While we’ve been counting down our top 100 books of 2009 toward our top 10, Publishers Weekly went in the other direction: they are announcing their top 100 books next week, like we are, but earlier this week they revealed their top 10 choices. It’s the first time they’ve narrowed their usual longer list of picks to 10 favorites, and while they weren’t quite sporting enough to rank their 10, we like that their list will provide an even more direct comparison (or complement) to ours (as well as other upcoming top 10s, like the NYT’s.) Here they are:


• The Age of Wonder, Richard Holmes



• Await Your Reply, Dan Chaon



• Big Machine, Victor Lavalle



• Cheever: A Life, Blake Bailey



• A Fiery Peace in a Cold War, Neil Sheehan



• In Other Rooms, Other Wonders, Daniyal Mueenuddin



• Jeff in Venice, Death in Varanasi, Geoff Dyer



• The Lost City of Z, David Grann



• Shop Class as Soulcraft, Matthew B. Crawford



• Stitches, David Small




It’s a nice eclectic list, many of which we’ve loved as well: if you go back, you’ll see that four of their ten (Holmes, Chaon, Bailey, and Grann) have already appeared on our list. I will also reveal that another book on their list is also in our top 10. Which is it? Come back on Monday to see… –Tom

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