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Year consensus · 2010

The Most Recommended Books of 2010

We counted 3,316 entries from 118 sources in 2010. Freedom by Jonathan Franzen appeared on 17, 2 more than any other book.

A source counts once per book, whatever the result: a win, a shortlist place, or a list pick. We show books named by 3 or more sources. 2010 is the award or list year, not the publication year.

17 sources

  1. Freedom by Jonathan Franzen

15 sources

  1. The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks by Rebecca Skloot

13 sources

  1. Room by Emma Donoghue

12 sources

  1. A Visit From the Goon Squad by Jennifer Egan

  2. Skippy Dies by Paul Murray

  3. To the End of the Land by David Grossman

11 sources

  1. The Emperor of All Maladies: A Biography of Cancer by Siddhartha Mukherjee

  2. The Thousand Autumns of Jacob de Zoet by David Mitchell

10 sources

  1. The Warmth of Other Suns: The Epic Story of America's Great Migration by Isabel Wilkerson

9 sources

  1. Parrot and Olivier in America by Peter Carey

8 sources

  1. Just Kids by Patti Smith

  2. The Big Short: Inside the Doomsday Machine by Michael Lewis

  3. The Imperfectionists by Tom Rachman

  4. The Invisible Bridge by Julie Orringer

7 sources

  1. Hitch-22: A Memoir by Christopher Hitchens

  2. Human Chain by Seamus Heaney

  3. One Crazy Summer by Rita Williams-Garcia

  4. One Day by David Nicholls

  5. The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet's Nest by Stieg Larsson

  6. The Long Song by Andrea Levy

6 sources

  1. Great House by Nicole Krauss

  2. Life by Keith Richards

  3. Matterhorn by Karl Marlantes

  4. So Much for That by Lionel Shriver

  5. The City & the City by China Miéville

  6. The Hare with Amber Eyes by Edmund de Waal

5 sources

  1. A Conspiracy of Kings by Megan Whalen Turner

  2. At Home by Bill Bryson

  3. Cleopatra by Stacy Schiff

  4. Colonel Roosevelt by Edmund Morris

  5. Faithful Place by Tana French

  6. Incarceron by Catherine Fisher

  7. Let’s Take the Long Way Home by Gail Caldwell

  8. Ling & Ting: Not Exactly the Same! by Grace Lin

  9. Mirror Mirror: A Book of Reversible Verse by Marilyn Singer

  10. New Light for the Old Dark by Sam Willetts

  11. Nothing to Envy: Ordinary Lives in North Korea by Barbara Demick

  12. Revolver by Marcus Sedgwick

  13. Selected Stories by William Trevor

  14. Super Sad True Love Story by Gary Shteyngart

  15. The Ask by Sam Lipsyte

  16. The Bridge by David Remnick

  17. The Dreamer by Pam Muñoz Ryan and Peter Sís

  18. The Finkler Question by Howard Jacobson

  19. The Lonely Polygamist by Brady Udall

  20. The Passage by Justin Cronin

  21. The Possessed: Adventures with Russian Books and the People Who Read Them by Elif Batuman

  22. The Tiger by John Vaillant

  23. The War to End All Wars: World War I by Russell Freedman

  24. The Windup Girl by Paolo Bacigalupi

  25. The Wrecking Light by Robin Robertson

  26. They Called Themselves the K.K.K: The Birth of An American Terrorist Group by Susan Campbell Bartoletti

  27. Travels in Siberia by Ian Frazier

  28. Unbroken: A World War II Story of Survival, Resilience & Redemption by Laura Hillenbrand

  29. War by Sebastian Junger

  30. White Egrets by Derek Walcott

4 sources

  1. A Bad Day for Sorry by Sophie Littlefield

  2. Annabel by Kathleen Winter

