Publishers Weekly has released their best children’s books of 2009. I’ve only read one, Catching Fire, which I did enjoy. Boy, all of these look good. Have you read any that you highly recommend?
My list below is only the fiction titles. Nonfiction titles and picture books can be found at Publishers Weekly.
Wintergirls. Laurie Halse Anderson. (more info) Going Bovine. Libba Bray. (more info) Fire. Kristin Cashore. (more info) Catching Fire. Suzanne Collins. (more info) If I Stay. Gayle Forman. (more info) The Evolution of Calpurnia Tate. Jacqueline Kelly. (more info) Purple Heart. Patricia McCormick. (more info) The Ask and the Answer. Patrick Ness. (more info) A Season of Gifts. Richard Peck. (more info) When You Reach Me. Rebecca Stead. (more info) Shiver. Maggie Stiefvater. (more info) Marcelo in the Real World. Francisco X. Stork. (more info) Tales from Outer Suburbia. Shaun Tan. (more info) Lips Touch: Three Times. Laini Taylor, illus. by Jim Di Bartolo. (more info) The Uninvited. Tim Wynne-Jones. (more info)
(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.)
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
I wanted the NYT’s Notable Book Lists in one spot and couldn’t find them that way so I made my own. The reason I don’t go prior to 2004 is because that is when they had a buku number of books each year, so I just started with 2004. These are only the fiction and poetry titles — I don’t include the non-fiction ones.
My goal with this list is not to read all the selections, but to chip away at the books until I read all the titles that I do want to read. Bold titles have been read. *Asterixed titles are those I’m most interested in reading.
Total: 31 of 229. Yay, at least 13%!! How about you?
2008 (5 of 48 read)
AMERICAN WIFE. By Curtis Sittenfeld.
ATMOSPHERIC DISTURBANCES. By Rivka Galchen.
BASS CATHEDRAL. By Nathaniel Mackey.
BEAUTIFUL CHILDREN. By Charles Bock.
BEIJING COMA. By Ma Jian. Translated by Flora Drew.
*A BETTER ANGEL: Stories. By Chris Adrian.
BLACK FLIES. By Shannon Burke.
THE BLUE STAR. By Tony Earley.
*THE BOAT. By Nam Le.
BREATH. By Tim Winton.
DANGEROUS LAUGHTER: Thirteen Stories. By Steven Millhauser.
DEAR AMERICAN AIRLINES. By Jonathan Miles.
DIARY OF A BAD YEAR. By J. M. Coetzee.
DICTATION: A Quartet. By Cynthia Ozick.
ELEGY: Poems. By Mary Jo Bang.
THE ENGLISH MAJOR. By Jim Harrison.
FANON. By John Edgar Wideman.
THE FINDER. By Colin Harrison.
FINE JUST THE WAY IT IS: Wyoming Stories 3 . By Annie Proulx.
THE GOOD THIEF . By Hannah Tinti.
HALF OF THE WORLD IN LIGHT: New and Selected Poems. By Juan Felipe Herrera.
HIS ILLEGAL SELF. By Peter Carey.
*HOME. By Marilynne Robinson.
INDIGNATION. By Philip Roth.
THE LAZARUS PROJECT. By Aleksandar Hemon.
LEGEND OF A SUICIDE. By David Vann.
LIFE CLASS. By Pat Barker.
LUSH LIFE. By Richard Price.
A MERCY. By Toni Morrison.
MODERN LIFE: Poems . By Matthea Harvey.
A MOST WANTED MAN . By John le Carré.
MY REVOLUTIONS. By Hari Kunzru.
NETHERLAND. By Joseph O’Neill.
OPAL SUNSET: Selected Poems, 1958-2008. By Clive James.
THE OTHER. By David Guterson.
OUR STORY BEGINS: New and Selected Stories. By Tobias Wolff.
*THE ROAD HOME. By Rose Tremain.
THE SACRED BOOK OF THE WEREWOLF. By Victor Pelevin. Translated by Andrew Bromfield.
THE SCHOOL ON HEART’S CONTENT ROAD. By Carolyn Chute.
