Amazon.com's 'Best of 2010' lists released this morning

The good folks at Amazon.com, one of the largest online booksellers in the world, released this morning its annual slate of 'Best of 2010' book lists (just in time for the holiday shopping season.)

Going all the way back to Amazon’s first best-of lists in 2000, these lists are always worth a look and usually contain a few surprises. This year’s lists include the Top 100 Editors’ Picks, the Top 100 Customer Favorites and Editors’ Picks and Customer Favorites in a number of categories, including Arts & Photography, Audiobooks, Biographies & Memoirs, Business & Investing, Children’s Books: Middle Readers, Children’s Books: Picture Books, Comics & Graphic Novels, Cookbooks, Crafts, Debut Fiction, Entertainment, Food Lit, Gay & Lesbian, History, Home & Garden, Literature & Fiction, Mystery & Thrillers, Nonfiction, Outdoors & Nature, Romance, Science, Science Fiction & Fantasy and Teens.

The first 10 books on this year’s Top 100 Editors’ Picks include:
1. The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks by Rebecca Skloot. (Editors also selected this book as Amazon’s Book of the Year.)
2. Faithful Place by Tana French
3. Matterhorn: A Novel of the Vietnam War by Karl Marlantes
4. Unbroken by Laura Hillenbrand
5. The Warmth of Other Suns by Isabel Wilkerson
6. Freedom by Jonathan Franzen
7. The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet’s Nest by Stieg Larsson
8. To the End of the Land by David Grossman
9. Just Kids by Patti Smith
10. The Big Short by Michael Lewis

The Top 100 Customer Favorites were ranked according to customer orders on Amazon.com through October. Only books published for the first time in 2010 are eligible. The first 10 books on this year’s Top 100 Customer Favorites include:
1. The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet’s Next by Stieg Larsson
2. Women, Food and God by Geneen Roth
3. Mockingjay by Suzanne Collins
4. Dead in the Family by Charlane Harris
5. The Big Short by Michael Lewis
6. Game Change by John Heilemann
7. The Short Second Life of Bree Tanner by Stephenie Meyer
8. Freedom by Jonathan Franzen
9. Sh*t My Dad Says by Justin Halpern
10. The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks by Rebecca Skloot

In the category of Biography & Memoir, “Unbroken” by Laura Hillenbrand was the top Editors’ Pick and “Spoken from the Heart” by Laura Bush was the top Customer Favorite.

In the category of Comics & Graphics Novels, “The Art of Jamie Hernandez: The Secrets of Life and Death” by Jamie Hernandez was the top Editors Pick and “Scott Pilgrim, Volume 6: Scott Pilgrim’s Finest Hour” was the top Customer Favorite.

In the category of Entertainment, “Decoded” by Jay-Z was the top Editors’ Pick and “Sh*t My Dad Says” was the top Customer Favorite.

In the category of History, “The Warmth of Other Suns: The Epic Story of America’s Great Migration” by Isabel Wilkerson was the top Editors’ Pick and “Empire of the Summer Moon: Quanah Parker and the Rise and Fall of the Comanches, the Most Powerful Indian Tribe in American History” by S.C. Gwynne was the top Customer Favorite.

In the category of Literature & Fiction, “Matterhorn” by Karl Marlantes was the top Editors’ Pick and “Freedom” by Jonathan Franzen was the top Customer Favorite.

In the category of Mystery and Thrillers, “Faithful Place: A Novel” by Tana French was the top Editors’ Pick and “The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet’s Nest” by Stieg Larsson was the top Customer Favorite.

In the category of Nonfiction, “War’ by Sebastian Junger was the top Editors’ Pic and “Game Change” by John Heilemann was the top Customer Favorite.

In the category of Outdoors & Nature, “The Tiger: A True Story of Vengeance and Survival” by John Vaillant was the top Editors’ Pick and “The Wave: In Pursuit of the Rogues, Freaks and Giants of the Ocean” by Susan Casey was the top Customer Favorite.

In the category of Science, “The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks” by Rebecca Skloot was the top Editors’ Pick and Customer Favorite.

In the category of Science Fiction & Fantasy, “The Golden Age” by Michal Ajvaz was the top Editors’ Pick and “Dead in the Family” by Charlaine Harris was the top Customer Favorite.

If you’d like to see all of the books that made Amazon’s Best of 2010 lists, follow the following link: http://www.amazon.com/gp/browse.html/ref=pe_120700_17471430_pe_btn/?node=2486012011.