Amazon's 100 Books to Read Before You Die

Perhaps we don't need Amazon telling us what to read, and their new list of "100 Books to Read Before You Die" is based on nothing but the arbitrary selections of marketing executives. On the other hand, it's difficult to argue with many of the choices on this new list, including several (22 to be exact, more than 1 in 5 overall) by past guests of the Institute.

A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius by Dave Eggers
All the President's Men by Bob Woodward (no) and Carl Bernstein (yes)
Angela's Ashes: A Memoir by Frank McCourt (more than a visitor, a long-time friend)
Beloved by Toni Morrison (more than a visitor, a colleague)
Breath, Eyes, Memory by Edwidge Danticat (before she was famous)
Catch-22 by Joseph Heller
Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas by Hunter S. Thompson (an early pal of Bill Kennedy)
The Poisonwood Bible by Barbara Kingsolver
Love Medicine by Louise Erdrich
Me Talk Pretty One Day by David Sedaris
Portnoy's Complaint by Philip Roth
Slaughterhouse-Five by Kurt Vonnegut
Team of Rivals by Doris Kearns Goodwin
The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao by Junot Diaz (before and after he was famous)
The Color of Water by James McBride
The Handmaid's Tale by Margaret Atwood
The Man Who Mistook His Wife For A Hat by Oliver Sacks
The Power Broker: Robert Moses and the Fall of New York by Robert A. Caro
The Things They Carried by Tim O'Brien
The World According to Garp by John Irving
Things Fall Apart by Chinua Achebe
Where the Wild Things Are by Maurice Sendak

Complete list here:  http://money.aol.co.uk/2014/02/06/the-100-books-to-read-before-you-die/#!slide=aol_1260760

Visit the Writers Institute Visiting Writers Archive here:  http://www.albany.edu/writers-inst/webpages4/archives/vwindex.html#I

Amazon has also announced that it will compile a new reader-driven list based on a Goodreads readers' poll.

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The Woman Upstairs on multiple "Best Books" lists

Claire Messud's novel The Woman Upstairs, about a woman who lives on the fringes of other people's achievements, was featured on several Best Books of 2013 lists, including those appearing in The Guardian, Washington Post, and The Irish Independent.

From the Guardian: "Original and daring is Claire Messud's The Woman Upstairs (Virago), an extraordinarily brilliant book, fizzing with anger and wit...."

Messud visited the Writers Institute in 2006 and 1999.

More about her last visit: http://www.albany.edu/writers-inst/webpages4/archives/messud_claire.html

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New Yorker's Best Books of 2013

The New Yorker asked its critics to pick the best 3 or 4 books they read this year (not necessarily new books). Part one of the list appeared December 10th.

Among the books by past visitors to the Writers Institute who appear on the various lists so far are Seeing Things by the late Seamus Heaney (pictured here), Metaphysical Dog by Frank Bidart, Stay, Illusion by Lucie Brock-Broido, Chasing Utopia by Nikki Giovanni, My Education by Susan Choi and A Permanent Member of the Family by Russell Banks.

Article in the New Yorker:  http://www.newyorker.com/online/blogs/books/2013/12/best-books-of-2013-part-one.html

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NPR's Best Books of 2013

NPR's list of the 200 Best Books of 2013 is replete with books by past and recent visitors to the New York State Writers Institute, including  Ayana Mathis (pictured here), who came this month to present The Twelve Tribes of Hattie; Goli Taraghi who came in October to present The Pomegranate Lady and Her Sons; James Salter who visited last April to present All That Is; and George Saunders who came last February to present Tenth of December.

Other past visitors on the list include Ruth Ozeki, Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, Jill Lepore, Nikki Giovanni, Edwidge Danticat, Ben Katchor, Howard Norman, Julian Barnes, Margaret Atwood, Frank Bidart, Susan Choi, Charles Simic, Gregory Orr, Robert Pinsky, Alice McDermott, Tom Barbash, Nicholas Delbanco, Dave Eggers, James McBride, Meg Wolitzer, and Karen Russell.

Complete NPR list:  http://apps.npr.org/best-books-2013/

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