Year archive

Best books of 2010

Books selected by independent literary juries and editorial teams in 2010, gathered into one transparent, source-linked reading list. The chronology uses the award year for prizes and list year for editorial recommendations.

Selections
24
Authors
24
Years
1

Showing 1–24 of 24

2010Science fiction & fantasy

Blackout/All Clear

by Connie Willis

  • Nebula Award for Best Novel

Historians from 2060 travel to wartime Britain to observe the Blitz, Dunkirk, and civilian life, but failures in their return points leave them stranded. As they search for one another, they fear their presence may alter the history they were trained only to witness.

2010Nonfiction

Cleopatra

by Stacy Schiff

  • The New York Times — 10 Best Books

Cleopatra by Stacy Schiff was selected for The New York Times Book Review’s 2010 Ten Best Books list in nonfiction. The catalog records the selection as bibliographic fact and links readers to the newspaper’s original annual list.

2010Fiction & literature

Freedom

by Jonathan Franzen

  • The New York Times — 10 Best Books

Freedom by Jonathan Franzen was selected for The New York Times Book Review’s 2010 Ten Best Books list in fiction. The catalog records the selection as bibliographic fact and links readers to the newspaper’s original annual list.

2010Fiction & literature

Room

by Emma Donoghue

  • The New York Times — 10 Best Books

Room by Emma Donoghue was selected for The New York Times Book Review’s 2010 Ten Best Books list in fiction. The catalog records the selection as bibliographic fact and links readers to the newspaper’s original annual list.

2010Fiction & literature

Selected Stories

by William Trevor

  • The New York Times — 10 Best Books

Selected Stories by William Trevor was selected for The New York Times Book Review’s 2010 Ten Best Books list in fiction. The catalog records the selection as bibliographic fact and links readers to the newspaper’s original annual list.

2010Science fiction & fantasy

The City & The City

by China Miéville

  • Hugo Award for Best Novel

Inspector Tyador Borlú investigates a murder spanning Besźel and Ul Qoma, two cities occupying the same physical space whose citizens are trained to ignore one another. His inquiry tests the border maintained by perception, law, and the feared authority known as Breach.

2010Mystery & crime

The Last Child

by John Hart

  • Edgar Award for Best Novel

A year after his twin sister disappears, thirteen-year-old Johnny Merrimon continues searching while his family collapses under grief. Detective Clyde Hunt remains obsessed with the case, and another disappearance brings the boy's dangerous private investigation into the open.

2010Science fiction & fantasy

The Windup Girl

by Paolo Bacigalupi

  • Hugo Award for Best Novel

In a climate-ravaged Bangkok, calorie companies control food genetics while engineered organisms and crop diseases reshape political power. Emiko, an artificial person abandoned by her owner, becomes entangled with corporate espionage and Thailand's struggle for autonomy.

2010Literary fiction

Tinkers

by Paul Harding

  • Pulitzer Prize for Fiction

As clock repairer George Crosby lies dying, memory carries him toward childhood and his epileptic father. Their lives unfold through landscapes, hallucinations, abandonment, and craft.