I’ve come to the end of the novels I’ve reviewed here this year from the bestsellers of 1959, 1949, 1939, 1929, 1919, and 1909. It’s time to reflect on what’s the best reading today from the bestseller lists of those years.
From 1959, I choose Robert Ruark’s Poor No More as the best of list of [...]
Archive for the ‘My Top Pics’ Category
My top pics from books reviewed this year
Posted in 1939 Bestselling Novels, 1959 Bestselling Novels, My Top Pics on November 11, 2009 | Leave a Comment »
The cream of 1929 bestselling novels
Posted in 1929 Bestselling Novels, My Top Pics on September 16, 2009 | Comments Off
The top novel of 1929 was, and remains, All Quiet on the Western Front by Erich Maria Remarque. The novel bares the callousness that soldiers develop as protection against the brutality of war.
All Still Disquieting in WWI Tale
Posted in 1929 Bestselling Novels, My Top Pics, Psychological novel, War, tagged Erica Maria Remarque, Germany, soldiers, trench warfare, World War I on July 22, 2009 | 1 Comment »
In All Quiet on the Western Front, Erich Maria Remarque takes readers into the German trenches of World War I. As long as nations send their young people straight from schoolyards to combat zones, All Quiet on the Western Front will continue to be an important book.
My 5 top picks of 1939’s top 10 novels
Posted in My Top Pics, tagged Christopher Morley, Daphne du Murier, Escape, Ethel Vance, John Steinbeck, Kitty Foyle, Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings, Rebecca, The Grapes of Wrath, The Yearling on July 13, 2009 | 1 Comment »
Of the top ten bestselling novels for 1939, five are still super reading today.
Second year for Yearling
Posted in 1938 Bestselling Novels, 1939 Bestselling Novels, Juvenile/Youth, My Top Pics on June 23, 2009 | Comments Off
In seventh place on the 1939 bestseller list was The Yearling by Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings, which had occupied first place honors the previous year.
You will find my review of The Yearling listed among the 1938 bestsellers. I won’t repeat it here.
Instead tomorrow, I’ll review the #8 novel on the 1939 list, Elizabeth Page’s The Tree [...]
Escape Is Impossible to Put Down
Posted in 1939 Bestselling Novels, Adventure, My Top Pics, Psychological novel, Suspense, War on June 10, 2009 | Comments Off
In the opening scene of Escape, a doctor tells actress Emmy Ritter she’ll be able to walk in a week.
“Just in time for my execution,” she replies.
Ethel Vance hooked me with that line, and she didn’t let go until I’d read the rest of her novel that evening.
Authorities refuse to allow Emmy’s son, Mark, [...]
Few 1949 top novels worth rereading
Posted in My Top Pics on May 17, 2009 | Comments Off
1949 was not a particularly good year for novels.
The best of the lot is a holdover from the 1948 bestseller list, Dinner at Antoine’s by Frances Parkinson Keyes.
The book, like all Keyes’ work, has a clever but plausible plot developed through memorable characters. And she writes well enough that her novels can be reread [...]
My picks for 1959
Posted in My Top Pics on March 17, 2009 | Comments Off
Sometimes I have difficulty deciding which novel of a year’s bestsellers remains the best entertainment value, but not this week.
Robert Ruark’s Poor No More is head and shoulders above the rest of the 1959 bestsellers, with Hawaii by James A. Michener getting my vote for second place.
My assessment will upset People Who Love [...]
Engrossing Tale of Financial Fraud
Posted in 1959 Bestselling Novels, My Top Pics, tagged business, finance, fraud, investments, Robert Ruark on March 11, 2009 | Comments Off
If you wonder how Bernie Madoff and the guys at AIG could have such a cavalier attitude toward other people’s money, Robert Ruark’s 1959 novel Poor No More might supply some answers.
Craig Price grows up in the South in rural, depression-era poverty. He’s a loner living in a fantasy world in which he is “Captain-Admiral [...]
Hawaii Is Reality Reading
Posted in 1959 Bestselling Novels, Historical, My Top Pics, tagged American History, Chinese, Hawaii statehood, James A. Michener, Japanese, missionaries on January 14, 2009 | Comments Off
James A. Michener’s novel Hawaii earns the adjective epic just for its length. But the novel lives up to that accolade. Michener makes his fiction read like biography, leaving readers convinced that the way he tells it was the way it was.
