(Cartoon image of Aberjhani courtesy of cartoonist Mark Streeter) 

It’s not uncommon for people who possess certain passions to develop exceptional instincts in regard to the objects of those passions. In my case, being a certified bookaholic who has managed major bookstores like Waldenbooks and Books A Million, reviews books all over the Internet (including for Amazon’s Vine Program), and writes in different genres, I have acquired a fairly decent instinct where authors and books are concerned.

Here’s a bit of proof for those like such things: five years before it actually happened, my bookaholic instincts prompted me to publicly announce my belief that novelist Toni Morrison would become the first African American to win the Nobel Prize in Literature, which she did in 1993. Earlier this year, I placed Junot Diaz’s novel, The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao at number 18 on my list of Books and Authors to Watch in 2008 and he later picked up an ever so cool Pulitzer Prize for the novel. I’m making no claims here that my literary intuition influenced the honors later bestowed.

So what exactly is my point?

Well, obviously that it’s time to debut my list of Authors and Books to Watch in 2009 . I’m sure there are some you will agree with and some you will not, but please keep in mind that the list remains an evolving one for at least the first half of the year and I may place on it as many as 25 titles.

Personally, I’m a bit bugged by the fact that I wasn’t able to include ELEMENTAL The Power of Illuminated Love on the list simply because it has not yet been placed within Amazon’s distribution system. Despite that particular glitch, I hope you will enjoy perusing the list by clicking on the following link and feel free to share any comments: Authors and Books to Watch in 2009