When it comes to reading taste, sometimes we have to agree to disagree. Your favorite book may be a measly one-star review to someone else.
But now and then, a story becomes so universally beloved it breaks the mold.
Amazon's “Best Books of the Year So Far” list is here, and the No. 1 choice, "James" by Percival Everett, is a unanimous winner. What lands a book on the coveted list is one that “transcends its own genre,” says Al Woodworth, senior editor at Amazon Books.
“At its heart, to me, the best book is a book that you can't stop talking about and you want to share with everybody that you know,” Woodworth says.
Rather than relying on sales data alone, the Amazon Books editorial team spends a week championing its favorites of the year. The team of nine is filled with expert voices who once stood at pivotal intersections of the book world, including former publishing sales reps, booksellers, writers, journalists and agents. Their picks are featured in an overall list as well as top picks by genre.
Check out: USA TODAY's weekly Best-selling Booklist
The top choices have a little something for everyone: mystery, historical fiction, coming-of-age stories, compelling nonfiction and more. It takes a group effort to curate a list that speaks to a diverse customer base, says Sarah Gelman, editorial director at Amazon Books.
Here’s a glimpse at why editors love the top 10 books on Amazon’s “Best Books of the Year So Far” and the full list of 20:
What it’s about: “James” is a retelling of “The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn” told from the perspective of the slave Jim’s point of view. The story picks up after Jim overhears he is about to be sold to a man in New Orleans and separated from his wife and daughter. At the same time, Huck Finn has recently returned to town after faking his death to escape his violent father. The two embark on a dangerous and transcendent journey down the Mississippi River toward what they hope is liberation.
What Amazon Books editors are saying: Woodworth missed her subway stop – twice – while reading this book. It’s a testament to how “completely absorbing” this story is, which gives more agency, intelligence and care to the character of Jim. You feel as if you’re on the adventure with them, she says.
“What Percival Everett does in retelling, reenvisioning a classic is completely knockout,” she says. “This is a rip-roaring story that is both based on a classic but has become, I think, maybe even more important and better than the classic.”
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What it’s about: “The Women” is the story of the women serving in the Army Nurse Corps during the Vietnam War. It follows 20-year-old sheltered nursing student Frances “Frankie” McGrath, who, while in Vietnam, makes friends and learns that every day is a gamble of life and death, hope and betrayal. And when she comes home to a changed America, she has to face a country that wants to forget Vietnam and ignore the women who served in it.
What Amazon Books editors are saying: “The Women” is as much of a “beautiful, emotional story” as it is a lesson on forgotten history and the pivotal role women play in it, Gelman says. “She also manages to take historical events that you think you know and turn them on their head and give you a perspective that’s totally fresh.”
What it’s about: “All the Worst Humans: How I Made News for Dictators, Tycoons, and Politicians” is a memoir of Phil Elwood’s nearly two decades as a top public relations operative in Washington – the strings he pulled, the truths he created and the scandals he covered up. Elwood dishes on his industry-secret tactics, his wake-up call from the FBI and the risk it takes to influence money, politics and power.
What Amazon Books editors are saying: Gelman and Woodworth liken “All the Worst Humans” to “House of Cards,” calling the “juicy” and “salacious” book a “Kitchen Confidential” of the PR world. This book will satisfy any reader, even those who don’t typically pick up nonfiction, they say.
“It’s perfect summer nonfiction reading in my book because it’s so crazy, it’s so shocking,” Woodworth says. “This memoir and Phil Elwood’s life just feels destined to be on the big screen."
What it’s about: “The Ministry of Time” is a genre-defying, time-traveling spy thriller with a government conspiracy and love story baked in. Set in the near future, a civil servant is offered a job as a “bridge” – living with, assisting and monitoring an expat who has time traveled from the mid-1800s. Her job is part of a government program to establish whether time travel is feasible. But when she falls in love with her assignment, Commander Graham Gore, the bridge will face consequences she never could have imagined.
What Amazon Books editors are saying: This read is so universally loved precisely because it’s so hard to describe. “We’ve got this beautiful poetic writing, this crazy, unique adventure,” Gelman says. “It just has many elements.” Woodworth loves the “quirk” in the fantasy plot and calls “The Ministry of Time” “pure entertainment.”
