Looking for great gift ideas? A book is always the perfect gift. Check out these noteworthy picks from 2010:

1.  Just Kids / Patti Smith
Smith's evocative, honest, and moving coming-of-age story reveals her extraordinary relationship with artist Robert Mapplethorpe. Part romance, part elegy, "Just Kids" is about friendship in the truest sense, and the artist's calling.

 2. The Emperor of All Maladies / Siddhartha Mukherjee
The Emperor of All Maladiesis a magnificent, profoundly humane “biography” of cancer—from its first documented appearances thousands of years ago through the epic battles in the twentieth century to cure, control, and conquer it to a radical new understanding of its essence.

3. You are Not A Gadget / Jaron Lanier
Controversial and fascinating,You Are Not a Gadget is a deeply felt defense of the individual from an author uniquely qualified to comment on the way technology interacts with our culture.

 4. The Secret Historian : the life and times of Samuel Steward, professor, tattoo artist, and sexual renegade / Justin Spring
Drawn from the secret, never-before-seen diaries, journals, and sexual records of the novelist, poet, and university professor Samuel M. Steward, Secret Historian is a sensational reconstruction of one of the more extraordinary hidden lives of the twentieth century.

 5. Apollo's Angels : A History of Ballet / by Jennifer Homans
Ballet has been shaped by the Renaissance and Classicism, the Enlightenment and Romanticism, Bolshevism, Modernism, and the Cold War.Apollo's Angels is a groundbreaking work--the first cultural history of ballet ever written, lavishly illustrated and beautifully told.

 
6. The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks / Rebecca Skloot
Her name was Henrietta Lacks, but scientists know her as HeLa. She was a poor Southern tobacco farmer who worked the same land as her slave ancestors, yet her cells-taken without her knowledge-became one of the most important tools in medicine.

 7. The Tiger: A True Story of Vengeance and Survival / John Vaillant
It's December 1997 and a man-eating tiger is on the prowl outside a remote village in Russia's Far East. The tiger isn't just killing people, it's annihilating them, and a team of men and their dogs must hunt it on foot through the forest in the brutal cold.

  8. War / Sebastian Junger
[Junger's] on-the-ground account follows a single platoon through a 15-month tour of duty in the most dangerous outpost in Afghanistan's Korengal Valley. Through the experiences of these young men at war, he shows what it means to fight, to serve, and to face down mortal danger on a daily basis.

9. Simple Times : Crafts for Poor People / Amy Sedaris

America's most delightfully unconventional hostess and the bestselling author of I Like You delivers a new book that will forever change the world of crafting.  (Note: this is a humour book, not a craft book!)

 10. The Geometry of Pasta / Jacob Kenedy and Caz Hildebrand

The Geometry of Pasta pairs more than one hundred authentic recipes from critically acclaimed chef Jacob Kenedy with award-winning designer Caz Hildebrand's stunning black-and-white designs to reveal the science, history, and philosophy behind spectacular pasta dishes from all over Italy.

Note:  all book summaries from Syndetic Solutions, LLC.