SIR GAWAIN AND THE GREEN KNIGHT: A New Verse Translation. By Simon Armitage.
SLEEPING IT OFF IN RAPID CITY: Poems, New and Selected. By August Kleinzahler.
TELEX FROM CUBA. By Rachel Kushner.
*2666. By Roberto Bolaño. Translated by Natasha Wimmer.
UNACCUSTOMED EARTH. By Jhumpa Lahiri.
THE UNFORTUNATES. By B. S. Johnson.
*WHEN WILL THERE BE GOOD NEWS? By Kate Atkinson.
THE WIDOWS OF EASTWICK. By John Updike.
YESTERDAY’S WEATHER. By Anne Enright.
2007 (7 of 50 read)
THE ABSTINENCE TEACHER. By Tom Perrotta.
AFTER DARK. By Haruki Murakami. Translated by Jay Rubin.
THE BAD GIRL. By Mario Vargas Llosa. Translated by Edith Grossman.
BEARING THE BODY. By Ehud Havazelet.
*THE BEAUTIFUL THINGS THAT HEAVEN BEARS. By Dinaw Mengestu.
*BRIDGE OF SIGHS. By Richard Russo.
THE BRIEF WONDROUS LIFE OF OSCAR WAO. By Junot Díaz.
CALL ME BY YOUR NAME. By André Aciman.
CHEATING AT CANASTA. By William Trevor.
THE COLLECTED POEMS, 1956-1998. By Zbigniew Herbert. Translated by Alissa Valles.
DANCING TO “ALMENDRA.” By Mayra Montero. Translated by Edith Grossman.
EXIT GHOST. By Philip Roth.
FALLING MAN. By Don DeLillo.
FELLOW TRAVELERS. By Thomas Mallon.
A FREE LIFE. By Ha Jin.
THE GATHERING. By Anne Enright.
HARRY POTTER AND THE DEATHLY HALLOWS. By J.K. Rowling.
HOUSE LIGHTS. By Leah Hager Cohen.
HOUSE OF MEETINGS. By Martin Amis.
IN THE COUNTRY OF MEN. By Hisham Matar.
THE INDIAN CLERK. By David Leavitt.
KNOTS. By Nuruddin Farah.
*LATER, AT THE BAR: A Novel in Stories. By Rebecca Barry.
*LET THE NORTHERN LIGHTS ERASE YOUR NAME. By Vendela Vida.
LIKE YOU’D UNDERSTAND, ANYWAY: Stories. By Jim Shepard.
MAN GONE DOWN. By Michael Thomas.
*MATRIMONY. By Joshua Henkin.
*THE MAYTREES. By Annie Dillard.
*THE MINISTRY OF SPECIAL CASES. By Nathan Englander.
MOTHERS AND SONS: Stories. By Colm Toibin.
NEXT LIFE. By Rae Armantrout.
ON CHESIL BEACH. By Ian McEwan.
OUT STEALING HORSES. By Per Petterson. Translated by Anne Born.
*THE RELUCTANT FUNDAMENTALIST. By Mohsin Hamid.
REMAINDER. By Tom McCarthy.
*THE SAVAGE DETECTIVES. By Roberto Bolaño. Translated by Natasha Wimmer.
SELECTED POEMS. By Derek Walcott.
*THE SEPTEMBERS OF SHIRAZ. By Dalia Sofer.
SHORTCOMINGS. By Adrian Tomine.
SUNSTROKE: And Other Stories. By Tessa Hadley.
*THEN WE CAME TO THE END. By Joshua Ferris.
THROW LIKE A GIRL: Stories. By Jean Thompson.
TIME AND MATERIALS: Poems, 1997-2005. By Robert Hass.
TREE OF SMOKE. By Denis Johnson.
TWENTY GRAND: And Other Tales of Love and Money. By Rebecca Curtis.
VARIETIES OF DISTURBANCE: Stories. By Lydia Davis.
THE VIEW FROM CASTLE ROCK: Stories. By Alice Munro.
