Oregonian Article on Allen Say

Jeff Baker had a terrific article in Sunday's Oregonian about Portland children's book author/illustrator Allen Say, whose most recent book is The Boy in the Garden, a creative twist on the Japanese folktale "The Crane Wife."In the article, we learn that Say has just finished a major project, adapting his autobiographical novel The Ink-Keeper's Apprentice into a graphic novel called Drawing From Memory. The only non-picture book Say has ever done, it tells the story of his formative years in Japan, serving as an apprentice to Noro Shinpei, a cartoonist who taught him about art and life and started him on his life's path.

Early in his apprenticeship, Shinpei taught him to pay attention: "Pay attention to all that goes on around you. Remember, memory is the most important asset to an artist. What we call imagination is rearrangement of memory. You cannot imagine without memory."

Allen Say is one of our favorite children's book authors, and we've written about him briefly a couple of times in the past, here and here. In 1994 he won the Caldecott Medal for his book Grandfather's Journey. I had the pleasure of meeting Mr. Say several years ago at a book conference, and I'm happy to share that he's as delightful as his books.

I hope you caught the article in The Oregonian; if not you can link to it above. Any of Allen Say's wonderful picture books would make terrific gifts.

December Book Drive in Honor of Nancy Glass

In October we lost one of our dearest friends and customers. Nancy Glass, known to us and many others as Portland's most voracious, eclectic and engaged reader (she belonged to four reading groups!), died quite unexpectedly after a short illness. We knew her as a customer first, but as a friend best, and we will miss her shining face coming through the door (and her voice on the phone). Nancy was also a patron of the arts (especially the literary ones) and a champion of those in need.

Every year, Broadway Books finds a local school in need and sponsors a book drive to help the library build its collection, and to help teachers buy books for classroom use. This year, in Nancy’s name, we will be raising funds for St. Andrew Nativity School in Northeast Portland.

 Nancy was an early and ardent supporter of this remarkable middle school. She was on their board of trustees and poured her heart and soul into these kids. Here’s some information about the school:

• St. Andrew Nativity School is the only private, tuition-free middle school serving low-income students in the Pacific Northwest.
• Their enrollment is about 70 students.
• The average class size is ten.
• 53% of the students are African American/African immigrant and 47% are Hispanic.
• 55% come from single parent families.
• 45% are non-Catholic.

 The annual cost of educating each student is $15,000, and more than 95% of the funding comes from private sources. Eighth grade students make an average gain of five grade levels in reading, writing, and math skills in their three years at Nativity School and are strongly prepared to enter 9th grade. This past June, 100% of their 2006 alumni graduated from high school. And here’s the kicker: 77% of their graduates are attending college!

 We hope you’ll join us this year to buy books for Nativity School. We have a “want list” from the faculty, so you can pick something they have asked for, or you can choose a book or books on your own. We’ll give you a 20% discount on every book you buy for the school. Or you can donate money (we’ll increase each cash donation by 20%) and let the teachers order what works best for their students.

Let’s give these kids all the support we can! And thank you, Nancy, for showing us the way.

 

Broadway Books' Holiday Gift Guide

We'd be happy to serve as your personal shoppers this holiday season. We've got all kinds of great gift ideas. Check out our new Holiday Book Guide! If you didn't get one in The Oregonian, stop by the store for your very own copy. On the back cover of the guide is a one-time-use "Choose Your Own Discount" coupon: Get 25% off any one item from the holiday guide, or buy $100 or more of anything in the store and get $20 off your total purchase. You must have the coupon to get the discount, which is good through the holiday season but can only be used once. Check out the catalog on line here, and then come get your very own copy. As always, we're happy to wrap all of the gifts you buy from us at no charge. Dare I say one-stop shopping???

You can call (503-284-1726) or email (bookbroads@qwestoffice.net) to confirm whether something is in stock, place a special order (which will usually arrive within a day or two), or ask us to hold an item for you. We're here to help make your holidays as enjoyable and stress-free as possible!

