The Top 20 books of 2010 as rated by BookBrowse subscribers

The Sound of a Wild Snail Eating

A True Story

by Elisabeth Tova Bailey

Hardcover: Aug 2010 | Paperback: Sep 2016

In a work that beautifully demonstrates the rewards of closely observing nature, Elisabeth Bailey shares an inspiring and intimate story of her uncommon encounter with a Neohelix albolabris —a common woodland snail.

Fame

A Novel in Nine Episodes

by Daniel Kehlmann

Hardcover: Sep 2010 | Paperback: Nov 2011

In Fame, nine episodes coalesce to form a coherent whole as Daniel Kehlmann plays a sophisticated game with reality and fiction - creating, in essence, a dazzling hall of mirrors.

Sunset Park

A Novel

by Paul Auster

Hardcover: Nov 2010 | Paperback: Oct 2011

Luminous, passionate, expansive, an emotional tour de force, Sunset Park follows the hopes and fears of a cast of unforgettable characters brought together by the mysterious Miles Heller during the dark months of the 2008 economic collapse.

Bury Your Dead

A Chief Inspector Gamache Novel, #6

by Louise Penny

Hardcover: Sep 2010 | Paperback: Aug 2011

It is Winter Carnival in Quebec City, bitterly cold and surpassingly beautiful. Chief Inspector Armand Gamache has come not to join the revels but to recover from an investigation gone hauntingly wrong. But violent death is inescapable, even in the ...

Brilliant

The Evolution of Artificial Light

by Jane Brox

Hardcover: Jul 2010 | Paperback: Jul 2011

Brilliant offers a sweeping view of a surprisingly revealing aspect of human history--from the stone lamps of the Pleistocene to the LEDs embedded in fabrics of the future.

Anthropology of an American Girl

A Novel

by Hilary Thayer Hamann

Hardcover: May 2010 | Paperback: Jun 2011

A moving depiction of the transformative power of first love, Hamann's first novel follows Eveline Auerbach from her high school years in East Hampton, New York, in the 1970s through her early adulthood in the moneyed, high-pressured Manhattan of the...

Room

A Novel

by Emma Donoghue

Hardcover: Sep 2010 | Paperback: May 2011

To five-year-old-Jack, Room is the world....

Told in the inventive, funny, and poignant voice of Jack, Room is a celebration of resilience - and a powerful story of a mother and son whose love lets them survive the impossible.

The Lonely Polygamist

by Brady Udall

Hardcover: May 2010 | Paperback: May 2011

Beautifully written, keenly observed, and ultimately redemptive, The Lonely Polygamist is an unforgettable story of an American family—with its inevitable dysfunctionality, heartbreak, and comedy—pushed to its outer limits.

The Thousand Autumns of Jacob de Zoet

A Novel

by David Mitchell

Hardcover: Jun 2010 | Paperback: Mar 2011

A magnificent mix of luminous writing, prodigious research, and heedless imagination, The Thousand Autumns of Jacob de Zoet is the most impressive achievement of its eminent author.

Making Toast

A Family Story

by Roger Rosenblatt

Hardcover: Mar 2010 | Paperback: Feb 2011

When his daughter, Amy, died suddenly of a heart condition, Roger Rosenblatt and his wife moved in with their son-in-law and their three young grandchildren. His story tells how a family makes the possible out of the impossible.

Apparition & Late Fictions

A Novella and Stories

by Thomas Lynch

Hardcover: Feb 2010 | Paperback: Feb 2011

Heart-rending stories of life and death: a debut fiction collection by the award-winning author of The Undertaking.

The Hand that First Held Mine

A Novel

by Maggie O'Farrell

Hardcover: Apr 2010 | Paperback: Jan 2011

A spellbinding novel of two women connected across fifty years by art, love, betrayals, secrets, and motherhood.