The Best Kindle eBooks of the Year (So Far)

Amazon’s just announced their choice for the best books of the year (so far). “Just in time for summer reading season…” their press release says, “customers looking for a new summer read can browse the hand-selected list of top books…” And the new list has a lot of surprises…

For the 25 best books of 2013 , point your web browser to
tinyurl.com/BestBooks2013
The list was prepapred by the editors at Amazon’s Canadian site, so they’ve indicated the two books (in the top ten) which were written by Canadian authors. Their #1 pick for the best book of 2013 is by Canadian novelist Lisa Moore. (Caught, ” A thrilling adventure…the absorbing, suspenseful tale of David Slaney, a normal guy who chooses to make his way into the drug business…”) Interestingly, it’s the only one of the 10 that is not available on the Kindle!

Stephen King’s Joyland came in at #11, and David Sedaris took the #17 spot with his new collection of humorous essays, Let’s Explore Diabetes with Owls. But Amazon’s list also included a lot of new author’s that I hadn’t heard of. Here’s Amazon’s complete list of the 10 Best Books of 2013 – along with their description of each book!

Caught by Lisa Moore
A thrilling adventure and a superbly written novel. Customers will enjoy it for the absorbing, suspenseful tale of David Slaney, a normal guy who chooses to make his way into the drug business, and for the brilliant sentence-to-sentence writing.

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.

The Woman Upstairs by Claire Messud
The story of a suburban middle-aged teacher who never became the artist she thought she would be — if this novel were to have a subtitle, it would be: No More Ms. Nice Guy.

Life After Life 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.

And the Mountains Echoed by Khaled Hosseini
Following The Kite Runner and A Thousand Splendid Suns, Hosseini has written another masterwork, one that moves through war, separation, birth, death, deceit, and love—illustrating how people’s actions, even the seemingly selfless ones, are shrouded in ambiguity.

Frozen In Time by Mitchell Zuckoff
Two adventures in one… recounting the 1942 crash (and subsequent struggle to survive) of a U.S. cargo plane crew in Greenland, and describing the author’s own participation in a modern day mission to uncover the mystery behind their disappearance.

Tenth of December 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.

The Demonologist: A Novel by Andrew Pyper
This captivating supernatural thriller takes the genre to a higher level as renowned Miltonian scholar David Ulin is drawn to a mystery in Venice that eventually has him battling demons, internal and otherwise, to save his daughter.

Gulp: Adventures on the Alimentary Canal by Mary Roach
Roach is about as entertaining a science writer as you’ll find, and this book about how we ingest food will make you think, laugh, and wince as she covers all things alimentary.

The Ocean At The End Of The Lane by Neil Gaiman
Forty years ago, our narrator, who was then a seven year old boy, unwittingly discovered a neighboring family’s supernatural secret. What follows is an imaginative adventure that could only come from the magical mind of Neal Gaiman.

It’s also fun to compare this list to one Amazon released last month, of the top 100 best-selling Kindle ebooks of 2013 )at Top2013eBooks .) Because it turns out that none of Amazon’s picks for the best books of 2013 are on their list of the 100 best-selling ebooks of 2013. Not a single one — although maybe Amazon’s editors were deliberately trying to choose new books that people hadn’t heard of. And after the top 10 books, 8 of their remaining 15 choices were also written by Canadian authors — so maybe they’re just focusing on a different market.

But it’s another yet another fun way to find new things to read on your Kindle!