2011's Top 10 Books

Stephen King, Christopher Hitchens make the cut
By Evann Gastaldo,  Newser Staff
Posted Dec 3, 2011 9:10 AM CST
2011's Top 10 Books
The 'New York Times' selects the 10 best books of 2011.   (Flickr)

If you need a book recommendation for holiday reading, look no further than the New York Times' list of the 10 best books of the year. Five are fiction and five non-fiction:

  • 11/22/63 by Stephen King: A time portal sends an English teacher back to 1958 to try and stop Lee Harvey Oswald. King reflects "on questions of memory, fate, and free will as he richly evokes midcentury America."
  • Swamplandia! By Karen Russell: "Exuberantly inventive language" marks this story of "a heroine who is wise beyond her years" as she tries to preserve her family's way of life. Also, an alligator theme park is involved.

  • Ten Thousand Saints by Eleanor Henderson: Her first novel, this story of a group of friends during the beginning of the AIDS epidemic "catches something of the dark, apocalyptic quality of the '80s."
  • Arguably by Christopher Hitchens: His latest—and possibly last—collection of essays "addresses a ridiculously wide range of topics," from Afghanistan to Harry Potter.
  • Malcolm X: A Life of Reinvention by Manning Marable: This book, which took more than 10 years to finish, "offers a more complete and unvarnished portrait of Malcolm X than the one found in his autobiography."
Click for the complete list. (More literature stories.)

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