Favorite Books of the Year?

I usually get my best reading recommendations from you all at the end of the year! So, what were your favorites this year (so far)?

Sorry it's so long... I'll break it up into fiction & non-fiction, which may help! I'll also put asterisks beside the standouts.

NON-FICTION
The File by Timothy Garton Ash
*Enough: Why the World's Poorest Starve in an Age of Plenty by Roger Thurow & Scott Kilman
War at the Wall Street Journal by Sarah Ellison
The Library at Night by Alberto Manguel
Autobiography of an Execution by David Dow
*Passionate Minds: The Love Story of the Englightenment by David Bodanis
*The Cello Suites by Eric Siblin
Provenance: How a Con Man and a Forger Rewrote the History of Modern Art by Laney Salisbury and Aly Sujo
*Mrs Adams in Winter by Michael O'Brien
*The Last Stand by Nathaniel Philbrick
The Music Room by William Fiennes
*How to Live: A Life of Montaigne in one question and twenty attempts at an answer by Sarah Bakewell
*In Pursuit of Silence by George Prochnik
Methland by Nick Reding
Last Train from Hiroshima by Charles Pellegrino
Magnifico: The Brilliant Life and Violent Times of Lorenzo de Medici by Miles Unger
Guilt About the Past by Bernhard Schlink
Hot Time in the Old Town by Edward Kotman
Cain's Field: Faith, Fratricide and Fear in the Middle East by Matt Beynon Rees
Wild Grass by Ian Johnson
Packing for Mars by Mary Roach
Dreaming in Chinese by Deborah Fallows
The Whites of Their Eyes by Jill Lepore
The Romantic Revolution by Tim Blanning
*On The Spartacus Road by Peter Stothard
Must You Go? by Antonia Fraser
*Every Man in This Village is a Liar by Megan Stack
Gilded Youth by Kate Cambor
*The Memory Chalet by Tony Judt

FICTION:
The Elegance of the Hedgehog by Muriel Barbery
Shades of Grey by Jasper Fforde
*The Reluctant Fundamentalist by Mohsin Hamid
The Cellist of Sarajevo by Steven Galloway
The Calligrapher's Daughter by Eugenia Kim
The Story of Lucy Gault by William Trevor
The King's Touch by Jude Morgan
Thirteenth Night by Alan Gordon
The Reader by Bernhard Schlink
Death of a Red Heroine by Qiu Xiaolong (and later books in the series)
Map of the Invisible World by Tash Aw
*Never Let Me Go by Kazuo Ishiguro
*The Imperfectionists by Tom Rachman
Austerlitz by W.G. Sebald
The Swan Thieves by Elizabeth Kostova
Love Songs from a Shallow Grave by Colin Cotterill
The Dark Vineyard by Martin Walker
The Long Stretch by Linden MacIntyre
*The Slap by Christos Tsiolkas
Becoming George Sand by Rosalind Brackenbury
*Madame Proust and the Kosher Kitchen by Kate Taylor
*The Finkler Question by Howard Jacobson
Miss Buncle's Book by D.E. Stevenson
*The Bishop's Man by Linden MacIntyre
Heartstone by C.J. Sansom
Your Republic is Calling You by Young-ha Kim
*Room by Emma Donoghue
The Fall by Albert Camus
*Brooklyn by Colm Toibin
How to Read the Air by Dinaw Mengestu
*The Siege by Helen Dunmore
*The Betrayal by Helen Dunmore
Doomsday Book by Connie Willis
The Post-Office Girl by Stefan Zweig
Still Alice by Lisa Genova
*Les Derniers jours de Stefan Zweig by Laurent Seksik

Fabulous, I have updated my TBR list accordingly:). Anyone else?

Nonfiction
The National Parks: America's Best Idea by Dayton Duncan & Ken Burns
Larry Burrows: Vietnam by Larry Burrows
The Morville Hours by Katherine Swift
Waterlog by Roger Deakin
Mountains Beyond Mountains by Tracy Kidder
Slavery By Another Name by Douglas A. Blackmon
The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks by Rebekah Skloot
At the Hands of Persons Unknown by Philip Dray
On Hallowed Ground: The Story of Arlington National Cemetery by Robert M. Poole
The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich by William L. Shirer
Roosevelt and Hopkins: An Intimate History by Robert Sherwood
Provenance by Laney Salisbury and Aly Sujo
The Poisoner's Handbook by Deborah Blum
Hellhound on His Trail by Hampton Sides
The Day the World Came to Town by Jim DeFede
The Rest Is Noise by Alex Ross
My Reading Life by Pat Conroy

Fiction
Salvation by Sholem Asch
The Elegance of the Hedgehog by Muriel Barbery
Crossing to Safety by Wallace Stegner
The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle by Haruki Murakami
Britten and Brulightly by Hannah Berry
The Party by Rudolph Von Abele
The Egyptian by Mika Waltari
Someone Knows My Name by Lawrence Hill
The Straight and Narrow Path by Honor Tracy
Little Boy Lost by Marghanita Laski
The War of the End of the World by Mario Vargas Llosa
Winter Rose by Patricia A. McKillip
Silence by Shusaku Endo
In This House of Brede by Rumer Godden
Major Pettigrew's Last Stand by Helen Simonson
Still Alice by Lisa Genova
The Postmistress by Sarah Blake
Troubles by J.G. Farrell
The Idiot by Fyodor Dostoevsky
Cranford by Elizabeth Gaskell
Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close by Jonathan Safran Foer
A Thousand Splendid Suns by Khaled Hosseini
Oblomov by Ivan Goncharov
To the Lighthouse by Virginia Woolf
Matterhorn by Karl Marlantes
Music and Silence by Rose Tremain
The Lacuna by Barbara Kingsolver
The Siege and The Betrayal both by Helen Dunmore
Of Human Bondage by W. Somerset Maugham
Life With a Star by Jiri Weil
The Finkler Question by Howard Jacobson
Bury Your Dead by Louise Penny
2666 by Roberto Bolano
Room by Emma Donoghue
Cutting for Stone by Abraham Verghese
Middlemarch by George Eliot

Young Adult
Genesis by Bernard Beckett
Howl's Moving Castle by Diana Wynne Jones
Airborn by Kenneth Oppel
The Four-Story Mistake by Elizabeth Enright
Briar Rose by Jane Yolen
Good Night, Mr. Tom by Michelle Magorian
Iqbal by Francesco d'Adamo
Freak the Mighty by Rodman Philbrick
The Red Pyramid by Rick Riordan
Where the Mountain Meets the Moon by Grace Lin
Revolution by Jennifer Donnelly

I am not even attempting Touchstones :)

Edited for clarification

I didn't read that much this year, but a few books did stand out as being particularly noteworthy:

Rules of '48 by Jack Cady
Charlotte Temple by Susanna Rowson
Yotsuba manga series by Kiyohiko Azuma

I was sad when I saw so relatively few copies of the Cady book on LT. There's something about it that was really wonderful and almost understated.

The Rowson is my most recent book (though I'm still working on the contextual stuff and critical essays in the Norton Critical Edition I have), and I'd have to admit that it's an awful book, just terrible, except that it was so delightful to read. I've been talking about it all over the place since I started.

And the Yotsuba&! - I discovered those books in early January this year, and they are now amongst my favorite things ever. Such fun, lighthearted stories about a five-year-old girl. Also, very very funny.

Mine are:

Fiction:
Gotz and Meyer - David Albahari
Still Alice - Lisa Genova
The White Tiger - Aravind Adiga
Dr. Haggard's Disease - Patrick McGrath
The Catcher in the Rye - J. D. Salinger
The Earth Hums in B Flat - Mari Strachan
A Good Place for the Night - Savyon Liebrecht
The Leisure Seeker - Michael Zadoorian
Tomcat in Love - Tim O'Brien
Follow Me - Paul Griner
The Lost Tiki Palaces of Detroit - Michael Zadoorian

Non-Fiction:
Farmer Jane - Temra Costa
A Long Way Gone - Ishmael Beah

I am setting about to keep a spreadsheet of our favorites. In the interest of simplicity, I'm just doing Fiction and Nonfiction. Although, of course, you should list your faves however you like. When it makes sense, I'll share a top ten or twenty or whatever etc.

Please encourage folks to participate so we can get the most accurate picture of our reading year.

>7 nancyewhite: Thank you for volunteering to do that, Nancy! I'm very much looking forward to seeing the results.

