Notable Books for Adults
Since 1944, the goal of the Notable Books Council has been to make available to the nation’s readers a list of 25 very good, very readable, and at times very important fiction, nonfiction, and poetry books for the adult reader. Please visit https://www.rusaupdate.org/awards/notable-books-list/ for the most current lists and information.
About
The Notable Books List evolved from an activity sponsored by the Lending Round Table of the American Library Association (ALA) in 1944. Since then, the selection of a list of notable or outstanding books of the year has been carried out in a variety of ways, and under various auspices. For three years, the selection was known as Outstanding Books, and was prepared by the ALA Lending Section, with the assistance of membership votes. In 1947, the Division of Public Libraries assumed responsibility of producing the list, changing the name to Notable Books. In 1955, the Notable Books Committee was expanded to become a 12-member Council, and in 1958 was transferred to the Adult Services Division. In 1959, the RASD Board of Directors adopted a statement of purpose and a list of criteria for Notable Books. These documents codified the characteristic philosophy and methodology of Notable Books and remain guiding principles today. In 1966, the Council began a reconsideration of the purposes and procedures of the selection of the Notable Books, the first step being revision of the Manual. With the merger of RSD and ASD in 1972, the Notable Books Council became a committee of the Reference and Adult Services Division. (Condensed and updated from "The Notable Books Project, 1044-55; Summary by S. Janice Kee, prepared January 1956.")
The operations of the Council have undergone subtle changes during the 1990's. Meetings are now limited to regular ALA conference dates; the 12-member Council no longer relies upon participating libraries for input; a publicity subcommittee has been established in order to further recognition and use of the Notable Book designation; and, Literary Tastes: A Notable Books Breakfast has become an annual event at summer conference. The Council enjoys enthusiastic support of most major publishers in providing review copies of books for Council members and in providing expenses for authors invited to participate in the breakfasts.
In 1991 the Notable Books Council came under the aegis of Collection Development and Evaluation Section (CODES) following the restructuring of RASD (now RUSA). The Council reports to the Chair of CODES rather than directly to the Division President or RUSA Executive Director.
Administered by:
Details
Frequency: Annual
Award Information
Title | Year | |
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The Dinner
2014 - Winner(s) |
2014 - Winner(s) | |
Constellation of Vital Phenomena
2014 - Winner(s) |
2014 - Winner(s) | |
The Woman Upstairs
2014 - Winner(s) |
2014 - Winner(s) | |
Tale for the Time Being
2014 - Winner(s) |
2014 - Winner(s) | |
The Goldfinch
2014 - Winner(s) |
2014 - Winner(s) | |
Americanah
2014 - Winner(s) |
2014 - Winner(s) | |
Life After Life
2014 - Winner(s) |
2014 - Winner(s) | |
Claire of the Sea Light
2014 - Winner(s) |
2014 - Winner(s) | |
Too Bright to Hear Too Loud to See
2014 - Winner(s) |
2014 - Winner(s) | |
Enon
2014 - Winner(s) |
2014 - Winner(s) | |
Unchangeable Spots of Leopards
2014 - Winner(s) |
2014 - Winner(s) |
Title | Year | |
---|---|---|
Behind the Beautiful Forevers: Life, Death, and Hope in a Mumbai Undercity
2013 - Selection(s) Documents the lives of the slum dwellers of Annawadi, whose work as garbage pickers barely keeps them alive. |
2013 - Selection(s) | |
Shooting Victoria: Madness, Mayhem, and the Rebirth of the British Monarchy.
