Best Books Of 2010: The Complete List

Best Books Of 2010: The Complete List
Use the list below to browse NPR's Best Books of 2010 recommendations. Each critic's list is
presented separately. Click on the article names to read our critics' comments about the books.
'Favorite Books of 2010'
November 19, 2010 text size A A A
In which we ask NPR personalities to write about one book from the past year that stood out as a
favorite.
Mara Liasson Suggests Actually 'Reading Obama'
Reading Obama: Dreams, Hope, and the American Political Tradition, by James T. Kloppenberg,
hardcover, 296 pages, Princeton University Press, list price: $24.95
Guy Raz On The Terror Of 'Freedom'
Freedom: A Novel, by Jonathan Franzen, hardcover, 576 pages, Farrar, Straus and Giroux, list price:
$28
Lynn Neary Picks 'Goon Squad'
A Visit from the Goon Squad, by Jennifer Egan, hardcover, 288 pages, Knopf, list price: $25.95
Michel Martin Basks in 'The Warmth of Other Suns'
The Warmth of Other Suns: The Epic Story of America's Great Migration, by Isabel Wilkerson,
hardcover, 640 pages, Random House, list price: $30
Scott Simon Picks Scott Turow's 'Innocent'
Innocent, by Scott Turow, hardcover, 416 pages, Grand Central Publishing, List price: $27.99
Peter Sagal On 'Sex At Dawn'
Sex At Dawn: The Prehistoric Origins Of Modern Sexuality, by Christopher Ryan and Cacilda Jetha,
hardcover, 416 pages, Harper, list price: $25.99
'2010's Best Cookbooks: Real-Life Labors Of Love'
Recommended by T. Susie Chang
In the Kitchen With a Good Appetite, by Melissa Clark, hardcover, 464 pages, Hyperion & Co., list price:
$27.50
Around My French Table: More Than 300 Recipes From My Home to Yours, by Dorie Greenspan,
hardcover, 544 pages, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, list price: $40
One Big Table: 600 Recipes From the Nation's Best Home Cooks, Farmers, Fishermen, Pit-Masters,
And Chefs, by Molly O'Neill, hardcover, 880 pages, Simon & Schuster, list price: $50
Stir-Frying to the Sky's Edge: The Ultimate Guide to Mastery, With Authentic Recipes and Stories, by
Grace Young, hardcover, 336 pages, Simon & Schuster, list price: $35
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Flour: Spectacular Recipes From Boston's Flour Bakery + Cafe, by Joanne Chang, hardcover, 320
pages, Chronicle Books, list price: $35
The Gourmet Cookie Book: The Single Best Recipe From Each Year 1941-2009, by Gourmet
magazine, hardcover, 176 pages, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, list price: $18
The Essential New York Times Cookbook: Classic Recipes for a New Century, by Amanda Hesser,
hardcover, 932 pages, W.W. Norton & Co., list price: $40
Nigella Kitchen: Recipes From the Heart of the Home, by Nigella Lawson, hardcover, 512 pages,
Hyperion & Co., list price: $35
The Food Substitutions Bible: More Than 6,500 Substitutions for Ingredients, Equipment And
Techniques, by David Joachim, paperback, 696 pages, Robert Rose, list price: $24.95
'People Are Talking...About These Five Books'
Recommended by Heller McAlpin
Freedom by Jonathan Franzen, hardcover, 576 pages, Farrar, Straus and Giroux, list price: $28
So Much For That by Lionel Shriver, hardcover, 448 pages, Harper, list price: $25.99
Room by Emma Donoghue, hardcover, 336 pages, Little, Brown and Co., list price: $24.99
36 Arguments For The Existence Of God by Rebecca Goldstein, hardcover, 416 pages, Pantheon, list
price: $27.95
The Immortal Life Of Henrietta Lacks by Rebecca Skloot, hardcover, 384 pages, Crown, list price: $26
'Oh, To Be Young: The Year's Best Teen Reads'
Recommended by Gayle Forman