WHAT IS THE WHAT. The Autobiography of Valentino Achak Deng: A Novel. By Dave Eggers.
*WINTERTON BLUE. By Trezza Azzopardi.
THE YIDDISH POLICEMEN’S UNION. By Michael Chabon.
2006 (11/50 read)
ABSURDISTAN. By Gary Shteyngart.
AFTER THIS. By Alice McDermott.
AGAINST THE DAY. By Thomas Pynchon.
ALENTEJO BLUE. By Monica Ali.
ALL AUNT HAGAR’S CHILDREN. By Edward P. Jones.
APEX HIDES THE HURT. By Colson Whitehead.
*ARTHUR AND GEORGE. By Julian Barnes.
AVERNO. By Louise Glück.
BEASTS OF NO NATION. By Uzodinma Iweala.
*BLACK SWAN GREEN. By David Mitchell.
BROOKLAND. By Emily Barton.
COLLECTED POEMS, 1947-1997. By Allen Ginsberg.
THE COLLECTED STORIES OF AMY HEMPEL.
THE DEAD FISH MUSEUM. By Charles D’Ambrosio.
*DIGGING TO AMERICA. By Anne Tyler.
THE DISSIDENT. By Nell Freudenberger.
*THE DREAM LIFE OF SUKHANOV. By Olga Grushin.
EAT THE DOCUMENT. By Dana Spiotta.
THE ECHO MAKER. By Richard Powers.
THE EMPEROR’S CHILDREN. By Claire Messud.
EVERYMAN. By Philip Roth.
FORGETFULNESS. By Ward Just.
GALLATIN CANYON: Stories. By Thomas McGuane.
GATE OF THE SUN. By Elias Khoury. Translated by Humphrey Davies.
GOLDEN COUNTRY. By Jennifer Gilmore.
HALF OF A YELLOW SUN. By Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie.
HIGH LONESOME: New & Selected Stories, 1966-2006. By Joyce Carol Oates.
THE INHABITED WORLD. By David Long.
THE INHERITANCE OF LOSS. By Kiran Desai.
INTUITION. By Allegra Goodman.
THE KEEP. By Jennifer Egan.
LAST EVENINGS ON EARTH. By Roberto Bolaño. Translated by Chris Andrews.
THE LAY OF THE LAND. By Richard Ford.
LISEY’S STORY. By Stephen King.
NEW AND COLLECTED POEMS, 1964-2006. By Ishmael Reed.
OLD FILTH. By Jane Gardam.
*ONE GOOD TURN. By Kate Atkinson.
ONLY REVOLUTIONS. By Mark Z. Danielewski.
THE POSSIBILITY OF AN ISLAND. By Michel Houellebecq. Translated by Gavin Bowd.
THE ROAD. By Cormac McCarthy.
SKINNER’S DRIFT. By Lisa Fugard.
*SPECIAL TOPICS IN CALAMITY PHYSICS. By Marisha Pessl.
THE STORIES OF MARY GORDON. By Mary Gordon.
STRONG IS YOUR HOLD. By Galway Kinnell.
SUITE FRANÇAISE. By Irène Némirovsky. Translated by Sandra Smith.
TERRORIST. By John Updike.
THE TRANSLATOR. By Leila Aboulela.
TWILIGHT OF THE SUPERHEROES. By Deborah Eisenberg.
THE USES OF ENCHANTMENT. By Heidi Julavits.
A WOMAN IN JERUSALEM. By A. B. Yehoshua. Translated by Hillel Halkin.
2005 (3/39 read)
BEYOND BLACK. By Hilary Mantel.
A CHANGED MAN. By Francine Prose.
COLLECTED POEMS, 1943-2004. By Richard Wilbur.
EMPIRE RISING. By Thomas Kelly.
ENVY. By Kathryn Harrison.
*EUROPE CENTRAL. By William T. Vollmann.
FOLLIES: New Stories. By Ann Beattie.
HARRY POTTER AND THE HALF-BLOOD PRINCE. By J. K. Rowling.
HOME LAND. By Sam Lipsyte.
THE HOT KID. By Elmore Leonard.
