Well, 2009 isn't exactly over yet, but Publisher's Weekly is getting a jump on the end-of-year lists of favorite titles. Its top hundred book list is forthcoming, but the top ten (including both fiction and nonfiction titles) are newly announced today.
They include: The Age of Wonder by Richard Holmes (Pantheon); Await Your Reply by Dan Chaon (Ballantine); Big Machine by Victor LaValle (Spiegel & Grau); Cheever by Blake Bailey (Knopf); A Fiery Peace in a Cold War by Neil Sheehan (Random); In Other Rooms, Other Wonders by Daniyal Mueenuddin (Norton); Jeff in Venice, Death in Varanasi by Geoff Dyer (Pantheon); Lost City of Z by David Grann (Doubleday); Shop Class as Soulcraft by Matthew B. Crawford (Penguin Press); and Stitches by David Small (Norton).
I'm particularly happy to see Victor LaValle and David Small's books on the list. And although this treasure of an essay still rings in my mind, I do hope to read Blake Bailey's biography of John Cheever soon...
See PW's reviews of the top ten books here.
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