These lists may help choose best books for holiday gifts

With the holidays at hand, you may be looking for ideas on books to give as gifts. With nearly 300,000 titles published each year in the United States, it’s often difficult to find the standouts.

That’s why lists are helpful, and with the year coming to a close, you’ll find lots of best book lists of the year. Here are a couple of notable ones.

The Washington Post’s choices for the top 10 books for 2007:

Fiction

“”Finn,” by Jon Clinch

“”The Last Cavalier,” by Alexandre Dumas (translated by Lauren Yoder)

“”On Chesil Beach,” by Ian McEwan

“”The Savage Detectives,” by Roberto Bolano

“”Tree of Smoke,” by Denis Johnson

Nonfiction

“”Edith Wharton,” by Hermione Lee

“”FDR,” by Jean Edward Smith

“”Ralph Ellison: A Biography,” by Arnold Rampersad

“”The Unnatural History of the Sea,” by Callum Roberts

“”The Zookeeper’s Wife: A War Story,” by Diane Ackerman

These titles are among the nominees for Borders’ Original Voices awards, highlighting innovative books by emerging writers:

Fiction

“”Among Other Things, I’ve Taken Up Smoking,” by Aoibheann Sweeney

“”An Arsonist’s Guide to Writers’ Homes in New England,” by Brock Clarke

“”The Name of the Wind,” by Patrick Rothfuss

“”No One Belongs Here More Than You,” by Miranda July

“”The Raw Shark Texts,” by Steven Hall

“”The Secret of Lost Things,” by Sheridan Hay

Nonfiction

“”A Long Way Gone: Memoirs of a Boy Soldier,” by Ishmael Beah

“”Here If You Need Me: A True Story,” by Kate Braestrup

“”My Father’s Secret War,” by Lucinda Franks

“”Prisoner of Tehran,” by Marina Nemat

“”Sick Girl,” by Amy Silverstein

“”When a Crocodile Eats the Sun,” by Peter Godwin