Books: Douban users' top picks

Déjà vu all over again? Here it is once more, Shanghaiist's nearly quarterly review the Douban book Top Ten List:

Annie Baby - "Sunian Jinshi" (Beijing-based author, photographer and blogger who writes about love and self-exploration in the big city.)
JK Rowling - "Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows" (Official Chinese version, published by the People's Literature Publishing House.)
Markus Zusak - "The Book Thief" (Australian author of Austrian-German heritage writes a WWII book targeted at high school reading lists.)
Song Hongbing - "Currency Wars" (Peddling conspiracy theories is never a losing bet; up four spots from last time.)
Nanae Aoyama - "Being Alone" (Yet another young, Japanese, award-winning female novelist, this time writing a freeter novel.)
hansey - "Alice" (A collection of photography and essays edited by designer, blogger, and former I5land collaborator Hansey Lee)
Kim Edwards - "The Memory Keeper's Daughter" (Oprah-ish American pop fiction that spent twenty-one weeks on the New York Times Bestseller List in summer 2006.)
Carolyn Parkhurst - "The Dogs of Babel" (Dog who witnesses wife's death taught to talk by husband; gains two places in the rankings.)
Audrey Niffenegger - "The Time Traveller's Wife" (Time traveling librarian loses his clothes; dropped six places.)
Wang Shuo - "A Book To My Daughter" (Wang Shuo's family history is a gift to his US-raised daughter; can we trust his sincerity? Meets with approval from from Xu Jinglei.)

For comparison with the Beijing-based hipsters at Douban, the top ten for this month at white-bread Chinese youth hangout portal QQ Books are "My Soul in the Ancient Times" (period chick-lit) released under the pen-name Half-A-Soul, "Posted To Beijing" (cadre corruption in 80's China) by Wang Xiaofang, "Shenzhen Lover" (empty relationships in a cold metropolis) by Ouyang Jingru, "22 Prep School Rules" (teeny bopper schoolyard fantasies) by Si Zhu, "So What If I Growl At You!" (more of the same) by Qian Cao, "My Days As An Airline Stewardess' Roommate" (white-collar drama) penned under the name "30", "Leave Me Alone: I've Got The Avian Flu For You" (young author elopes with her editor) by Deng Zhixin, and "I Met You On Registration Day" (nostalgic university romance) by Shu Han. All of these texts are available in their entirety on the QQ site.

Photo by hocried.