New York Times Book Review 10 Best Books of 2009

Publishing assistants all across Manhattan were kept from their dinners so they could hit the refresh button, but the New York Times Book Review's 10 Best Books of 2009 list finally did go live this afternoon/evening. No big surprises there for anyone who's been reading the Book Review all year, and no real sleepers of any kind, but I for one was especially glad to see Lorrie Moore's A Gate at the Stairs, which was met with enthusiasm here and there but also a lot of mixed reviews, make the list--it has a few flaws in my mind too, but on the whole it's probably my favorite book of the year. The things it did well, it did so well that all else is forgiven (and even its failures were interesting). Ditto Jonathan Lethem's Chronic City, which inspired some really hostile responses (as well as some ga-ga raves), but which I found primarily delicious. I was surprised not to see Wolf Hall or Cheever there (looks like the Raymond Carver bio, which Stephen King reviewed more for Carver's life than the book itself in a recent NYTBR, got the lit bio slot), and very surprised not to see the new Alice Munro collection, after last week's cover rave, but things do get tight when you have only 10 spots (maybe such arguments are what delayed the list a few hours today...). Of those 11 top 100 consensus books I identified last week, two (The Age of Wonder and The Good Soldiers) are here too.

Fiction:

• Both Ways Is the Only Way I Want It by Maile Meloy
• Chronic City by Jonathan Lethem
• A Gate at the Stairs by Lorrie Moore
• A Short History of Women by Kate Walbert
• Half Broke Horses by Jeannette Walls

Nonfiction:

• The Age of Wonder by Richard Holmes
• The Good Soldiers by David Finkel
• Lit by Mary Karr
• Lords of Finance by Liaquat Ahamed
• Raymond Carver by Carol Sklenicka

As always, the major publishers are well-represented, although after last year's Knopf-fest, only one book (Moore) represents the borzoi this year, plus two more from publishing-group mates Doubleday and Pantheon. Scribner is the leading imprint, with three on the list. And with all the attention given this year to the lack of women writers on year-end and award lists, it's worth noting that six out of these ten were written by women. --Tom

Comments

[JT on December 02, 2009 at 10:48 PM]

Dang, my blog-published kids novel didn't make it this year. Not washing my hair till it happens. Hello gnats!

[J Richardson on December 03, 2009 at 07:31 AM]

That I live in the Sahara of the Bozart is now confirmed - I haven't read one of these books nor, to be honest, even heard of them.

Oh, well, back to Robert Service's biography of Trotsky I go.