Last night in New York, the National Book Foundation announced the recipients of their 2009 awards. As previously reported here on The Well-read Naturalist, two natural history titles, Sean B. Carroll’s Remarkable Creatures: Epic Adventures in the Search for the Origins of Species and David M. Carroll’s Following the Water: A Hydromancer’s Notebook, were in contention for the non-fiction award. Sadly, it was not the year for either of these two very fine books to be honored with the award, which was bestowed upon T.J. Stiles’ The First Tycoon: The Epic Life of Cornelius Vanderbilt.
The results of the awards notwithstanding, I have found both Remarkable Creatures as well as Following the Water to be well worth the attention of all those interested in natural history. Look for reviews of both these titles to appear on The Well-read Naturalist in the weeks to come.
