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December 8, 2009
 We'll start with The Top 2 Questions to ask concerning our list.
The Weekly Top 2: So Kenny, most 'Best of' lists have an element of subjectivity to them. How have you been able to make one which is entirely objective?
KB: It takes a great deal of hard work and an unflagging determination to be objective!
The Weekly Top 2: What objective measure do you employ to be certain of having achieved perfect objectivity?
KB: I use the DOCTMOO Scale!
The Weekly Top 2: What's that?
KB: DOCTMOO stands for The Degree of Correspondence to My Own Opinion! These books have a 100% correspondence level and are therefore completely objective selections.
The Weekly Top 2: Amazing! Thank you so much for for your diligent, scientific efforts!
KB: Sure!
Here they are, our picks for the best books by Category for 2009. Stop in and check them out in person. We'd love to see you. And thanks as always for sharing your reading with us!
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The Angel's Game
By Ruiz Zafon, Carlos
2009-06 - Doubleday Books
9780385528702 - Hardcover
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List Price $26.95 - Your Price: $21.56
Hardcover Fiction:
The Angels Game which is set in Barcelona a generation before Zafon's brilliant Shadow of the Wind, not only deals with literary themes, Gothic strands, Faustian elements, and earthy touches of magical realism, but it is chock full of marvelous dialogue and pricelessly funny banter. The characters are hard boiled, crusty, and entirely endearing. The issue of the writing process itself is brilliantly and provocatively handled. If you know someone whose idea of a good time is reading a great book,The Angels Game is a strong move.
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The Magicians
By Grossman, Lev
2009-08 - Viking Books
9780670020553 - Hardcover
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List Price $26.95 - Your Price: $21.56
Hardcover Non-Fiction:
This is a book which explores the themes of magic and magicians with an adult sensibility, powerfully reexamining the passage into adulthood. Set initially in Brakebills, a very convincing college of Magic, The Magicians is a world in which there is no safety net, no dragons to slay, nothing but the Magicians themselves. At least that is true for most of them. This book is tremendously fun, perceptive, visceral, romantic and exciting, without ever losing its depth or philosophical edge. Don't miss it.
What You May Be Wondering About The Magicians being picked as the Non-Fiction Book of the Year: Is The Magicians Really Non-Fiction or are you fudging things to be able to include an extra Hardcover Fiction title?
The Answer: Read The Magician's to find out. I'm not going to play spoiler here!
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The Monuments Men: Allied Heroes, Nazi Thieves, and the Greatest Treasure Hunt in History
By Edsel, Robert M.
2009-09 - Center Street
9781599951492 - Hardcover
List Price $26.99 - Your Price: $21.59
Traditional Hardcover Non-Fiction:
This gripping history of the soldiers who worked during the war to track down and save imperiled masterworks of European art seized by the Nazi's, is very good reading. Edsel's account takes the more general tale told in Lynn Nicholas' excellent The Rape of Europa and makes it more personal and dramatic. A fascinating topic and well told to boot. ...More
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The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo
By Larsson, Stieg
2009-06 - Vintage Books USA
9780307454546 - Paperback
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List Price $14.95 - Your Price: $11.96
Paperback Fiction:
It's not true that I'm completely obsessed with The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo. With one more Blomkvist and Salander books still to come one has to leave room to get more obsessed in the future. It is true that as soon as I put this book down I picked it back up and reread the last half of the book two more times! The sad thing here is that Swedish author Larsson died unexpectedly of a heart attack a month after delivering all three novels of a trilogy to his publisher. The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo is the first book in that series. (The Girl Who Played With Fire came out in July in hardcover.)
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Factory Girls: From Village to City in a Changing China
By Chang, Leslie
2009-08 - Spiegel & Grau
9780385520188 - Paperback
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List Price $16.00 - Your Price: $12.80
Paperback Non-Fiction:
One of our customers, Jan Roberts, declared this to be "definitely the best book I've read on China." Since Jan has read enough books on China to make a second great wall that is an opinion to take note of! Cool fact: The author is married to Peter Hessler, author of the superb River Town
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Catching Fire
By Collins, Suzanne
2009-09 - Scholastic Press
9780439023498 - Hardcover
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List Price $17.99 - Your Price: $14.39
Young Adult:
It would be inaccurate to say that Catching Fire, the second book in the Hunger Games Trilogy, is a better book than its predecessor, for the heights to which it attains is only possible precisely because it is built so squarely on top of book one. Let us say rather that Catching Fire's remarkable success is built upon the integrity of its continuity. Its complex characters are broadened and deepened. Their conflicts have been sharpened considerably, and the interplay of dramatic themes more fully realized. As the tide of rebellion rises the reader is both caught up in the current, and sharply aware of the need to struggle against it, to assess Katniss' decisions and to try and interpret the meaning of all the surrounding undercurrents as they begin to surface in spectacular and violent fashion. The stakes couldn't be higher nor could the reader feel more like a stakeholder in this pivotal tour de force. ...More
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All the World
By Scanlon, Elizabeth Garton
2009-09 - Beach Lane Books
9781416985808 - Hardcover
List Price $17.99 - Your Price: $14.39
Picture Book:
Sure Frazee's illustrations are so great that this book would be fun to flip though even if the text were a list of anonymous scrabble scores, but Scanlon's treatment of wonder and wondering has a warmth and a directness that makes All The World a grand pleasure indeed. ...More
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