>The best of 2010 lists have started! A music and culture blog, Largehearted Boy, will help you keep up with daily updates to a list of “Best of 2010” book lists, from specific lists like Chess Book of the Year and Best Cookbooks of 2010 to general lists from Amazon, Booklist, the Huffington Post, Publishers Weekly, etc. There’s even a link to a list of the 10 best “Best of” books of 2010 on the Jacket Copy blog.
General “Best of 2010” book lists imply that all books published that year have been sifted through and all possible finalists shortlisted and read. An impossible task, even with a committee working on the list. Maybe that’s why The New York Times publishes a “Notable Books” of the year list in addition to a “10 Best Books” list. These lists usually come out in December as a gift-buying guide. (Click here to see the New York Times Best Books of 2009 list. Ouch! I only got around to reading one of the five recommended fiction books — A Gate at the Stairs by Lorrie Moore — but it was one of my favorite books last year, so I’m glad it made the list.) How many of the best books of 2010 can we read before the 2011 books start appearing? Which to read first?
So far, my personal “Best Novels of 2010” list includes, in order of most recently read:
Freedom by Jonathan Franzen (yes, along with most everyone else!)
The Passage by Justin Cronin (first in, apparently, a very long trilogy)
The Nobodies Album by Carolyn Parkhurst (author of The Dogs of Babel)
Good to a Fault by Marina Endicott (Canadian author)
The Lake Shore Limited by Sue Miller (playwright’s response to 9/11)
The Imperfectionists by Tom Rachman (linked stories)
So Much for That by Lionel Shriver (terminal illness)
Blackout by Connie Willis (sequel out now, All Clear, time travel)
The Unnamed by Joshua Ferris (disturbing neurological condition)
The Privileges by Jonathan Dee (rich people and their problems)
Clockwork Angel by Cassandra Clare (young adult fantasy, prequel)
Others that I would like to read are showing up on many lists:
The Distant Hours by Kate Morton
The Hand That First Held Mine by Maggie O’Farrell
The Lonely Polygamist by Brady Udall
Major Pettigrew’s Last Stand by Helen Simonson
Skippy Dies by Paul Murray
The Thousand Autumns of Jacob de Zoet by David Mitchell
To the End of the Land by David Grossman
Room by Emma Donoghue is a recently published novel I don’t know if I will read, although it’s showing up on several best books lists. It’s about a five-year-old boy who lives caged up in a small room with his mother. Read the New York Times review here to see whether you want to try it.
What 2010 novels or short stories do I need to add to my must-read list?