SALON

Sunday, Dec 23, 2012 3:55 PM UTC

What To Read Awards: M. Rebekah Otto

By

Topics: Books, What To Read Awards, Best of 2012,

What To Read Awards: M. Rebekah Otto

M. Rebekah Otto is the books editor of the Rumpus.

M. Rebekah’s Top-10

1. “The Guardians” by Sarah Manguso
2. “HhHH” by Laurent Binet
3. “By Blood” by Ellen Ullman
4. “Curiosity and Method: Ten Years of Cabinet Magazine”
5. “NW” by Zadie Smith
6. “Between Heaven and Here” by Susan Straight
7. “Tiny Beautiful Things” by Cheryl Strayed
8. “The Lifespan of a Fact” by John D’Agata and Jim Fingal
9. “How to Get Into the Twin Palms” by Karolina Waclawiak
10. “Hang Glider and Mud Mask” by Brian McMullen and Jason Jagel

1. Explain why your No. 1 book was your favorite title of the year: Though Sarah Manguso’s “The Guardians” is specifically about losing a dear friend to suicide, she pries open her intelligent heart to describe our strange, sad modern lives. I think about the small resonating moments of Manguso’s narrative every day.

2. What was the strongest debut book of 2012? Karolina Waclawiak’s “How to Get Into the Twin Palms.” Very exciting.

3. What book sits outside your list, but has either been overlooked or deserves more attention? Sara Levine’s “Treasure Island!!!” (which came out in December 2011) is a funny, satirical number from Tonga Books, a new imprint from Europa.

4. Was there one book, either on your list or off your list, fiction or nonfiction, that seems to best encapsulate America in 2012? “Battleborn” by Claire Vaye Watkins

5. What was the single most memorable character from a 2012 book? Glorette Picard, in Susan Straight’s “Between Heaven and Here.”

6. What is the book from 2012, either from your list or not, fiction or nonfiction, that is most likely to join the canon, or still be discussed 20 years from now? Zadie Smith will be remembered as one of the greatest writers of the early 21st, and “NW” is the beginning of a new period in her fiction, which is exciting for some of us and threatening to others.

Back to the What To Read Awards

Continue Reading Close

More M. Rebekah Otto.

Next Article

Related Stories

Featured Slide Shows

What To Read Awards: Top 10 Books of 2012 slide show

close X
  • Share on Twitter
  • Share on Facebook
  • Thumbnails
  • Fullscreen
  • 1 of 10
  • 10. "The Guardians" by Sarah Manguso: "Though Sarah Manguso’s 'The Guardians' is specifically about losing a dear friend to suicide, she pries open her intelligent heart to describe our strange, sad modern lives. I think about the small resonating moments of Manguso’s narrative every day." -- M. Rebekah Otto, The Rumpus

  • 9. "Beautiful Ruins" by Jess Walter: "'Beautiful Ruins' leads my list because it's set on the coast of Italy in 1962 and Richard Burton makes an entirely convincing cameo appearance. What more could you want?" -- Maureen Corrigan, NPR's "Fresh Air"

  • 8. "Arcadia" by Lauren Groff: "'Arcadia' captures our painful nostalgia for an idyllic past we never really had." -- Ron Charles, Washington Post

  • 7. "Gone Girl" by Gillian Flynn: "When a young wife disappears on the morning of her fifth wedding anniversary, her husband becomes the automatic suspect in this compulsively readable thriller, which is as rich with sardonic humor and social satire as it is unexpected plot twists." -- Marjorie Kehe, Christian Science Monitor

  • 6. "How Should a Person Be" by Sheila Heti: "There was a reason this book was so talked about, and it’s because Heti has tapped into something great." -- Jason Diamond, Vol. 1 Brooklyn

  • 4. TIE "NW" by Zadie Smith and "Far From the Tree" by Andrew Solomon: "Zadie Smith’s 'NW' is going to enter the canon for the sheer audacity of the book’s project." -- Roxane Gay, New York Times "'Far From the Tree' by Andrew Solomon is, to my mind, a life-changing book, one that's capable of overturning long-standing ideas of identity, family and love." -- Laura Miller, Salon

  • 3. "Billy Lynn's Long Halftime Walk" by Ben Fountain: "'Billy Lynn's Long Halftime Walk' says a lot about where we are today," says Marjorie Kehe of the Christian Science Monitor. "Pretty much the whole point of that novel," adds Time's Lev Grossman.

  • 2. "Bring Up the Bodies" by Hilary Mantel: "Even more accomplished than the preceding novel in this sequence, 'Wolf Hall,' Mantel's new installment in the fictionalized life of Thomas Cromwell -- master secretary and chief fixer to Henry VIII -- is a high-wire act, a feat of novelistic derring-do." -- Laura Miller, Salon

  • 1. "Behind the Beautiful Forevers" by Katherine Boo: "Like the most remarkable literary nonfiction, it reads with the bite of a novel and opens up a corner of the world that most of us know absolutely nothing about. It stuck with me all year." -- Eric Banks, president of the National Book Critics Circle

  • Recent Slide Shows

  • Share on Twitter
  • Share on Facebook
  • Thumbnails
  • Fullscreen
  • 1 of 10

Related Videos

More Related Stories

Comments

 0 Comments

Comment Preview

Your name will appear as username ( profile | log out )

You may use these HTML tags and attributes: <a href=""> <b> <em> <strong> <i> <blockquote>

follow salon

Most Read

From Around the Web

Recommendations