The trick-or-treat sugar rush has yet to fade, and the holiday gift season already looms. At Publishers Weekly, the editorial elves have put together the years’s best books list.

“We pick a top 10—but we don’t rank them—you know how hard it is to say one book is #1 on such an esteemed list,” Andrew Albanese, PW senior writer, tells CCC’s Chris Kenneally. “What really strikes me is the breadth of authors—from debuts to old faithfuls—as well as publishers, from indies to majors. We even see some translations, such as The Silence and the Roar by Nihad Sirees, published by Other Press.”

Virtual stocking stuffers, downloading into readers and tablets, will be more common than ever in 2013. Albanese also takes note of the release this week of an e-book marketplace report from the Book Industry Study Group.

“The rapid growth of the format’s early years are over,” he notes. “Indeed, e-book growth has flattened out from the early days when we regularly saw triple digit growth in sales.”

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Every Friday, CCC’s “Beyond the Book” speaks with the editors and reporters of “Publishers Weekly” for an early look at the news that publishers, editors, authors, agents and librarians will be talking about when they return to work on Monday.