Monday, November 2, 2009

PW's Best Books of 2009

(Please note: When I originally saw this list at PW, it stopped after True Compass. When I looked again at the source page on 11/3/09, the list had more titles on it. I have since added those titles.)

PW Top 10
  • Cheever: A Life by Blake Bailey
  • Await Your Reply: A Novel by Dan Chaon
  • A Fiery Peace in a Cold War: Bernard Schriever and the Ultimate Weapon by Neil Sheehan
  • In Other Rooms, Other Wonders by Daniyal Mueenuddin
  • Big Machine by Victor LaValle
  • The Age of Wonder: How the Romantic Generation Discovered the Beauty and Terror of Science by Richard HolmesStitches by David Small
  • Shop Class as Soulcraft by Matthew B. Crawford
  • Jeff in Venice, Death in Varanasi by Geoff Dyer
  • The Lost City of Z: A Tale of Deadly Obsession in the Amazon by David Grann
Fiction
  • The Scarecrow by Michael Connelly
  • The Fate of Katherine Carr by Thomas H. Cook
  • Spooner by Pete Dexter
  • Dark Places by Gillian Flynn
  • The Man in the Wooden Hat by Jane Gardam
  • Ravens by George Dawes Green
  • Tinkers by Paul Harding
  • The Believers by Zoë Heller
  • The Vagrants by Yiyun Li
  • How to Sell by Clancy Martin
  • New World Monkeys by Nancy Mauro
  • The Last War by Ana Menendez
  • Nemesis by Jo Nesbø
  • Lark and Termite by Jayne Anne Phillips
  • The Cry of the Sloth by Sam Savage
  • Drood by Dan Simmons
  • Cutting for Stone by Abraham Verghese
  • The Little Stranger by Sarah Waters
  • Sag Harbor by Colson Whitehead
  • Once the Shore by Paul Yoon

Poetry

  • Chronic by D.A. Powell
  • Museum of Accidents by Rachel Zucker
  • The Bitter Withy by Donald Revell
  • The Collected Poems of C.P. Cavafy
  • Upgraded to Serious by Heather McHugh

Mystery

  • Bryant and May on the Loose by Christopher Fowler
  • The Wrong Mother by Sophie Hannah
  • The Dark Horseby Craig Johnson
  • The Silent Hour by Michael Koryta
  • Londongrad by Reggie Nadelson
  • The Lord of Death by Eliot Pattison
  • The Cloud Pavilionby Laura Joh Rowland

Science Fiction/Fantasy/Horror

  • The Windup Girl by Paolo Bacigalupi
  • Lovecraft Unbound edited by Ellen Datlow
  • The Devil’s Alphabet by Daryl Gregory
  • The City & the City by China Miéville
  • Boneshaker by Cherie Priest

Mass Market

  • Captive of Sin by Anna Campbell
  • Soulless by Gail Carriger
  • A Dark Love by Margaret Carroll
  • Child of Fire by Harry Connolly
  • Hunt at the Well of Eternity by Gabriel Hunt, as told to James Reasoner

Comics

  • Parker: The Hunter by Darwyn Cooke and Richard Stark
  • Driven by Lemons by Josh Cotter
  • Logicomix: An Epic Search for Truth by Apostolos Doxiadis and Christos H. Papadimitriou with art by Alecos Papdatos and Annie Di Donna
  • The Photographer: Into War-Torn Afghanistan with Doctors Without Borders by Emmanuel Guibert and Didier Lefèvre
  • Asterios Polyp by David Mazzucchelli
  • Scott Pilgrim vs. the Universe by Bryan Lee O’Malley
  • Footnotes in Gaza by Joe Sacco
  • A Drifting Life by Yoshihiro Tatsumi
  • You’ll Never Know: A Good and Decent Man by Carol Tyler
  • Pluto by Naoki Urasawa

