Let's look at more top books published and released in 2009. Brooklyn: A Novel (Colm Toibin) Set in the 1950s, Brooklyn is the story of Eilis Lacey, a 15-year-old from Enniscorthy, Ireland, who travels to the US after World War II as an immigrant. Sponsored by Father Flood, a priest who travels from Ireland to America and back to help other immigrants find jobs in New York, Eilis left her older sister and mother behind to start a new life in Brooklyn. She has luck finding a job as an employee at a high-end department store, where she meets Tony, an...

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The 28th of January marks the 50th anniversary of Zora Neale Thurston's death. Originally buried in an unmarked grave, it is easy to argue that Thurston did not reach the fame that she deserved before her death. Had it not been for Alice Walker, one of the many authors who have been influenced by Thurston's work, her grave still would be unmarked today. Thurston was a significant figure in the Harlem Renaissance and produced much work during this time, partly as a result of her study of anthropology at Barnard College. However, the beginning of the Depression marked the end...

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What's the greatest book you read in 2009? Are you looking for something new to read? Here is Amazon.com's list of top books for 2009. Let The Great World Spin (Colum McCann) Award-winning novelist Colum McCann has released his best novel yet. Let The Great World Spin is about New York City and its people in the 1970s. Corrigan is a radical and young Irish monk, who lives among prostitutes in the Bronx. Mothers gather to grieve for their sons who died in Vietnam. Tillie, a grandmother at 38, continues to play tricks with her teenage daughter to provide for her family and...

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There's a certain feeling in the air. It's starting to get a little colder, a little brighter and a little kinder. It must be Christmas! Are you looking for books about Christmas to get you in the spirit of this festive holiday? 1. A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens Everybody knows the story of A Christmas Carol. Ebenezer Scrooge is visited by the ghost of his late business partner, Jacob Marley, one Christmas Eve. He warns Scrooge that he will never be happy as long as he stuck to his greedy ways and that he will be visited by three ghosts. Just as...

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Cormac McCarthy. Some say he is the greatest living American author, yet others have never heard of him. He has written ten novels, a couple of plays, and a screenplay. His works typically are considered "Western" or "Southern Gothic." He has won a number of prestigious awards, including  a National Book Award in 1992 and the Pulitzer Prize in 2007. The New York Times Book Review wrote, "[McCarthy] puts most other American writers to shame. [His] work itself repays the tight focus of his attention with its finely wrought craftsmanship and its ferocious energy." Here are a selective few descriptions of...

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