Of course we also have boxed and individual holiday cards of all types, as well as wrapping paper and ribbon, and we're fully stocked with Hanukkah supplies. In addition to all the wonderful books presented in the Holiday Book Guide, there are two items I'd like to point out in particular: the adorable Zoobies, a blanket/pillow combination with favorite children's book characters, and Haikubes, solid word cubes you can use to create expressive haiku. Is it a game? Art? Who can say for sure, although it was created by the team behind the game Cranium. Come see for yourself.

We're open extended hours through the holiday season: Monday through Saturday we're open from 10 am to 9 pm, and Sundays we're open from 10 am to 7 pm. Let us know how we can help you! [PS: Our annual "24 Days of Books" launches on our blog starting on Wednesday -- check it out!]

Open publication - Free publishing - More northwest

It's Small Business Saturday!

Today is the first-ever Small Business Saturday. For every $100 spent in a local independent store, $68 remains in the community. Small businesses employ the people in your community and give back to your community in a variety of ways. Think small and have a big impact when doing your holiday shopping. Here's some information from the official site:

"November 27, 2010 is the first-ever Small Business Saturday.

A day to come together in support of the small businesses we love.
The shops and restaurants that employ our neighbors and reinvest our money close to home.
The businesses that are the heartbeat of our communities and local economies.
Take the pledge to support small business. Join the movement."

You can read some more about the importance of supporting your locally owned neighborhood businesses at our website: http://www.broadwaybooks.net/

Join the celebration!! We're here with a store full of great holiday gift ideas!

President Obama's Letter to His Daughters -- and All Kids

Of Thee I Sing: A Letter to my Daughters, a newly published children's picture book, would make a gorgeous gift for a child of any age. In this tender, beautiful letter to his daughters, President Barack Obama has written a moving tribute to thirteen groundbreaking Americans and the ideals that have shaped his nation. From the artistry of Georgia O'Keeffe, to the courage of Jackie Robinson, to the patriotism of George Washington, President Obama sees the traits of these heroes within his own children, and within all children.

Breathtaking, evocative illustrations by award-winning artist Loren Long -- author and illustrator of one of my favorite picture books about Otis the tractor -- at once capture the personalities and achievements of these great Americans and the innocence and promise of childhood. The book illustrates the characteristics that unite all Americans, from the nation's founders to generations to come, celebrating the potential within each of us to pursue our dreams and forge our own paths.

And, just in case you're wondering, he wrote the book before he took office.

Portland's Food Cart Craze in Print!

Everyone knows by now that Portland is the queen of the new food cart craze, with more than 500 food carts, some of them clustered into "food pods" and others taking a more solitary approach. Now, two local authors have pulled together a big picture look at this new industry in a book entitled Cartopia: Portland's Food Cart Revolution, by Kelly Rodgers and Kelley Roy. (And it's cart-opia, not car-topia!)

Kelly with the one E and Kelley with the second E come from the world of urban planning and now are "making it their life mission to make cool stuff happen in Portland." They've already started down that track with this book, published by their very own publishing company, Roy Rodgers Press (once again, cool).

The book,w hich is based on research and more than 40 interviews with food cart operators, city personnel, and urban planners, is organized into four major sections:

1. The phenomenon of food carts
2. Why here? Why now?
3. How food carts are changing the urban landscape
4. The guide, divided into SW, NW, SE, NE, and North Portland neighborhoods.

Clearly, this last section is a moving target, as carts and pods come and go and move around, so they opted to "highlight the city's most popular and distinctive food cart pods, showcasing vendor and architectural highlights as well as great food, of course." To get more up-to-date information on carts, their whereabouts and their hours of operation, visit http://www.foodcartsportland.com/.

