Nonfiction in '09
We've almost hit the new year and that means top ten and best-of lists are everywhere - including here. Did you miss out on some of the top nonfiction in '09? Several national newspapers and magazines have revealed their top picks for the year. Which books have you read? Which ones have you missed?
The Philadephia Inquirer best-of listcontains several political picks:
- The Big Burn: Teddy Roosevelt and the Fire that Saved America by Timothy Egan
- True Compass: A Memoir by Edward Kennedy
- Going Rogue: An American Life by Sarah Palin
- Shooting Stars by Lebron James and Buzz Bissinger
- Angels and Ages: A Book about Darwin, Lincoln and Modern Life by Adam Gopnik
The Boston Globe year-end list spotlights biographies:
- The Good Soldiers by David Finkel
- Flannery: A Life of Flannery O'Connor by Brad Gooch
- The First Tycoon: The Epic Life of Cornelius Vanderbilt by T.J. Styles
- The Wilderness Warrior: Theodore Roosevelt and the Crusade for America by Douglas Brinkley
- Fordlandia: The Rise and Fall of Henry Ford's Forgotten Jungle City by Greg Grandin
The L.A. Times list runs the spectrum of nonfiction:
- The Battle for America 2008: The Story of an Extraordinary Election by Dan Balz and Haynes Johnson
- Changing My Mind: Ocassional Essays by Zadie Smith
- The Clinton Tapes: Wrestling History with the President by Taylor Branch
- Columbine by David Cullen
- Eating Animals by Johnathan Safran Foer
- Methland: The Death and Life of an American Small Town by Nick Reding
- A Paradise Built in Hell: The Extraordinary Communities that Arise in Disaster by Rebecca Solnit
- Save the Deli: In Search of Perfect Pastrami, Crusty Rye, and the Heart of Jewish Delicatessen by David Sax
- Stitches: A Memoir by David Small
- Strength in What Remains: A Journey of Remembrance and Forgiveness by Tracey Kidder
The list from Publisher's Weekly focuses primarily on extraordinary people and events:
- Born Round: The Secret History of a Full-Time Eater by Frank Bruni
- Bright-Sided: How the Relentless Promotion of Positive Thinking has Undermined America by Barbara Ehrenreich
- Mennonite in a Little Black Dress: A Memoir of Going Home by Rhoda Janzen
- The Boy Who Harnessed the Wind: Creating Currents of Electricity and Hope by William Kamkwamba and Bryan Mealer
- Where Men Win Glory: The Odyssey of Pat Tillman by Jon Krakauer
- Half the Sky: Turning Opression into Opportunity for Women Worldwide by Nicholas Kristof and Sheryl WuDunn
- Horse Soldiers: The Extraordinary Story of a Band of U.S. Soldiers Who Rode to Victory in Afghanistan by Doug Stanton
- Green Metropolis by David Owen
- Pops: A Life of Louis Armstrong by Terry Teachout
- Larry’s Kidney: Being the True Story of How I Found Myself in China with My Black Sheep Cousin and His Mail-Order Bride, Skirting the Law to Get Him a Transplant—and Save His Life by Daniel Asa Rose
If you crave more lists, try the Washington Post's rundown of top books and The San Francisco Chronicle's big year-end list.
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