This is a slight variation of the list at my own site (the list at TMFTML is: a) longer (i.e., includes more than ten items); b) more extensive; and c) includes books only published thus far in the U.K. I don't necessarily consider the books I listed here superior to the ones that I left out, but given the constraints of the format here, I narrowed this list down the titles published in the U.S. during 2002, and one excellent collection that should probably be in every home). Now that those caveats are out of the way, these are ten of my favorite books this year:

BAD BLOOD, Lorna Sage

BRITAIN IN REVOLUTION, 1625-1660, Austin Woolrych

ESSAYS, George Orwell

FRAGRANT HARBOR, John Lanchester

GOULD'S BOOK OF FISH, Richard Flanagan

PARIS 1919: Six Months That Changed the World, Margaret MacMillan.

SAMUEL PEPYS: THE UNEQUALLED SELF, Claire Tomalin

THE ROTTERS' CLUB, Jonathan Coe

SIR GAWAIN AND THE GREEN KNIGHT, W. S. Merwin

SPIES, Michael Frayn