Some friends of mine recently ate at the food pod on the corner of North Vancouver Avenue and Fremont Street and said it was delicious, the servings ample and the service delightful. I think Cartopia would make a great gift for just about anyone in your life who likes to eat (! Who doesn't?!), and be sure to pick up a copy for yourself as well.

High Desert Author Reading Tonight

Did you happen to catch the great article in yesterday's Oregonian about Ellen Waterston and her new collection of essays, Where the Crooked River Rises? We're so excited that Ellen will be reading at the store tonight at 7 from her new book, published by Oregon State University Press. The essays in this new book reveal the blessings and challenges of decades spent as a rancher and town resident in a place that has been, and remains, her touchstone and crucible. The high desert is Ellen's teacher, and she describes its lessons with grace and care, inviting readers to look at their own lives through a lens of wide-open spaces, sagebrush and juniper, pumice and rabbit brush.

Ellen began her writing career while at Harvard University as a stringer for Time magazine, a New Englander who married and moved to the ranching West. She has written two collections of poetry, Between Desert Seasons and I Am Madagascar, both of which won recognition from WILLA, Women in Letters & Literary Arts.

In 2003, her memoir Then There Was No Mountain was selected by The Oregonian as one of the top ten books of the year and was a finalist for Foreward Book-of-the-Year.

In June 2010, her poem "Designed to Fly" was read by Garrison Keillor on "Writer's Almanac." She is the 2008 winner of the Oregon Quarterly Essay Competition, the 2007 recipient of the national Obsidian Prize in Poetry awarded by the High Desert Journal and in 2007 was named an Honorary Distinguished Professor of Humane Letters by Oregon State University/Cascades Campus for her accomplishments in the literary arts.


Ellen is the founder and president of the Writing Ranch, offering workshops and retreats for emerging writers and the founder and director of The Nature of Words, an annual literary event that brings nationally recognized authors and poets for four days of readings, panel discussions, and workshops to Bend the first weekend of November.

She received her Bachelor's degree from Harvard University and her Master's degree from the University of Madagascar. She ranched in Oregon's high desert before moving to Bend, where she currently lives.

We hope you can join us tonight, in our cozy, warm little store.

Anne Germanacos Reads from Her Stories

On Monday, November 8, we hosted Anne Germanacos, reading from her debut collection of stories: In the Time of the Girls (BOA Editions). You can read more about Anne on our blog. Here is a short video clip from the evening, with Anne reading her story "Until We Go to Sleep." We have a few signed copies left of her book.

More Maisie on the Horizon!

Good news for all of the Maisie Dobbs fans at Broadway Books -- and we know there are a lot of you out there -- Jacquline Winspear's next book in the series, A Lesson in Secrets, will be published in March! In the newest episode, set in the summer of 1932, Maisie goes undercover to Cambridge as a junior lecturer in philosophy in her first assignment for the Secret Service, where her task is to uncover any activities “not in the interests of His Majesty’s Government.”

In a case that brings Maisie up against the invisible walls of the Secret Service, she becomes involved with a family almost broken by the treatment of pacifists during the war, and at the same time unravels a web of intrigue which puts her face to face with the powers of the Nationalsozialistische Deutsche Arbeiterpartei—the Nazi Party—in Britain. A pivotal chapter in the life of Maisie Dobbs, A Lesson In Secrets marks the beginning of Maisie’s intelligence work for the Crown, as the storm clouds of World War II gather on the horizon.

And while I'm not in the habit of sending our customers to events sponsored by other stores, I would be remiss if I didn't tell you that the lovely Jacqueline Winspear will be in Portland this weekend, and for a very good cause. On Saturday she will be reading from and signing her newest book, The Mapping of Love and Death, at the inaugural Portland Authors Luncheon, a fundraiser for the National Kidney Foundation. Jacqueline will be joined at the luncheon by Armistead Maupin, Tom Lichtenheld, Julie Powell, Condoleezza Rice, and Stacy Schiff. You can get details about the event at the foundation's website.

