Book buying tips from Publishers Lunch

I enjoy Publishers Lunch daily coverage and am sharing the Publishers Lunch compiled list of Top 10 books from 2011.  If you use these sort of lists for buying tips, this compiles from a number great sources.  I know these list work on me (for music too).  I will added comments where I could.

The Best of the Best of 2011, So Far, Updated

With more lists rolling in--the WSJ, People and Entertainment Weekly among them--the consensus best of the best of 2011 list is acquiring real shape and clarity. As always happens, both the fiction and nonfiction lists have neatly produced two clear groups of top 10 picks.

Continuing the pattern from the beginning of this year's voting, the top novels are acquiring far more votes, with fiction claiming 7 of the top 8 slots overall. Tea Obreht's THE TIGER'S WIFE remains the runaway pick for book of the year.

We're still waiting on lists from a few major sources, including USA Today and the Los Angeles Times, so as usual, we won't declare our final list--with a complete list of sources, editors and agents, and other observations of interest--for another week or two. But to help with holiday sales and promotion, here's how the lists stand, based on 35 sources so far:
Top 10 Fiction
1. The Tiger's Wife, Tea Obreht (16)
2. 1Q84, Haruki Murakami (11)
    The Marriage Plot, Jeffrey Eugenides - Brien McDonald LOVED this book. 
4. State of Wonder, Ann Patchett (10)
    The Art of Fielding, Chad Harbach - It was on my previous list of recommended titles.
6. The Sisters Brothers, Patrick DeWitt (8)
    The Tragedy of Arthur, Arthur Phillips
8. The Sense of an Ending, Julian Barnes (7)
    Open City, Teju Cole
    The Stranger's Child, Alan Hollinghurst

The Next Contenders
    The Cat's Table, Michael Ondaatje
    The Submission, Amy Waldman - this is on my list for 2012
    The Pale King, David Foster Wallace
    The Night Circus, Erin Morgenstern

Top 10 Nonfiction
1. In The Garden Of Beasts, Erik Larson (9)
2. Blood, Bones & Butter, Gabrielle Hamilton (7)
    Steve Jobs, Walter Isaacson - another on my list for 2012, but it is a tome (which slows me down)
4. Blue Nights, Joan Didion (6)
    The Swerve, Stephen Greenblatt
    Bossypants, Tina Fey - my wife loved this book and tore through it pretty quick
7. Townie, Andre Dubus III (5) - I love anything Andre Dubus writes
     Karl Marlantes, What It Is Like to Go to War
     Boomerang, Michael Lewis
     Lost in Shangri-La, Mitchell Zuckoff - this was great, but after Unbroken - seemed light.

The Next Contenders
Destiny of the Republic, Candice Millard
Catherine the Great, Robert K. Massie
The Greater Journey, David McCullough
Moonwalking with Einstein, Joshua Foer
Malcolm X, Manning Marable