Best Books of the Year Countdown: 80 to 61
Welcome back to the show. What have we seen so far in our preview of our 2009 editors' Top 100? Three books by National Book Award-winning meganovelists that aren't meganovels. A collection of starkly beautiful photographs of mental hospitals in disrepair. A rare success at turning a blog into a book. A charming picture book full of warnings about dangerous animals. A celebrity memoir that's better than any celebrity memoir deserves to be. A history of the mob that upends most every mob cliche. And, yes, a novel composed entirely of questions.
What's next?:
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 to #41 coming tomorrow. --Tom
More Best Books of 2009:
Rachel on October 29, 2009 at 09:21 AM
How is Her Fearful Symmetry on this list? It got panned pretty much across the board. This feels like the marketing machine at work.