2013 - Selection(s) Queen - 8, assassins - 0. |
2013 - Selection(s) | |
A Hologram for the King
2013 - Selection(s) In a nod to Godot, an American salesman is in Saudi Arabia to close a deal which may salvage his way of life. |
2013 - Selection(s) | |
One Last Thing Before I Go
2013 - Selection(s) No one can understand how Silver has made such a mess of his life. Can he fix it before the clock runs out? |
2013 - Selection(s) | |
The Ocean of Life: The Fate of Man and the Sea
2013 - Selection(s) Sail and swim through our threatened waters towards ideas for creating a sustainable future. |
2013 - Selection(s) | |
The Round House
2013 - Selection(s) On the Ojibwe reservation, Oop hunts for his mother's attacker and learns that law does not always provide justice. |
2013 - Selection(s) | |
Battleborn
2013 - Selection(s) The aching beauty of Nevada from the mid-1800s to the present is depicted in these nuanced and elegant stories. |
2013 - Selection(s) | |
Why Be Happy When You Could be Normal?
2013 - Selection(s) Religion, sex, class, libraries, politics, madness, art--the memoir of a young woman discovering the sanctuary of literature. |
2013 - Selection(s) | |
Canada
2013 - Selection(s) The twin teenage children of once upstanding citizens who rob a bank are left to fend for themselves. The murders come later, in Saskatchewan. |
2013 - Selection(s) | |
Quiet: The Power of Introverts in a World That Can't Stop Talking.
2013 - Selection(s) Compelling arguments for why we should turn down the volume. |
2013 - Selection(s) | |
Inferno
2013 - Selection(s) A rollicking, contemporary trip through the Underworld. |
2013 - Selection(s) | |
Billy Lynn's Long Halftime Walk
2013 - Selection(s) Bravo Squad was caught live on camera in a firefight. Now temporarily stateside, they are being exploited in a hyped-up victory tour. |
2013 - Selection(s) | |
Some of My Best Friends are Black: The Strange Story of Integration in America.
2013 - Winner(s) |
2013 - Winner(s) | |
Stag's Leap
2013 - Selection(s) An arc of verses which touch the raw nerve of betrayal, lost love, forgiveness, healing and finding peace. |
2013 - Selection(s) | |
The Dog Stars
2013 - Selection(s) A man, his dog, his airplane and a will to survive in post-apocalyptic Colorado. |
2013 - Selection(s) | |
Turing's Cathedral: The Origins of the Digital Universe
2013 - Selection(s) The story of the eccentric personalities whose work in Los Alamos and Princeton initiated the modern era. |
2013 - Selection(s) | |
The Orphan Master's Son
2013 - Selection(s) In a surreal sortie to a world of fabricated reality, Pak Jun Do is forced to become many people by the North Korean government. |
2013 - Selection(s) | |
Short Nights of the Shadow Catcher: The Epic Life and Immortal Photographs of Edward Curtis.
2013 - Selection(s) Illuminates one man's quest to document and preserve the culture of indigenous American tribes. |
2013 - Selection(s) | |
The Unlikely Pilgrimage of Harold Fry
2013 - Selection(s) Delivering a letter to a dying friend becomes a 500 mile journey of reflection and redemption. |
2013 - Selection(s) | |
Why Does the World Exist?: An Existential Detective Story
2013 - Selection(s) Why something instead of nothing? |
2013 - Selection(s) | |
The Headmaster's Wager
2013 - Selection(s) What happens when you are blind to the realities of war? Percival, a Chinese expatriate in Vietnam, makes bad bets with tragic consequences. |
2013 - Selection(s) | |
Engines of Change: A History of the American Dream in Fifteen Cars
2013 - Selection(s) From the Model T to the Prius, we are what we drive. |
2013 - Selection(s) | |
One Last Thing Before I Go
2013 - Selection(s) No one can understand how Silver has made such a mess of his life. Can he fix it before the clock runs out? |
2013 - Selection(s) | |
Full Body Burden: Growing Up in the Nuclear Shadow of Rocky Flats
2013 - Selection(s) The personal story and public politics of life beside plutonium triggers. |
2013 - Selection(s) | |
This is How You Lose Her
2013 - Selection(s) Yunior, a smooth-talking Dominican, explores the complexity of love, fidelity and cultural identity in these inventive, uncompromising stories. |
2013 - Selection(s) | |
Leonardo and the Last Supper
2013 - Selection(s) Think you know everything about da Vinci and his masterpiece? An enlightening and entertaining treatment of an iconic subject. |
2013 - Selection(s) | |
Half-Blood Blues
2013 - Selection(s) Two aging African-American musicians return to Berlin to find their friend, a jazz trumpeter arrested in Nazi-occupied France. |
2013 - Selection(s) |
Title | Year | |
---|---|---|
