We’ve already reviewed the spate of unconventional literary autobiographies released last year, but 2011 is quickly shaping up to also be a year of fresh books by and about beloved bygone writers. Encompassing speeches, letter correspondences, essays, unpublished stories, and posthumous investigations, these upcoming books offer new insights into the intellects, imaginations, and lives of dearly departed cultural icons.

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Last week, we published a list of 10 essential books of the past 25 years. It was one of our most popular posts of all time, as well as one of our most contentious, racking up over 100 comments. Much of the argument has focused on the list’s lack of diversity: of the 10 books, eight were written by white men.

Since best-of lists can’t help but be subjective and flawed, and because there have been so many game-changing books by women and people of color in the past 25 years, we’ve put together an alternate top 10 list. Don’t think of it as an affirmative action move or a consolation prize, but rather as proof that you could make an equally strong list of the past few decades’ greatest literary achievements without including a single American- or British-born white guy. The highbrow novels, page-turning bestsellers, and one particularly inspired graphic novel after the jump all challenged the received wisdom that literature is or should be dominated by white dudes.

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As The Millions noted in its 2010 book preview, the theme for the upcoming year (and beyond) seems to be posthumous publication: Roberto Bolaño, Ralph Ellison, Stieg Larsson, and David Foster Wallace — the dead gang’s all here! (OK, so technically DFW’s The Pale King isn’t meant to come out until 2011, but we couldn’t leave him out.) That said, there’s plenty of good stuff to look forward to from the living as well. After the jump, we reveal the books that we’re most excited about reading in the coming months — and tell you about a few that we’ve already devoured.

Be sure to leave your own suggestions in the comments.

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The wait for Nabokov’s unfinished novel, The Original of Laura, is almost over (countdown to November 17th, people). The story, if you hadn’t heard, is that before his death the grand master ordered his son, Dmitri, to destroy the notecards on which he had been crafting his newest novel. Dmitri, after much struggle (both in the press and personally, we expect), has decided to publish the thing anyway, and we hear it’s true-to-form amazing.

If you’re really anxious (or just a fanboy), check out the awesome-sounding celebration of Nabokov’s work at the 92nd Street Y the day before Laura comes out. Martin Amis, Brian Boyd, and Chip Kidd will be there. Or while away the hours by starting in on our list of the most exciting unfinished novels, both classic and forthcoming.

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Following the career of late Chilean novelist Roberto Bolaño has become almost a full-time endeavor for the Anglophone literary world. Two of his greatest novels, 2666 and The Savage Detectives, were published in just the last two years, and the schedule his publishers have for the remaining volumes — including the unfinished coda for 2666 — will last well into 2011. The Skating Rink, the author’s first novel, and the latest to be published in English, is a fantastic, hazy tale of murder and paranoia in the fictional Spanish seaside town of Z. Read More »

Vampire Weekend frontman Ezra Koenig came home from Lollapalooza with a doozy of a memento: a copy of The Razor’s Edge by W. Somerset Maugham signed by Asher Roth. (Kind of puts the frontin’ in frontispiece, amirite?) Like Maugham’s 1944 novel, which follows the wanderings of an American expatriate through Paris and India in the 1920s, Roth’s debut album Asleep in the Bread Aisle captures the mindset of an adrift seeker from the upper middle-class suburbs in an era of unprecedented geopolitical and economic crisis. One can only guess at what other post-colonial literature Koenig might proffer to other artists. Our recommendations after the jump. Read More »

You may have noticed the Big Brother Book Club was missing last week. Your faithful spy went out of the country. But never fear, book lovers, for luckily there is no better place for people watching than the international airport system.

A middle-aged woman who shared our row on the first flight spent three hours putting a death grip on the arm rest and her copy of Ice Bound. We had to pull some tricky maneuvering to catch sight of 2666 while waiting in the line for customs. It had been a while since we’ve spotted Bolano. Read More »

R.I.P. Boston Globe [via Washington Post]

Chuck fans — keep holding your breath [via EW]

$10,000 Yayoi Kusama cell phone [via @RichardMetzger]

More Bolaño: About the phobias in Roberto Bolaño’s 2666 [via The Rumpus]

Cows are shitting bricks. Literally. [via Inhabitat]

New uses: Calling out reporters on Twitter [via NYO]

The Hipster Grifter turns herself in [via Gawker]

If Roberto Bolaño’s heartbreaking work of staggering genius, The Savage Detectives, is ever lensed, casting would be a cinch: no amigo duo could top Gael Garcia Bernal y Diego Luna for sheer dynamism and flock-to-fawn audience draw. Until that fated day, we’re stuck with Carlos Cuarón’s (Alfonso’s younger brother) mediocre if occasionally amusing rags-to-riches-to-rags feature debut, Rudo y Cursi. Read More »

As it has only been available since October, we weren’t too surprised we hadn’t spotted a copy of Roberto Bolaño’s 2666 on the downtown 1 train; even though Farrar, Straus, and Giroux can boast of what seems like unprecedented buzz for the title. We can’t think of a recent novel that has titillated the literary community this much, and this rapidly. It took Harry Potter and Twilight a few years to catch on, right? Bolaño’s popularity in the United States has gradually risen over the course of the past couple of years, but anticipation for 2666 mounted months before the release.

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