In 2008, NPR asked Gregory Maguire to write and read the story for their annual Christmas show. What Maguire created was Matchless, a refreshing twist on the Hans Christian Andersen classic, "The Little Match Girl." Read more.

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In Juliet Naked, woman leaves her rock and roll obsessed husband, striking up a relationship with the object of his obsession. Nick Hornby's latest novel explores the nature of love and meaning in life with the backdrop of popular music that High Fidelity fans will relish.

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In Generation A, Douglas Coupland envisions a near future in which bees have been extinct for years and the earth has, as a result, undergone a pollination crisis, in which various plant and animal species have died out. The novel opens with what is then an extraordinary occurance: five seemingly random individuals are each stung by a bee.

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In the foreword to The Best American Short Stories 2009, series editor Heidi Pitlor asks, "Does anyone still read fiction?" The question chills the spine, and leaves the silent room in which it's read seeming a little quieter still. What is the sound of a storyless world, whose literary canon lies long forgotten somewhere in the distant past? Read more.

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Today, Nielsen Business Media announced that they will be closing Kirkus Reviews, long a significant player in the book publishing industry.

Anyone who browses books online has seen Kirkus' book reviews - often they are one of a couple short critiques of a book on Amazon.com and other online venues. But Kirkus was around well before Amazon came along, before the Internet even. Kirkus has been reviewing books since 1933 and publishes about 400 pre-pub reviews a month. The publication has been a reliable voice to which countless readers have turned for book advice over the years. I have frequently based reading decisions on their pre-release feedback, so it's startling to me to hear they will be no more.

Nielson will also be closing Editor & Publisher, which covers the newspaper industry much as Kirkus covers books, as well as selling some of its othe properties as the company extracts itself from the trade publication business.

Kurt Vonnegut fans can revel in fourteen previously unpublished short stories each sparkling with the wit, the sarcasm, and the dark observations that only Kurt Vonnegut can offer. Read more.

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Once again John Irving fluently demonstrates his considerable literary merits and superb story-telling ability. Drawing on the lives of an unforgettable cast of characters, he has given us first an entertaining history of logging in the wilds of New Hampshire in the early 1950s, a subject that is to recur throughout the novel, and a remarkable description of the emergence of a writer. Read more.

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These six short stories all feature Russian immigrants to the United States who eat together and whose lives are uniformly depressing with occasional moments of joy. The joy is often connected with food. Lara Vapnyar's sentences are short and somehow very Russian: sad and matter-of-fact. Nothing much happens, however, readers who like Russian novels will likely enjoy Broccoli and Other Tales of Food and Love. Vapnyar's characters run the gamut of ages and body types, which is a refreshing change from glittery summer reading. Read more.

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An inquiry into the nature of factory-farmed meat turned into a three-year oddysey for Jonathan Safran Foer (Everything is Illuminated), the result of which is Eating Animals, part memoir, part history, part science, and part ethics, all rolled into a creative and eloquent whole that will compel you reconsider your dietary choices.

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The best literature of 2009 includes A.S. Byatt's sprawling historical novel, a collection of short stories from Wells Tower, Nick Hornby's musical love story, and a book of essays from Zadie Smith.

Check out our list of the Top 10 books of 2009.