New York Times 10 Best Books of 2009

At the end of the year, it's always a joy to see the best book lists, especially to see if you agree with them. Books are a wonderful gift, and it's fun to find the book you want to give to a friend and relative. From today's New York Times, here is a list of its editors' top 10 books of 2009. The Fremont Public Library has all the books except one which currently is on order. You may place the titles on hold, or call us. We are happy to place your selections on hold for you. Remember,too, that the library also has the New York Times on its shelves.
Fiction
Both Ways is the Only Way I Want It by Maile Melody. F Melody
"In an exceptionally strong year for short fiction, Meloy's concise yet fine-grained narratives....shout out with quiet restraint and calm precision...."
Chronic City by Jonathan Lethem, F Lethem
Lethem's eighth novel unfolds in an alternative-reality Manhattan. The crowded canvas includes a wantonly destructive escaped tiger....prowling the streets...."
A Gate at the Stairs by Lorrie Moore F Moore, Book CD Moore
"Moore's captivating novel....is set in 2001 and narrated by a Wisconsin college student who hungers for worldly experience and finds it when she takes a job baby sitting for a bohemian couple who are trying to adopt a mixed raced child...."
Half Broke Horses by Jeannette Walls F Walls, Lg Print F Walls
"In her luminous memoir, The Glass Castle, Walls told of being raised by eccentric and unfit parents. Now, in a novel based on family lore, she has adopted the voice of her maternal grandmother, Lily Casey Smith--mustang breaker, schoolteacher, ranch wife, bootlegger, poker player, racehorse rider and bush pilot...."
A Short History of Women by Kate Walbert F Walbert, Lg Print F Walbert
"The 15 lean, concentrated chapters in this exquisitely written novel alternate among the lives of a British suffragist and a handful of her Anglo-American descendants. The theme is feminism, but Walbert is keenly alert to male preoccupations and the impressions they leave on the lives of her female cast...."
NonFiction
The Age of Wonder by Richard Holmes, 509 HOL
"Holmes harnesses the twin energies of scientific curiosity and poetic invention in this superb intellectual history, which recreates a glorious period, some 200 years ago, when figures like William Herschel, Humphry Davy, and Joseph Banks brought 'a new imaginative intensity and excitement to scientific work,'and literary giants like Coleridge and Keats responded giddily to these breakthroughs...."
The Good Soldiers by David Finkel 956.704434 FIN
"Finkel, a Pulitzer Prize-winning writer and editor at the Washington Post, gives full voice to his subjects, infantry soldiers from Fort Riley, KS...posted in the lethal reaches of Baghdad at the height of the 'surge'...."
Lit by Mary Karr B Karr
"This sequel to The Liars Club and Cherry is also a master class on the art of the memoir...."
Lords of Finance by Liaquat Ahamed 332.1092 AHA, Downloadable Audiobook
"The parallels with our own moment are impossible to miss in Ahamed's narrative about 4 members of the 'most exclusive club in the world', central bankers who dominated global finance in the post World War I era...."
Raymond Carver by Carol Sklenicka, on order
"Ten years in the making, this prodigiously researched and meticulous biography sympathetically and adroitly integrates its subject's work with the turbulent life--marred by alcoholism, financial turmoil and family discord--that brought it into being...."
The library staff offers their suggestions on the libray website, the Book Advisor.
It is updated monthly.