Greed, Gardening and Gut Symmetries: 9 Books from 2009
Photo by mitikusa
I finished my 2009 books-read list over the weekend—always a fun project. Here are 9 of my favorites from the year:
Sabbath, by Wayne Muller. My favorite book of the year, hands down. This is a book I give reverence to, a book that I found grounding and wise with the occasional slap. Read this if you have many things going in your life and you sometimes feel like you don’t know up from down.
Meltdown: The End of the Age of Greed, by Paul Mason. Read this if you’re looking for a better understanding of how the economic meltdown happened, or feel stupid because you still don’t understand what derivatives are or how they work (a lot of bankers don’t, either). Surprisingly fun and compelling for an economics book.
Agenda for a New Economy, by David C. Korten. Read this if you wonder what our economy might look like if it focused more on Main Street than Wall Street.
Miss Pettigrew Lives for a Day, by Winifred Watson. Read this if you like period pieces and are looking for something gentle. Bonus: Frances McDormand is in the movie version which has one significant difference from the book.
Call Me Ishmael Tonight: A Book of Ghazals, by Agha Shahid Ali. Read this if you have a fondness for ghazals in particular, poetry forms in general, or if you’re simply looking for a seriously good poetry book.
Listening Below the Noise: A Meditation on the Practice of Silence, by Anne D. LeClaire. Read this book if the idea of an hour of silence makes your heart sing.
Gardening at the Dragon’s Gate, by Wendy Johnson. Read this if you’re interested in food, health, nature, cooking, gardening, organics, environment, zen, mythology, spirituality, sustainability, obesity, local farming, or community-supported agriculture. A multidimensional book that’s hard to categorize. Happy making.
The Language of Baklava, by Diana Abu-Jaber. Read this memoir if you wonder about the torn life of an immigrant—missing the homeland, the sweet pull of memory, but also anticipation and excitement over the challenges and possibilities of a new country. If you prefer fiction, try Abu-Jaber’s Crescent, which I also read this year and liked very much.
Gut Symmetries, by Jeanette Winterson. I love Winterson. Seriously, I think she could publish a book of ampersands and I would probably think it was brilliant. This novel is a blend of physics and romance (with a dash of horror)—what better combination? Read this if you enjoy books where you think you’re probably missing 30% of what the author is saying.
A good year for books. Happy New Year (a tad late) to you and yours, and best wishes for good books in 2010!
