(NASDAQ:AMZN)—Amazon.com today announced its selections for the Best
Books of 2013. The annual feature includes the editors’ picks for the
Top 100 Books of the Year as well as Top 20 lists in over two dozen
categories, from Children’s & Teen to Cookbooks to Celebrity Picks. To
see all of the Best Books of 2013, and buy the print or Kindle editions,
visit www.amazon.com/bestbooks2013.
“This year offered a stellar list of books to choose from, both fiction
and nonfiction,” said Sara Nelson, Editorial Director of Books and
Kindle at Amazon.com. “Our top choice, The Goldfinch, is an
emotionally trenchant masterpiece and was hands down our team’s favorite
book of the year.”
The top picks in the Children’s categories are The Day the Crayons
Quit (Picture Books), Counting by 7s (Middle Grade – ages
9-12) and Eleanor & Park (Teen and Young Adult). Topping the
list in Lifestyle categories are Manresa: An Edible Reflection (Cookbooks)
and Remodelista (Home Improvement & Design).
Celebrity top picks include Stephen King’s Doctor Sleep, chosen
by George R.R. Martin, Life After Life, selected by Helene Wecker
(debut author of The Golem and the Jinni), and The Sound of
Things Falling, which is one of Khaled Hosseini’s favorites.
Here’s a look at the Top 10 editors’ picks for the year:
1. The Goldfinch by Donna Tartt: A decade after her
last novel, Tartt has written a wide-ranging, emotionally trenchant
masterpiece that follows the life of Theo, a 14-year-old Manhattanite,
who loses his mother, steals a painting and sets off on a journey worthy
of Dickens.
2. And the Mountains Echoed by Khaled Hosseini: A
father gives away his daughter to a wealthy man in Kabul, setting into
motion a novel that moves through war, separation, birth, death, deceit
and love. On the heels of The Kite Runner and A Thousand
Splendid Suns, Hosseini has proven that lightning can strike thrice.
3. Thank You for Your Service by David Finkel: From
the Pulitzer Prize-winning author of The Good Soldiers comes a
mesmerizing nonfiction account of the day-to-day hope and pain that
soldiers carry upon returning home. As Finkel writes: “While the truth
of war is that it’s always about loving the guy next to you, the truth
of the after-war is that you’re on your own.”
4. Life After Life: A Novel by Kate Atkinson: What
if you could be born again and again? This brilliant, multi-layered
novel answers that question as Atkinson’s protagonist moves through
multiple lives, each one an iteration on the last, flirting with the
balance between choice and fate.
5. Pilgrim’s Wilderness: A True Story of Faith and Madness on the
Alaska Frontier by Tom Kizzia: When the “Pilgrim” family
rolled into the old mining outpost of McCarthy, Alaska, they were a
sight to behold: Robert “Papa Pilgrim” Hale, his wife Country Rose, and
their 15 children. But dark secrets lurked behind their congenial faces,
ones that shocked a frontier community.
6. Lawrence in Arabia: War, Deceit, Imperial Folly and the Making
of the Modern Middle East by Scott Anderson: During World
War I, the course of the modern day Middle East was set by a handful of
young, low-ranking actors who exerted oversized influence on the region.
Anderson focuses our attention on four men: a minor German diplomat and
spy, an American oilman descended from the Yale family, a Romanian-born
agronomist, and T.E. Lawrence himself.
7. Tenth of December: Stories by George Saunders:
Saunders’ first collection of short stories in six years introduces his
ironic, absurd, profound and funny style to an army of new readers.
8. The Son by Philipp Meyer: A multigenerational
Western spanning the 1800s Comanche raids in Texas to the 20th century
oil boom, The Son is a towering achievement.
9. A House in the Sky: A Memoir by Amanda Lindhout:
Written with uncommon sensitivity, Lindhout’s account of the 460 days
she spent as a captive in Somalia is a moving testament to human
resilience in the midst of profound darkness.
