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The National Book Awards celebrate the best of American literature. Their purpose is to expand its audience, and to enhance the cultural value of good writing in America. Here are the 2009 winners for fiction and nonfiction. For a full list of finalists and winners please see The National Book Awards.

In 1974 Manhattan, a radical young Irish monk struggles with personal demons while making his home among Bronx prostitutes, a group of mothers shares grief over their lost Vietnam soldier sons, and a young grandmother attempts to prove her worth. Check catalog for availability.

A biography of the combative man whose genius and force of will created modern capitalism, documenting how Vanderbilt helped launch the transportation revolution, propel the Gold Rush, reshape Manhattan, and invent the modern corporation. Check catalog for availability.

Submitted by Jacki @ MPL Central

Set in Milwaukee during the summer of 1959 and narrated by ten year old Sally O'Malley, Whistling in the Dark is a sentimental tale of family, trust and commitment.
Sally and her sister Troo spend their summer playing red light, green light with their friends on Vliet Street and visiting Sampson at the Milwaukee Zoo until a murderer starts preying upon the little girls in the neighborhood. The murders almost become second fiddle to the insights and imagination of the ten year old storyteller. The Milwaukee locale and references to landmarks like the Uptown Theater and Washington Park add to the nostalgic feel of this warm story.

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Submitted by Dan@Central

In the front of Ms. Oates' latest book there is a bibliography of the books she has written over the years. With a few exceptions, Oates has written a book a year starting in 1964. Her latest is Little Bird of Heaven. When I started this book, I didn't think I was going to like it. It's not a particularly nice story. But as I continued to read, I got absorbed into the story, and into the lives of the characters, particularly of Krista Diehl, a little girl when the story begins, caught up in a tragic death that changes her world and breaks apart the lives of those she loves. The story is also told from the perspective of Aaron Kruller, another innocent victim of the tragedy. And because of the tragedy, their lives are thrown together, albeit haphazardly. So, in a sense, it's also a love story. As an aside, when I was in college, I remember Oates was one of the authors we studied in a literature course. I don't remember what we determined about her writing, but an interesting characteristic that runs rampant in this book is her use of very long sentences. One sentence started mid page on one side of the book and finished a few lines down on the next page. I think this adds somewhat to the tenebrous tone of the book. Check catalog for availability.