The Sky Is Everwhere by Jandy Nelson, hardcover, 288 pages, Dial, list price: $17.99
The Thing A Brother Knows by Dana Reinhardt, hardcover, 256 pages, Wendy Lamb Books, list price:
$16.99
Anna And The French Kiss by Stephanie Perkins, hardcover, 384 pages, Dutton Juvenile, list price:
$16.99
Before I Fall by Lauren Oliver, hardcover, 480 pages, HarperCollins, list price: $17.99
The Mockingbirds by Daisy Whitney, hardcover, 352 pages, Little, Brown Books for Young Readers, list
price: $16.99
'Best Books Of Winter: Alan Cheuse Makes His List'
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Recommended by Alan Cheuse
Before You Suffocate Your Own Fool Self by Danielle Evans, hardcover, 240 pages, Riverhead
Hardcover, list price: $25.95
20 Under 40: Stories From The New Yorker edited by Deborah Treisman, hardcover, 448 pages,
Farrar, Straus and Giroux, list price: $16
Life Times: Stories, 1952-2007 by Nadine Gordimer, hardcover, 560 pages, Farrar, Straus and Giroux,
list price: $30
Cleopatra: A Life by Stacy Schiff, hardcover, 384 pages, Little, Brown and Company, list price: $29.99
The Poets Laureate Anthology by Elizabeth Hun Schmidt, hardcover, 762 pages, W. W. Norton &
Company, list price: $39.95
Man In The Woods by Scott Spencer, hardcover, 320 pages, Ecco, list price: $24.99
'Best Gift Books: Art, Nature, Cute Canines'
Recommended by John McAlley
Natural History: The Ultimate Living Guide To Everything On Earth by Dorling Kindersley, hardcover,
648 pages, DK Publishing, list price: $50
Finishing The Hat; Collected Lyrics (1954-1981) With Attendant Comments, Principles, Heresies,
Grudges, Whines And Anecdotes by Stephen Sondheim, hardcover, 480 pages, Knopf, list price:
$39.95
Decade by Eamonn McCabe and Terence McNamee, hardcover, 512 pages, Phaidon Press, list price:
$39.95
40: A Doonesbury Retrospective by G.B. Trudeau, hardcover, 696 pages, Andrews McMeel Publishing,
list price: $100
Henri Cartier-Bresson: The Modern Century by Peter Galassi, hardcover, 376 pages, The Museum of
Modern Art, New York, list price: $75
Fragments: Poems, Intimate Notes, Letters by Marilyn Monroe, hardcover, 256 pages, Farrar, Straus
and Giroux, list price: $30
I Lego N.Y. by Christoph Niemann, hardcover, 32 pages, Abrams Image, list price: $14.95
I Found This Funny: My Favorite Pieces Of Humor And Some That May Not Be Funny At All by Judd
Apatow, hardcover, 224 pages, McSweeney's, list price: $25
The New Biographical Dictionary Of Film by David Thomson, hardcover, 963 pages, Knopf, list price:
$24.95
Barbara Kruger by Barbara Kruger, hardcover, 307 pages, Rizzoli, list price: $65
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'Happy Holidays, Voyeurs: Nancy Pearl Picks Memoirs'
Recommended by Nancy Pearl
Blue Blood by Edward Conlon, paperback, 576 pages, Riverhead Hardcover, list price: $17
The Bill From My Father by Bernard Cooper, paperback, 256 pages, Simon & Schuster, list price: $14
The Hare with Amber Eyes: A Family's Century of Art and Loss by Edmund de Waal, hardcover, 368
pages, Farrar, Straus and Giroux, list price: $26
Journey Into the Whirlwind by Eugenia Ginzburg, paperback, 432 pages, Mariner Books, list price: $16
Cakewalk: A Memoir by Kate Moses, hardcover, 368 pages, The Dial Press, list price: $26
Encyclopedia Of An Ordinary Life by Amy Krouse Rosenthal, paperback, 368 pages, Three Rivers
Press, list price: $13
Half A Life by Darin Strauss, hardcover, 204 pages, McSweeney's, list price: $22
Stuffed: Adventures of a Restaurant Family by Patricia Volk, paperback, 256 pages, Vintage, list price:
