It’s been an incredible decade for our speakers. As the end of the 2010s draws closer, many are reflecting on the most impactful reads of the last 10 years, including TIME, which has released its lists of the 10 best fiction and 10 best nonfiction books of the decade. We are very proud to represent so many of the acclaimed authors on these lists! From powerful novels and narratives to New York Times bestsellers and award winners, these books and their authors have touched on topics that will stay with readers for many years to come.
Fiction
A Visit from the Goon Squad - Jennifer Egan
National bestseller, National Book Critics Circle Award Winner, PEN/Faulkner Award Finalist, and a New York Times Book Review Best Book. One of the Best Books of the Year: Boston Globe, Chicago Tribune, The Daily Beast, The Miami Herald, The Minneapolis Star-Tribune, Newsday, NPR’s On Point, O, the Oprah Magazine, People, Publishers Weekly, Salon, San Francisco Chronicle, Seattle Times, Slate, Time, The Washington Post, and Village Voice.
“Pitch perfect. . . . Darkly, rippingly funny. . . . Egan possesses a satirist’s eye and a romance novelist’s heart.” —The New York Times Book Review
The Nickel Boys (Winner 2020 Pulitzer Prize for Fiction) - Colson Whitehead
New York Times bestseller, Winner of the Kirkus Prize, and Longlisted for the National Book Award
“This is a powerful book by one of America’s great writers. . . . Without sentimentality, in as intense and finely crafted a book as you’ll ever read, Whitehead tells a story of American history that won’t allow you to see the country in the same way again.” —Toronto Star
Little Fires Everywhere - Celeste Ng
A #1 New York Times bestseller, Soon to be a Hulu limited series starring Reese Witherspoon and Kerry Washington, Named a Best Book of the Year by People, The Washington Post, Bustle, Esquire, Southern Living, The Daily Beast, GQ, Entertainment Weekly, NPR, Amazon, Barnes & Noble, iBooks, Audible, Goodreads, Library Reads, Book of the Month, Paste, Kirkus Reviews, St. Louis Post-Dispatch, and many more.
“To say I love this book is an understatement. It’s a deep psychological mystery about the power of motherhood, the intensity of teenage love, and the danger of perfection. It moved me to tears.” —Reese Witherspoon
Gone Girl - Gillian Flynn
A #1 New York Times bestseller, Named One of the Ten Best Books of the Year by The New York Times, People, Entertainment Weekly, O: The Oprah Magazine, Slate, Kansas City Star, USA Today, Christian Science Monitor
“Absorbing . . . In masterly fashion, Flynn depicts the unraveling of a marriage—and of a recession-hit Midwest—by interweaving the wife’s diary entries with the husband’s first-person account.” —New Yorker
Nonfiction
The Warmth of Other Suns - Isabel Wilkerson
National Book Critics Circle Award Winner, Lynton History Prize Winner, Heartland Award Winner, Dayton Literary Peace Prize Finalist, Named One of the Ten Best Books of the Year by The New York Times, USA Today, O: The Oprah Magazine, Amazon, Publishers Weekly, Salon, Newsday, The Daily Beast
“[A] massive and masterly account of the Great Migration….A narrative epic rigorous enough to impress all but the crankiest of scholars, yet so immensely readable as to land the author a future place on Oprah’s couch.”—The New York Times Book Review
Wild - Cheryl Strayed
A #1 New York Times bestseller, the first selection for Oprah’s Book Club 2.0, and the basis for an Oscar-nominated film starring Reese Witherspoon
“One of the most original, heartbreaking, and beautiful American memoirs in years. . . . Awe-inspiring.”—NPR
Between the World and Me - Ta-Nehisi Coates
A #1 New York Times bestseller, National Book Award Winner, NAACP Image Award Winner, Pulitzer Prize Finalist, National Book Critics Circle Award Finalist, Named One of the Ten Best Books of the Year by The New York Times Book Review, O: The Oprah Magazine, The Washington Post, People, Entertainment Weekly, Vogue, Los Angeles Times, San Francisco Chronicle, Chicago Tribune, New York, Newsday, Library Journal, and Publishers Weekly
“I’ve been wondering who might fill the intellectual void that plagued me after James Baldwin died. Clearly it is Ta-Nehisi Coates. The language of Between the World and Me, like Coates’s journey, is visceral, eloquent, and beautifully redemptive. And its examination of the hazards and hopes of Black male life is as profound as it is revelatory. This is required reading.” —Toni Morrison
Behind the Beautiful Forevers - Katherine Boo
A New York Times bestseller. Winner of the National Book Award, The PEN/John Kenneth Galbraith Award, The Los Angeles Times Book Prize, The American Academy of Arts and Letters Award, and The New York Public Library’s Helen Bernstein Book Award. Named One of the Ten Best Books of the Year by The New York Times, The Washington Post, O: The Oprah Magazine, USA Today, New York, The Miami Herald, San Francisco Chronicle, and Newsday. Named One of the Best Books of the Year by The New Yorker, People, Entertainment Weekly, The Wall Street Journal, The Boston Globe, The Economist, Financial Times, Newsweek/The Daily Beast, Foreign Policy, The Seattle Times, The Nation, St. Louis Post-Dispatch, The Denver Post, Minneapolis Star Tribune, Salon, The Plain Dealer, The Week, Kansas City Star, Slate, Time Out New York, and Publishers Weekly.
“Reported like Watergate, written like Great Expectations, and handily the best international nonfiction in years.” —New York
Bad Blood - John Carreyrou
The Financial Times & McKinsey Business Book of the Year, A New York Times Notable Book, A Washington Post Notable Book, Named One of the Best Books of the Year by NPR, San Francisco Chronicle, Time, Esquire, Fortune, Marie Claire, GQ, Mental Floss, Science Friday, Bloomberg, Popular Mechanics, BookRiot, The Seattle Times, The Oregonian, Publishers Weekly, and Library Journal
“Bad Blood is the real be-all end-all of Theranos information…. Bad Blood is wild, and more happens on one page than in many other entire books.” —Margaret Lyons, The New York Times