Tim Gillespie Talks Teaching

What a fun night we had on Wednesday with Tim Gillespie -- and friends, family, and colleagues -- as Tim read from his newly published book, Doing Literary Criticism: Helping Students Engage with Challenging Texts (Stenhouse Publishers). We love teachers at Broadway Books, and it was so exciting to see a room full of people who truly care about teaching and learning and reading and writing (although we're still not convinced about that whole reading-while-walking thing)!

A big shout-out to Jan for bringing such wonderful treats to turn the evening into more than just a reading, more than just a book launch, but truly a celebration. The night with Tim was so great it was a big challenge to edit the video down to a YouTube-acceptable-sized clip, but here it is. We look forward to Tim coming back to read again when he finishes his book on horse-shoeing (you had to be there).

Don't Miss Next Week's Book Fun!

Don't you hate it when stores start playing Christmas carols before Thanksgiving even rolls around -- or worse yet, Veterans Day??!! I know I do. There are plenty of days in December for the yuletide musical onslaught. In terms of holiday merchandise, however, it's often our customers urging us to put stuff out early; we've already had people bugging us for boxed holiday cards, so we put them out! (This would never occur to me, since I usually send out my holiday cards -- in the years I actually get it together to do so -- in January or February!) And we've got a table bulging with Hannukah supplies.

Speaking of holiday shopping, don't forget that next week is our ever-popular annual Holiday Book Talk, where we share a little nosh and beverages of an unmentionable sort and talk about books that will make great gifts your friends and family -- or even for you on these wet, dark, gloomy winter days.

The Holiday Book Talk is next Thursday night, November 18th, at 7 pm. Attendance is limited and seats are filling up fast, so reserve your spot soon by stopping by the store to pay your $5 (or call with credit card). The payment is refunded with any purchase you make that night, so essentially the night is free. And usually entertaining -- if only to see how fast we can talk because we're so excited about so many books! Bill Bryson, Oliver Sacks, BOTH Sedaris siblings, Sara Gruen, Nicole Krauss, and more! Plus great books for kids of all ages, gorgeous coffee table gift books and boxed sets, and cookbooks that are as beautiful as the recipes inside are mouthwatering.

We hope you can join us for this once-a-year fun fest! Tell your friends and neighbors -- let's make it a party!

National Outdoor Book Awards

The winners of the 2010 National Outdoor Book Awards have just been announced. These are books about things that actually take place in the outdoors, as opposed to books that are good to read in the outdoors. The purpose of the awards is to recognize and encourage outstanding writing and publishing.

The National Outdoor Book Awards (NOBA) is the outdoor world's largest and most prestigious book award program. It is a non-profit, educational program, sponsored by the National Outdoor Book Awards Foundation, Association of Outdoor Recreation and Education, and Idaho State University.

 The Outdoor Classic Award is given annually to books of unusual and lasting significance in the outdoor field. Books nominated for the Classic Award must have been copyrighted prior to 2000 and still be in print. Books are judged on the quality of writing and their merit and not by the author's or publisher's reputation. To remove regional bias, judges serving on the panel come from throughout the country. Additionally, the make-up of the panel is balanced as much as possible between men and women. The backgrounds of the judges -- twenty on this year's panel -- are diverse. Included on the panel are educators, academics, trade representatives, authors, book reviewers, and outdoor columnists. All of the judges serve without pay.

 

Here are this year's winners. Some of them are perhaps a little obscure for our readers, but one in particular has caught my eye previously: The Sound of a Wild Snail Eating, by Elisabeth Tova Bailey. Bedridden after being stricken with a mysterious virus, the author is brought some violets in a pot by a friend, and accompanying the violets is a small snail. In her newly quiet world, Bailey begins to observe the snail and it provides her with an oasis of calm from her frustrated thoughts. This slim tome can help readers appreciate the beauty of slower paces and smaller things in one's life. I've reprinted most of the winners here; you can find the rest, as well as descriptions of all of the titles, at the NOBA website.