Here are my standout reads of the year so far, in the order I read them:

Soulless by Gail Carriger (fiction, steampunk, supernatural, romance--heard about from beserene here)
Born to Run by Christopher McDougall (non-fiction, running--maybe discovered in the bookstore?)
His Majesty's Dragon (fiction, historical fantasy--family recommendation)
Victory of Eagles (fiction, historical fantasy--series continuation--I really like the first 5 Temeraire books, but these two particularly stand out)
Lips Touch: Three Times (fiction, YA, fantasy--heard about from allthesedarnbooks here)
The Unlikely Disciple (non-fiction, religion--heard about in Read YA Lit)
Facing the Lion (non-fiction, Africa--heard about in Read YA Lit?)
The Willoughbys (fiction, children's, satire--heard about here)
The Windup Girl (fiction, dystopia--heard about on booksmugglers)
Before I Fall (fiction, YA--heard about from stephxsu here)
Into Thin Air (non-fiction, mountaineering--bookstore)
Catching Fire (fiction, YA, dystopia--series continuation)
Room (fiction--heard about here)
The Mysterious Howling (fiction, children's, satire--heard about from avatiakh here)
The Day the World Came to Town (non-fiction, 9/11--heard about from sjmccreary and alcottacre here)
Doomsday Book (fiction, time travel, middle ages, plague--heard about here)

I'm going to wait a while before deciding whether any of my December reads make the list, because sometimes my opinion changes as time passes. There are books that I rated 4.5 stars that didn't make this list, while some that I rated only 4 stars at the time turned out to be particularly memorable.

From reads that scored at least 4 stars, those that I look back on and think, 'I loved reading that' are:

Fiction (including YA)
The Widow's Tale - Mick Jackson
The Wee Free Men - Terry Pratchett
The Picture of Dorian Gray - Oscar Wilde
I Shall Wear Midnight - Terry Pratchett
Purple Hibiscus - Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie
Minaret - Leila Aboulela
Room - Emma Donoghue
The House at Pooh Corner - AA Milne
The Lacuna - Barbara Kingsolver
Cloud Atlas - David Mitchell
Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire - JK Rowling
Miss Ranskill Comes Home - Barbara Euphan Todd
The Uncommon Reader - Alan Bennett (re-read)
Bet Me - Jennifer Crusie (re-read)
Framley Parsonage - Anthony Trollope
Women of the Silk - Gail Tsukiyama
Holy Disorders - Edmund Crispin
Miss Buncle's Book - DE Stevenson

Non-Fiction
How to be a Bad Birdwatcher - Simon Barnes
Reformation - Diarmaid MacCulloch
Are Women Human? - Dorothy L Sayers
Earth: An Intimate History - Richard Fortey (still reading)
The Diving Bell and the Butterfly - Jean-Dominique Bauby

I look forward to your spreadsheet, Nancy!

First of all, I want to thank you for not setting any limits on how many books we can list. I've had a great reading year (although I've been in a bit of a slump) and there are lots I can (and will) list, in reverse order of when I read them (i.e., most recent first). And I hope to add to this list by the end of the year, although I realize I will have to drastically pare it down to make a five-bests list, even if I cheat and do that separately for each category.

New and Recent Fiction
Lord of Misrule by gordonjaimy::Jaimy Gordon
Great House by kraussnicole::Nicole Krauss
A Visit from the Goon Squad by Jennifer Egan
The Betrayal by Helen Dunmore
A Blind Man Can See How Much I Love You by Amy Bloom
Q Road by Bonnie Jo Campbell
The Last Brother by Nathacha Appanah
Learning to Talk by Hilary Mantel
The Siege by Helen Dunmore
Where the God of Love Hangs Out by Amy Bloom

Classics and Older Works of Fiction
Job: The Story of a Simple Man by Joseph Roth
The Green House by Mario Vargas Llosa
The Master and Margarita by Mikhail Bulgakov
Death in the Andes b Mario Vargas Llosa
The Mountain Lion by Jean Stafford
The Long Ships by Frans G. Bengtsson
Wolf among Wolves by Hans Fallada
The Feast of the Goat by Mario Vargas Llosa
Terra Nostra by Carlos Fuentes
Wish Her Safe at Home by Stephen Benatar
Hotel Savoy by Joseph Roth
The Balkan Trilogy by Olivia Manning
Chronicle of a Death Foretold by Gabriel Garcia Marquez
The Cossacks by Leo Tolstoy
Shadow Country by Peter Mathiessen
The Straight and Narrow Path by Honor Tracy (reread)
The Storyteller by Mario Vargas Llosa
Conversation in the Cathedral by Mario Vargas Llosa

Nonfiction
Bloodlands by Timothy Snyder
Nothing to Envy by Barbara Demick
Hitler and Stalin by Alan Bullock
The Road by Vasily Grossman (sorry no touchstones)
The Whites of Their Eyes by Jill Lepore
The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich by William Shirer
Murder City: Ciudad Juarez and the Global Economy's New Killing Fields by Charles Bowden
Dreams in a Time of War by Ngugi wa Thiong'o
In Search of a Lost Ladino by Marcel Cohen

My best reads of the year, in no particular order, are

Finn by Jon Clinch
Wolf Hall by Hilary Mantel
Mrs. Somebody Somebody short fiction by Tracy Winn
I Got Somebody in Staunton short fiction by William Henry Lewis
The Wind-up Bird Chronicle by Haruki Murakami
We Have Always Lived in the Castle by Shirley Jackson
No Country for Old Men by Cormac McCarthy
Gilead by Marilynne Robinson
Remember Me by Trezza Azzopardi
Small Wonder essays by Barbara Kingsolver (a re-read)

I've greatly enjoyed several others this year, but those 10 were outstanding even in good company. It was sort of a slack year for me as far as non-fiction goes---I blame the fact that I was planning a wedding for half of it and recovering from that for the rest of it! But I would like to give honorable mention to On Hallowed Ground by Robert M. Poole and The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks by Rebecca Skoot.

I had a great reading year:

YA
The high King by Lloyd Alexander
Juwelen van stras by Carli Biessels
Despereaux by Kate DiCamillo
The Graveyard Book by Neil Gaiman
Pictures of Hollis Woods by Patricia Reilly Giff
Paper Towns by John Green
The brothers Lionheart by Astrid Lindgren
Nobody's boy by Hector Malot
Harry Potter and the prisoner of Azkaban, Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire, Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix, Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince and Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows by J.K. Rowling
De wateren van Finn (english translation: Flight into Danger cop 1972, Random House) by Alet Schouten
The eagle of the ninth, The lantern bearers and Dawn wind by Rosemary Sutcliff

Fiction
The amazing adventures of Cavalier and Clay by Michael Chabon
Gentlemen of the road by Michael Chabon
Buddenbrooks: The decline of a family by Thomas Mann
The many-colored land, The golden torc, The nonborn king and The adversary by Julian May
The story of Edgar Sawtelle by David Wroblewski

Non-fiction
Animals in translation by Temple Grandin
Straw Dogs. Thoughts on humans and other animals by John Gray (essay's)
In Europe: Travels through the twentieth century by Geert Mak
Trawler by Redmond O'Hanlon

Thanks Nancy for volunteering to prepare a spreadsheet of favorites. I'll post my favorites soon.

I don't see any of the ones I have on tap that will be outstanding enough to make the list, but I do reserve the right to add if they are.

My Best this year:

Fiction

Wolf Hall
Plainsong
Cutting for Stone
The Help
Montana 1948
Bury Your Dead
Blindness
Still Alice
Vestments
Things They Carried
Major Pettigrew's Last Stand

Non-Fiction

Immortal life of Henrietta Lacks
On Hallowed Ground
Delicacy of Lace
84 Charing Cross Rd
Curse of the Narrows
The Shallows:What the Internet is Doing to your Brain
My Reading Life

It was an outstanding year. So many books I'd never have read if not for LT recommendations. We are an amazing group!

It was an outstanding year. So many books I'd never have read if not for LT recommendations. We are an amazing group!

Agreed! I count 10 of my 16 top reads that I heard about first on LT.

In fact, I'm going to go back and edit my list to say where I found out about each book.

I'm trying to list a conservative number, so I'm leaving out the Heyers and a few others.... This is a bit misleading since I read much more fiction than non, but these are the best of a very good crop, and I reserve the right to add more when my mind changes. I'm sure about these.
Fiction
Infinite Jest - a work of genius! (LT inspired)
Cutting for Stone - a work of near-genius! (LT I.)
The Lacuna
2666 (LT I.)
South Riding - (LT I.)
Life with a Star

Non-Fiction
Essays of Elia
The Education of Henry Adams
Shelley: The Pursuit

I won't make a full list yet though I don't know if I'll add any reads to it this month (probably not!) but I will definitely include Cutting for Stone.

