Best of 2011, Update 7

A month has gone by since my last Top 10 lists, a month during which I have considered another 12 books (8 novels and 4 nonfiction books) for placement.

Changes are found at numbers 5 (Doc) and 8 (Wherever You Go).

Fiction: (Top 10 of 66 considered)

1. Nemesis - Philip Roth (novel)

2. Saturday - Ian McEwan (novel)

3. Rhino Ranch - Larry McMurtry (series novel)

4. The Glass Rainbow - James Lee Burke (Dave Robicheaux series)

5. Doc - Mary Doria Russell (novel)

6. Love at Absolute Zero - Christopher Meeks (novel)

7. That Old Cape Magic - Richard Russo (novel)

8. Wherever You Go - Joan Leegant (novel)

9. Hustle - Jason Skipper (novel)

10.Among the Wonderful - Stacy Carlsen - (novel)

Similarly, changes to the nonfiction list are found at numbers 1 (If Trouble Don't Kill Me) and 8 (He Stopped Loving Her Today).

Non-Fiction: (Top 10 of 28 considered)

1. If Trouble Don't Kill Me - Ralph Berrier, Jr. (biography)

2. Wolf: The Lives of Jack London - James L. Haley (biography)

3. Hitch 22: A Memoir - Christopher Hitchens (memoir)

4. Bittersweet Season - Jane Gross (on caring for aging parents)

5. Tiny Terror - William Todd Schultz (psychobiography of Truman Capote) 

6. Chinaberry Sidewalks - Rodney Crowell (memoir)

7. We Were Not Orphans - Sherry Matthews (memoirs from life in a Texas home for neglected children)

8. He Stopped Loving Her Today - Jack Isenhour - (music memoir)

9. What It Is Like to Go to War - Karl Marlantes (memoir)

10. Lincoln's Men - William C. Davis (Civil War History)

With just a bit over three months remaining in 2011, the lists are starting to firm up - but that anything can still happen can be clearly seen from the addition this time around of a new number one book in nonfiction.