Publishers Weekly really screws up:
“Every year, PW selects its top 100 books, and for the first time ever PW has upped the ante by choosing the 10 books that stood out from the rest. The titles, whittled down from the more than 50,000 volumes considered this year, were picked by the PW reviews editors to reflect the very best of 2009.“
The ten ‘best books’. And they’re all by boys. Every. Single. One. Ten books by men about men.
For me, this is just another indication that PW is rapidly becoming irrelevant to the real reading world. After all, women read more than men–yet our tastes and our subjects are not valued.
I think this might be PW‘s death knell. What do you think?
Addendum: if PW were based in Iceland, the list would have looked pretty damn different.
Nicola Griffith 
Have I mentioned, relatedly, that Cormac McCarthy bores the hell out of me? As an idea, a movement, a star.
I haven't read even one of the books on that PW list, so I can't say anything about anything and not sound like a crank.
That said, I vote irrelevant. Why? Because there are also a lot of books by women that came out this year that I haven't read and they, theoretically, using the model of not knowing anything that I have already established, equally deserve to be on this list.
On a more serious note: It does appall me that men all too often often only value what other men do…and all too often women go right along with that.
Mordicai, I can't read his stuff. So overcooked…
Jennifer, I hear you on that.
oh good, i wasn't the only one who flipped my noggin over this.
It's strange. I've had many private emails–lots of people are pissed off, few are saying anything. Why? Apathy or some kind of nervousness?
I really can't stand Cormac McCarthy. THE ROAD, in a word, was an average retelling of SF trope. I've heard of some guys who like it – guys who don't read SF or even very much at all.
That's very sad. PW should know better.
I am with Jennifer on this one. Can't comment about what I haven't read. But I did take a a look at PW and I got the sense that they were picking by the number of reviews and reviewers comments. Anyone know where they hide their guidelines?
ssas, yes, and yes, and yes.
rhbee, you're assuming they indulge in such transparencies…
I think the Iceland link is broken. On my browser it just pops back to this page. This is a minor point.
An odd top 10 selection, gender issues aside. I hadn't _heard_ of most of these, and the ones I did, I didn't want to read. (e.g., Shopwork as Soulcraft. Sorry, but I like my desk job.)
Back to Leigh Brackett & other WFC2009 booty.
Oh, oops, fixed now. (Wonder how that happened?) Enjoy the booty.
“This list proves that the only support women authors get is from our Wonderbras.
http://www.news.com.au/story/0,27574,26323319-23109,00.html