Best Book is the one category we give you in the Reader Awards that our staff doesn’t vote on as well. We do this for the simple reason that while many of the contributors to BOP are voracious readers, we have a tendency to consume the same literature in quick succession. There is a certain amount of herd mentality in the process since we trust one another’s recommendations. Our current obsession is The Hunger Games if you’re wondering with The Lies of Locke Lamora next on deck. Coincidentally, your number one selection is the book I’m finishing up right now.

Michael Lewis has previously chronicled the tribulations of a fat catcher and an oversized shooting guard trying to become a football player in his two wildly popular novels, Moneyball and The Blind Side. With The Big Short: Inside the Doomsday Machine, he returns to his roots as a writer as well as a reformed Wall Street employee. Lewis first gained acclaim for his work in Liar’s Poker, a novel that detailed the madness of the realm of bond trading. In The Big Short, he examines the complete nature of the CDO and how the lack of understanding of it accidentally created a near historic global economic collapse. It is a challenging, complex read and I sincerely think the world of you all for voting as your favorite novel of the year. That tells me what I have always believed about BOP readers: that your intellect is off the charts and that your curiosity may only be sated through knowledge. (If this weren’t a virtual community, we’d be having a group hug right now.)



Several other gripping selections comprise your list for Best Book. Just Kids, Patti Smith’s love letter to deceased friend/noted artist Robert Mapplethorpe is your (auto?)biopic of choice at the moment. You also have a fondness for Ian Frazier’s various Travels in Siberia and the collective works of Stephen Sondheim complete with anecdotes. You also showed that you were in touch with the mainstream on the trendy books of the moment. The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks, an absorbing exploration of blood cells that just will not die, became a must-read book in 2010 and The Girl Who Kicked The Hornet’s Nest meant so much to me personally that I imported it from Europe rather than wait patiently for its North American release. So, I cannot speak for my fellow staff members here at BOP (well, I can because we read all the same books), but I am with you on many of your favorite books of the year. Let’s give each other a Kindle-High-Five.

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