$13.95
'Book Club Picks: Give 'Em Something To Talk About'
Recommended by Lynn Neary
Parrot And Olivier In America by Peter Carey, hardcover, 400 pages, Knopf, list price: $26.95
Wench by Dolen Perkins-Valdez, hardcover, 304 pages, Amistad, list price: $24.99
Faithful Place by Tana French, hardcover, 416 pages, Viking Adult, list price: $25.95
The Imperfectionists by Tom Rachman, hardcover, 288 pages, The Dial Press, list price: $25
Sunset Park by Paul Auster, hardcover, 320 pages, Henry Holt, list price: $25
'Sex, Drugs, And 'Life' — The Year's Best Guilty Reads'
Recommended by Susan Jane Gilman
Chelsea Chelsea Bang Bang by Chelsea Handler, hardcover, 256 pages, Grand Central, list price,
$25.99
I Remember Nothing by Nora Ephron, hardcover, 160 pages, Knopf, list price: $22.95
Love, Lust, And Faking It by Jenny McCarthy, hardcover, 256 pages, Harper, list price: $24.99
Late, Late At Night, By Rick Springfield; hardcover, 336 pages; Touchstone, list price: $26
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Life by Keith Richards with James Fox, hardcover, 576 pages, Little, Brown and Company, list price:
$29.99
'Maureen Corrigan's Favorite Books Of 2010'
Recommended by Maureen Corrigan
Just Kids by Patti Smith, hardcover, 304 pages, Ecco, list price: $27
Franklin and Eleanor: An Extraordinary Marriage by Hazel Rowley, hardcover, 368 pages, Farrar,
Straus and Giroux, list price: $27
Big Girls Don't Cry: The Election That Changed Everything For American Women by Rebecca Traister,
hardcover, 336 pages, Free Press, list price: $26
Charlie Chan: The Untold Story of the Honorable Detective and His Rendezvous with American History
by Yunte Huang, hardcover, 354pages, W.W. Norton & Co., list price: $26.99
There is Power in a Union: The Epic Story of Labor in America by Philip Dray, hardcover, 784 pages,
Doubleday, list price: $35
Unbroken: A World War II Story of Survival, Resilience and Redemption by Laura Hillenbrand,
hardcover, 496 pages, Random House, list price: $27
Searching for Tamsen Donner by Gabrielle Burton, hardcover, 328 pages, Univ of Nebraska Press, list
price: $26.95
Freedom: A Novel by Jonathan Franzen, hardcover, 576 pages,; Farrar, Straus and Giroux, list price:
$28
So Much for That by Lionel Shriver, hardcover, 448 pages, Harper, list price: $25.99
The Thousand Autumns of Jacob de Zoet: A Novel by David Mitchell, hardcover, 496 pages, Random
House, list price: $26
Super Sad True Love Story by Gary Shteyngart, hardcover, 352 pages, Random House, list price: $26
'Fresh Delivery: Indie Booksellers Pick 2010 Favorites'
Recommended by Daniel Goldin
Crooked Letter, Crooked Letter by Tom Franklin, hardcover, 288 pages, William Morrow, list price:
$24.99
The Wilding by Benjamin Percy, paperback, 288 pages, Graywolf Press, list price: $23
The Cookbook Collector by Allegra Goodman, hardcover, 416 pages, The Dial Press, list price: $26
Wordcatcher: An Odyssey Into The World Of Weird And Wonderful Words by Phil Cousineau,
paperback, 202 pages, Viva Editions, list price: $15.95
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My Year Of Flops: The A.V. Club Presents One Man's Journey Deep Into The Heart of Cinematic
Failure by Nathan Rabin, paperback, 288 pages, Scribner, list price: $15
Recommended by Lucia Silva
A Week At The Airport by Alain de Botton, paperback, 112 pages, Vintage, list price: $15
Atlas Of Remote Islands by Judith Schalansky, hardcover, 144 pages, Penguin, list price: $28
My Mother She Killed Me, My Father He Ate Me edited by Kate Bernheimer, paperback, 608 pages,
Penguin, list price: $17