HOW WE ARE HUNGRY: Stories. By Dave Eggers.
IN CASE WE’RE SEPARATED: Connected Stories. By Alice Mattison.
INDECISION. By Benjamin Kunkel.
*KAFKA ON THE SHORE. By Haruki Murakami.
LUNAR PARK. By Bret Easton Ellis.
MAPS FOR LOST LOVERS. By Nadeem Aslam.
THE MARCH. By E. L. Doctorow.
MEMORIES OF MY MELANCHOLY WHORES. By Gabriel García Márquez.
MIGRATION: New and Selected Poems. By W. S. Merwin.
MISSING MOM. By Joyce Carol Oates.
MISSION TO AMERICA. By Walter Kirn.
*MOTHER’S MILK. By Edward St. Aubyn.
NATURAL HISTORY: Poems. By Dan Chiasson.
NEVER LET ME GO. By Kazuo Ishiguro.
NO COUNTRY FOR OLD MEN. By Cormac McCarthy.
*ON BEAUTY. Zadie Smith.
OVERLORD: Poems. By Jorie Graham.
*THE PAINTED DRUM. By Louise Erdrich.
*PLEASE DON’T COME BACK FROM THE MOON. By Dean Bakopoulos.
PREP. By Curtis Sittenfeld.
*SATURDAY. By Ian McEwan.
THE SEA. By John Banville.
*SEVEN TYPES OF AMBIGUITY. By Elliot Perlman.
SHALIMAR THE CLOWN. By Salman Rushdie.
SLOW MAN. By J. M. Coetzee.
STAR DUST. Frank Bidart.
THE SUCCESSOR. By Ismail Kadare.
TOWELHEAD. By Alicia Erian.
VERONICA. By Mary Gaitskill.
2004 (5/42 read)
ALOFT. By Chang-rae Lee.
THE AMATEUR MARRIAGE. By Anne Tyler.
AMERICAN SMOOTH: Poems. By Rita Dove.
BANDBOX. By Thomas Mallon.
A BIT ON THE SIDE. By William Trevor.
*CLOUD ATLAS. By David Mitchell.
COLLECTED POEMS. By Donald Justice.
THE CURSE OF THE APPROPRIATE MAN. By Lynn Freed.
THE DARLING. By Russell Banks.
THE FALLS. By Joyce Carol Oates.
THE FIRST DESIRE. By Nancy Reisman.
FOUR SOULS. By Louise Erdrich.
GILEAD. By Marilynne Robinson.
THE HAMILTON CASE. By Michelle de Kretser.
HARBOR. By Lorraine Adams.
*HEIR TO THE GLIMMERING WORLD. By Cynthia Ozick.
I AM CHARLOTTE SIMMONS. By Tom Wolfe.
THE INNER CIRCLE. By T. Coraghessan Boyle.
*THE JANE AUSTEN BOOK CLUB. By Karen Joy Fowler.
JONATHAN STRANGE & MR. NORRELL. By Susanna Clarke.
THE LEMON TABLE: Stories. By Julian Barnes.
*THE LINE OF BEAUTY.By Alan Hollinghurst.
LITTLE CHILDREN. By Tom Perrotta.
MAGIC SEEDS. By V. S Naipaul.
*THE MASTER. By Colm Toibin.
MEN AND CARTOONS: Stories. By Jonathan Lethem.
NATASHA: And Other Stories. By David Bezmozgis.
OBLIVION: Stories. By David Foster Wallace.
OUR KIND. By Kate Walbert.
*THE PERSISTENCE OF MEMORY. By Tony Eprile.
THE PLOT AGAINST AMERICA. By Philip Roth.
THE PRODIGAL. By Derek Walcott.
*RUNAWAY. By Alice Munro.
SNOW. By Orhan Pamuk.
THE STONE THAT THE BUILDER REFUSED. By Madison Smartt Bell.
“then know this, you and all the people of Israel: It is by the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, whom you crucified but whom God raised from the dead, that this man stands before you healed. Salvation is found in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given to men by which we must be saved.”