Assuming that I do not read something else that is truly amazing before the end of the year, I guess my best reads were:

Non-Fiction -
Boswell’s London Journal by James Boswell
Marie Therese, Child of Terror by Susan Nagel
Kabul in Winter by Ann Jones

Fiction -
The Pursuit of Love by Nancy Mitford
Child 44 by Tom Rob Smith
Agincourt by Bernard Cornwell
Fools Crow by James Welch
Still Life by Louise Penny
The Tough Guide to Fantasyland by Diana Wynne Jones
Lirael by Garth Nix
Moon Tiger by Penelope Lively
Fingersmith by Sarah Waters
Corrag by Susan Fletcher
A Mercy by Toni Morrison
The Bronze Horseman by Paullina Simons

I’m limiting myself here to five and 4.5 star books. There were a whole bunch of books that I’ve rated at 4 stars, but for listing the ‘best’ reads of the year, I decided to only list the very top of the heap. Hmmm. Looks like a really short list. And that last one – a re-read - has only made the list because I nudged it up a half star this time around. One might think that I didn’t read much stuff that I enjoyed, but truly there were a lot of four star books in the pile Still – I’m going with this.

Out of the 127 books I read this year I have 52 best of's it was a great year so I may have to start a thread of my own for my favorites!

I anticipate adding some late December reads in the next few weeks, but for now, here are the ones that, looking at my list, are the most memorable:

Fiction

The Adoration of Jenna Fox - Mary E. Pearson
Models Don't Eat Chocolate Cookies - Erin Dionne
A Crooked Kind of Perfect - Linda Urban
Poison Study - Maria V. Snyder
Hero of Ages - Brandon Sanderson
Shadow Bound - Erin Kellison
Blameless - Gail Carriger
Chronicles of the Necromancer: The Summoner - Gail Z. Martin
The Name of the Wind - Patrick Rothfuss
Assassin's Apprentice - Robin Hobb
She Walks in Beauty - Siri Mitchell
Mornings in Jenin - Susan Abulhawa
Amy Inspired - Bethany Pierce
The Watchmen - Alan Moore

Non-Fiction

Beavers Eh to Bea - Lil Anderson
Animals in Translation - Temple Grandin
Scent of the Missing - Susannah Charleson
Honesty, Morality, and Conscience - Jerry White
The Devil and Sherlock Holmes - David Grann
Waiter Rant - Steve Dublanica
Terrify No More - Gary A. Haugen
Nomad - Ayaan Hirsi Ali

Here are my favorites of 2010::

FICTION

The Tiger Rising by Kate DiCamillo
Pictures of Hollis Woods by Patricia Reilly Giff
The Rules of Survival by Nancy Werlin
Where The Mountain Meets The Moon by Grace Lin
The Magician's Elephant by Kate DiCamillo
Freak The Mighty by Rodman Philbrick
Ellen Foster by Kate Gibbons
The Graveyard Book by Neil Gaiman
Montana 1948 by Larry Watson
Number The Stars by Lois Lowry
The Silent Boy by Lois Lowry
Unwind by Neal Shusterman
Hope Was Here by Joan Bauer
Never Let Me Go by Kazuo Ishiguro
Afternoon of the Elves by Janet Taylor Lisle
Milkweed by Jerry Spinelli

NON-FICTION

The Lives They Left Behind:Suitcases From a State Hospital Attic by Darby Penney
Into The Arms of Strangers: Stories of the Kindertransport Mark Jonathan Harris
1001 Children's Books You Must Read Before You Grow Up by Julia Eccleshare
The Gardner Heist by Ulrich Boser
Kindertransport by Olga Levy Drucker

Just a handful for me:

The Yacoubian Building by Alaa El Aswany
The Old Man and The Sea by Ernest Hemingway
The Poisonwood Bible by Barbara Kingsolver
The Road by Cormac McCarthy
The Tenth Man by Graham Greene
Things Fall Apart by Chinua Achebe
Behind the Scenes at the Museum by Kate Atkinson
Case Histories by Kate Atkinson
The Shipping News by Annie Proulx
Monsieur Ibrahim et les fleurs du Coran by Eric-Emmanuel Schmitt
Alias Grace by Margaret Atwood

I'll definitely come back to this thread and take notes, thanks for starting it!

Wow - I'll have to look up some of these recommendations for my 2011 reading list!

My hands-down favourite this year was definitely Just Kids by Patti Smith. It was just awarded the non-fiction National Book Award for 2010, and I'm really glad that it's getting the recognition that it deserves.

Thank you for sharing your lists!
Here's my list of favourite reads of 2010.
- Het verslag van Brodeck / Brodeck's Report by Philippe Claudel
- Grijze zielen / Grey Souls (UK) / By a Slow River (US-Canada) by Philippe Claudel
- Salka Valka by Halldor Kiljan Laxness
- The boy in the striped pyjamas by John Boyne
- Waar we ooit liepen / (Where Once We Walked) by Kjell Westö
- Het proces Sonderberg / The Sonderberg Case by Elie Wiesel
- Heart of Darkness by Joseph Conrad
- Unburied by Charles Palliser
- Mevrouw Verona daalt de heuvel af by Dimitri Verhulst

#27 - JJ4 - you liked No Great Mischief! That was my favorite book of the year a couple of years ago. Always like finding someone else who liked it too.

This has been a fantastic year of reading! These are just a few memorable titles:

Matterhorn by Karl Marlantes
Blindness by Jose Saramago
Columbine by Dave Cullen
Walking to Gatlinburg by Howard Frank Mosher
Small Island by Andrea Levy
WAR by Sebastion Junger
The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks by Rebecca Skloot
Revolution by Jennifer Donnelly

I read a lot of non-fiction this year, but I can't say any of it was outstanding.

The 13th Hour by Richard Doetsch
While My Sister Sleeps by Barbara Delinsky
Rainwater by Sandra Brown
Still Missing by Chevy Stevens
The Blue Zone by Andrew Gross
The Wedding by Nicholas Sparks
Caught by Harlan Coben
Those Who Save Us by Jenna Blum
Envy by Sandra Brown
Never Look Away by Linwood Barclay
O Little Town by Don Reid
Down River by John Hart
Carolina Moon by Nora Roberts
Half Broke Horses by Jeannette Walls
Hattie Big Sky by Kirby Larson
The Heretic's Daughter by Kathleen Kent

I forgot to include The Rock of Tanios by Amin Maalouf in my 2010 selections. Can't possibly omit to mention such a great author and this Goncourt-winning novel, albeit little-known in English.

I am adding Captain Pantoja and the Special Service by Mario Vargas Llosa to my list in post #11.

These are the ones that stand out to me...

Fiction:
Middlemarch by George Eliot
Swann's Way by Marcel Proust
The Brutal Telling and Bury Your Dead by Louise Penny
Miss Pettigrew Lives for a Day by Winifred Watson

Non-Fiction:
Your Money or Your Life by Joe Dominguez
84 Charing Cross Road by Helene Hanff
Education of a Wandering Man by Louis L'Amour
The whole Book Lust series

Here are my favorite books of 2010. I could have a few last-minute additions but here are my top 10 favorites for 2010:

Fiction:
This Is Graceanne's Book by P.L. Whitney (a re-read for me)
Bury Your Dead by Louise Penny
The Help by Kathryn Stockett

Nonfiction:
My Reading Life by Pat Conroy
Curse of the Narrows: The Halifax Explosion 1917 by Laura M. MacDonald
Give a Little: How Your Small Donations Can Transform Our World by Wendy Smith
The Devil in the White City by Erik Larson
Sundays in America: A Yearlong Road Trip in Search of Christian Faith by Suzanne Strempek Shea
A Paradise Built in Hell by Rebecca Solnit
The Game from Where I Stand by Doug Glanville

These were my 5 star reads for the year:

The Accidental Bestseller by Wendy Wax
Kiss of Death by P.D. Martin
Cold Justice by Katherine Howell
Poison Study by Maria V Snyder
Magic Study by Maria V Snyder
Iron Kissed by Patricia Briggs
Gone by Michael Grant
The Postmistress by Sarah Blake
The Dead Travel Fast by Deanna Raybourn
The Girl Who Chased the Moon by Sarah Addison Allen
The Little White Horse by Elizabeth Gouge

Here's mine:

His Dark Materials by Philip Pullman
American Gods by Neil Gaiman
John Adams by David McCullough
Danny the Champion of the World by Roald Dahl
The Einstein Syndrome by Thomas Sowell

My 2010 favorites:
Fiction:
Fingersmith by Sarah Waters
The Book Thief by Markus Zuzak (a reread)
The Star of Kazan by Eva Ibbotson
Rascal by Sterling North
Rebecca by Daphne du Maurier
A Guide to the Birds of East Africa by Nicholas Drayson
The Once and Future King by T. H. White
The Fur Person by May Sarton
Crossing to Safety by Wallace Stegner
Persuasion by Jane Austen
Number the Stars by Lois Lowry
Emma by Jane Austen

non-fiction:
84, Charing Cross Road by Helene Hanff (another reread)
Zeitoun by Dave Eggers

At the moment these are my top 10 books of 2010, listed in the order in which I read them:

The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks by Rebecca Skloot
A Fortunate Man: The Story of a Country Doctor by John Berger
The Siege of Krishnapur by J.G. Farrell
Troubles by J.G. Farrell
The Heart Is a Lonely Hunter by Carson McCullers
Room by Emma Donoghue
The White Family by Maggie Gee
I Hotel by Karen Tei Yamashita
Pereira Declares by Antonio Tabucchi
The Emperor of All Maladies: A Biography of Cancer by Siddharta Mukherjee

>38 kidzdoc: I read The Heart is a Lonely Hunter a good 20 years ago now and it was SUCH a revelation. I want to get my hands on it again to see what it's like now that I'm so much more mature... lol.

