The revealing of the top secret novel selected for “What If All South Whidbey Read the Same Book?” was made following the appearance Wednesday of Seattle Librarian Nancy Pearl, who previewed her annual recommended book list to about 100 people at the Whidbey Island Center for the Arts.

Pearl opened the hour-long talk with her 100-page rule: “If you don’t like a book after the first 100 pages put it down, you don’t have to read it. But because time is short, if you’re over 50, subtract your age from 100. That’s how many pages you need to read.”

That said, Pearl launched into her list, at the top of which is “Choice Cuts: A Savory Selection of Food Writing from Around the World and Throughout History,” which Pearl called a “superb collection” by food writers and historical figures.

“The Little Friend,” by Donna Tartt, is the story of a 12-year-old girl who wants to find the person who murdered her brother.

“Don’t be put off by the cover, “Pearl said. “It has a wonderful rush to the end.”

Another Pearl favorite is “Seabiscuit: An American Legend.”

“It’s more than a story about a horse,” she said. “The book is a look at American life during the 1920s and 1930s. It’s a wonderful gift item for people interested in history.”

For those who love the era of Dickens, “The Crimson Petal and the White” is good historical fiction, Pearl said. In this story of an 18-year-old prostitute taken in by her lover to be a governess for his children and a caretaker for his ailing wife, Pearl said, “the reader is immediately transported to Victorian London.”

“One of the best books about Iran” is how Pearl critiqued “Persian Mirrors: The Elusive Face of Iran.” It was written by a New York Times reporter who was one of two women on the plane to Tehran with the Ayatollah Khomeini after the Shah had been ousted.

“It is very readable, not scholarly or weighted down with footnotes, but the author is intelligent and well-educated,” Pearl said.

A book Pearl called “viscerally powerful” is “Perma Red,” the story of a young woman living on the Flathead Indian Reservation in Montana during the 1940s.

For readers who can think “out of the box,” and want a book for the dark gray days of December, “The Bear Who Went Over the Mountain” is a funny, enjoyable story of a bear who finds a briefcase containing a book manuscript. He takes it to New York and becomes a successful author while the man who lost the book is in the woods becoming more bearlike.

Pearl said the last book on the list, “Big If,” should have been nominated for a National Book Award. It is a post-modern story of a brother who writes computer software of war games and a sister who is a secret service agent.

“It is a mirror of the way we are forced to live since Sept. 11, 2001,” Pearl said.