Emperor of All Maladies: A Biography of Cancer
2012 - Selection(s) The history of these diseases and their treatment is examined through the stories of those seeking to discover a cure and the individuals affected. |
2012 - Selection(s) | |
Lost Memory of Skin
2012 - Selection(s) A surprisingly sympathetic exploration of the lives and treatment of sex offenders and how this reflects on our society. |
2012 - Selection(s) | |
Right Turn at Machu Picchu: Rediscovering the Lost City One Step at a Time
2012 - Selection(s) In this humorous travelogue, the author sprinkles historical anecdote with investigative reporting as he retraces the steps of early explorers into ancient Peru. |
2012 - Selection(s) | |
Inside Scientology: The Story of America's Most Secretive Religion
2012 - Selection(s) An investigation of the origins, personalities and controversies of this uniquely American religious movement |
2012 - Selection(s) | |
The Sense of an Ending
2012 - Selection(s) A 60-something retiree living near London searches through his memories to discern what role, if any, he may have played in a decades-old tragedy |
2012 - Selection(s) | |
The Memory Palace
2012 - Selection(s) Beautifully wrought memoir chronicles the 17-year estrangement of the author and her homeless, schizophrenic mother and the painful reunion that brings them together. |
2012 - Selection(s) | |
Illuminations
2012 - Selection(s) A vigorous new translation of the French prodigy’s last poems as rendered by one of America’s finest contemporary poets |
2012 - Selection(s) | |
The Sisters Brothers
2012 - Selection(s) A darkly comic and quixotic quest western tale about two brothers whose divergent world views are presented in sparkling prose and originality. |
2012 - Selection(s) | |
The Information: A History, a Theory, a Flood
2012 - Selection(s) This comprehensive study, a melodious interplay between science and literature, documents the transmission of human knowledge from the talking drums to the Internet. |
2012 - Selection(s) | |
Beauty is a Verb: The New Poetry of Disability
2012 - Selection(s) Collection of poems and essays that provides insight into the lives of the estimated 50 million Americans with disabilities |
2012 - Selection(s) | |
Say Her Name
2012 - Selection(s) Poetic novelization of the author’s struggle to cope with his young wife’s accidental death. |
2012 - Selection(s) | |
The Swerve: How the World Became Modern
2012 - Selection(s) Meditation on the power of literature, examining how a medieval book hunter’s serendipitous discovery of an ancient prose poem provides a theoretical bridge to the... |
2012 - Selection(s) | |
The Cat's Table
2012 - Selection(s) An adventurous 21-day ocean voyage filled with a rich assortment of characters and escapades resonates through a boy’s life on his way to a new... |
2012 - Selection(s) | |
The Art of Fielding
2012 - Selection(s) One man’s failure to attain perfection on the baseball field reveals the pain and beauty that life offers in this psychologically astute novel. |
2012 - Selection(s) | |
Unbroken: A World War II Story of Survival, Resilience, and Redemption
2012 - Selection(s) An Olympic runner's physical and inner strength is tested by the experience and aftermath of a plane crash, 42 days at sea and Japanese imprisonment. |
2012 - Selection(s) | |
Light Lifting
2012 - Selection(s) Seven fearless short stories explore the limits of physical and emotional endurance in muscular prose |
2012 - Selection(s) | |
Arguably: Essays
2012 - Selection(s) Polymath and public intellectual displays his considerable range and biting wit in these thoughtful, incisive pieces that provoke and challenge. |
2012 - Selection(s) | |
The Tiger's Wife
2012 - Selection(s) After the death of her beloved grandfather, a young doctor navigates family history, folklore and love across ethnic barriers in a war-torn country. |
2012 - Selection(s) | |
Apollo's Angels: A History of Ballet
2012 - Selection(s) Elegant, authoritative work traces the evolution of classical dance from the 16th century to today, highlighting social and cultural dimensions of this traditional art form. |
2012 - Selection(s) | |
The Tragedy of Arthur
2012 - Selection(s) In an adulthood marred by family dysfunction, an author who dislikes Shakespeare reluctantly finds himself in possession of the Bard’s lost gem. Or does he? |
2012 - Selection(s) | |
Thinking, Fast and Slow
2012 - Selection(s) Entertaining look at the complexities and oddities that characterize our mental processes from the only psychologist ever to have won the Nobel Prize for Economics. |
2012 - Selection(s) | |
Swamplandia!
