Entertainment | book Writers Pick Best Books of '09 Nick Hornby, Judy Blume, and more weigh in By Kevin Spak Posted Dec 11, 2009 3:40 PM CST Copied "The Financial Lives of Poets" by Jess Walters has "most things that one can reasonably expect from a good novel," says Nick Hornby. It's about the financial crisis yet manages to be "a joy to read." See 5 more photos What was the best book of the year? Salon asked Nick Hornby, Junot Diaz, Curtis Sittenfeld, and other people with better literary credentials than ours what they enjoyed in 2009. Their responses are in the photo gallery. Read These Next Musk says his new party is in business. A Texas man's disappearance is fodder for true-crime mania. Kerr County considered a flood warning system years ago. See the best BBQ cities in the US. Report an error