The Economist
Books of the Year 2010
A Focus on International Politics, Business News and Opinion
The Economist offers an array of page turners – the best books of 2010 were about Barak Obama, the secret world of China's communist rulers, how prosperity evolves, how the West - for now - rules, the travel of the hare with amber eyes and on the spread of surfing.
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
Literary Awards: |
Genre Awards: |
Children's Books: |
A marvelous collection from "the greatest living writer of short stories in the English language" (The New Yorker). Four-time winner of the O. Henry Prize, three-time winner of the Whitbread Prize, and five-time finalist for the Man Booker Prize, William Trevor is one of the most acclaimed authors of our ti
In 2008 , the presidential election became blockbuster entertainment. Everyone was watching as the race for the White House unfolded like something from the realm of fiction. The meteoric rise and historic triumph of Barack Obama. The shocking fall of the House of Clinton—and the improbable resurrection of
No story has been more central to America’s history this century than the rise of Barack Obama, and until now, no journalist or historian has written a book that fully investigates the circumstances and experiences of Obama’s life or explores the ambition behind his rise. Those familiar with Obama’s own
An eye-opening investigation into China's Communist Party and its integral role in the country's rise as a global superpower and rival of the United States China's political and economic growth in the past three decades is one of astonishing, epochal dimensions. The country has undergone a remarkable tra
From the bestselling author of Oracle Bones and River Town comes the final book in his award-winning trilogy, on the human side of the economic revolution in China. In the summer of 2001, Peter Hessler, the longtime Beijing correspondent for The New Yorker, acquired his Chinese driver's license. For the
Curfewed Night is a brave and unforgettable piece of literary reporting that reveals the personal stories behind one of the most brutal conflicts in modern times. Since 1989, when the separatist movement exploded, more than seventy thousand people have been killed in the battle between India and Pakistan over
This is a moving personal account of Zimbabwe under Mugabe's terror. In mid-2008, after thirty years of increasingly tyrannical rule, Robert Mugabe, the eighty-four-year-old ruler of Zimbabwe, met his politburo. He had just lost an election. But instead of conceding power, he was persuaded to launch a brutal
Using exclusive access to key government insiders, Shane Harris chronicles the rise of America's surveillance state over the past 25 years and highlights a dangerous paradox: Our government's strategy has made it harder to catch terrorists and easier to spy on the rest of us. In 1983, Admiral John Poindext
'The Rule of Law' is a phrase much used but little examined. The idea of the rule of law as the foundation of modern states and civilisations has recently become even more talismanic than that of democracy, but what does it actually consist of? In this brilliant short book, Britain's former senior law lord, a
This provocative and thought-provoking book argues that the baby boomer generation have thrived at the expense of their children. The baby boom of 1945-65 produced the biggest, richest generation that Britain has ever known. Today, at the peak of their power and wealth, baby boomers now run our country; by vi
The Ephrussis were a grand banking family, as rich and respected as the Rothschilds, who “burned like a comet” in nineteenth-century Paris and Vienna society. Yet by the end of World War II, almost the only thing remaining of their vast empire was a collection of 264 wood and ivory carvings, none of them
A startling portrayal of one of America's most significant literary figures that will change the way we view her life and legacy In 1882, Emily Dickinson's brother Austin began a passionate love affair with Mabel Todd, a young Amherst faculty wife, setting in motion a series of events that would forever cha
Stephen Sondheim has won seven Tonys, an Academy Award, seven Grammys, a Pulitzer Prize and the Kennedy Center Honors. His career has spanned more than half a century, his lyrics have become synonymous with musical theater and popular culture, and in Finishing the Hat—titled after perhaps his most autobiogr
Americans call the Second World War The Good War.” But before it even began, America’s wartime ally Josef Stalin had killed millions of his own citizensand kept killing them during and after the war. Before Hitler was finally defeated, he had murdered six million Jews and nearly as many other European
Sometime around 1750, English entrepreneurs unleashed the astounding energies of steam and coal, and the world was forever changed. The emergence of factories, railroads, and gunboats propelled the West’s rise to power in the nineteenth century, and the development of computers and nuclear weapons in the tw
"Between 1958 and 1962, China descended into hell. Mao Zedong threw his country into a frenzy with the Great Leap Forward, an attempt to catch up to and overtake Britain in less than 15 years The experiment ended in the greatest catastrophe the country had ever known, destroying tens of millions of lives." So
In "A World on Fire" Amanda Foreman brings her unique style of epic biography to the American Civil War. During the titanic struggle between North and South, both sides demanded Britain's support. British volunteers fought on both sides; British guns and bullets littered the battlefields. The South depended o
One of The New York Times Book Review’s 10 Best Books of the YearIn this epic, beautifully written masterwork, Pulitzer Prize–winning author Isabel Wilkerson chronicles one of the great untold stories of American history: the decades-long migration of black citizens who fled the South for northern and wes
The much honored biographer unearths the life and work of Nobel Prize winner Pearl Buck, whose novels captured ordinary life in China.
