The pick of the lists

End-of-year lists are ubiquitous to the point of exhaustion at this time of year, but they are also a great way to get caught up on things you should probably know. A few have caught my eye these past days:

First, Foreign Policy's list of the top 100 global thinkers is inspiring. U.S. Fed Reserve chair Ben Bernanke tops the pile for his work fighting global economic depression (a feat that also earned him Time magazine's Person of the Year). Obama and Iranian superwoman Zahra Rahnavard round out the top three. Can-con includes Malcolm Gladwell (#19) and Michael Ignatieff (#64). One peruse and you'll feel either a bit smarter or totally incompetent.

Second, regular readers of this blog know we're always trying to keep up with the latest news, commentary and books. The Globe and the New York Times released their lists of notable books in plenty of time for holiday shopping (my performance was left lacking). Barnes and Noble's best political and policy picks are here. I like their list because it's short (only 4 books) and focused on those that mattered the most, even if they weren't written in 2009.

The Hill Times released its 2009 list of Canadian policy and politics books, but their paywall means they'll remain a secret to non-subscribers. The list is too long to reproduce here, but the editor's top picks were: Jeff Rubin's Why Your World is About To Get A Whole Lot Smaller; Gordon Laird's The Price of a Bargain; Brian Lee Crowley's Fearful Symmetry; Bob Plamondon's Blue Thunder on Conservatives from Macdonald to Harper, and the second volume of John's English's biography on Pierre Trudeau, Just Watch Me.

So count two for the environment, one for wider political thought and one each for the Libs and the CPC.

Did you have a favourite thinker or a favourite book this year?