Another book I've just finished and definitely need to add to my short list as have rated it a very rare (for me) five stars is Hotel du Lac which I've just reviewed here.

TOP Reads since April 2010 (no particular order)

Non-Fiction

Breaking Night by Liz Murray
A Midwife's Tale; The Life of Martha Ballard by Laurel Ulrich
One Man's Owl by Bernd Heinrich
84 Charring Cross Road by Helene Hanff

Fiction

Whistling Season by Ivan Doig
The Picture of Dorian Gray by Oscar Wilde
These Is My Words by Nancy Turner
The Hummingbird's Daughter by Luis Alberto Urrea
Cutting For Stone by Abraham Verghese
Fingersmith by Sarah Waters
Middlemarch by George Eliot

Whoops, I forgot - The Picture of Dorian Gray was one of my favorites for 2010 as well...thanks for the reminder Claudia!

My 2010 Favorites:

Non-Fiction:
Coming into the End Zone by Doris Grumbach
In a House of Dreams and Glass by Robert Klitzman

Fiction:
Major Pettigrew's Last Stand by Helen Simonson
Father Melancholy's Daughter by Gail Godwin
Her Fearful Symmetry by Audrey Niffenegger
The Long Song by Andrea Levy
Girl in Translation by Jean Kwok

I don't usually do lists. I'll tell anyone who's interested, though, that The Blind Contessa's New Machine should be on a well-rounded TBR list. It's a beautiful novel.

Zeitoun should be on every American citizen's TBR. It's that important. It's also very satisfying to read. It's the very best thing Dave Eggers has ever done.

I wholeheartedly agree with Richard's sentiment about Zeitoun, which was one of my favorite reads of 2009.

Hmm.....I have Zeitoun loaded on the MP3, maybe I can get to on this trip.

I reserve the right to add to this from my December reads:

Memorable Fiction:

All the King's Men by Robert Penn Warren
Rebecca by Daphne du Maurier
Fingersmith by Sarah Waters
American Salvage by Bonnie Jo Campbell
Cloud Atlas by David Mitchell
Troubles by J.G. Farrell
No Great Mischief by Aliatair McLean
The Imperfectionists by Tom Rachmann
The Plague by Albert Camus
Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen
Sea of Poppies by Amitav Ghosh
Let the Great World Spin by Collum McCann
The Siege by Helen Dunmore
Middlemarch by George Eliot
The Betrayal - By Helen Dunmore
Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bronte

Memorable Non-fiction:

The Worst Hard Time by Timothy Egan
The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks by Rebecca Skloot
The Devil in the White City by Erik Larson
Packing for Mars by Mary Roach

Bonnie, I missed your review of No Great Mischief last May. Nice job!

I've looked through my reads this year and was surprised that I had so many 5 star books. Not that I was surprised to have had so many good reads, but I don't hand out 5 stars that easily. It has to be a book that is pretty much perfect, nothing I'd want changed. These are books I'd recommend enthusiastically.

In The Woods
The Gallery of Regrettable Food
The Monster Club
The Anglo Files
Malice Aforethought
Alias Grace
Watching the English
The Professionals by Bob Rocca
Pop. 1280
Cake Wrecks
Jamie at Home
Patience and Fortitude
Bonjour Tristesse
Night
The Mysterious Affair at Styles
Why The Devil Chose New England For His Work
The Phantom Tollbooth

>47 Fourpawz2: Thanks Charlotte. I reallyloved that book.

Didn't realize this thread existed! Ooops. Here's mine.

Fiction:
Farenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury
The Road by Cormac McCarthy
World War Z by Max Brooks
Brave New World by Aldous Huxley
The Last Town on Earth by Thomas Mullen
The Terrorist of Irustan by Louise Marley
Mulengro by Charles De Lint
Pluto, Animal Lover by Laren Stover

Nonfiction:
Bonk by Mary Roach
Packing for Mars by Mary Roach
Spook by Mary Roach
Microcosm by Carl Zimmer
The Coming Plague by Laurie Garret
The Earth Dwellers by Erich Hoyt
First Light by Richard Preston

Top 5:
Disgrace by J. M. Coetzee
Ethan Frome by Edith Wharton
The Slap by Christos Tsiolkas
Shadow of the Wind by Carlos Ruiz Zafon
Devil in the White City by Erik Larson

Honorable Mentions:
The Grand Sophy by Georgette Heyer
A Dry White Season by Andre Brink
Kaffir Boy by Mark Mathabane
Lady of the Butterflies by Fiona Mountain
Poison by Sara Poole
Mockingjay by Suzanne Collins
The Pillars of the Earth by Ken Follett
The Scarlet Pimpernel by Emmuska Orczy
Wolf Hall by Hilary Mantel

Top Ten in no particular order

Angelology by Danielle Trussoni
Sumner Island by Michael Cormier
The Last Day by Glenn Kleier
Greetings From Jamaica, Wish You Were Queer by Mari SanGiovani
Once Upon a Town by Bob Greene
Winging It: A Memoir of Caring for a Vengeful Parrot Who's Determined to Kill Me… by Jenny Gardiner
Zeitoun by Dave Eggers
Through a Glass Darkly by Jostein Gaarder
A Midwife's Tale by Laurel Thatcher Ulrich
My Name is Mary Sutter by Robin Oliveira

a nod to

The Passage by Justin Croninaz
Wicked Plants by Amy Stewart
Dream Angus by Alexander McCall Smith

worst reads

A Guide to the Birds of East Africa by Nicholas Drayson
Final Price by J. Gregory Smith

This is my list.. I will edit if I have any changes..

Forgot to mention Matterhorn. Really, if you only read one book published in 2010, this one should be it. Quite extraordinarily good.

My top reads of 2010:

New Reads:
Where the Mountain Meets the Moon by Grace Lin
Blackout by Connie Willis
All Clear by Connie Willis
Shades of Grey by Jasper Fforde
I Shall Wear Midnight by Terry Pratchett
Pegasus by Robin McKinley

Re-reads:
The Curse of Chalion by Lois McMaster Bujold
Paladin of Souls by Lois McMaster Bujold

Best new series read:
The Queen of Attolia quartet by Megan Whalen Turner
The Soulless, Changless, Blameless series by Gail Carriger

Best series re-read:
The Abhorsen Trilogy by Garth Nix
The Chrestomanci Chronicles by Diana Wynne Jones
The Riddle Master of Hed trilogy by Patricia A. McKillip
The Prydain Chronicles by Lloyd Alexander
Paksenarrion series (includes new book Oath of Fealty by Elizabeth Moon

I know, I know....I was not an "official" member of this group in 2010....but people seem to want to see my LIST...I live to serve

;-)

In order, more or less:

Out by Natsuo Kirino (as dark as it gets; extremely well-written)
The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo by Stieg Larsson (deserved all the Hype)
The Chinatown Death Cloud Peril by Paul Malmont (the Pulps are alive and well)
The Gendarme by Mark Mustian (gorgeous prose for a horrendous subject...History writ small)
Unnatural Fire by Fidelis Morgan (a lively, bawdy romp through the Restoration....scandal rags ain't new)
Grace After Midnight (a Celebrity Bio with heart and smarts....rocks slow and deep)

there......

Add Middlemarch to my list, please. A reread, but even so...

Ooooh, I do love a good list, especially when there are books involved! I've added a fair few more to my TBR list from this thread, thanks all! Anyway, I reserve the right to fall madly in love with another book or two before December's out, but here are my favourites, in no particular order, as they stand right now:

Fiction:
Persuasion by Jane Austen
North and South by Elizabeth Gaskell
The Snow Goose by Paul Gallico
The Count of Monte Cristo by Alexandre Dumas
The Island by Victoria Hislop

Non-fiction:
Eat, Pray, Love by Elizabeth Gilbert
Bedlam: London and Its Mad by Catharine Arnold
84, Charing Cross Road by Helene Hanff
The Lion Children by Angus, Travers and Maisie McNeice
Eating for England: The Delights and Eccentricities of the British at Table by Nigel Slater
Wesley: The Story of a Remarkable Owl by Stacey O'Brien

YA:
Forbidden by Tabitha Suzuma
The Alchemyst and The Magician by Michael Scott (the Nicholas Flamel series)

Here's to happy reading for 2011!

