's a very brave book, indeed. It's also a remarkable expose on the way in which American forces gravitated toward torture and abuse, the myriad unsuspecting costs. It is journalism, par excellence.