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 Holmes
• Stitches 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

Source: Publishers Weekly

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

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