The Library Journal's Top Books of 2009

Yippeee!!! Another best books list! This one actually came out a couple of weeks ago. It's from The Library Journal, which, you might enjoy knowing, was founded in 1876 by Melvil Dewey, he of Dewey decimal system fame. My grandfather's middle name was Dewey -- no fooling -- so I've always been fond of the name on a variety of levels.

Anyway, back to the list. The journal named 31 top books of 2009 (you can read the full list and descriptions here), as well as many more genre-specific books. Here are some of the year's top reads, according to The Library Journal:

Fiction:

• The Children's Book, A.S. Byatt
• Spooner, Pete Dexter
• Wanting, Richard Flanagan
• Lark and Termite, Jayne Anne Phillips
• This Is Where I Leave You, Jonathan Tropper
• A Short History of Women, Kate Walbert
• Tinkers, Paul Harding
• Wolf Hall, Hilary Mantel (winner of this year's Booker Prize)

Nonfiction:

• Ayn Rand and the World She Made, Anne C. Heller
• The Strangest Man: The Hidden Life of Paul Dirac, Mystic of the Atom, Graham Farmelo
• The Man Who Loved Books Too Much: The True Story of a Thief, a Detective, and a World of Literary Obsession, Allison Hoover Bartlett
• NurtureShock: New Thinking About Children, Po Bronson & Ashley Merryman
• The Age of Wonder: How the Romantic Generation Discovered the Beauty and Terror of Science, Richard Holmes

The genre-specific notables included The Scarecrow, by Michael Connolly; A Flickering Light, by Jane Kirkpatrick; and The Gourmet Today Cookbook, edited by Ruth Reichl.

The journal also offered a list of the Best Young Adult Books for Adults. That list included local author and National-Book-Award nominee Laini Taylor for Lips Touch: Three Times; Stitches: A Memoir, by David Small (also a National Book nominee and a gripping graphic memoir by a well-known children's book illustrator); Going Bovine, by Libba Bray (a hoot!); When You Reach Me, by Rebecca Stead; and Catching Fire ("There are books, and then there are books you cannot put down."), by Suzanne Collins -- this book is the sequel to The Hunger Games, which I ate up.

Come and get 'em!