Here are the books released in 2009 that caught my interest. Where I can, or where I remember, I will provide links to how I heard about them. As I read them, I will link to my notes. For the non-fiction, the interview often gives you the gist of the whole book.
Fiction of various flavors:
| Read so far | |
| Talk of the Nation interview | Sum : forty tales from the afterlives, by David Eagleman |
| Hugo nominee | Julian Comstock: A Story of 22nd-Century America, by Robert Charles Wilson |
| The Selected Works of T.S. Spivet, by Reif Larsen | |
| Nebula and Hugo nominee | The City & The City, by China Miéville |
| The Yggysey, by Daniel Pinkwater | |
| Nebula and Hugo nominee | The Windup Girl, by Paolo Balcigalupi |
| The Revolution Business, by Charles Stross | |
| Talk of the Nation interview | The Book of Genesis Illustrated by R. Crumb, by R. Crumb |
| Inbound 4: A Comic Book History of Boston, by Boston Comics Roundtable | |
| Eclipse Three, edited by Jonathan Strahan | |
| NY Times essay | Essential Pleasures: A New Anthology of Poems to Read Aloud, edited by Robert Pinsky |
| Hugo nominee | Palimpsest, by Catherynne M. Valente |
| Nebula and Hugo nominee | Boneshaker, by Cherie Priest |
| review on All Things Considered among others | The Magicians, by Lev Grossman |
| Hugo nominee | Wake, by Robert J. Sawyer |
Non-Fiction:
| Read so far | |
| interview on On Point | Supersense: Why We Believe in the Unbelievable, by Bruce M. Hood |
| Picking up 660 Curries at the library | Japanese Hot Pots: Comforting One-Pot Meals, by Tadashi Ono & Harris Salat |
| Looking up My Bread | Kneadlessly simple: fabulous, fuss-free, no-knead breads, by Nancy Baggett |
| Everywhere! | My bread: the revolutionary no-work, no-knead method, by Jim Lahey |
| Colbert bump | Cheating Death: The Doctors and Medical Miracles that Are Saving Lives Against All Odds, by Sanjay Gupta, M.D. |
| interview on To The Best of Our Knowledge | Cheap: the high cost of discount culture, by Ellen Ruppel Shell |
| Moral machines : teaching robots right from wrong, by Wendell Wallach | |
| interview on KUOW Weekday | The Element: How Finding Your Passion Changes Everything, by Ken Robinson |
| The Long Thaw: how humans are changing the next 100,000 years of Earth’s climate, by David Archer | |
| interview on Morning Edition | In cheap we trust : the story of a misunderstood American virtue, by Lauren Weber |
| Won’t be read | |
| interview on All Things Considered | The Superorganism : the beauty, elegance, and strangeness of insect societies, by Bert Hölldobler and E.O. Wilson |
| NY Times review | Prisoner of the State, by Zhao Ziyang |
| wasn’t paying attention when I first heard about it | Rapt : Attention and the Focused Life, by Winifred Gallagher |
Writing Every Day 
In cheap we trust : the story of a misunderstood American virtue, by Lauren Weber was worth reading for free. Nice blog, I din know you started peachtrees. I’ve had 4 dwarves (Loring) for 4 summers. I guess I lose 2/3 of the babies every spring but still get over 100 large edible fruits in August.
Agreed about Cheap We Trust. How did she write a whole book about frugality and not mention libraries?
I only planted the peach tree (and a plum and 2 pears) last year. I’m amazed I got any fruit from it so quickly. Do you have to protect yours from the squirrels?
I use what they call Pond and Bird Netting to keep the pests away. It has worked quite well. It comes in pkges of 7’x20′ and I tack 2 of them together (with twist-ties or the like) along the long side to get a 14′ width which drapes well over the 5-7′ high dwarf trees.
My big joy last summer was my 2 niagara grapevines. I love that spicy, kind of sour fruit and I think I got about 40 lbs in addition to creating a new shaded area for randi to chill outdoors without getting too much sun. I also planted 3 heirloom totato plants and got lots of Russian Plum fruits.
Thanks. If I need to buy netting this year to protect fruit, that would be a good problem to have.