Added a couple more to my list: Revolution by Jennifer Donnelly and Middlemarch by George Eliot.

Ok I will try to pare down my list to post here:

Fiction

Saving CeeCee Honeycutt by, Beth Hoffman
The Poacher's Son by, Paul Dioron
Mornings in Jenin by,Susan Abulhawa
Still Alice by, Lisa Genova
The Girl Who Chased the Moon by Sarah Addison Allen
The Kitchen House by, Kathleen Grissom

Non-Fiction
Little Madhouse on the Prairie: by, Marion Elizabeth Witte
The Glass Castle by, Jeannette Walls

Historical fiction

Cleopatra's Daughter by, Michelle Moran

Classics
My Antonia by, Willa Cather
Jane Eyre by Charlotte Brontë

Young Adult

Beautiful Malice by, Rebecca James
Shiver & Linger by, Maggie Stiefvater
Vixen the Flappers By, Jillian Larkin
Hatchet by, Gary Paulson
When You Reach me by, Rebecca Stead
The Hunger Games Series by, Suzanne Collins
The Garden of Eve by, K.L. Going

Paranormal Fiction
Cry Wolf & Hunting Ground by, Patricia Briggs
Silver Borne Mercy Thompson #5 by, Patricia Briggs
Soulless by, Gail Carriger

Humorous

Belle Weather: Mostly Sunny with a Chance of Scattered Hissy Fits & You Can't Drink All Day if You Don't Start in the Morning & Stop Dressing Your Six-Year-Old Like a Skank by Celia Rivenbark

Fantasy
The Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy & the Entire Series by, Douglas Adams
Stormwarden & Keeper of the Keys by, Janny Wurts

2010 was an excellent reading year for me.

Top of the List

The Matterhorn by Karl Marlantes
The Road by Cormac McCarthy
World War Z by Max Brooks

Other Top Reads

Fingersmith by Sarah Waters
Ride The Wind by Lucia St Clair Robson
These Is My Words by Nancy E. Turner
Child 44 by Tom Rob Smith
The Guernsey Literary And Potato Peel Pie Society by Mary Ann Shaffer
Down the Common: A Year In the Life of a Medieval Woman by Ann Baer
Flesh House by Stuart MacBride
A Quiet Belief In Angels by R.J. Ellory
Buffalo Soldiers by Tom Willard
Neverwhere by Neil Gaiman
My Antonia by Willa Cather
The Art of Racing In the Rain by Garth Stein

Unless my current read blows up somewhere in the remaining 80 pages, I am going to have to add The Virginian by Owen Wister to my list of excellent books for 2010. Completely unexpected.

I read more than a few stinkers this year, but the good reads more than outnumbered the bad.

My incomplete list in no particular order:

fiction
Less Than Zero by Bret Easton Ellis
The Haunting of Alaizabel Cray by Chris Wooding
Soulless by Gail Carriger
The Magicians by Lev Grossman
Prater Violet by Christopher Isherwood
His Majesty's Dragon by Naomi Novik
The Graveyard Book by Neil Gaiman
We Have Always Lived in the Castle by Shirley Jackson
The Haunting of Hill House by Shirley Jackson
The Vampire Tapestry by Suzy McKee Charnas
Queen Victoria: Demon Hunter by A. E. Moorat

plays
Loot by Joe Orton
The Tempest by William Shakespeare

non-fiction
Built of Books: How Reading Defined the Life of Oscar Wilde by Thomas Wright
American on Purpose by Craig Ferguson
Role Models by John Waters

Someone has put together an approximate list of LT's highest-rated books published in 2010, which might be of interest here.

ETA warning: the thread is in RSI.

Everyone has such great lists! I had a great non-fiction year, all but the first one due to LT recs. All the fiction were LT recs except for Blackout by Willis.

Non-fiction
Raven: The Story of Rev. Jim Jones by Tim Reiterman
Hunting Eichmann by Neal Bascomb
On Hallowed Ground by Robert M. Poole
Endgame, 1945 by David Stafford
The Spirit Catches You and You Fall Down by Anne Fadiman
Into the Arms of Strangers: Stories of the Kindertransport by Harris and Oppenheimer

Fiction
When You Reach Me by Rebecca Stead
Baking Cakes in Kigali by Gaile Parkin
The Rules of Survival by Nancy Werlin
Blackout by Connie Willis

Sher
The Rules of Survival is quite a powerful book.

It is great to see posts from you. Happy Holidays!

Here's a complete list of top-rated books of 2010 (this time not in RSI!)

Unless a book really wows me over the next week, here's my list for 2010:

Fiction:
Crime and Punishment by Fyodor Dostoevsky
Doomsday Book by Connie Willis
Major Pettigrew's Last Stand by Helen Simonson
The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins
Bury Your Dead by Louise Penny - actually, reading this entire series is a standout in the year to me, but this one even more so than the rest
Savvy by Ingrid Law
Speak by Laurie Halse Anderson
Persuasion by Jane Austen

Nonfiction:
The Lexicographer's Dilemma by Jack Lynch
At Large and at Small by Anne Fadiman
Essays of E.B. White by E.B. White
The Library at Night by Alberto Manguel

Poetry:
Native Guard by Natasha Trethewey

This is not including rereads and, within each section, in order read. Looking back at it, I'm really surprised at how many of these are adult books given the fact that I usually read about half adult and half children's/YA books.

Most memorable reads from 2010:

1. Invisible Mountain
2. Born to Run by Christopher mcDougall
3. Half the Sky
4. Tomorrow when the world began Series (John Marsden)
5. The Girl who fell from the sky
6. Just like us
7. Evidence of things unseen by Marianne Wiggins
8. Lost prophet by John D'emilio
9. In the hands of the great spirit by Jake Page

-edited to correct spelling

My top 10 reads of 2010:

The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks by Rebecca Skloot
A Fortunate Man: The Story of a Country Doctor by John Berger
The Siege of Krishnapur by J.G. Farrell
Troubles by J.G. Farrell
The Heart Is a Lonely Hunter by Carson McCullers
Room by Emma Donoghue
The White Family by Maggie Gee
I Hotel by Karen Tei Yamashita
Pereira Declares by Antonio Tabucchi
The Emperor of All Maladies: A Biography of Cancer by Siddharta Mukherjee

Darryl

You read so many great books this year that I imagine it was difficult to narrow it down to a top ten.

I'm not much for ranking books, but these are the ones from this year's list that make me say, "Ooh, I'd like to read that again":

The Anubis gates by Tim Powers
Tinkers by Paul Harding
Don't sleep, there are snakes by Daniel L. Everett
The housekeeper and the professor by Yoko Ogawa
Perdido Street Station by China Miéville
Living with books by Helen Haines
The keepers of the house by Shirley Ann Grau
Slapboxing with Jesus by Victor LaValle

#71: Actually, it was much more difficult to narrow my favorite reads to 10 in 2009, even though this was a good reading year as well.

swynn

Don't Sleep, there are snakes is on my tbr list. I vow to read it in 2011.

It is such fun to read back over the books I have read this year and try to decide which were my favorites.

The books that made the biggest impression on me: The Windup Girl by Paolo Bacigalupi
The Eyre Affair by Jasper Fforde

A classic book I'm sorry I waited until now to read: Age of Innocence by Edith Wharton

The most fun I had in a series: all the Sookie Stackhouse books by Charlaine Harris

The YA book that most impressed me: Revolver by Marcus Sedgwick

The biggest challenge I tackled and glad I succeeded in finishing: Wolf Hall by Hilary Mantel

My favorite graphic novel: Britten and Brulightly by Hannah Berry

My favorite non-fiction, not necessarily because of amazing writing but for the amazing accomplishment of creating something from nothing: The Boy Who Harnessed the Wind by William Kamkwamba

My list for 2010

Wolf Hall by Hilary Mantel - much better than I expected, this was one of those that I resisted the first several times it was recommended by those here on LT. I'm glad I finally read it!

A Guide to the Birds of East Africa by Nicholas Drayson - a very fun read, I've gifted it to two special people now.

Cutting for Stone by Abraham Verghese - not what I was expecting, but so much more.

The Grapes of Wrath by John Steinbeck - Seemed very fitting for the economic environment this year.

Cry, the Beloved Country by Alan Paton - wow

Faking It b Jennifer Crusie - a bit crude, but I laughed out loud almost every chapter in this book. What a fun read!

Point of Impact, Black Light, and Time to Hunt by Stephen Hunter.

