UPDATE: Here are Amazon’s Top 10 of 2009 editorial picks.
I just love this time of year when all the Best of 2009 lists come out, don’t you? Amazon has released most of their Top 100, with their Top 10 to be announced on Monday. I have only read FOUR of these (bolded). I’ve asterixed the ones I’m most interested in reading. What are your guesses for the Top 10?
(Courtesy: Omnivoracious)
100. The Interrogative Mood, Padgett Powell
99. The First Family: Terror, Extortion, Revenge, Murder, and the Birth of the American Mafia, Mike Dash
98. The Anthologist, Nicholson Baker
97. Imperial, William T. Vollmann
96. Asylum: Inside the Closed World of State Mental Hospitals, Christopher Payne
95. The American Painter Emma Dial, Samantha Peale
94. Inherent Vice, Thomas Pynchon
93. Nobody Move, Denis Johnson
92. The BLDGBLOG Book, Geoff Manaugh
91. American on Purpose, Craig Ferguson
90. D-Day, Antony Beevor
89. The Complete Stories of J.G. Ballard, J.G. Ballard
88. The Children’s Book, A.S. Byatt
87. Half Broke Horses, Jeannette Walls
86. Rapt: Attention and the Focused Life, Winifred Gallagher
85. Born to Run, Christopher McDougall
84. The Evolution of Calpurnia Tate, Jacqueline Kelly
83. *American Rust, Phillipp Meyer
82. Never Smile at a Monkey, Steve Jenkins
81. The Jazz Loft Project, Sam Stephenson
80. Ad Hoc at Home, Thomas Keller
79. Toby Alone, Timothee de Fombelle
78. Robert Altman: The Oral Biography by Mitchell Zuckoff
77. *Her Fearful Symmetry, Audrey Niffenegger
76. The Myth of the Rational Market, Justin Fox
75. George Sprott: 1894-1975, Seth
74. *Juliet, Naked, Nick Hornby
73. Tears in the Darkness: The Story of the Bataan Death March and Its Aftermath, Michael and Elizabeth Norman
72. The Letters of Samuel Beckett, Vol. 1, 1929-1940, Samuel Beckett
71. Green Metropolis, David Owen
70. Mannahatta: A Natural History of New York City, Eric W. Sanderson
69. Columbine, Dave Cullen
68. A New Literary History of America, edited by Greil Marcus and Werner Sollors
67. Asterios Polyp, David Mazzucchelli
66. *Await Your Reply, Dan Chaon
65. The Wilderness Warrior: Theodore Roosevelt and the Crusade for America, Douglas Brinkley
64. Lowboy, John Wray
63. Everything Matters!, Ron Currie Jr.
62. Shiver, Maggie Stiefvater
61. Ratio: The Simple Codes Behind the Craft of Everyday Cooking, Michael Ruhlman
60. *The Forgotten Garden, Kate Morton
59. The Kids Are All Right, Liz, Diana, Amanda, and Dan Welch
58. The Lost City of Z, David Grann
57. How Rome Fell, Adrian Goldsworthy
56. The Collected Stories of Lydia Davis, Lydia Davis
55. Cowboys Full: The Story of Poker, James McManus
54. Zeitoun, Dave Eggers
53. The Vagrants, Yiyun Li
52. The Magicians, Lev Grossman
51. Wicked Plants, Amy Stewart
50. Last Night at Twisted River, John Irving
49. Genesis, Bernard Beckett
48. Undress Me in the Temple of Heaven, Susan Jane Gilman
47. Blood’s a Rover, James Ellroy
46. The Scarecrow, Michael Connelly
45. A Short History of Women, Kate Walbert
44. Tinkers, Paul Harding
43. Lords of Finance, Liaquat Ahamed
42. Catching Fire, Suzanne Collins
41. The Angel’s Game, Carlos Ruiz Zafon
40. The Informers, Juan Gabriel Vasquez
39. The Defector, Daniel Silva
38. *The Year of the Flood, Margaret Atwood
37. Chronic City, Jonathan Lethem
36. The Good Soldiers, David Finkel
35. The Book of Basketball, Bill Simmons
34. Spooner, Pete Dexter
33. Pops: A Life of Louis Armstrong, Terry Teachout
32. Open, Andre Agassi
31. Momofuku, David Chang and Peter Meehan
30. *Too Much Happiness, Alice Munro
29. The Last Olympian, Rick Riordan
28. Born Round, Frank Bruni
27. Border Songs, Jim Lynch
26. The Age of Wonder, Richard Holmes
25. Everything Ravaged, Everything Burned, Wells Tower
24. Both Ways Is the Only Way I Want It, Maile Meloy
23. How I Became a Famous Novelist, Steve Hely
22. *The Unit, Ninni Holmqvist
21. When You Reach Me, Rebecca Stead
20. The Sweetness at the Bottom of the Pie, Alan Bradley
19. The Help, Kathryn Stockett
18. Cheever: A Life, Blake Bailey
17. The Big Burn: Teddy Roosevelt and the Fire That Saved America, Timothy Egan
16. Cutting for Stone, Abraham Verghese
15. Sag Harbor, Colson Whitehead
14. This Is Where I Leave You, Jonathan Tropper
13. Fordlandia: The Rise and Fall of Henry Ford’s Jungle City, Greg Grandin
12. A Gate at the Stairs, Lorrie Moore
11. The Gamble: General David Petraeus and the American Military Adventure in Iraq, 2006-2008, Thomas E. Ricks
It was fun to read both The Hunger Games and Catching Fire back-to-back for the read-a-thon. I’m glad I didn’t have a long wait between the first two books of the trilogy, but obviously I’ll have a longer wait for the third book to come out. The bad part is, the cliffhanger between 2 and 3 is quite a bit greater than from 1 to 2 in my opinion. I do look forward to reading the next book.
You will not believe the amount of reviews I have to write. The list below isn’t even complete! I’ve seen some other bloggers ask for questions on certain books that they will answer in their review post, so I thought I’d try that out as well. Please help me get out of my review backlog quagmire by asking me some questions about the following books. I will be in your debt! I’ve put my star ratings for each book below so you can guage my general reactions. Please, ASK AWAY!!
by Kathryn Stockett
by Jhumpa Lahiri
by Khaled Hosseini
by David Long