  3. Apollo's Angels: A History of Ballet by Jennifer Homans

  4. Art & Max by David Wiesner

  5. Ash by Malinda Lo

  6. Ballet for Martha: Making Appalachian Spring by Jan Greenberg and Sandra Jordan

  7. Black Water Rising by Attica Locke

  8. Bury Me Deep by Megan Abbott

  9. Bury Your Dead by Louise Penny

  10. Charlie Chan: The Untold Story of the Honorable Detective and His Rendezvous With American History by Yunte Huang

  11. City Dog, Country Frog by Mo Willems

  12. Claudette Colvin: Twice Toward Justice by Phillip Hoose

  13. Comedy in a Minor Key by Hans Keilson

  14. Country Driving by Peter Hessler

  15. Fever Crumb by Philip Reeve

  16. Finch by Jeff VanderMeer

  17. Finishing the Hat: Collected Lyrics (1954-1981) With Attendant Comments, Principles, Heresies, Grudges, Whines and Anecdotes by Stephen Sondheim

  18. Hellhound on His Trail by Hampton Sides

  19. How to Live Safely in a Science Fictional Universe by Charles Yu

  20. How To Live: Or, A Life of Montaigne in One Question and Twenty Attempts at an Answer by Sarah Bakewell

  21. Lord of Misrule by Jaimy Gordon

  22. Mockingjay by Suzanne Collins

  23. Nox by Anne Carson

  24. Operation Mincemeat by Ben Macintyre

  25. Palimpsest by Catherynne M. Valente

  26. Revolution by Jennifer Donnelly

  27. Rupture by Simon Lelic

  28. Shark Vs. Train by Chris Barton

  29. Sugar Changed the World: A Story of Magic, Spice, Slavery, Freedom and Science by Marc Aronson and Marina Budhos

  30. The Last Boy by Jane Leavy

  31. The Lotus Eaters by Tatjana Soli

  32. The Pregnant Widow by Martin Amis

  33. The Slap by Christos Tsiolkas

  34. The Surrendered by Chang-rae Lee

  35. The Sweetness at the Bottom of the Pie by Alan Bradley

  36. The Talented Miss Highsmith: The Secret Life and Serious Art of Patricia Highsmith by Joan Schenkar

  37. The Things A Brother Knows by Dana Reinhardt

  38. The Unnamed by Joshua Ferris

  39. Trash by Andy Mulligan

  40. Washington: A Life by Ron Chernow

  41. Yummy: The Last Days of A Southside Shorty by Greg Neri

3 sources

  1. A Gate at the Stairs by Lorrie Moore

  2. A Journey by Tony Blair

  3. A Sick Day for Amos McGee by Philip Christian Stead

  4. A Trace of Smoke by Rebecca Cantrell

  5. Agaat by Marlene van Niekerk

  6. Almost Astronauts: 13 Women Who Dared to Dream by Tanya Lee Stone

  7. Annexed by Sharon Dogar

  8. As Easy as Falling Off the Face of the Earth by Lynne Rae Perkins

  9. Batwoman: Elegy by Greg Rucka and J.H. Williams

  10. Before I Fall by Lauren Oliver

  11. Bink & Gollie by Kate DiCamillo

  12. Black Mamba Boy by Nadifa Mohamed

  13. Blacklands by Belinda Bauer

  14. Bloodroot by Amy Greene

  15. Boneshaker by Cherie Priest

  16. Burying the Bones: Pearl Buck in China by Hilary Spurling

  17. By Nightfall by Michael Cunningham

  18. C by Tom McCarthy

  19. Cities of Refuge by Michael Helm

  20. Clever Jack Takes the Cake by Candace Fleming

  21. Come On All You Ghosts by Matthew Zapruder

  22. Contested Will: Who Wrote Shakespeare? by James Shapiro

  23. Cool Water by Dianne Warren

  24. Cosmic by Frank Cottrell Boyce

  25. Countdown by Deborah Wiles

  26. Cultures of War: Pearl Harbor/Hiroshima/9-11/Iraq by John W. Dower

  27. Day for Night by Frederick Reiken

  28. Empire of the Summer Moon: Quanah Parker and the Rise and Fall of the Comanches, the Most Powerful Indian Tribe in American History by S.C. Gwynne