What it’s about: In “Martyr!” we meet Cyrus Shams, a young man grappling with his mother’s violent death in Tehran and his father’s life in America. He’s a drunk, an addict and a poet with an obsession with martyrs searching for answers. After his rediscovery of the past, “Martyr!” is a portrait of a young Iranian American man trying to discover what it means to live a life of value.
What Amazon Books editors are saying: “Martyr!” is Kaveh Akbar’s debut novel, and Woodworth calls him a fierce new talent whom she’s already excited to read for the rest of her life. Gelman describes his voice as a male Sally Rooney.
“This is an unforgettable narrator whose voice I always say sort of feels shot from a cannon, not unlike, in my mind, ‘Demon Copperhead’ (by Barbara Kingsolver),” Woodworth says. “It is so funny and it’s also deadly serious.”
What it’s about: Pulitzer Prize finalist Annie Jacobsen dives into what would happen in the event of a nuclear missile heading for the United States in "Nuclear War: A Scenario." Her hypothetical relies on dozens of exclusive interviews with military and civilian experts who have built nuclear weapons, know response plans or are responsible for decision-making.
What Amazon Books editors are saying: Gelman describes this clock-ticking narrative nonfiction as a “real-life horror story.”
“Your palms will get sweaty when you read this book,” she says. “It is a wild, wild story, but I also think what it’s doing is showcasing how important our politicians are and who controls the decisions that are made with very little information and have to be made quickly to figure out how are we going to defend ourselves.”
What it’s about: Set in 1975 in small-town Missouri, “All the Colors of the Dark” opens with a kidnapping. Girls are disappearing, and the latest target is the daughter of a wealthy family. She’s saved by Patch, a local boy with one eye, but the heartbreaking mystery doesn't end there. Their hunt to unravel the town serial killer will follow them throughout their lives.
What Amazon Books editor are saying: Finishing this story felt like mourning, Gelman says. Like his bestselling novel “We Begin at the End,” this story gets into the minds of young people powerfully.
“There’s nobody that does the innocence of childhood that he captures so beautifully,” Woodworth says. “I’m so delighted that he continues to write about kids and their relationships and their ideas about the future and how their childhood impacts their adulthood.”
What it’s about: “Lies and Weddings” centers on a forbidden affair that erupts at a decadent Hawaiian wedding. Our main character is Rufus Leung Gresham, the future Earl of Greshambury and the son of a Hong Kong supermodel, who is trying to secure his family fortune with his scheming mother by seducing a wealthy woman. But what if he instead follows his heart and confesses his love to the girl next door? Kevin Kwan’s latest is a dramatic, thrilling story of love, money, murder, sex and lies.
What Amazon Books editors are saying: Anyone who loved the “Crazy Rich Asians” trilogy will love this story by the same author. The book is fun-filled and well-traveled, taking readers on a glitzy journey around the globe.
Kwan "reminds me of a modern-day Jane Austen,” Gelman says. “He just manages to write about society in a way that’s so sharp and well-observed but also just a pleasure to read.”
What it’s about: “Lost Man’s Lane” is about a 16-year-old who lands his dream summer internship under a private investigator in his hometown of Bloomington, Indiana. Marshall Miller is helping investigate a shocking crime – a local woman who vanished after being seen in a police car driven by a man impersonating an officer. Public praise for Marshall’s role in the case quickly turns to accusations of lying. When his mentor withdraws, he must face a darkness in his hometown that goes beyond one case.
What Amazon Books editors are saying: Fans of Stephen King will love “Lost Man’s Lane,” Woodworth says. Scott Carson tells the teenage perspective expertly, and you’ll feel as if you’re a teenager, too, along for the ride in this missing-person thriller.
What it’s about: Soledad Barnes has a wrench thrown in the life she has meticulously planned when her husband leaves her in a cloud of betrayal and disillusions. Now a single mother, she has to put her grief aside to keep a roof over her daughters’ heads. When an unlikely, irresistible man enters the picture, she’ll have to grapple with trust issues and past mistakes to rediscover herself.
What Amazon Books editors are saying: Gelman calls “This Could Be Us” a “romance-plus” – it has everything steamy and sexy you’d want from a traditional romance with so much more. The story is grounded in real-life elements. Both the leads are single parents trying to juggle kids and careers while falling in love. The male lead’s twin boys are both on the autism spectrum.
“It is a very lifelike and very touching viewpoint of parenting a child that is neurodiverse,” Gelman says. “It’s very unexpected to see something like that in a romance.”
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