Dark Star Safari by Paul Theroux - I don't agree with all of his conclusions, but I do love his observations as he traveled down the length of Africa.

Bury Your Dead by Louise Penny - the best of the series I think

Elizabeth Goudge - A City of Bells, Towers in the Mist, and The Dean's Watch - I love how she describes people.

I had a lot of fun in 2010!

Best Fiction:
Major Pettigrew's Last Stand by Helen Simonson
American Rust by Philipp Meyer
The Buccaneers by Edith Wharton
The Help by Kathryn Stockett
The Gravedigger's Daughter by Joyce Carol Oates
The Book Thief by Marjus Zusak
A Tree Grows in Brooklyn by Betty Smith
Lady Audley's Secret by Mary Elizabeth Braddon
The Known World by Edward P. Jones
Before I Fall by Lauren Oliver

Best series:
Sookie Stackhouse series by Charlaine Harris
Wicked Lovely series by Melissa Marr

Best Non-Fiction:
The Year of Living Biblically by A.J. Jacobs
The Unlikely Disciple by Kevin Roose
A Woman in Berlin: Eight Weeks in the Conquered City: A Diary by Anonymous
Uni Bound? by Ierna Madjar

First Graphic Novels:
The Complete Maus by Art Spiegelman
Persepolis by Marjane Satrapi

I read over 200 books and it's hard to choose only a few so I've posted a longer list over on my 2010 & 2011 threads.

Fiction Top 3:
Adjusting Sights by Haim Sabato (Israel)
The White King by György Dragomán (Hungary)
The Ministry of Special Cases by Nathan Englander (US)

Best Scifi & Fantasy
American Gods by Neil Gaiman (UK)
Snow Crash by Neal Stephenson (US)

Best Short Stories:
Things we didn't see coming by Steve Amsterdam (US/Aus)

Best nonfiction:
The man who fell into a puddle: Israeli lives by Igal Sarna (Israel)

Best Children's:
Where the mountain meets the moon by Grace Lin (US)

Best YA fiction:
Chaos Walking 3: Monsters of Men by Patrick Ness (UK)

My 2010 favorites were:

Fiction
Bury Your Dead by Louise Penny
Round Robin by Jennifer Chiaverini
Hattie Big Sky by Kirby Larson
Mister Pip by Lloyd Jones
Site Unseen by Dana Cameron
Paganini's Ghost by Paul Adam
The Spanish Bow by Andromeda Romano-Lax
Divine Inspiration by Jane Langton
The Lacuna by Barbara Kingsolver
Water Like a Stone by Deborah Crombie
Blue Heaven by C. J. Box
Dreaming of the Bones by Deborah Crombie
The Shadow of the Wind by Carlos Ruiz Zafón

Non-Fiction
The Bread of Angels by Stephanie Saldana
Sky Juice and Flying Fish by Jessica B. Harris

What a fun way to look back on this year!
Here are my top reads, in order of awesomeness.

Top Fiction

The Thirteenth Tale - Diane Setterfiled
Cloud Atlas - David Mitchell
The Shadow of the Wind - Carlos Ruiz Zafon
The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society - Mary Ann Shaffer
Shades of Grey - Jasper Fforde
Lighthousekeeping - Jeanete Winterson
Wolf Hall - Hilary Mantel
The Little Stranger - Sarah Waters

Top YA

Unwind - Neal Shusterman
Shiver - Maggie Stiefvater
Coraline - Neil Gaiman
Adam and Even and Pinch-Me - Julie Johnston
The Red Necklace - Sally Gardner
A Stone in My Hand - Cathryn Clinton
Freak the Mighty - Rodman Philbrick
The Tale of Despereaux - Kate DiCamillo

I definitely did not read enough non-fiction this year to make a list, but I should at least mention The Year of Magical Thinking.

I've been so busy compiling, I forgot to do my own. This year has been an embarrasment of riches. I attribute that to LT in general and this group in particular - the quality of my reading has increased so much since I've joined (along with my pleasure).

I'd call this the Year of the Linked Short Story Novel. A suddenly hot genre I'm loving right now.

These are the best of a very good year in the order in which I read them.

Fiction
Olive Kitteridge by Elizabeth Strout
The Things They Carried by Tim O'Brien
Let the Great World Spin by Colum McCann
American Salvage by Bonnie Jo Campbell
Room by Emma Donoghue
A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens
A Visit from the Goon Squad by Jennifer Egan
Faithful Place by Tana French
Juliet, Naked by Nick Hornby
The Picture of Dorian Gray by Oscar Wilde
Already Dead by Charlie Huston
The City and The City by China Mieville
The Brutal Telling by Louise Penny
The Imperfectionists by Tom Rachman
The Blind Contessa's New Machine by Carey Wallace

Nonfiction
Mountains Beyond Mountains by Tracy Kidder
Gluttony: The Seven Deadly Sins by Francine Prose
The Forever War by Dexter Filkins
Rescuing Da Vinci by Robert Edsel
The Lives They Left Behind by Darby Penney
Nothing to Envy by Barbara Demick
Love is a Mix Tape by Rob Sheffield
Nurture Shock by Po Bronson
Asylum by Christopher Payne
Tinsel by Hank Stuever
Chasing Goldman Sachs by Suzanne McGhee
Woody Guthrie: American Radical by Will Kaufman

My favorite books for 2010:

Poetry:
Mother/Land (Earthworks S) - Cheryl Savageau
Dearest Creature - Amy Gerstler
Behind My Eyes - Li-Young Lee
The Mind Body Problem :Poems- Katha Pollit

Graphic Novels:
Kabuki: The Alchemy - David Mack
Blankets - Craig Thompson

Manga:
Town of Evening Calm, City of Cherry Blossoms - Fumiyo Koumo

NonFiction:
The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks- Rebecca Skloot
Just Kids - Patti Smith

Short Stories:
The Turning:Stories Tim Winton
A Taste of Honey: Stories - Jabari Asim

Fiction
Blackout and All Clear - Connie Willis

These are some of my memorable reads from 2010. I had many honorable mentions but I'm trying to keep the list manageable. Thanks, Nancy, for keeping track of this years favorites. I'm looking forward to seeing what the top reads of this group were.

Fiction: (new-to-me books in chronological order)
Let the Great World Spin - Clum McCann
The Moonflower Vine - Jetta Carleton
Light in August - Wm. Faulkner
The Lacuna - Barbara Kingsolver
Blindnesss - Jose Saramago
Fingersmith -Sarah Waters
The House of the Spirits - Isabel Allende
Every Man Dies Alone - Hans Fallada
Room - Emma Donoghue
Love in the Time of Cholera - Gabriel Garcia Marquez

Nonfiction:
Mountains Beyond Mountains - Tracy Kidder
Paula - Isabel Allende
The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks -Rebecca Skloot
My Reading Life - Pat Conroy*
Packing for Mars - Mary Roach

*My "Book of the Year"

Looks like the touchstones have given out!

Here’s the list of my favorite reads in 2010 (in the order I read them):

Fiction -
The Frozen Thames by Helen Humphreys
Fingersmith by Sarah Waters
The Twin by Gerbrand Bakker
The Last Child by John Hart
The Imperfectionists by Tom Rachman
The Whistling Season by Ivan Doig
The Meadow by James Galvin
Bury Your Dead by Louise Penny
The Pure in Heart by Susan Hill
Blue Lightning by Ann Cleeves
The Wake of Forgiveness by Bruce Machart

Non-Fiction- (and, as it happens, these were all audiobooks)
American On Purpose by Craig Ferguson
The Last Stand by Nathaniel Philbrick
True Compass by Edward M Kennedy

Favorite reread that was even better as an audiobook:
Montana 1948 by Larry Watson (performed by Beau Bridges)

Here are my 5 star reads for 2010. There were a lot of 4 1/2 stars that nearly made it, but this list is long enough!

Fiction:

Every Man Dies Alone by Hans Fallada
A Dry White Season by Andre Brink
The Elegance of the Hedgehog by Muriel Barbery
1984 by George Orwell
The Heather Blazing by Colm Toibin
Der Minister-Praesident by Joachim Zelter
The Housekeeper and the Professor by Yoko Ogawa

Non-fiction
Too Big to Fail by Andrew Ross Sorkin
Testament of Youth by Vera Brittain
Death by a Thousand Cuts: the fight over taxing inherited wealth by Michael Graetz and Ian Shapiro

Best book read in 2010:Testament of Youth.

Wow! It was tough to narrow the list this year. I have about 17 other books that I wanted to include. But here are my top 10+5+5.