The Open Daybook edited by David P. Earle, hardcover, 384 pages, Mark Batty Publisher, list price:
$45
Where We Know: New Orleans As Home edited by David Rutledge, paperback, 304 pages, Broken
Levee Books, list price: $16
Recommended by Rona Brinlee
The Gendarme by Mark T. Mustian, hardcover, 304 pages, Amy Einhorn Books/Putnam, list price:
$25.95
It's A Book by Lane Smith, hardcover, 32 pages, Roaring Brook Press, list price: $12.99
My Name Is Not Isabella: Just How Big Can A Little Girl Dream? by Jennifer Fosberry and Mike Litwin,
hardcover, 32 pages, Sourcebooks Jabberwocky, list price: $16.99
The Tower, The Zoo, And The Tortoise by Julia Stuart, hardcover, 320 pages,Doubleday, list price:
$24.95
What Is Left The Daughter by Howard Norman, hardcover, 256 pages, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, list
price: $25
The Sound Of A Wild Snail Eating by Elisabeth Tova Bailey, hardcover, 208 pages, Algonquin Books,
list price: $13.99
'Us And Them: The Year’s Best Outsider Fiction'
Recommended by Danielle Evans
Three Days Before The Shooting... by Ralph Ellison, hardcover, 1,136 pages,Modern Library, list price:
$50
Death Is Not An Option by Suzanne Rivecca, hardcover, 222 pages, W.W. Norton & Co., list price:
$23.95
How To Read The Air by Dinaw Mengestu, hardcover, 320 pages, Riverhead Hardcover, list price:
$25.95
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Vida by Patricia Engel, paperback, 176 pages, Black Cat/Grove, list price: $14
Shahid Reads His Own Palm by Reginald Dwayne Betts, hardcover, 80 pages,Alice James Books, list
price: $15.95
The Age Of Orphans: A Novel by Laleh Khadivi, hardcover, 304 pages, Bloomsbury USA, list price: $14
'Otherworldly — The Year's Most Transporting Books'
Recommended by Glen Weldon
Hull Zero Three by Greg Bear, hardcover, 320 pages, Orbit, list price: $19.99
Temperance by Cathy Malkasian, hardcover, 240 pages, Fantagraphics Books, list price: $22.99
Hard Magic by Laura Anne Gilman, paperback, 336 pages, Luna, list price: $14.95
The Passage by Justin Cronin, hardcover, 784 pages, Ballantine, list price: $27
BodyWorld by Dash Shaw, hardcover, 384 pages, Pantheon, list price: $27.95
Mockingjay by Suzanne Collins, hardcover, 400 pages, Scholastic, list price: $17.99
A Little Bundle of New: Best Book Debuts of 2010
Recommended by John Freeman
Curfewed Night: One Kashmiri Journalist's Frontline Account Of Life, Love, And War In His Homeland
by Basharat Peer; hardcover, 240 pages; Scribner, list price: $25
Black Mamba Boy by Nadifa Mohamed; hardcover, 304 pages; Farrar, Straus and Giroux, list price: $25
The Emperor Of All Maladies: A Biography Of Cancer by Siddhartha Mukherjee; hardcover, 592 pages;
Scribner, list price: $30
The Silver Hearted by Davide McConnell; paperback, 230 pages; Alyson Books, list price: $14.95
Vida by Patricia Engel; paperback , 176 pages; Black Cat/Grove, list price: $14
Fiction For Piecing This Crazy World Together
Recommended by Pankaj Mishra
Gold Boy, Emerald Girl by Yiyun Li; hardcover, 256 pages; Random House, list price: $25
The Collected Stories Of Deborah Eisenberg by Deborah Eisenberg; paperback, 992 pages; Picador,
list price: $22
A Visit From The Goon Squad by Jennifer Egan; hardcover, 288 pages; Knopf, list price: $25.95
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Ilustrado by Miguel Syjuco; hardcover, 320 pages; Farrar, Straus and Giroux, list price: $26
Our Kind Of Traitor by John le Carre; hardcover, 320 pages; Viking Adult, list price: $27.95
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