Book beast
More Book beastThe Best of the Best Book Lists
The Daily Beast is dedicated to news and commentary, culture, and entertainment. We carefully curate the web’s most essential stories and bring you original must-reads from our talented contributors.
The Daily Beast went through the top 10 lists of the best books of the year and tallied up the results to come up with the ultimate books ranking for fiction and non-fiction. Plus, the best art & photography books of 2009.
Every newspaper and magazine has released lists of their favorite books from the past year. The Daily Beast presents the ultimate best-of-the-year list by compiling the books that have appeared on the most lists (from The New York Times to the Chicago Tribune to The Economist) to come up with our definitive list of the best fiction and nonfiction this year.
Top 5 Fiction Books of the Year
1.
Wolf Hall
By Hilary Mantel
The Booker Prize-winning novel was a critical favorite with its historical plot centered on Thomas Cromwell and Henry VIII.
2.
A Gate at the Stairs
By Lorrie Moore
After nearly a decade of silence, Moore’s triumphant return was a smashing success among old and new fans alike.
3.
Love and Summer
By William Trevor
From the acclaimed Irish short-story master, a crisp novel of church and family in postwar Ireland.
4.
Too Much Happiness
By Alice Munro
No surprise that the latest collection of short stories from “Canada’s Chekhov” made the best of the year.
5.
In Other Rooms, Other Wonders
By Daniyal Mueenuddin
The only debut in the top five, Mueenuddin’s stunning collection of short stories set in Pakistan made him the literary darling of the foreign-policy set.
Top 5 Nonfiction Books of the Year
1.
Lit: A Memoir
By Mary Karr
The bestselling memoirist returned this year with her devastatingly honest account of struggles with marriage, motherhood, and alcoholism.
2.
Lords of Finance: The Bankers Who Broke the World
By Liaquat Ahmed
In a year when finance dominated the headlines, it’s no surprise that this account of central bankers in the 1920s trying to stave off disaster was a favorite.
3.
Strength in What Remains
By Tracy Kidder
An inspiring and moving story of a young man who escaped war in Burundi and found his way to Columbia, medical school, and U.S. citizenship.
4.
The Clinton Tapes: Wrestling History With the President
By Taylor Branch
This massive, exhaustive account of the Clinton years through the president and Taylor’s recollections made a big splash with revelations about Boris Yeltsin’s drunken behavior.
5.
The Good Soldiers
By David Finkel
An embedded reporter’s vivid account of a battalion of American troops fighting in the Iraq surge, and one destined to be a classic of the genre.
YOUR FRIENDS
Elin's New Life in Sweden
Katarina Andersson is a New York-based freelance reporter for Swedish Broadcasting. She previously hosted a popular radio talk show in Sweden and covered politics, economy, and arts for numerous Scandinavian media outlets in the U.S. She lives in Brooklyn with her son.
Happy F---ing Labor Day, Rahm!
Michael Moore is an Academy Award-winning filmmaker and author. He directed and produced Roger & Me, Bowling for Columbine, Fahrenheit 9/11, and Sicko. He has also written seven books, most recently, Mike’s Election Guide 2008.
Obama's Foreign Policy Has Failed
Peter Beinart, senior political writer for The Daily Beast, is associate professor of journalism and political science at City University of New York and a senior fellow at the New America Foundation. His new book, The Icarus Syndrome: A History of American Hubris, is now available from HarperCollins. Follow him on Twitter and Facebook.
This Week's Hot Reads
The Daily Beast is dedicated to news and commentary, culture, and entertainment. We carefully curate the web’s most essential stories and bring you original must-reads from our talented contributors.
Stars Hit Venice
The Daily Beast is dedicated to news and commentary, culture, and entertainment. We carefully curate the web’s most essential stories and bring you original must-reads from our talented contributors.
6 Big Guns to Run ABC News
The Daily Beast is dedicated to news and commentary, culture, and entertainment. We carefully curate the web’s most essential stories and bring you original must-reads from our talented contributors.
Dylan111
I'm surprised that "The Help" is not on this list. Well, anyway, it is a great book.
Pupster
You shouldn't be surprised.
joyceweath
it is a predictable, trite piece of fluff.
UpperRight90
What a crappy list. It's not the content, but rather the scant descriptions that make believe that none of the books were acutally read before the were posted. It smacks of the 6th Book Report where the book was never read before the report was written.
RuThless
UpperRight90: this is a compilation. Love all the women authors on the top 5 list here. Puts to rest the deplorable job PW did earlier this year.
newsy1
Sometimes I think lists like this are just filler. It is so subjective, we can all come up with our own list and chances are they would all be good. http://newsy1.wordpress.com
Teuthida
LIT is wonderful. Fully deserving. THE GOOD SOLDIERS is pretty harrowing stuff too, and should be read by every American.
I'd have liked to see David Egger's ZEITOUN on the non-fiction list as well. That also should be required reading by every American.
thesuper7
Good GOD! Has anyone at the Daily Beast even read A Gate at the Stairs? Didn't think so. It's objectively awful and almost universally panned.
rwbarber
If you are interested in best lists you might be interested in my projects:
Periodic, presently weekly up date of bests lists
http://www.corecollections.net/new_best_lists.htm
Newsletter
http://www.corecollections.net/newsletter.htm
newsaintnews
"Do Clones Have Souls", is a book that is short and entertaining enough for the masses and evolved enough for the astute reader. Do Clones Have Souls is a work of fiction rich in political discourse. The issues of our time are addressed using a group that is universally despised. They are spurned by the church who call thier existence an abomination.The Supreme rules that they have no rights. The media instead of being a catalyst for their freedom, exploit them for ratings.
The Clones are used as soldiers in three wars,for organ transplants,as servants and sex slaves.
Blacks, illegal immigrants, Gays and the poor see no relationship between their issues and those of Clones. The Clones form a small resistance movement and are immediately labeled terrorists....
The central characters are amazing and the plot twists are fasinating and unexpected. This a book written for our time and beyond.Do Clones Have Souls is available at Amazon.com. Contact the author Herb Wright at moralminority1@msn.com.
Thank you.
As a first time user, your comment has been submitted for review. It can take anywhere from a few hours to a day or two for your comment to be reviewed, depending on the time of week and the volume of comments we receive.