Or, Testosterone Fights Back. Publishers Weekly has published its list of the ten best books of 2009, and they are all by men. Some, like Richard Holmes’s Age of Wonder, are deeply thought and researched. Others, like Geoff Dyer’s Jeff in Venice, are tired old paeans to the Male Member–and I don’t mean of Parliament. Yes, doing lines under a Tintoretto ceiling in Venice after your well-humped lover has left you in the lurch, that is a worthy addition to the canon.
WILLA has started a Wiki list of books by women that might have merited a second glance this year. It includes one of my own favorites, Laurie Moore’s The Gate at the Stairs. You can add your own. I think it’s a great resource for finding new books to read, but I’d love to have your own suggestions here–the best books you’ve read in 2009, whether by men or by women.