From the renowned director of the British Museum, a kaleidoscopic history of humanity told through things we have made. When did people first start to wear jewelry or play music? When were cows domesticated and why do we feed their milk to our children? Where were the first cities and what made them succeed
The #1 New York Times bestseller: a brilliant account—character-rich and darkly humorous—of how the U.S. economy was driven over the cliff.When the crash of the U. S. stock market became public knowledge in the fall of 2008, it was already old news. The real crash, the silent crash, had taken place over t
The first authoritative history of hedge funds-from their rebel beginnings to their role in defining the future of finance. Based on author Sebastian Mallaby's unprecedented access to the industry, including three hundred hours of interviews, More Money Than God tells the inside story of hedge funds, from t
Bestselling author Niall Ferguson reveals for the first time the true extent of Siegmund Warburg's influence-and the lessons we can learn in a time of crisis from the last of the high financiers. "Success from the financial and from the prestige point of view . . . is not enough; what matters even more is
The science behind global warming, and its history: how scientists learned to understand the atmosphere, to measure it, to trace its past, and to model its future.
Technology is a process and a body of knowledge as much as a collection of artifacts. Biology is no different—and we are just beginning to comprehend the challenges inherent in the next stage of biology as a human technology. It is this critical moment, with its wide-ranging implications, that Robert Carl
One of our most innovative, popular thinkers takes on-in exhilarating style-one of our key questions: Where do good ideas come from? With Where Good Ideas Come From, Steven Johnson pairs the insight of his bestselling Everything Bad Is Good for You and the dazzling erudition of The Ghost Map and The Inventi
A refreshing view of technology as a living force in the world. This provocative book introduces a brand-new view of technology. It suggests that technology as a whole is not a jumble of wires and metal but a living, evolving organism that has its own unconscious needs and tendencies. Kevin Kelly looks out t
The Emperor of All Maladies is a magnificent, profoundly humane “biography” of cancer—from its first documented appearances thousands of years ago through the epic battles in the twentieth century to cure, control, and conquer it to a radical new understanding of its essence. Physician, researcher, and
Life is getting better—and at an accelerating rate. Food availability, income, and life span are up; disease, child mortality, and violence are down — all across the globe. Though the world is far from perfect, necessities and luxuries alike are getting cheaper; population growth is slowing; Africa is fol
A masterpiece of linguistics scholarship, at once erudite and entertaining, confronts the thorny question of how—and whether—culture shapes language and language, cultureLinguistics has long shied away from claiming any link between a language and the culture of its speakers: too much simplistic (even big
?A work of astonishing scope, quality and insight. These twenty guidebooks cover the islands of the Aegean in greater detail than any previously written. Over a five-year period the classical scholar and art historian Nigel McGilchrist visited every corner of each island, exploring by all available means ever
?A work of astonishing scope, quality and insight. These twenty guidebooks cover the islands of the Aegean in greater detail than any previously written. Over a five-year period the classical scholar and art historian Nigel McGilchrist visited every corner of each island, exploring by all available means ever
?A work of astonishing scope, quality and insight. These twenty guidebooks cover the islands of the Aegean in greater detail than any previously written. Over a five-year period the classical scholar and art historian Nigel McGilchrist visited every corner of each island, exploring by all available means ever
?A work of astonishing scope, quality and insight. These twenty guidebooks cover the islands of the Aegean in greater detail than any previously written. Over a five-year period the classical scholar and art historian Nigel McGilchrist visited every corner of each island, exploring by all available means ever