Nonfiction

  • Born Round: The Secret History of a Full-Time Eater by Frank Bruni
  • Land of the Lost Souls: My Life on the Streets by Cadillac Man
  • Columbine by Dave Cullen
  • Bright-Sided: How the Relentless Promotion of Positive Thinking Has Undermined America by Barbara Ehrenreich
  • The Good Soldiers by David Finkel
  • Yes Means Yes! Visions of Female Sexual Power and a World Without Rape edited by Jaclyn Friedman and Jessica Valenti
  • Fordlandia: The Rise and Fall of Henry Ford’s Forgotten Jungle City by Greg Grandin
  • Food for Thought, Thought for Food edited by Richard Hamilton and Vincente Todolo
  • Mennonite in a Little Black Dress: A Memoir of Going Home by Rhoda Janzen
  • The Boy Who Harnessed the Wind: Creating Currents of Electricity and Hope by William Kamkwamba and Bryan Mealer
  • The Snakehead: An Epic Tale of the Chinatown Underworld and the American Dream by Patrick Radden Keefe
  • True Compass: A Memoir by Edward M. Kennedy
  • Strength in What Remains by Tracy Kidder
  • Where Men Win Glory: The Odyssey of Pat Tillman by Jon Krakauer
  • Half the Sky by Nicholas Kristoff and Sheryl WuDunn
  • Gabriel García Márquez by Gerald Martin
  • Green Metropolis by David Owen
  • Larry’s Kidney: Being the True Story of How I Found Myself in China with My Black Sheep Cousin and His Mail-Order Bride, Skirting the Law to Get Him a Transplant—and Save His Life by Daniel Asa Rose
  • Changing My Mind: Occasional Essays by Zadie Smith
  • Horse Soldiers: The Extraordinary Story of a Band of U.S. Soldiers Who Rode to Victory in Afghanistan by Doug Stanton
  • Jazz Loft Project: Photographs and Tapes of W. Eugene Smith from 821 Sixth Avenue, 1957–1965 by Sam Stephenson
  • Pops: A Life of Louis Armstrong by Terry Teachout
  • Empire of Liberty: A History of the Early Republic, 1789–1815 by Gordon S. Wood

Religion

  • Angry Conversations with God: A Snarky but Authentic Spiritual Memoir by Susan E. Isaacs
  • The Case for God by Karen Armstrong
  • The End of Suffering: Finding Purpose in Our Pain by Scott Cairns
  • Fingerprints of God: The Search for the Science of Spirituality by Barbara Bradley Hagerty
  • The Future of Faith by Harvey Cox
  • Have a Little Faith by Mitch Albom
  • In Due Season: A Man’s Life by Paul Wilkes
  • Judas: A Biography by Susan Gubar
  • Muslims in America: A Short History by Edward E. Curtis IV
  • Rashi by Elie Wiesel

Lifestyle

  • Lidia Cooks from the Heart of Italy by Lidia Bastianich and Tanya Bastianich Manuali
  • Momofuku by David Chang and Peter Meehan
  • Ad Hoc at Home by Thomas Keller
  • Child Care Today: Getting It Right for Everyone by Penelope Leach Gourmet Today by Ruth Reichl
Children's Fiction
  • Wintergirls by Laurie Halse Anderson
  • Going Bovine by Libba Bray
  • Fire by Kristin Cashore
  • Catching Fire by Suzanne Collins
  • If I Stay by Gayle Forman
  • The Evolution of Calpurnia Tate by Jacqueline Kelly
  • Purple Heart by Patricia McCormick
  • The Ask and the Answer by Patrick Ness.
  • A Season of Gifts by Richard Peck
  • When You Reach Me by Rebecca Stead
  • Shiver by Maggie Stiefvater
  • Marcelo in the Real World by Francisco X. Stork
  • Tales from Outer Suburbia by Shaun Tan
  • Lips Touch: Three Times by Laini Taylor, illus. by Jim Di Bartolo
  • The Uninvited by Tim Wynne-Jones

Source: Publishers Weekly

http://www.publishersweekly.com/article/CA6704595.html
http://www.publishersweekly.com/article/CA6704596.html

4 comments:

3m.michelle said...

The only one I've read from this list is The Little Stranger!

ImageNations said...

have read none of these books...hmmm!

Anonymous said...

But 2009's not over yet!

3m.michelle said...

I know! it used to bother me that these lists come out so early (even though I love them), but then I realized they get the ARCs months in advance and already are familiar with the Nov and Dec titles even though they aren't out yet.