10. Eleanor & Park by Rainbow Rowell: This
young adult novel about two kids who fall in love on a bus is sweet
without being saccharine. And it’s a story adults can love, too.
For a taste of what these books have to offer, Amazon has compiled a Best
Books of 2013: Reader’s Guide, a free Kindle book featuring a
variety of interviews, essays and excerpts, including a piece from Donna
Tartt about her writing process, an essay about touring around the
country with Khaled Hosseini, an interview with David Finkel about his
research, and more. The guide is available for all U.S. customers at www.amazon.com/bestbooksguide.
The Amazon Books team will also be sponsoring a Best of the Year
sweepstakes. Ten winners will be selected, and each will receive a new
Kindle Paperwhite 3G and the Top 10 Best Books of the Year. There is no
purchase necessary to enter and the sweepstakes ends November 18. To
view the rules and to enter, visit www.amazon.com/bestbooks-sweeps.
About Amazon.com
Amazon.com, Inc. (NASDAQ:AMZN), a Fortune 500 company based in Seattle,
opened on the World Wide Web in July 1995 and today offers Earth’s
Biggest Selection. Amazon.com, Inc. seeks to be Earth’s most
customer-centric company, where customers can find and discover anything
they might want to buy online, and endeavors to offer its customers the
lowest possible prices. Amazon.com and other sellers offer millions of
unique new, refurbished and used items in categories such as Books;
Movies, Music & Games; Digital Downloads; Electronics & Computers; Home
& Garden; Toys, Kids & Baby; Grocery; Apparel, Shoes & Jewelry; Health &
Beauty; Sports & Outdoors; and Tools, Auto & Industrial. Amazon Web
Services provides Amazon’s developer customers with access to
in-the-cloud infrastructure services based on Amazon’s own back-end
technology platform, which developers can use to enable virtually any
type of business. Kindle Paperwhite is the world’s best-selling and most
advanced e-reader. It features new display technology with higher
contrast, the next generation built-in light, a faster processor, the
latest touch technology, and exclusive new features designed from the
ground up for readers. Kindle, the lightest and smallest Kindle,
features improved fonts and faster page turns. The new Kindle Fire HDX
features a stunning exclusive 7” or 8.9” HDX display, a quad-core 2.2
GHz processor, 2x more memory, and 11 hours of battery life, as well as
exclusive new features of Fire OS 3.0 including X-Ray for Music, Second
Screen, Prime Instant Video downloads, and the revolutionary new Mayday
button. The all-new Kindle Fire HD includes an HD display,
high-performance processor and dual speakers at a breakthrough price.
Amazon and its affiliates operate websites, including www.amazon.com,
www.amazon.co.uk,
www.amazon.de,
www.amazon.co.jp,
www.amazon.fr,
www.amazon.ca,
www.amazon.cn,
www.amazon.it,
www.amazon.es,
www.amazon.com.br,
www.amazon.in,
and www.amazon.com.mx.
As used herein, “Amazon.com,” “we,” “our” and similar terms include
Amazon.com, Inc., and its subsidiaries, unless the context indicates
otherwise.
Forward-Looking Statements
This announcement contains forward-looking statements within the meaning
of Section 27A of the Securities Act of 1933 and Section 21E of the
Securities Exchange Act of 1934. Actual results may differ significantly
from management's expectations. These forward-looking statements involve
risks and uncertainties that include, among others, risks related to
competition, management of growth, new products, services and
technologies, potential fluctuations in operating results, international
expansion, outcomes of legal proceedings and claims, fulfillment and
data center optimization, seasonality, commercial agreements,
acquisitions and strategic transactions, foreign exchange rates, system
interruption, inventory, government regulation and taxation, payments
and fraud. More information about factors that potentially could affect
Amazon.com's financial results is included in Amazon.com's filings with
the Securities and Exchange Commission, including its most recent Annual
Report on Form 10-K and subsequent filings.
Copyright Business Wire 2013