2012 - Selection(s) An inventive story set in an alligator theme-park navigates boundaries between childhood and adulthood, imagination and reality, in an American landscape both familiar and surreal. |
2012 - Selection(s) | |
Malcolm X: A Life of Reinvention
2012 - Selection(s) Definitive work on his life and transformation from petty thief to charismatic leader of during the turbulent civil rights era. |
2012 - Selection(s) | |
We the Animals
2012 - Selection(s) Searing portrait of a troubled, mixed-race working class family centers on the youngest son as he struggles to find his identity amid affection and abuse. |
2012 - Selection(s) | |
Destiny of the Republic: A Tale of Madness, Medicine, and the Murder of a President
2012 - Selection(s) Era of great corruption and change in U.S. history is illuminated through the tragic story of two men – one destined for greatness, the other... |
2012 - Selection(s) | |
Selected Stories
2012 - Selection(s) These finely sculpted and timeless stories provide a greater appreciation for finding beauty in the minutiae of daily life |
2012 - Selection(s) |
Title | Year | |
---|---|---|
The Price of Altruism: George Price and the Search for the Origins of Kindness
2011 - Selection(s) This moving work provides insight into the mind of a tormented genius attempting to understand an illusive aspect of human nature. |
2011 - Selection(s) | |
The Surrendered
2011 - Selection(s) The complex entangled lives of three people forever scarred by the Korean War are sympathetically portrayed in gorgeous prose. |
2011 - Selection(s) | |
Last Call: The Rise and Fall of Prohibition
2011 - Selection(s) This intoxicating history of the 18th amendment reveals the surprising relationship between Prohibition and other social movements, and explores its lasting impact on American life. |
2011 - Selection(s) | |
Matterhorn: A Novel of the Vietnam War
2011 - Selection(s) An ambitious and idealistic American Marine faces the horror, heroism, futility, and pragmatism of war in this visceral portrayal of life in-country. |
2011 - Selection(s) | |
Citizens of London: The Americans Who Stood with Britain in Its Darkest, Finest Hour
2011 - Selection(s) In this compelling portrait three influential individuals persuade a reluctant President to come to the aid of a beleaguered nation in the early days of... |
2011 - Selection(s) | |
The Thousand Autumns of Jacob de Zoet: A Novel
2011 - Selection(s) A young clerk attempts to establish himself in the artificial and intense world of Dejima, the Dutch trading colony in 1800s Japan. |
2011 - Selection(s) | |
The Last Stand: Custer, Sitting Bull, and the Battle of the Little Bighorn
2011 - Selection(s) An epic encounter between two iconic individuals is vividly portrayed in fluid, evocative, and decidedly objective prose. |
2011 - Selection(s) | |
Skippy Dies
2011 - Selection(s) Filled warmth and humor, this coming-of-age novel set in a Dublin boys schools is a sprawling homage to adolescence, string theory, donuts, and unrequited love. |
2011 - Selection(s) | |
The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks
2011 - Selection(s) A science writer uncovers the fascinating story of an African-American woman’s cancer cells harvested for medical research, thereby raising important questions of bioethics. |
2011 - Selection(s) | |
The Lotus Eaters
2011 - Selection(s) The adrenaline high that danger offers infects photojournalist Helen Adams as she documents the war in Vietnam. |
2011 - Selection(s) | |
Just Kids
