NPR - National Public Radio
Independent Booksellar Favorites 2010
Book suggestions from National Public Radio
Some books aren't just great reads – they're great discussions, too. Critic Heller McAlpin picks the best literary conversation starters. Five of her favorite books published this year are not just great reads – books you put down reluctantly, not a slog among them – but meaty, serious stories that manage to provide a few laughs while raising controversial questions you'll want to discuss with others, whether they've read the book or not. These issues encompass health care and bioethics, the existence of God, race in America, child-rearing, nature versus nurture, our gluttonous society, marriage, love and adultery.
NY Times • 10 Best Books
NY Times • 100 Notable Best Books
The Economist • Books of the Year
The Atlantic • Books of the Year
Amazon • Editors Books of the Year
Amazon • Readers Books of the Year
NPR • Best Books
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In the 1970s, Larry Ott and Silas "32" Jones were boyhood pals in a small town in rural Mississippi. Their worlds were as different as night and day: Larry was the child of lower-middle-class white parents, and Silas, the son of a poor, black single mother. But then Larry took a girl to a drive-in movie and
A powerful debut novel set in a threatened western landscape, from the award-winning author of Refresh, RefreshEcho Canyon is a disappearing pocket of wilderness outside of Bend, Oregon, and the site of conflicting memories for Justin Caves and his father, Paul. It’s now slated for redevelopment as a golfin
NATIONAL BESTSELLEREmily and Jessamine Bach are opposites in every way: Twenty-eight-year-old Emily is the CEO of Veritech, twenty-three-year-old Jess is an environmental activist and graduate student in philosophy. Pragmatic Emily is making a fortune in Silicon Valley, romantic Jess works in an antiquarian b
Who knew that the great country of Canada is named for a mistake? How about "bedswerver," the best Elizabethan insult to hurl at a cheating boyfriend? By exploring the delightful back stories of the 250 words in Wordcatcher, readers are lured by language and entangled in etymologies. Author Phil Cousineau tak
In 2007, Nathan Rabin set out to provide a revisionist look at the history of cinematic failure on a weekly basis. What began as a solitary ramble through the nooks and crannies of pop culture evolved into a way of life. My Year Of Flops collects dozens of the best-loved entries from the A.V. Club column alon
From the bestselling author of The Art of Travel comes a wittily intriguing exploration of the strange "non-place" that he believes is the imaginative center of our civilization.Given unprecedented access to one of the world’s busiest airports as a “writer-in-residence,” Alain de Botton found it to be a
A rare and beautifully illustrated journey to fifty faraway worlds. There are still places on earth that are unknown. Visually stunning and uniquely designed, this wondrous book captures fifty islands that are far away in every sense-from the mainland, from people, from airports, and from holiday brochures.
The fairy tale lives again in these forty new stories by some of the biggest names in contemporary fiction Neil Gaiman, Michael Cunningham, Aimee Bender, Kelly Link, Lydia Millet, and more than thirty other extraordinary writers celebrate fairy tales in this thrilling volume-the ultimate literary costume par
Calendars are intrinsically interactive on a personal, individual level - you enter appointments, check dates, plan the future and revisit the past, all of which are keyed to your life and how it intersects with the lives of others. The Open Day Book serves as a perpetual calendar that can be used in a tradit
"Where We Know creates a mosaic of the ultimate mosaic city...these writers illuminate the city's past and the present in a gritty homage fit for natives and foreigners alike. Designed as though Chin Music Press/Broken Levee Books intends to singlehandedly resurrect the art of bookmaking, Where We Know is a b
What would you do if the love of your life, and all your memories, were lost- only to reappear, but with such shocking revelations that you wish you had never remembered... Emmett Conn is an old man, near the end of his life. A World War I veteran, he's been affected by memory loss since being injured durin
A wry exchange between an IT-savvy donkey, a book-loving ape and a mouse forms this playful and lighthearted examination of print as a medium in the digital age. With a subversive and signature Lane Smith twist, this satisfying, perfectly executed picture book has something to say about the importance of read
Just How Big Can a Little Girl Dream? Ask Isabella... She takes a wild ride-and discovers the sky's the limit! "This story...speaks frankly about self-identity and self affirmation as Isabella decides at the end that she is actually herself...because she possesses the best parts of all of the women
Brimming with charm and whimsy, this exquisite novel set in the Tower of London has the transportive qualities and delightful magic of the contemporary classics Chocolat and Amélie. Balthazar Jones has lived in the Tower of London with his loving wife, Hebe, and his 120-year-old pet tortoise for the past eig
A two-time National Book Award finalist delivers a stirring tale of the passions - tender, obsessive, even murderous - that are unleashed by a wartime love triangle.Seventeen-year-old Wyatt Hillyer is suddenly orphaned when his parents, within hours of each other, jump off two different bridges - the result o
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. While an illness keeps her bedridden, Bailey watches a wild snail that has taken up residence