• Nature and the Environment. Winner. Adventures Among Ants: A Global Safari With a Cast of Trillions. By Mark W. Moffett. University of California Press, Berkeley. 
• Natural History Literature. Winner. An Entirely Synthetic Fish: How Rainbow Trout Beguiled America and Overran the World. By Anders Halverson. Yale University Press, New Haven. 
• Natural History Literature. Winner. The Sound of a Wild Snail Eating. By Elisabeth Tova Bailey. Algonquin Books of Chapel Hill, Chapel Hill, NC.
• Outdoor Literature. Winner. Kook: What Surfing Taught Me About Love, Life and Catching the Perfect Wave. By Peter Heller. Free Press, New York.
• Outdoor Literature. Honorable Mention. Just Passin’ Thru. By Winton Porter. Menasha Ridge Press, Birmingham, AL.
• History/Biography. Winner. Pilgrims of the Vertical: Yosemite Rock Climbers & Nature at Risk. By Joseph E. Taylor III. Harvard University Press, Cambridge, MA.
•  History/Biography. Honorable Mention. The Last Man on the Mountain: The Death of an American Adventurer on K2. By Jennifer Jordan. W. W. Norton & Company, New York. 
• History Biography. Honorable Mention. Arctic Labyrinth: The Quest for the Northwest Passage. By Glyn Williams. Viking Canada, Toronto.
• Classic. Winner. Annapurna: First Conquest of an 8,000-meter Peak. By Maurice Herzog. Lyon Press, Guilford, CT.  
• Design and Artistic Merit. Winner. Freshwater Fish of the Northeast. Illustrated by Matt Patterson. Text by David A. Patterson. University Press of New England, Hanover, NH.  
• Nature Guidebooks. Winner. Tracks and Sign of Insects and Other Invertebrates: A Guide to North American Species. By Charley Eiseman and Noah Charney. Stackpole Books, Mechanicsburg, PA.
• Nature Guidebooks. Honorable Mention. Night Sky: A Field Guide to the Constellations. By Jonathan Poppele. Adventure Publications, Cambridge, MN. 
• Nature Guidebooks. Honorable Mention. Molt in North American Birds. By Steven N. G. Howell. Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, Boston. 
• Outdoor Adventure Guidebooks. Winner. Exploring Havasupai: A Guide to the Heart of the Grand Canyon. By Greg Witt. Menasha Ridge Press, Birmingham, AL.  
• Instructional Category. Winner. Sport Climbing: From Top Rope to Redpoint, Techniques for Climbing Success. By Andrew Bisharat. The Mountaineers Books, Seattle.

Previous winners of NOBA awards include Wilderness Warrior: Theodore Roosevelt and the Crusade for America, by Douglas Brinkley; Halfway to Heaven, by Mark Obmascik; Backcast: Fatherhood, Fly-Fishing, and a River Journey Through the Heart of Alaska, by Lou Ureneck; Sky Time in Gray's River: Living for Keeps in a Forgotten Place, by Robert Michael Pyle; and Peak, by Roland Smith.

 

 

 

 

 

Local Educator Tim Gillespie to Speak

We hope you can join us on Wednesday, November 10, for a somewhat unusual event, as local teacher and author Tim Gillespie presents a book designed to coach English language arts teachers on engaging students in more complex texts. In his new book, Doing Literary Criticism: Helping Students Engage with Challenging Texts, Tim sets out three principles: students should be doing (and not just reading) literary criticism; they should be exposed to a variety of critical perspectives; and nothing should be done to smother the pleasure of reading. He then presents a rigorous curriculum featuring eleven critical approaches, each with an overview of benefits and limitations, teaching suggestions, and practical activities. The book comes with a CD that provides reproducible overviews for students, essay exam questions, a bonus chapter on postmodern criticism, and more.

