If you're reading this, you've survived the excesses of New Year's Eve and have fallen into a new year as well as a new decade. "Twenty Ten" we're going to call it; sorry if you're fonder of "Two Thousand Ten" or "O Ten." Yesterday, we promised you a listing of the 10 books History Wire liked best during 2009. Believe me, it was hard narrowing it down to only 10 -- so much good stuff is out there.
We ended with a mixture of biographies, historical nonfiction and fiction. Two works were written in and about the economic crisis in which we're still enmeshed. Remember our byword at History Wire: Anything in the past -- even the recent past -- that informs the future -- is history to us. You can link onto our reviews of the chosen books.
We sincerely hope you'll e-mail us (see address box at upper right) with your comments and to nominate your own 2009 favorites. Here goes!
The Last Lion -- The Fall and Rise of Ted Kennedy by the Boston Globe team, Simon & Schuster.
Eiffel's Tower and the World's Fair Where Buffalo Bill Beguiled Paris, the Artists Quarreled and Thomas Edison Became a Count by Jill Jonnes, Viking.
Busted -- Life Inside the Great Mortgage Meltdown by Edmund L. Andrews, Norton.
Street Fighters -- The Last 72 Hours of Bear Stearns by Kate Kelly, Portfolio.
That Old Cape Magic by Richard Russo, Knopf.
Provenance -- How a Con Man and a Forger Rewrote the History of Modern Art by Laney Salisbury and Aly Suto, Penguin.
Fordlandia -- The Rise and Fall of Ford's Forgotten Jungle City by Greg Grandin, Metropolitan.
The Kennedy Assassination 24 Hours After -- Lyndon Baines Johnson's Pivotal First Day as President by Steven M. Gillon, Basic Books.
Cheerful Money -- Me, My Family and the Last Days of WASP Splendor by Tad Friend, Little Brown.
Green Metropolis -- Why Living Smaller, Living Closer, Driving Less are the Keys to Sustainability by David Owen, Riverhead.
