Monday, January 03, 2011

Best of This Year, Best of Last and Some Friends We Lost Along the Way

The last few weeks of the year are always the busiest time at January Magazine. That’s because, in that time, we produce several features that our readers have come to enjoy and expect. Because a lot of people take breaks from their regular schedule through the holidays, we thought we’d let you know what we'd been up to while you were looking in the other direction. Some of this stuff is just too special to miss!

This year, our annual Holiday Gift Guide started rolling in mid-November and kept picking up steam almost right up to December 25th. That piece is here.

For readers, the segue from Gift Guide to Best Books of 2010 might have been subtle, but around here, it was a huge shift. Both pieces are massive and represent many hours writing for all of our contributors, as well as lots of editing and planning for January’s senior editing team, Linda L. Richards and J. Kingston Pierce, not to mention lots of original design from art director David Middleton.

The Best Books of 2010 feature was one of our most significant ever. We talked about 113 books in total in fiction, non-fiction, crime fiction, art & culture, cookbooks and books for children. The feature is based here.

This year, in a fit of madness, we also produced a Best Books of 2011 feature. This came about when some of our editors realized how much they were looking forward to a number of books that will be debuting over the next few months. The resulting piece discusses just 10 books, all fiction. It’s a great list, though, and these early offering sure seem to indicate some terrific reading is in store over the next year.

Finally -- and sadly -- we talked about the literary passages that we covered in 2010. Briefly, and respectfully, we bow our heads and mourn the stories that will never be told.

In 2011, January Magazine moves into our 14th year. Thanks for letting us share a corner of your reading life. May you and yours have a rich and rewarding new year.

1 Comments:

Anonymous Shelley said...

As a writer, I appreciate the respectful notice of the authors we lost this year. The best any of us can hope for is that our work will be remembered by some, and your mention helps with that.

Tuesday, January 4, 2011 at 7:41:00 AM PST  

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