In order, from the absolute best to the just great:

1. The Civil War (3 volumes), by Shelby Foote
2. The Island at the Center of the World, by Russell Shorto
3. Red Plenty, by Francis Spufford
4. ????????? ????? ????????, by Viktor Pelevin (usually translated as The Sacred Book of the Werewolf)
5. 1776 by David McCollough

Only one of these was completely fiction, though Red Plenty was a fictionalized re-telling of actual events. This is likely to change for 2011, as I plan to read a great deal of fiction.

An honorary mention goes to:

Le Rouge et Le Noir by Stendhal, because I'm about 40 pages from the end (due to family visiting for the holidays, I haven't been able to read at all for about five days) - had I finished it already it would have made the list, probably at spot number 3.