This is the time of year for best-of-best lists. Here are two sources.
2009: The Year in Review in the New Yorker - growing list of best in theatre, movies, museums, dance, books, television - more.
The 2009 Globe Books 100, Globe and Mail
"Our 12th annual pick of the 100 best and most influential books of the year includes prize-winners and surprises, writers allegedly famous and those about to be, prose and poetry, science and social studies, memoir and manifesto, and much, much more."