I've always given - and received - books at this time of year (and I sometimes even give myself book gifts for holiday reading - how book-loony is that?) If you too have readers to buy for (yourself included), look over our best-of-the-year recommendations below (limited to three per genre with the usual difficulty, muttering and personal bias). These are mainly hardcovers - check out our Recommended Reads 2009 for excellent titles most likely published in paperback in 2010.

FICTION
Contemporary	Fantasy	Historical
I Still Dream About You Red Hook Road The Tower, The Zoo, and The Tortoise	City of Night Under Heaven The Way of Kings	The Bells Island Beneath the Sea Romancing Miss Brontë
Horror	Literary	Mystery
Bitter Seeds The Fall Love Bites	Arcadia Falls The Blasphemer Walking to Gatlinburg	Crime Machine Think of a Number The Woodcutter
Romance	SF	Thriller
Pieces of Sky Silent Scream The Wish List	The Extra Lucy Psalms of Isaak: Antiphon	Caught Thirteen Hours They're Watching
NON-FICTION
Biography	Environment	General
Northern Light One More Theory About Happiness Pulitzer	Crude World Hamlet's BlackBerry Toward a Zero Energy Home	Language of Life This Book Is Overdue! When You Lie About Your Age the Terrorists Win
Travel
Country Driving Pearl Buck in China Stranger to History
KIDS
Picture Books	Chapter Books	Middle Reads
City Dog, Country Frog Clever Jack Takes the Cake Dear Teacher	Boom! Poop Happened! Solar System Superhero	The Atlantis Complex Smells Like Dog Storyteller
TEENS
YA Contemporary	YA Fantasy	Graphic Novels
The Cardturner Only in the Movies Some Girls Are	City of Glass Finnikin of the Rock Gimme a Call	Alice in the Country of Hearts Remember The Sons of Liberty
Find more book gift suggestions in our many previous Holiday Columns. And if we missed some of your own 2010 favorites, please email and tell us about them.
All of us at BookLoons wish you and yours the best of times, the happiest of holidays, and a most healthy, joyous, prosperous and peaceful 2011 to follow!!