?A work of astonishing scope, quality and insight. These twenty guidebooks cover the islands of the Aegean in greater detail than any previously written. Over a five-year period the classical scholar and art historian Nigel McGilchrist visited every corner of each island, exploring by all available means ever
?A work of astonishing scope, quality and insight. These twenty guidebooks cover the islands of the Aegean in greater detail than any previously written. Over a five-year period the classical scholar and art historian Nigel McGilchrist visited every corner of each island, exploring by all available means ever
?A work of astonishing scope, quality and insight. These twenty guidebooks cover the islands of the Aegean in greater detail than any previously written. Over a five-year period the classical scholar and art historian Nigel McGilchrist visited every corner of each island, exploring by all available means ever
?A work of astonishing scope, quality and insight. These twenty guidebooks cover the islands of the Aegean in greater detail than any previously written. Over a five-year period the classical scholar and art historian Nigel McGilchrist visited every corner of each island, exploring by all available means ever
The definitive history of the Broadway musical: the shows, the stars, the movers, and the shakers.Showtime brings the history of Broadway musicals to life in a narrative as engaging as the subject itself. Beginning with the scandalous Astor Place Opera House riot of 1849, Larry Stempel traces the growth of mu
An elegant and surprising history of surfing that examines its cultural influence in some of the most unexpected placesHow did an obscure tribal sport from precolonial Hawaii—one that was nearly eliminated on its home islands by Christian missionaries—jump oceans to California and Australia? And how did i
Patty and Walter Berglund were the new pioneers of old St. Paul—the gentrifiers, the hands-on parents, the avant-garde of the Whole Foods generation. Patty was the ideal sort of neighbor, who could tell you where to recycle your batteries and how to get the local cops to actually do their job. She was an en
From one of Israel’s most acclaimed writers comes a novel of extraordinary power about family life—the greatest human drama—and the cost of war. Ora, a middle-aged Israeli mother, is on the verge of celebrating her son Ofer’s release from army service when he returns to the front for a major offensiv
Tim Farnsworth walks. He walks out of meetings and out of bed. He walks in sweltering heat and numbing cold. He will walk without stopping until he falls asleep, wherever he is. This curious affliction has baffled medical experts around the globe--and come perilously close to ruining what should be a happy li
Parrot and Olivier in America has been shortlisted for the 2010 Man Booker Prize.From the two-time Booker Prize–winning author comes an irrepressibly funny new novel set in early nineteenth-century America.Olivier—an improvisation on the life of Alexis de Tocqueville—is the traumatized child of aristocr
David Pepin has been in love with his wife, Alice, since the moment they met in a university seminar on Alfred Hitchcock. After thirteen years of marriage, he still can’t imagine a remotely happy life without her—yet he obsessively contemplates her demise. Soon she is dead, and David is both deeply distra
Seamus Heaney’s new collection elicits continuities and solidarities, between husband and wife, child and parent, then and now, inside an intently remembered present—the stepping stones of the day, the weight and heft of what is passed from hand to hand, lifted and lowered. Human Chain also broaches large
Set against the gorgeous backdrop of Rome, Tom Rachman’s wry, vibrant debut follows the topsy-turvy private lives of the reporters, editors, and executives of an international English language newspaper as they struggle to keep it—and themselves—afloat.Fifty years and many changes have ensued since the
A DAZZLING NEW COLLECTION FROM ONE OF THE MOST IMPORTANT POETS OF THE TWENTIETH CENTURY In White Egrets, Derek Walcott treats the characteristic subjects of his career—the Caribbean’s complex colonial legacy, his love of the Western literary tradition, the wisdom that comes through the passing of time, th
