A Heavy Dose of Pro-Obama Books (and Insider Favors) on the New York Times Top 100 Books List

November 27th, 2010 7:35 AM

Typically, The New York Times has released its annual book reviewers' list of the 100 Most Notable Books of 2010, and they favor liberal authors, and most helpfully, current and former staffers of the New York Times. For people who may buy Christmas gifts or make Christmas lists based on this top-books list, Obama is still the hero. The Times recommended both The Bridge by David Remnick, editor of The New Yorker, and The Promise: Year One by Newsweek columnist Jonathan Alter, not to mention leftist Salon writer Rebecca Traister's book Big Girls Don't Cry: The Election That Changed Everything for American Women. The Times calls it "A colorful, emotional argument that 2008 gave feminism a thrilling 'new life.'”

With Michelle Obama growing vegetables? 

The Times helped out its own journalistic family with recommendations for columnist Joe Nocera's book diagnosing the financial crisis, former Times ombudsman (or "public editor") Daniel Okrent's book on Prohibition, dance critic Jennifer Homans' history of ballet, and former writer S.C. Gwynne's exploration of the decline of the Commanche nation.

They also honored the Christopher Hitchens memoir Hitch-22.  On his personal Top 10 list, Times critic Dwight Garner insisted "Mr. Hitchens embraces the serious things, the things that matter: social justice, learning, direct language, the free play of the mind, loyalty, holding public figures to high standards."

Since Hitchens, is, even in the grips of a terminal disease, an atheist, apparently the Times doesn't find God to be on the list of the "serious things, the things that matter."