Giving a sneak peek at their 2010 best book selections, coming in the combined Jan. 1 & 15 issue, Booklist announces the top title in each category. Their adult editors agree with most of their fellow critics, but there’s a couple of surprises in children’s selections (you can download our spreadsheet of all the titles picked so far — one for adult titles and one for children’s).

Adult Fiction

Jennifer Egan’s A Visit from the Goon Squad received rapturous reviews (Bookmarks shows 20 in total). Time picks it as the #2 book of the year (after Franzen’s Freedom); the NYT Book Review, the Washington Post and PW all rank it in their top ten of the year.

While it hasn’t appeared on the NYT Best Seller list (we’re betting it will when it comes out in paperback next year), it hit the IndieBound list shortly after publication and stayed on it for thirteen weeks, going back on again last week.

Libraries are still showing holds, heavy in some areas.

A Visit from the Goon Squad Jennifer Egan Retail Price: $25.95 Hardcover: 288 pages Publisher: Knopf – (2010-06-08) ISBN / EAN: 0307592839 / 9780307592835

Audio; BBC AudioBooks; 9780792771746; 8 CD’s; $79.95
Adobe EPUB eBook from OverDrive

Adult Nonfiction

Author Rebecca Skloot is not only featured on many best books’s lists (The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks ties with Isabel Wilkerson’s The Warmth of Other Suns for the most mentions), she is also being hailed as a leader for her persistence in telling the story of a poor black woman who died of cervical cancer in 1951, but lives on through her cells which are still used, without her consent,  in medical research. Skloot also established a scholarship fund for Henrietta Lacks’ heirs. Oprah Winfrey and True Blood producer Alan Ball signed it for an HBO film back in May.

The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks Rebecca Skloot Retail Price: $26.00 Hardcover: 368 pages Publisher: Crown – (2010-02-02) ISBN / EAN: 1400052173 / 9781400052172

Random House Audio; UNABR; 9780307712509; $35
Audio and e-book available from OverDrive

Youth Fiction

The top pick in this category has not appeared on any of the other lists.

The Adventures of Nanny Piggins R. A. Spratt Retail Price: $15.99 Hardcover: 256 pages Publisher: Little, Brown Books for Young Readers – (2010-08-16) ISBN / EAN: 0316068195 / 9780316068192

Youth Nonfiction

With this selection, They Called Themselves the K.K.K. now ties for the most picks for a children’s nonfiction title with Ballet for Martha: Making Appalachian Spring, by Jan Greenber, & Sandra Jordan, illustrated by Brian Floca (Flashpoint/Roaring Brook).

They Called Themselves the K.K.K.: The Birth of an American Terrorist Group Susan Campbell Bartoletti Retail Price: $19.00 Hardcover: 176 pages Publisher: Houghton Mifflin Books for Children – (2010-08-23) ISBN / EAN: 061844033X / 9780618440337

Youth Picture Book

Although this one received admiring reviews, it has not appeared on any of the other best books lists.

Nini Lost and Found Anita Lobel Retail Price: $17.99 Hardcover: 40 pages Publisher: Knopf Books for Young Readers – (2010-09-14) ISBN / EAN: 0375858806 / 9780375858802

Video

Audio

The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet’s Nest Stieg Larsson Retail Price: $40.00 Audio CD: Publisher: Books on Tape – (2010-05-25) ISBN -13: 9780739377710

Reference Source

This entry was posted on Thursday, December 16th, 2010 at 10:43 am and is filed under Best Books 2010. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.