Best Novels of 2010: A Literary Mixtape

By Jason Boog 

What’s the best novel you read this year? Share it in the comments and we’ll add it to our new literary mixtape of the Best Novels of 2010.

This GalleyCat editor makes an annual mixtape (CD actually, but the idea is the same) collecting his favorite songs from the year–allowing his friends and family to sample some of the year’s best music.

We love reading “Best Books of …” lists, but we want to build a lists focused exclusively on sample chapters. Using your suggestions, we will create a giant directory linking to sample pages from your favorite novels from 2010–allowing readers to sample the books like a literary mixtape.

Check out our Best YA Books of 2010 as well. Share your favorite novel in the comment section. We’ll add it to our list and link to a free sample (if available). Excellent cassette tape photo via Kumar McMillan.


GalleyCat Readers Pick the Best Novels of 2010: A Literary Mixtape with Links to Free Book Excerpts

The Vaults by Toby Ball

Boxer, Beetle by Ned Beauman

The Glass Rainbow by James Lee Burke

Take the Monkey and Run by Karen Cantwell

The Moonflower Vine by Jetta Carleton

Our Burden’s Light by Patrick Thomas Casey

Nightshade by Andrea Cremer

The Passage by Justin Cronin

The Maze Runner by James Dashner

Bad Marie by Marcy Dermansky

Revolution by Jennifer Donnelly

Room by Emma Donoghue

A Visit from the Goon Squad by Jennifer Egan

Shadow Tag by Louise Erdrich

The Hilliker Curse by James Ellroy

Fall of Giants by Ken Follett

Heidegger’s Glasses by Thaisa Frank

Freedom by Jonathan Franzen

The Cookbook Collector by Allegra Goodman

Bloodroot by Amy Greene

Vampire Empire by Clay & Susan Griffith

Deep Creek by Dana Hand

31 Bond Street by Ellen Horan

Blame by Michelle Huneven

Remembering the Bones by Frances Itani

Misadventure by Millard Kaufman

The Lacuna by Barbara Kingsolver

The Instructions by Adam Levin

The Wake of Forgiveness by Bruce Machart

The Singer’s Gun by Emily St. John Mandel

The Unidentified by Rae Mariz

Matterhorn By Karl Marlantes

C: A Novel by Tom McCarthy

Terminal Policy by Liam McCurry

Solar by Ian McEwan

Driving on the Rim by Tom McGuane

Kraken by China Mieville

The Rafters by AC Montgomery

The Sweep of the Second Hand by Dean Monti

Walking to Gatlinburg by Howard Frank Mosher

Skippy Dies by Paul Murray

Invisible Bridge by Julie Orringer

I Curse the River of Time by Per Petterson

The Breaking of Eggs by Jim Powell

The Imperfectionists by Tom Rachman

Mr. Peanut by Adam Ross

Nemesis by Philip Roth

Super Sad True Love Story by Gary Shteyngart

Major Pettigrew’s Last Stand by Helen Simonson

The Lotus Eaters by Tatjana Soli

Little Green by Loretta Stinson

The Help by Kathryn Stockett

The Heretic’s Wife by Brenda Rickman Vantrease

The Wednesday Sisters by Meg Waite Clayton

True Confections by Katharine Weber

Pike by Benjamin Whitmer

Savages by Don Winslow

The Lost and Forgotten Languages of Shanghai by Ruiyan Xu