Tim Gillespie is a 37-year veteran of teaching in public schools. A winner of a National High School English Teacher of Excellence Award from NCTE, he has written regularly about his classroom experiences over the years. He earned his bachelor's degree in English from Stanford University and his master's degree in teaching from Lewis & Clark University. He also holds a master's degree in English from the University of New Hampshire.


Tim began his teaching career as an aide in an inner-city elementary school, teaching writing in grades 1-5. "That experience cemented my decision to get my certificate and make teaching my profession," Tim says. Over the years he team-taught a first-grade writing class, a fifth-grade writing class, and an eighth-grade language arts/social studies block, as well as middle school. He also served as the K-12 district writing coordinator for the Parkrose School District in Portland, Oregon, and later he worked as the K-12 language arts specialist for the Multnomah County Education Service District. He taught reading and journalism, served as adviser for the school newspaper and multicultural club, and taught summer school for eighteen- and nineteen-year-olds who failed their senior English classes.


In addition, Tim regularly taught evening classes for teachers when he served as an adjunct faculty member in the Graduate School of Professional Education at Lewis & Clark College in Portland, Oregon. For several summers he was the codirector of the Oregon Writing Project.

Tim says he loves his job because of all the things he gets to learn while teaching. "Teaching gives me a shot at living a seamless life, linking my enthusiasm for reading with the opportunity to get my students enthused about reading; binding my efforts to help students master the writing craft with my efforts to master the writing craft.... I love teaching because it's consequential; it means something. The stakes are high. When it is successful and when it is unsuccessful, teaching changes lives."

Tim is an avid walker, hiker, and traveler. He is also a bookworm who has been known to merge reading and walking, though he warns, "I do not recommend this practice." A longtime harmonica player, he has been a member of a professional blues rock band.

The reading will start about 7 pm. Come early for a good seat -- and for the rumored treats that will be served and the prizes to be won.

Skloot Picks Up Another Major Prize!

The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks, the marvelous book by Portland-raised writer Rebecca Skloot, has received yet another accolade (on top of this week's announcement by Publishers Weekly that the book is one of the ten best books 2010): the book has won the UK-based Wellcome Trust Book Prize.

The £25 000 Wellcome Trust Book Prize, in its second year, is open to outstanding works of fiction and non-fiction on the theme of health and medicine. It brings together the worlds of medicine and literature, appealing to literature lovers and science enthusiasts.


The trust was established in 1936 under the terms of Sir Henry Wellcome's will, with the trustees charged with using the profits of the company to support research "for the benefit of mankind." "We are a global charitable foundation dedicated to achieving extraordinary improvements in human and animal health. We support the brightest minds in biomedical research and medicine-related art....We are independent of both political and commercial interests."

Clive Anderson, chair of the five-person judging panel, had this to say about Rebecca's book: "This is an engaging account of the life of Henrietta Lacks who died in Baltimore nearly 60 years ago and the immortal life of her cancer cells, which continue to replicate in research laboratories around the world to this day. There are several stories to be told: the changing attitudes and ethics of the medical profession; the economics of healthcare; and the successes and slip ups of modern scientific methods. In addition, the book reveals the human story of Henrietta Lacks' family, who the author got to know in the course of her extensive research. A worthy winner of a prize designed to honour fine writing on a medical theme."

Clare Matterson, Director of Medical Humanities and Engagement at the Wellcome Trust added: "It's wonderful that the prize has been awarded to a book that was such a labour of love for its author.  Rebecca Skloot's work absolutely meets the objective of this prize.  It has something of everything - a compelling science story, an emotional personal story and intriguing ethical dilemmas - and all woven together and written with great style."

We've written TONS about this book previously (here's just one link), so we won't go on and on about it again. Suffice it say that we're thrilled and very happy for Rebecca (although we still think the book should have been a finalist for a National Book Award).

One of the shortlisted books for the Wellcome Trust Book Prize is a novel that I've been wanting to read: So Much for That, by Lionel Shriver (who is a woman, in case you were wondering). Her novel was just shortlisted for a National Book Award. You can read about the other books on the shortlist by clicking on the Wellcome Trust Book Prize link above.

