Here is a list of my favorite photo or photo-related books of 2009 (in order by author):

War is Only Half the Story Volume II - Aftermath Project (Kathryn Cook, Natela Grigalashvili, Tinka Dietz, Pep Bonet and Christine Fenzl)

Photowisdom: Master Photographers on their Art - Lewis Blackwell

To Walk in Beauty - Stacia Spragg-Braude

The Spirit & the Flesh - Debbie Fleming Caffery

Firefly: Photographs of Children - Keith Carter

Summer Heart - Thekla Ehling

Kutuuka - Gloria Baker Feinstein

Looking In: Robert Frank's The Americans (Expanded Edition) - Robert Frank and Sarah Greenough

Emmet Gowin: Photographs - Emmet Gowin

Three - Ed Kashi

Fun and Games - Lisa Kereszi

Memories of Myself - Danny Lyons

Asylum: Inside the Closed World of State Mental Hospitals - Christopher Payne

Surfland - Joni Sternbach

Violet Isle: A Duet of Photography from Cuba - Alex Webb and Rebecca Norris Webb

In this podcast I talk about some of the ways in which we photographers can sometimes veer from the photographic life for one reason or another and I offer up some suggestions that have worked for me to get back on track with my photography.

Eliza Lamb's most recent photo series explores the neighborhood of
Astoria, Queens in New York City and how people use their yards as a public display of their religious beliefs. Lamb was fascinated by the
willingness or need to share these beliefs so openly while also hiding their personality and nature at the same time.

Lauren Semivan creates imagined events through the use of staged photographs. This approach gives her both the control necessary to tell a story while incorporating autobiographical elements into the narrative such as dreams, preoccupations, desires, anxieties, and the collective unconscious.

Lisa Kereszi's latest monograph "Fun and Games" explores places where some people might go to escape from the boredom and challenges of everyday life. Boardwalks, dance halls, the great outdoors, and even strip clubs are all places of interest for Kereszi but rather than give us a glamorized travelogue, Kereszi scratches below the surface, sometimes deeply, to show us what these places of interest are really like and, in a way, that makes them even more interesting (and maybe even fun).