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