Creating a “best of” list is always a challenge. Especially when it comes to a “best of” list of books. I suspect that’s because what makes a book good is so personal to each of us, it’s very tough to compile a list that is universally liked. So, rather than a “best of” list, I thought I would create a list of the Top 5 books of 2010, selected from the Bookshare most downloaded, New York Times Best of 2010, and Amazon and Barnes & Noble customer favorites, in several categories: Fiction, Literature, Mystery and Thriller, Non-Fiction, Teens, Tweens, and Children. Warning: this is a long list! And your Top 5 might be missing! If they are, please tell us, what are your favorites of 2010?
Fiction:
Literature:
- The Cookbook Collector by Allegra Goodman
- One Day by David Nicholls
- The Particular Sadness of Lemon Cake: A Novel by Aimee Bender
- Super Sad True Love Story: A Novel by by Gary Shteyngart
- Blooms of Darkness by Aharon Appelfeld
Mystery and Thriller:
- The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet’s Nest by Stieg Larsson
- The Overton Window by Glenn Beck
- Sizzling Sixteen (Stephanie Plum) by Janet Evanovich
- The Passage by Justin Cronin
- The Confession: A Novel by John Grisham
Non-Fiction:
- Unbroken by Laura Hillenbrand
- The Warmth of Other Suns by Isabel Wilkerson
- The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks by Rebecca Skloot
- Life by James Fox and Keith Richards
- Spoken from the Heart by Laura Bush
Teen:
- Mockingjay (The Final Book of The Hunger Games) by Suzanne Collins
- The Short Second Life of Bree Tanner: An Eclipse Novella (Twilight Saga) by Stephenie Meyer
- Burned (House of Night, Book 7) by P. C. Cast
- Spirit Bound (Vampire Academy, Book 5) by Richelle Mead
- Clockwork Angel (The Infernal Devices, Book 1) by Cassandra Clare
Tween:
- Diary of a Wimpy Kid: The Ugly Truth by Jeff Kinney
- The Red Pyramid (The Kane Chronicles, Book 1) by Rick Riordan
- The Heroes of Olympus, Book One: The Lost Hero by Rick Riordan
- Fablehaven, Book 5:Keys to the Demon Prison by Brandon Mull
- The Necromancer (The Secrets of the Immortal Nicholas Flamel) by Michael Scott
Children:
In my top 10s:
Adult Literature: Room: A novel by Emma Donoghue , Little Bee: A novel by Chris Cleave, Cutting for Stone by Abraham Verghese
Teen: House of Dead Maids by Clare Dunkle , Speak (Platinum Ed.) by Laure Halse Anderson,
Cutting For Stone is definitely on my top 10 list as well. It was recommended to me a couple weeks ago by a friend at my college, and I just started reading it, but it is so beautifully written I can hardly put it down. I haven’t read or heard of any of the books on this list, but am always looking for reading suggestions, so thank you!