QUICK TAKES - Oct. 15, 2009

Books about Henry Ford and Cornelius Vanderbilt are among the finalists for the 2009 National Book Award, which the National Book Foundation announced Wednesday.

In nonfiction, finalists are David M. Carroll’s “Following the Water: A Hydromancer’s Notebook,” Sean B. Carroll’s “Remarkable Creatures: Epic Adventures in the Search for the Origins of Species,” Adrienne Mayor’s “The Poison King: The Life and Legend of Mithradates, Rome’s Deadliest Enemy,” T.J. Stiles’ “The First Tycoon: The Epic Life of Cornelius Vanderbilt” and Greg Grandin’s “Fordlandia: The Rise and Fall of Henry Ford’s Forgotten Jungle City.”

Fiction finalists are Bonnie Jo Campbell’s “American Salvage,” Colum McCann’s “Let the Great World Spin,” Daniyal Mueenuddin’s “In Other Rooms, Other Wonders,” Marcel Theroux’s “Far North” and Jayne Anne Phillips’ “Lark and Termite.”

Winners will be announced Nov. 18 in a ceremony in New York that also will bestow honorary medals on Gore Vidal and Dave Eggers.

-- Nick Owchar