Fiction:
To Kill a Mockingbird – Harper Lee
The Moonflower Vine – Jetta Carlton
The Help – Kathryn Stockett
The Vagrant – Yiyun Li
Major Pettigrew’s Last Stand – Helen Simonson
Bury Your Dead – Louise Penny
The Imperfectionists – Tom Rachman
The History of Love – Nicole Krauss
The Whistling Season – Ivan Doig
The Invisible Bridge – Julie Orringer

Nonfiction:
Theodore Roosevelt: A Life – Nathan Miller
Stones into Schools – Greg Mortenson
Sailing With Noah: Stories from the World of Zoos – Jeffrey P. Bonner
The Horse Boy: A Father’s Quest to Heal His Son – Rupert Isaacson
The Living Great Lakes – Jerry Dennis

Young Adult:
Messenger - Lois Lowry
The Red Pyramid – Rick Riordan
Island of the Blue Dolphins – Scott O’Dell
Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows – J. K. Rowling
The 39 Clues: The Viper’s Nest – Peter Lerangis

Now that I've added a ton of books to my TBR list, here are my favourite reads for 2010:

The Spice Necklace: a Food-lover's Caribbean Adventure by Ann Vanderhoof
I’m neither a foodie nor a sailor but I absolutely loved this book.

Predictably Irrational: the Hidden Forces that Shape Our Decisions by Dan Ariely
Focused on behavioural economics, it's a "why we buy" type of book that tries to explain our aberrant actions. I would recommend this to anyone who thinks that they make rational purchasing decisions.

The Night Listener by Armistead Maupin
A late-night radio host going through a break-up and a young boy with AIDS comfort each other with phone calls and letters, or do they?

Stephanie Pearl-McPhee Casts Off by Stephanie Pearl-McPhee
Stephanie Pearl McPhee a.k.a. the Yarn Harlot makes me laugh out loud. Then people look at me strangely as I laugh at a knitting book. It's a price I'm willing to pay.

Fire by Kristin Cashore
This is a companion book to Graceling but you needn't have read it to understand and enjoy it.

The Remains of the Day by Kazuo Ishiguro
Stevens is a butler at a prestigious house who takes his career very seriously, to the point of excluding a life.

The Leisure Economy: How Changing Demographics, Economics, and Generational Attitudes Will Reshape Our Lives and Our Industries by Linda Nazareth
We are in the midst of shift of demographics in North America, Nazareth looks at how these changes are going to make a fundamental difference to how we do business and spend our leisure time. An interesting and insightful read.

The Sea Captain's Wife by Beth Powning
Lots of adventure with storms and pirates and great character development.

The Passage by Justin Cronin
Set in the near future, to begin with, a pair of FBI officers are rounding people up for reasons unknown. Moving approximately 100 years in the future we see the results.

Lucky by Alice Sebold
A frank telling by Alice Sebold of her brutal rape as a freshman at Syracuse University in 1981. It's a very difficult read but so important, I would strongly recommend this book to all women.

Room by Emma Donoghue
Told from 5 year-old Jack's point of view. The whole outside world is new to him & he doesn't understand the motivations, ideas, and norms that are commonplace to everyone else.

** Apologies: for some reason the touchstones won't work on this post.

I just found this thread! These are my top ten reads for the year. My number one book is listed first; the rest are in no particular order.

1. Moby-Dick; or, The Whale by Herman Melville.
2. The Aeneid by Virgil.
3. Mrs. Dalloway by Virginia Woolf.
4. Brat Farrar by Josephine Tey.
5. The Haunting of Hill House by Shirley Jackson.
6. Dune by Frank Herbert.
7. Swann's Way by Marcel Proust.
8. Middlemarch by George Eliot.
9. The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle by Haruki Murakami.
10. Never Let Me Go by Kazuo Ishiguro.

I started a list of Honorable Mentions, but it started getting so long that I decided to skip it. Overall, a great year of reading thanks to LT!
--BJ

These were my Favorite Books of 2010 (listed in the order I read them)

Fiction:

Mosquito by Roma Tearne
American Salvage by Bonnie Jo Campbell
Noah's Compass by Anne Tyler
To Kill A Mockingbird by Harper Lee
Still Life by Louise Penny
Replay by Kem Grimwood
The Royal Game and Other Stories by Stefan Zweig
The Remains of the Day by Kazuo Ishiguro
Death Comes for the Archbishop by Willa Cather
Freedom by Jonathan Franzen
The White Family by Maggie Gee
Middlemarch by George Eliot

Non-Fiction:

The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks by Rebecca Skloot
Where the Bluebird Sings to the Lemonade Springs by Wallace Stegner
The Worst Hard Time by Timothy Egan
Life Work by Donald Hall
Family Portrait by Catherine Drinker Bowen
Ex Libris: Confessions of a Common Reader by Anne Fadiman
The Memory Chalet by Tony Judt

I have to add A Room With a View by E. M. Forster and Eye of the Crow by Shane Peacock to my favorites list.

I read so many good books in 2010 but tried to keep this list down to just a few. My reading went along swimmingly until my husband developed heart disease in June/July and had to have open heart surgery. This, plus my mother's health, curtailed my reading dramatically. But that is what happens in R/L.
So for whatever it is worth the following are my best reads of the year:

The Count of Monte Cristo by Alexandre Dumas
The Post Office Girl by Stefan Zweig
The Return of the Native by Thomas Hardy
Light in August by William Faulkner
The Plague by Albert Camus
About My Sisters by Debra Ginsberg
A Lady's Life in the Rocky Mountains by Isabella Bird
The Willow Cabin by Pamela Frankau
Charms for the Easy Life by Kaye Gibbons
Sisters by a River by Barbary Comyns

2010 turned out to be quite a good reading year. But choosing my favourites wasn’t difficult at all. Here they are,

1. Goodbye, Mr. Chips. James Hilton.

2. The Queen of Hearts. Wilkie Collins.

3. London Lavender. E. V. Lucas.

4. Girl in Hyacinth Blue. Susan Vreeland.

5. The Killer Inside Me. Jim Thompson.

6. A Kiss for Cinderella. J. M. Barrie.

7. The Remains of the Day. Kazuo Ishiguro.

8. Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? Philip K. Dick.

9. Seize the Day. Saul Bellow.

10. Tales of Men and Ghosts. Edith Wharton.

I love these lists! That was how I chose many of the books I read this year. These were my favorites of 2010--which is not the same as saying that they were the best writing I read this year. They were the ones I most enjoyed.

Twelve Favorites in 2010:
Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close
The Ministry of Special Cases
Labor Day
Major Pettigrew's Last Stand
The HouseKeeper and the Professor
The Twin
The Things They Carried
Await Your Reply
Old Filth
A Guide to the Birds of East Africa
Cutting for Stone
Half the Sky

My favourites for the year in no particular order:

Top fiction reads of 2010

Wolf Hall by Hilary Mantel
The Lacuna by Barbara Kingsolver
Shades of Grey by Jasper Fforde
Cry, the Beloved Country by Alan Paton
The Year of the Flood by Margaret Atwood
Perdido Street Station by China Mieville
Things Fall Apart by China Achebe
The Uncommon Reader by Alan Bennett
Doomsday Book by Connie Willis
The House of the Mosque by Kader Abdolah

Top children's/YA fiction of 2010
The Owl Service by Alan Garner
The Graveyard Book by Neil Gaiman
The Weirdstone of Brisingamen by Alan Garner
Dogsbody by Diana Wynne Jones
The Invention of Hugo Cabret by Brian Selznick
The Eagle of the Ninth by Rosemary Sutcliff
The Children of Green Knowe by Lucy M. Boston

Top rereads of 2010
The Three Musketeers by Alexandre Dumas, pere
The Count of Monte Cristo by Alexandre Dumas, pere
Middlemarch by George Eliot
Hogfather by Terry Pratchett
Harry Potter series

Special mentions
Soulless by Gail Carriger - most fun read
Still Life by Louise Penny and subsequent books - best crime/mystery series
Mistborn: The Final Empire and subsequent books by Brandon Sanderson - best fantasy series
Charmed Life and subsequent books by Diana Wynne Jones - best children's/YA series

Love this thread. Lots of great ideas for 2011 ...

