Publishers Weekly Top 10 Books Of 2009

Publishers Weekly announced their Top 10 picks for 2009. These are the books that they thought "stood out from the rest." PW admits that they're not "the most politically correct" choices -- the list doesn't include any female authors -- but, to the editors, they were the best among the top 100 that they had chosen. You can read their reviews for the books on their site.

We want to know what you think. Is something missing? Do you think this is great, or totally off-base? What's your list?

• The Age of Wonder: How the Romantic Generation Discovered the Beauty and Terror of Science by Richard Holmes (Pantheon)
• Await Your Reply by Dan Chaon (Ballantine)
• Big Machine by Victor LaValle (Spiegel & Grau)
• Cheever: A Life by Blake Bailey (Knopf)
• A Fiery Peace in a Cold War: Bernard Schriever and the Ultimate Weapon by Neil Sheehan (Random House)
• In Other Rooms, Other Wonders by Daniyal Mueenuddin (Norton)
• Jeff in Venice, Death in Varanasi by Geoff Dyer (Pantheon)
• Lost City of Z: A Tale of Deadly Obsession in the Amazon by David Grann (Doubleday)
• Shop Class as Soulcraft by Matthew B. Crawford (Penguin Press)
• Stitches by David Small (Norton)

Comments

[BlueZoo]

I guess I'm a bit more eclectic in my reading:
Have a Little Faith - Mitch Albom
True Compass - Edward M. Kennedy
The Match King - Frank Partnoy
Eiffel's Tower - Jill Jonnes
Where Men Win Glory - Jon Krakauer
The Lost Symbol - Dan Brown
Boys Will Be Boys - Jeff Pearlman
A Colossal Failure of Common Sense - Lawrence G. McDonald
Half-Broke Horses - Jeanette Walls

[tallahasseelassie]

Wow, I'd say it's astonishing to see the editors blithely dismiss the total lack of women on the list--except that it's just business as usual. No, not a politically correct list, just one put together by blatant sexists who've never learned to read across gender (as women do as very little girls). How sad that they are deaf to more than one half of the world.

What a joke.

[Sarijj]

My personal favorite 2009 books are:

Isaac Newton and the Counterfeiter by Thomas Levenson
Cutting for Stone by Abraham Verghese
Drood by Dan Simmons
Occult America: The Secret History of How Mysticism Shaped Our Nation by Mitch Horowitz

[PuzzledinPeoria]

Huh? They left out "Going Rogue?"

[romeo7]

one of my favorite books of the year is A HAPPY MARRIAGE by Rafael Iglesias

[brettrobbins]

I remember a few days back a Huff Post blogger (who happened to be female) asked if the fact that the top literary prizes this year went to women might signify some gender sea-change in literary quality. I wonder if the same blogger will now write a piece asking if the fact that the Publisher's Weekly list doesn't include a single woman might signify the opposite gender sea-change--oh wait, that wouldn't support her thesis, now, would it? Can you say "opportunism"?

[ESerafina42]

And thanks for playing "REALLY Bad Analogies." In the previous case you had several different organizations choosing ONE book that they considered the best. I'm sure if you looked at each group's short list, which would be more comparable to this, you would find both male and female authors, but the fact that THIS group could list the TEN best books and not find ONE written by a woman that they considered worthy is pretty sad.

[galaxian]

Glad to see The Lost City of Z on the list--it's a helluva lot of fun for fearful adventurers.