2009 Favorites

A yearly wrapup. A baker's dozen. Interesting: six fiction, seven nonfic. Of the fiction, three were mysteries, of the nonfiction, all but three were history, and of those three, two were about animals.

A Voyage Long and Strange, Tony Horwitz (history: what happened between Columbus and the Pilgrims—Borders purchase)
The Cosgrove Report, G.J.A. O'Toole (1865 mystery about the fate of John Wilkes Booth—Borders purchase)
Time Quake, Linda Buckley-Archer (conclusion of the "Gideon" trilogy; really, really, really worth waiting a year for!—Amazon order)
A Natural History of the Senses, Diane Ackerman (lush wordplay...loved it—Borders purchase)
The Perfect Summer: England 1911, Before the Storm (manners and morals in pre-WWI England—Borders purchase)
A Duty to the Dead, Charles Todd (post-WWI based mystery with nurse protagonist; first in a series—Amazon Vine offering)
Harlan Ellison's Watching, Harlan Ellison (media essays and criticisms—Borders purchase)
Eleanor Vs. Ike, Robin Gerber (alternative history--what if Adlai Stevenson had died and Eleanor Roosevelt had run for President in 1952?—Borders purchase from bargain table)
Among the Mad, Jacqueline Winspear (post WWI mystery, latest in the Maisie Dobbs series—Amazon order)
American Road, Pete Davies (cross country by car and "motor truck" in 1919 to publicize the Lincoln Highway project—Amazon Marketplace order after seeing Rick Sebak's Lincoln Highway special)
Wesley the Owl, Stacey O'Brien (IMHO, better than the highly-publicized Dewey—Borders purchase)
A Drowned Maiden's Hair, Laura Amy Schlitz (YA thriller about an orphan adopted by a manipulative woman to take part in a con game—bargan book purchase at Fry's, of all places)
Flyaway, Suzie Gilbert (experiences of a bird rehabber—Borders purchase)

Honorable mention to

Beatrix Potter: A Life in Nature, Linda Lear (Borders purchase)