The Top 20 books of 2009 as rated by BookBrowse subscribers

Top Books of 2009

Recommended books found: 23

Page 1 of 2

Each year, BookBrowse subscribers rate their favorite books of the year to choose our Top 20 Best of Year titles. More about how the books are selected.

The Magician's Elephant

by Kate DiCamillo

Hardcover: Sep 2009 | Paperback: Mar 2011

Critics' Consensus:

Winner of BookBrowse's 2009 Children's Book Award. When a fortuneteller's tent appears in the market square of the city of Baltese, orphan Peter Augustus Duchene knows the questions that he needs to ask: Does his sister still live? And if so, how can...

Al Capone Shines My Shoes

by Gennifer Choldenko

Hardcover: Sep 2009 | Paperback: Jan 2011

Critics' Consensus:

Moose and the cons are about to get a lot closer in this much-anticipated sequel to Al Capone Does My Shirts. Recommended for ages 10+.

Darwin's Armada

Four Voyages and the Battle for the Theory of Evolution

by Iain McCalman

Hardcover: Aug 2009 | Paperback: Nov 2010

Critics' Consensus:

Darwin's Armada tells the stories of Charles Darwin, Thomas Huxley, Joseph Hooker and Alfred Wallace, four young amateur naturalists from Britain who voyaged to the southern hemisphere during the first half of the nineteenth century in search of ...

Too Much Happiness

Stories

by Alice Munro

Hardcover: Nov 2009 | Paperback: Nov 2010

Critics' Consensus:

In these ten stories, Alice Munro once again renders complex, difficult events and emotions into stories that shed light on the unpredictable ways in which men and women accommodate and often transcend what happens in their lives.

Love and Summer

A Novel

by William Trevor

Hardcover: Sep 2009 | Paperback: Oct 2010

Critics' Consensus:

In his characteristically masterly way, Trevor evokes the passions and frustrations of the people of a small Irish town during one long summer.

Wolf Hall

A Novel

by Hilary Mantel

Hardcover: Oct 2009 | Paperback: Sep 2010

Critics' Consensus:

In the ruthless arena of King Henry VIII's court, only one man dares to gamble his life to win the king's favor and ascend to the heights of political power.

Leviathan

by Scott Westerfeld, Keith Thompson

Hardcover: Oct 2009 | Paperback: Aug 2010

Critics' Consensus:

It is the cusp of World War I, and all the European powers are arming up. The Austro-Hungarians and Germans have their Clankers, steam-driven iron machines loaded with guns and ammunition. The British Darwinists employ fabricated animals as their ...

Brodeck

A Novel

by Phillipe Claudel

Hardcover: Jun 2009 | Paperback: Jul 2010

Critics' Consensus:

Set in an unnamed time and place, Brodeck blends the familiar and unfamiliar, myth and history into a work of extraordinary power and resonance. Readers of J. M. Coetzee's Disgrace, Bernhard Schlink's The Reader and Kafka will be captivated by ...

Doghead

A Novel

by Morten Ramsland

Hardcover: Feb 2009 | Paperback: Jul 2010

Critics' Consensus:

From a fiercely funny Danish John Irving, a bighearted, epic story of mad dogs, naughty boys, strange relatives, and family secrets.

Abigail Adams

by Woody Holton

Hardcover: Nov 2009 | Paperback: Jun 2010

Critics' Consensus:

Winner of BookBrowse's 2009 Nonfiction Book Award. In this vivid new biography of Abigail Adams, the most illustrious woman of America's founding era, prize-winning historian Woody Holton offers a sweeping reinterpretation of Adams's life story and ...

The Magicians

A Novel

by Lev Grossman

Hardcover: Aug 2009 | Paperback: May 2010

Critics' Consensus:

A thrilling and original coming-of-age novel for adults about a young man practicing magic in the real world.

Far Bright Star

by Robert Olmstead

Hardcover: May 2009 | Paperback: May 2010

Critics' Consensus:

Napoleon Childs, an aging cavalryman, leads an expedition of inexperienced soldiers into the mountains of Mexico to hunt down Pancho Villa. But things go terribly wrong; his troop is brutally attacked, and Napoleon, left by his captors to die in the ...

The reviewer of each book decides which categories it belongs in - but we're only human, mistakes happen. If you see a book that you think is in the wrong place, tell us!

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