My favorites for the year:

Savage Beauty: The Life of Edna St. Vincent Millay by Nancy Milford
Unaccustomed Earth by Jhumpa Lahiri
Krik? Krak! by Edwidge Danticat
Lady Susan, The Watsons and Sanditon by Jane Austen
Mrs. Craddock by Somerset Maugham
The Hours by Michael Cunningham
The Book Thief by Markus Zusak
Fever Pitch by Nick Hornby
Ex Libris: Confessions of a Common Reader by Anne Fadiman
Guns, Germs and Steel by Jared Diamond
The Greatest Thing Since Sliced Bread by Don Robertson

My favorites:

Home by Marilynne Robinson
Barbarian in the Garden by Zbigniew Herbert
Not So Quiet: stepdaughters of war by Helen Zenna Smith
I'm Not Complaining by Ruth Adam
Tomorrow in the Battle Think on Me by Javier Marias

I finally finished up my 2010 challenge thread

my favourite reads were (in no particular order):-

Fiction
The Mistress of Spices by Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni
Alias Grace by Margaret Atwood
Life of Pi by Yann Martel
Under Heaven by Guy Gavriel Kay
Night Train to Lisbon by Pascal Mercier
The Uncommon Reader by Alan Bennett
The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society by Mary Ann Shaffer
Till We Have Faces by C. S. Lewis
Pigs in Heaven by Barbara Kingsolver
Nation by Terry Pratchett

Non-Fiction
The Time Traveller's Guide to Medieval England by Ian Mortimer
Before the Dawn : Recovering the lost history of our ancestors by Nicholas Wade
Nine Lives: in search of the sacred in modern India by William Dalrymple

Those are the ones I remember as the best of the year for me:- the ones I didn't want to put down and the ones that have stayed in my memory.

I realize this is subject to change, but here are the stats as of now.

Clicking this should take you to the spreadsheets containing raw data and the manipulations I subjected it to Please feel free to do as you will with it.

I've taken our favorites and listed the non-fiction books on 3+ lists and fiction on 4+ lists (my fingers are tired) to share here. Enjoy! Happy New Year!

Nonfiction

With 10 Favorite Votes
The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks by Rebecca Skloot

With 5 Favorite Votes
84, Charing Cross Road by Helene Hanff

With 4 Favorite Votes
My Reading Life by Pat Conroy
On Hallowed Ground: The Story of Arlington National Cemetery by Robert M. Poole
Packing for Mars by Mary Roach

With 3 Favorite Votes
The Devil in the White City by Erik Larsson
Mountains Beyond Mountains by Tracy Kidder

Fiction
With 9 Favorite Selections
Bury Your Dead by Louise Penny
Room by Emma Donoghue

With 8 Favorite Selections
Harry Potter (series) by J.K. Rowling (this is a combination of various permutations of picks)
Middlemarch by George Eliot

With 7 Favorite Selections
Fingersmith by Sarah Waters
Major Pettigrew's Last Stand by Helen Simonson
Wolf Hall by Hilary Mantel

With 6 Favorite Selections
Cutting for Stone by Abraham Verghese
The Lacuna by Barbara Kingsolver

With 5 Favorite Selections
The Imperfectionists by Barbara Kingsolver
Soulless by Gail Carriger

With 4 Favorite Selections
The Doomsday Book by Connie Willis
The Elegance of the Hedgehog by Muriel Barbery
The Graveyard Book by Neil Gaiman
The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society by Mary Ann Shaffer
The Help by Kathryn Stockett
Matterhorn by Karl Marlantes
The Picture of Dorian Gray by Oscar Wilde
Shades of Grey by Jasper Fforde
The Siege by Helen Dunmore
Troubles by J.G. Farrell
The Uncommon Reader by Alan Bennett
Where the Mountain Meets the Moon by Grace Lin

ETA: Still messing about with the touchstones, but it's improving.

Thank you for compiling that! I love these sorts of lists.

Wow, Nancy, thanks! I like not only seeing a couple of my 2010 favorites listed but also books I loved from previous years.

Nancy--- HUGE big thanks for doing this...I love looking at this list to remind me of a couple I don't want to miss.

Great job, Nancy! Thanks for taking the time to do that!

:) I am glad that I ordered Henrietta before my self imposed book buying ban.

#99 Thank you so much for taking the time to do that Nancy. I've added your message above to my favourites.

Thank you Nancy! I am reminded that I have not yet added my own favourites of 2010 to this thread - will try to do so as soon as possible.

You are all very, very welcome. It was fun to do. We are a diverse group of readers that is for sure. The vast majority of our favorites are unique to us.

Thanks Nancy, that summary was really interesting!

My top reads for 2010, if it's not too late to add.

Fiction:
The Road
The Lacuna
Wolf Hall

Non Fiction:
Children's Spirituality
Ex Libris

These were the ones I gave 5 star rating to. Honourable mentions also for
Traitor's Purse - the best of the many Marjory Allinghams I read last year
and
The Child that Books Built - another good book about books

Never too late, Genny! I have added this thread to the wiki for the 2011 group so that people can come back and look at the favorites for 2010 whenever they like.

#110 Thanks for doing that, Stasia. One less thread to keep track of. That wiki is a wonderful thing.

I will continue to update the spreadsheet and the summary. My eagerness to share the data is in no way meant to indicate I don't want folks to continue to update and share their 2010 faves.

Awesome recap of some awesome books. You are pretty awesome yourself for undertaking this huge job, Nancy. Thank you.

Thank you Nancy -- my local librarian asked me what were the 'best' books, what she should order, and I've copied your list to give to her.

I read a few good books last year, and choosing a favourite would be hard, but one I think is seriously lacking attention (owing, I presume, to over promotion of other books by publishesr) was Choke Chain by Jason Donald.

For those loving the coming of age genre, but wanting a children's alternative to Choke Chain, there was Finn's Going.

However I am cheating. Those I read the year before last, so last year, in the same general genre I loved The Wednesday Wars and Bad Influence - William Sutcliffe.

I read some other good historical stuff and some classics, all of which might also be favourites in their own way, but those are the ones I want to recommend.

Oh, a lovely post. I can add to my TBR list & since I'm new on the 75 Challenge I can star some as well!

TOP 10 (no order)
1. The Book Thief
2. The Thirteenth Tale
3. The Help
4. Beatrice & Virgil
5. 8914373::Winter Garden
6. 8882081::House Rules
7. 6871398::Making Rounds With Oscar
8. 4829660::The Story Of Edgar Sawtelle
9. 4301018::Still Alice
10. 9567314::My Name is Memory

Flow Down Like Silver right after reading The Secret Magdalene by Ki Longfellow. First two choices for sure. But I also liked Perfume, the Story of a Murderer.

Looking back now, the books I enjoyed most in 2010:

Fiction:

Every Man Dies Alone by Hans Fallada
The three books by Stieg Larsson
Der Nazi und der Friseur by Edgar Hilsenrath
Wie es leuchtet by Thomas Brussig
De terugkeer van de dansleraar by Henning Mankell

Non-fiction:

The other side of van Israel by Susan Nathan
Het verhaal van een Duitser: 1914-1933 by Sebastian Haffner
Hannah Arendt: for love of the world by Elisabeth Young-Bruehl
Faust’s Metropolis: a History of Berlin by Alexandra Richie
Er werd mij verteld, over Lucia de B. by Metta de Noo
Blankow of het verlangen naar Heimat by Pauline de Bok

Here are mine:

Fiction:

Major Pettigrew's Last Stand by Helen Simonson - wonderful first novel about romance, integrity and overcoming class prejudice
The Things They Carried by Tim O'Brien - mind-blowing set of inter-connected stories relating to the Vietnam War
A Guide to the Birds of East Africa by Nicholas Drayson - a quirky tale about a man of high integrity
The Housekeeper and the Professor by Yoko Ogawa - clever story centered around friendships and a professor with a short-term memory disability
The Blind Contessa's New Machine by Carey Wallace - a lyrical flight based on the true story of the invention of the typewriter

Nonfiction:

Gang Leader for a Day by Sudhir Venkatesh - a unique inside story on the operations of a Chicago gang
Jane Austen for Dummies by Joan Elizabeth Klingel Ray - I was well-qualified to read this
Sway: The Irresistible Pull of Irrational Behavior by Ori Brafman - an easy read full of contrarian insights
Buddha for Beginners by Stephen T. Asma - heavy on graphics but still conveying a lot of information that was new to me
Beowulf on the Beach by Jack Murnighan - a frank unassuming analysis of classic works by a guy I wish had taught me

Young Adult:

Chaos Walking trilogy by Patrick Ness - riveting series about many things including the dangers of charismatic leadership and the futility of war
The Hunger Games trilogy - powerful storytelling about rebels in a cruel dystopia
Daddy Long Legs by Jean Webster - old-fashioned epistolary charmer that was the basis for the movie
Little Women by Louisa May Alcott - a memorable family thrives on moral aspirations
Anne of Green Gables by L.M. Montgomery - irresistible Anne opens everyone's eyes and hearts

Graphic Novels:

Scott Pilgrim series by Bryan Lee O'Malley - lots of laughs but also truth
Britten and Brulightly by Hannah Berry a noir featuring a teabag; go figure
Too Cool to be Forgotten by Alex Robinson - the daydream/nightmare of returning to high school handled beautifully
Batwoman: Elegy by Greg Rucka - great graphics and story make it all brand new
Strangers in Paradise by Terry Moore - witty, infectious characters trying to find love in sometimes dire circumstances