Congratulations, Rebecca!

Anne Germanacos Presents Debut Collectioin

In her debut collection of stories, Anne Germanacos gives us stories that are highly concentrated, like poetry, and contain strong images. They are heavily influenced by her time in Greece, and they pack a hard punch:

•  A woman with a birthmark in the shape of a map has a penchant for risky travel.
• A contemporary Oedipus, living with his mother in a house full of cats, is cured of his blindness.
• A herd of goats gnaw on notepads stolen from a New York City hotel.
• Lightning strikes, minds are lost to disease, new languages are invented.

As in Jim Lynch's recent novel, Border Songs, the stories in In the Time of the Girls examine the existence and meaning of borders -- religious, cultural, sexual, social, generational, psychological, and moral -- and the act of crossing borders. 

Born in San Francisco, as were three generations before her, Anne Germanacos has lived in both Greece and San Francisco for more than thirty years. Together with her husband, Nick, she ran the Ithaka Cultural Studies Program on the islands of Kalymnos and Crete, and taught writing, literature, and Modern Greek.

Anne holds an MFA from the Bennington Writing Seminars and has studied Greek, Turkish, Hebrew, Arabic, and Spanish. Her work has appeared in more than sixty literary reviews and anthologies. She and her husband have four children and five grandchildren. They live on the island of Crete and in San Francisco.

"I’ve always lived near large bodies of water, the Pacific Ocean and the Aegean," Anne says. "I left [San Francisco] at seventeen to study in Greece, married my teacher, and began a life—running a school, raising children—that continues to be lived in two cultures, two languages, and on two continents. For more than thirty years, I’ve had to leave someone I love in order to go to the others I love." In her stories, the reader isn’t spoon-fed, but rather is required to participate in the process: "I offer a pathway of stones, not a ride in a rowboat. My hope is to offer the reader a handful of gems."

Anne will read from her collection of stories at Broadway Books on Monday, November 8, at 7 pm. We invite you to join us!

Here is a video clip of an interview conducted with Anne:

Publishers Weekly Top Ten of 2010

Publishers Weekly is getting to reveal its picks for the top 100 books of 2010. In a sneak peek, here's the magazine's selection of the top ten. As you might imagine, winnowing down the list of books published in 2010 -- fiction and nonfiction -- to ten best books isn't an easy task, and I'm sure there's a lot of verbal brawling involved. ("How can you even think of leaving this book off the list??") So, read over this list and then argue away. Muster up your best support for your favorites that got left behind. I actually think it's a pretty darned good list -- especially compared to, say, the National Book Award finalists. I'll list the top ten here, and then you can click on the following link to read about them in greater depth.     Best Books of 2010

• A Visit from the Goon Squad
  Jennifer Egan (Knopf) -- On my want-to-read list
• Freedom
  Jonathan Franzen (Farrar, Straus, and Giroux) -- I loved it.
• Unbroken
  Laura Hillenbrand (Random) -- She also wrote Seabiscuit
• The Surrendered
  Chang-Rae Lee (Riverhead) -- He studied and taught at the UO.
• The Big Short
  Michael Lewis (Norton) -- He wrote Moneyball, The Blindside, etc.
• The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks
  Rebecca Skloot (Crown) -- LOVED it! Rebecca grew up in Portland.
• Just Kids
  Patti Smith (Ecco) -- Finalist for National Book Award & just out in paperback. I liked the cover on the hardcover version better. Minor quibble.
• Man in the Woods
  Scott Spencer (Harper) -- He wrote Endless Love, A Ship Made of Paper, etc.
• The Lonely Polygamist
  Brady Udall (Norton) -- One of Roberta's favorites this year.
• The Warmth of Other Suns
  Isabel Wilkerson (Random) -- This book looks fascinating; another want-to-read.