Amazon and Publishers Weekly name their picks for Best Books of 2009

November 2, 11:46 PMBook ExaminerMichelle Kerns

Previous

5 comments Print Email RSS Subscribe

Subscribe

Get alerts when there is a new article from the Book Examiner. Read Examiner.com's terms of use.

Email Address   Include other special offers from Examiner.com Terms of Use

 

The annual end-of-the-year stampede to name and argue over, applaud and jeer, lists of the Best Books of 2009 has officially begun with Amazon and Publishers Weekly naming their best-of picks.

Take a gander.

Publishers Weekly Top 10 books of 2009:

1. The Age of Wonder: How the Romantic Generation Discovered the Beauty and Terror of Science, Richard Holmes
2. Await Your Reply, Dan Chaon
3. Big Machine, Victor Lavalle
4. Cheever: A Life, Blake Bailey
5. A Fiery Peace in a Cold War: Bernard Schriever and the Ultimate Weapon, Neil Sheehan
6. In Other Rooms, Other Wonders, Daniyal Mueenuddin
7. Jeff in Venice, Death in Varanasi, Geoff Dyer
8. The Lost City of Z: A Tale of Deadly Obsession in the Amazon, David Grann
9. Shop Class as Soulcraft: An Inquiry into the Value of Work, Matthew B. Crawford
10.Stitches, David Small
 

Amazon's Top 100 Books of 2009: (counting down from #100 to #1 since I am so interminably lazy I cannot possibly be bothered with typing each of these out from #1 to #100)

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
10. The Boy Who Harnessed the Wind, William Kamkwamba
9. Stitches, David Small
8. The City & The City, China Mieville
7. The Girl Who Played with Fire, Stieg Larsson
6. Crazy for the Storm, Norman Ollestad
5. Beautiful Creatures, Kami Garcia and Margaret Stohl
4. Brooklyn, Colm Tóibin
3. Wolf Hall, Hilary Mantel
2. Strength in What Remains, Tracy Kidder
1. Let the Great World Spin, Colum McCann

For the record, I would like to say that I predicted Mr. McCann's Let the Great World Spin would end up on the top of a major Best of 2009 list. And that David Small's Stitches deserved to be, whether it would end up there or not. Thank goodness it did -- the only book to make the top 10 in both the Publishers Weekly and Amazon lists. Well done, Mr. Small. 

What I certainly didn't predict was that the one book I thought would be in a prime slot -- like one of the top 10 -- of every Best of 2009 list everywhere didn't get there. Or at least hasn't gotten there yet. A pint of Guinness to whoever can guess which book I'm talking about. Two pints if you've read it. Three if you agree with my opinion on it. After that point, we'll probably be too tight to care much about book lists.