Best books of 2010 (that I read)

It was too difficult to narrow things to a top 10 in this, my first attempt at a best books of the year list. So, I offer instead a dozen, 12 books that were a cut above in 2010 (in alphabetical order):

Room – Emma Donoghue
A Visit from the Goon Squad – Jennifer Egan
Daddy’s – Lindsay Hunter
Next – James Hynes
Print the Legend – Craig McDonald
The Thousand Autumns of Jacob De Zoet – David Mitchell
The Wagon – Martin Preib
A Lesser Day – Andrea Scrima
Super Sad True Love Story – Gary Shteyngart
Just Kids – Patti Smith
Pike – Benjamin Whitmer
Savages – Don Winslow

The pleasant surprise – while it feels as if I read a disproportionate amount of crime fiction these days – was that the list is fairly well rounded, with some so-called literary fiction, some crime fiction and some non-fiction.

What set these books apart was not simply having a great story or compelling characters. It was the fact that the authors were daring and adventurous. Every book here is evidence of an author taking chances, and in each case, those experiments and leaps of faith paid off handsomely.

From Emma Donoghue’s book told from the point of view of a five-year-old boy who has lived his entire life in an 11-by-11 room, to James Hynes’ telling of a seemingly mundane, detail-filled day that becomes horrifically the opposite, these authors were not content to tell stories in traditional ways. Jennifer Egan uses Power Point effectively, while Patti Smith bares her soul in an uncharacteristically candid memoir.

Other notable 2010 reads:

Ghosted – Shaughnessy Bishop-Stall
The Damage Done – Hilary Davidson
Stranglehold – Ed Gorman
Slammer- Allan Guthrie
The Lock Artist - Steve Hamilton
I’d Know You Anywhere – Laura Lippman
Rut – Scott Phillips
Life - Keith Richards
Johnny Porno – Charlie Stella
Bob Dylan in America – Sean Wilentz

Pre-2010 books read this year that are worth recommending:

City of Thieves – David Benioff
Await Your Reply – Dan Chaon
The Ghosts of Belfast – Stuart Neville
Everything Ravaged, Everything Burned – Wells Tower
Let’s Talk About Love – Carl Wilson