Notable

The New York Times Book Review has its 100 notable books list up. A quick and probably inaccurate survey says that the good folks at Random House (Knopf -12 books, Random House - 8 books, Pantheon - 3 books and other books in miscellaneous lines), Farrar, Strauss & Giroux (13 books) and Simon & Shuster (Scribner - 8 books, Simon & Shuster - 5 books) are the happiest with the list. There was exactly 1 book from a university press. The NYTBR doesn't see that its mandate is to review university press books, so this isn't surprising. But, still...

Everyone will carp about omissions, so let me get in early with 2 books I've read and recommend. Where the hell is "The Big Short"? If the New York Times is telling me that there are 100 better, more timely books than Michael Lewis's book, I don't believe them. And what about Patti Smith's "Just Kids"? It only won the National Book Award. If you can find room for Keith Richards and 3 baseball biographies, why not Patti Smith?