The Lavish Summer

Summer reading lists from across the Atlantic, and closer to home; and the San Francisco Chronicle has their 2009 list of the top 100 bay area restaurants.

Eight Fits

NPR lists the best TV and movies of 2008 here, and the best books of the year here; and the Guardian of UK lists their best books of the year here, and their critics' poll for the best movie of 2008 here. The New Yorker has a section on the year in review: Hilton Als lists the best performance of stage and screen; David Denby and Anthony Lane both list their best films of 2008. East Bay Express lists the ten best movies of 2008 here. San Francisco Bay Guardian online present the year in film where their critics reflect on the cinema that was (and possibly will be).

Rediff lists the following year-end bests from India: songs, movie posters, actors, actresses, directors, films, foreign films; also the worst films.

Time magazine has their Top 10 Everything of 2008 here. And, finally, this page attempts to aggregate all of the 2008 lists.

Summer Reading 2008

The Independent of UK offers its list of the 50 best summer reads and so does the Telegraph, and the Sunday Times picks its 100 best holiday reads. NPR has a summer books section, and top authors pick best summer books on CNN. UC librarians recommend summer reading here.

Overlooked

A brand new batch of under-the-radar books picked by Seattle librarian Nancy Pearl.

Thought for Food

San Jose Mercury News list their second annual Deals with Appeal, a dozen food bargains one wouldn't want to miss. Elsewhere, in the San Francisco magazine, Josh Sens lists the best things he ate this year; they countdown the 125 best things to eat in the bay area; and find 47 deals on meals that even the pickiest cheapskate will love. Also: Best of Food, and 78 reasons why we are well fed and spoiled rotten in the San Francisco bay area.

The San Francisco Bay Guardian present Feast, their guide to dining and drinking: Spring 2007, Fall 2007, Spring 2008, Fall 2008. 7x7 has a list of SF's best cheap eats. Or, if $5 is just too much, here's their guide to the best snacks for even less.

Diablo magazine lists the east bay's 101 most delicious things to eat here.

More Magnificent 07

NPR's Lynn Neary talks with book writers — Laura Miller of Salon.com, and blogger Mark Sarvas of The Elegant Variation — about worthy books that got overlooked by the mainstream book-review sections in 2007. The complete list of NPR's recommended reading and listening for Holidays 2007, and, from KQED, the Forum listeners' eclectic winter reading list. Bob Mondello rounds up his 10 favorite films, plus 13 more that linger in memory at year's end, and this page also has a link to his nine previous year-end lists.

Booktrust rounds up the most chosen titles from various newspapers' books of the year choices; here is their 2006 list, and their 2007 summer reading list.

Silicon Valley Metro's film critic Richard von Busack picks the winners and losers from 2007. The best movies and the best graphic novels of 2007 from The Contra Costa Times. East Bay Express film critic Kelly Vance picks her ten best movies of 2007. The Seattle Times film critic Moira Macdonald lists her top 10 of the year (and a splendid second 11, just because), and some of E! Online's favorite authors recommend their book picks for 2007.

Five Indian film makers pick their best films from 2007 in the new year issue of Outlook; elsewhere in the magazine, a list of books that created a buzz this year. The top ten Indian movies of the year, according to The Week. Rediff has two lists of the top Indian movies of 2007 (here and here) and also a list of the best music.

The Magnificent 07

Jon Wilde of the Guardian blogs his top 10 DVDs to give this Christmas, and writers and other cultural figures select their favorite seasonal reads and their favorite books of 2007. Also, picks of the year's best fiction, children's books, and paperbacks, along with the movie hits and misses.

Elsewhere, Time magazine has the top 10 everything of 2007, including two lists of the best movies of the year by Richard Corliss and Richard Schickel, as well as lists of the year's best fiction and non-fiction books.

NPR has a winter reading list from Alan Cheuse, holiday book picks from Maureen Corrigan, and the independent booksellers' picks. They also have David (Fresh Air's arbiter of things filmic) Edelstein's annual year-end movie wrap-up - the eleven top 10 films of 2007 (there's a tie for the number-nine slot) along with twelve other movies that also turned his head this year.

Finally, in a list to end all lists, this page attempts to aggregate all of the 2007 lists.

And then there is the Core77 design blog's list of 77 nifty ideas for gifts costing under $77.