  29. Fall of Giants by Ken Follett

  30. Father of the Rain by Lily King

  31. Feed by Mira Grant

  32. Finnikin of the Rock by Melina Marchetta

  33. Forge by Laurie Halse Anderson

  34. Four Fish by Paul Greenberg

  35. Galileo's Dream by Kim Stanley Robinson

  36. Heart of a Samurai by Margi Preus

  37. Horns by Joe Hill

  38. How to Read the Air by Dinaw Mengestu

  39. I’d Know You Anywhere by Laura Lippman

  40. Ilustrado by Miguel Syjuco

  41. In a Strange Room by Damon Galgut

  42. In the Shadow of Gotham by Stefanie Pintoff

  43. Innocent by Scott Turow

  44. Julian Comstock: A Story of 22nd-Century America by Robert Charles Wilson

  45. Kakapo Rescue: Saving the World’s Strangest Parrot by Sy Montgomery

  46. Keeper by Kathi Appelt

  47. Lafayette and the American Revolution by Russell Freedman

  48. Lives Like Loaded Guns: Emily Dickinson and Her Family's Feuds by Lyndall Gordon

  49. Major Pettigrew’s Last Stand by Helen Simonson

  50. Making Haste from Babylon by Nick Bunker

  51. Monsters of Men by Patrick Ness

  52. Mr. Peanut by Adam Ross

  53. Nemesis by Philip Roth

  54. Of Mutability by Jo Shapcott

  55. Pearl Buck in China: Journey to the Good Earth by Hilary Spurling

  56. Running from the Devil by Jamie Freveletti

  57. Secret Historian: The Life and Times of Samuel Steward by Justin Spring

  58. Shadow Tag by Louise Erdrich

  59. Ship Breaker by Paolo Bacigalupi

  60. Showtime: A History of the Broadway Musical Theatre by Larry Stempel

  61. Smile by Raina Telgemeier

  62. Snakewoman of Little Egypt by Robert Hellenga

  63. Solar by Ian McEwan

  64. Starvation Lake by Bryan Gruley

  65. Talking About Detective Fiction by P.D. James

  66. The Best of It: New and Selected Poems by Kay Ryan

  67. The Curse of the Wendigo (The Monstrumologist) by Rick Yancey

  68. The Eternal City by Kathleen Graber

  69. The Extraordinary Mark Twain by Barbara Kerley

  70. The Flavour Thesaurus by Niki Segnit

  71. The Ghosts of Belfast by Stuart Neville

  72. The Girl with Glass Feet by Ali Shaw

  73. The Grace of Silence by Michele Norris

  74. The Greeks and Greek Love: A Bold New Exploration of the Ancient World by James Davidson

  75. The Hotel Under the Sand by Kage Baker

  76. The Last Child by John Hart

  77. The Last Stand by Nathaniel Philbrick

  78. The Mind’s Eye by Oliver Sacks

  79. The Party: The Secret World of China's Communist Rulers by Richard McGregor

  80. The Privileges by Jonathan Dee

  81. The Quiet Book by Underwood

  82. The Rehearsal by Eleanor Catton

  83. The Ring of Solomon by Jonathan Stroud

  84. The Shanghai Moon by S.J. Rozan

  85. The Still Point by Amy Sackville

  86. Thelonious Monk: The Life and Times of an American Original by Robin Kelley

  87. There’s Going to Be a Baby by John Burningham

  88. Tinkers by Paul Harding

  89. Trespass by Rose Tremain

  90. Turtle in Paradise by Jennifer L. Holm

  91. Ubiquitous by Joyce Sidman

  92. When You Reach Me by Rebecca Stead

  93. Will Grayson, Will Grayson by John Green

  94. Wolf Hall by Hilary Mantel

  95. Worth Dying For by Lee Child

Sources counted in 2010