Headlines like this are the reason...

...that I'm so happy to be writing for Kirkus: Obama Aims for Bland and Hits the Mark.

Anyway, also up at Kirkus today is a round-up of some of my favorite reads this year. Not, it should be noted, a list of my favorite books published in 2010, but a list of the stand-outs I read. So it's a mix of older and newer and here and there and everywhere.