Welcome to the Best Books of 2009, our choices for the very best out of a year's worth of reading. You'll find great books for readers of all ages and interests in our top 100 editors' and customers' lists, as well as our year-end top 10s in dozens of categories. Topping our own list is our book of the year, Let the Great World Spin, Colum McCann's gorgeous and moving novel of New York City in the '70s, set against the backdrop of Philippe Pettit's Twin Tower tightrope crossing.
And this year we're also choosing the best book covers of the year. We've nominated 60 especially eye-catching and evocative covers from 2009 and opened up the voting to you in 10 categories. (The first round of voting goes through December 7, and then you'll be able to vote for one of the 10 finalists as the Best Book Cover of 2009.)
Yes, we know everyone's always told you: "Don't judge a book by its cover." But now's your chance: go ahead and judge. It's okay.
Top 100 Editors' Picks
We know: ranking books is crazy. How, for example, do you compare a 32-page picture book warning you, charmingly, of the world's most dangerously cute creatures with a 1,344-page intensely personal history of the California-Mexico border? Well, in our top 100 editors' picks we've done just that, and more. The bottom line? Whatever the order, these are the books we've loved the best this year. Start browsing with our top 10:
Our top 100 customer favorites are ranked according to customer orders on Amazon.com through October. (Only books published for the first time in 2009 are eligible.) The list starts with these bestsellers:
Want to start reading the Best Books of 2009 in under a minute? Over three-quarters of our top 100 editors' picks and customers' favorites are available for your Kindle. See our list of the Kindle-ready editors' picks and customer favorites.
Best of 2008 Now in Paperback
Still catching up with last year's best books? In the year since we announced our favorites for 2008, most of our Top 100 editors' picks have come out in paperback. Start your browsing with last year's book of the year, Philip Hensher's The Northern Clemency.
Every book, it seems, now has a video trailer, but not all of them rise to the occasion the way these 2009 favorites of ours have. Whether it's with period costume and surprising props, imaginative animation, or nothing more than an author who can really tell a story (or a bad joke), each of them made us want to read the book they told us about:
