More lists of the top books of 2009 are coming out. Now up: Amazon’s favorites. Tops on their list is Colum McCann’s Let the Great World Spin, recently named a National Book Award finalist.
More Top Books for 2009
Try, Try Again
Millions contributor Jessica Francis Kane gives an account of the first time she had a story accepted into a literary magazine. Kane’s short story collection, This Close, hit shelves last March.
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On Dr. Seuss and Pluto, Etc.
It may not surprise you to learn that Neil deGrasse Tyson wishes he’d met Oscar Wilde. As part of the By the Book series in the Times, the astronomer talks about his favorite writers, including Carl Sagan, Bill Bryson and Jonathan Swift.
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Mind the Label
“By casting my book as personal rather than professional—by marketing me as a woman on a journey of self-discovery, rather than a reporter on a groundbreaking assignment—I was effectively being stripped of my expertise on the subject I knew best.” Suki Kim on writing a work of investigative journalism that was miscategorized as memoir. Pair with this Millions piece in defense of memoirs.
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Amis Scoffs at Literary Prizes
Martin Amis told the Hay Festival in Wales that only unenjoyable books win prizes, but the Telegraph’s lede implies sour grapes.