10 Best Books

With the fur trapper and wilderness scout Kit Carson as his focus, Sides has constructed a heartbreaking history of three cultures in the Southwest--American Indians, Mexicans and Americans--during and after the Mexican-American war, an age of bloody confrontations in which the Navajo would be all but swept away.

9. DAVID MITCHELL, BLACK SWAN GREEN

Mitchell's last novel, Cloud Atlas, skipped from the 19th century to the far future. This time he contents himself with one year--1982--in the life of one boy--dreamy, stammering Jason Taylor--in one English town. But everything's still there: this funny, close-focus coming-of-age story is also a huge, swirling novel of power, death and love.

10. DAVE EGGERS, WHAT IS THE WHAT

When valentino was young, soldiers burned his village in Sudan. Parentless, he walked hundreds of miles in search of safety. When he came to America as a young man, his problems started again. Don't read this novel--which is closely based on his life--for any reason other than it's a great document of hope, despair and the will to keep walking.