2011 - Selection(s) The poet and musician’s endearing memoir about her relationship with Robert Mapplethorpe captures life and art in New York City during the 1960s and ‘70s. |
2011 - Selection(s) | |
Nashville Chrome
2011 - Selection(s) This lovely and unsettling account of pop trio The Browns reels you in as though the concept of rags to riches were brand new. |
2011 - Selection(s) | |
The Lonely Polygamist: A Novel
2011 - Selection(s) In this big-hearted novel, Golden Richards and his clan navigate their chaotic lives as each clamors to be noticed. |
2011 - Selection(s) | |
The Tiger: A True Story of Vengeance and Survival
2011 - Selection(s) Russia’s ecological and cultural history serves as the backdrop for this riveting adventure tale of man versus beast |
2011 - Selection(s) | |
Room: A Novel
2011 - Selection(s) Five-year-old Jack vividly narrates the story of his life confined in a room with his mother in this unsettling exploration of resilience and hope. |
2011 - Selection(s) | |
Washington: A Life
2011 - Selection(s) A landmark biography provides insights into the complexities of this founding father’s character, and brings him fully to life within the context of his times. |
2011 - Selection(s) | |
The Warmth of Other Suns: The Epic Story of America's Great Migration
2011 - Selection(s) The 20th century exodus of over 6 million Black Americans from the South is sensitively retold through the lives of three who left. |
2011 - Selection(s) | |
A Visit from the Goon Squad
2011 - Selection(s) A‘70s punk band becomes the touchstone for a motley crew who spin their interconnected stories over time and distance. |
2011 - Selection(s) | |
The Hare with Amber Eyes: A Family's Century of Art and Loss
2011 - Selection(s) Blending history, biography and art, this personal account elegantly traces the fate of a European Jewish family and their collection of 246 netsuke. |
2011 - Selection(s) | |
Unincorporated Persons in the Late Honda Dynasty: Poems
2011 - Selection(s) These poems capture the absurdities and loneliness of American life using matter of fact language and humor. |
2011 - Selection(s) | |
Crooked Letter, Crooked Letter
2011 - Selection(s) Two men – one black, one white – must confront the secrets surrounding their childhood friendship following the disappearance of two girls in rural Mississippi. |
2011 - Selection(s) | |
Nothing to Envy: Ordinary Lives in North Korea
2011 - Selection(s) Chronicling the experiences of six people, this powerful account draws back the curtain on the brutality of life under a totalitarian regime. |
2011 - Selection(s) | |
Wait: Poems
2011 - Selection(s) A lifetime of experience is distilled into a slim but significant volume of verse by this Pulitzer and National Book Award winning poet. |
2011 - Selection(s) | |
Freedom
2011 - Selection(s) This incisive portrait of the fractured Berglund brood captures the zeitgeist of contemporary America. |
2011 - Selection(s) | |
Travels in Siberia
2011 - Selection(s) Stricken by “Russia love,” a writer sets out to experience all things Siberian and takes us along for the rollicking journey. |
2011 - Selection(s) | |
Next
2011 - Selection(s) Welcome to the worst day of Kevin Quinn’s life as he battles the anxieties of the modern world in steamy Austin, Texas. |
2011 - Selection(s) |
Title | Year | |
---|---|---|
Stitches: A Memoir
2010 - Selection(s) Stark drawings give voice to the horrors of a child who find redemption in art while growing up in a repressed and disturbed family. |
2010 - Selection(s) | |
The Year of the Flood: A Novel
2010 - Selection(s) In the near future, two women survive an apocalyptic event in a queasily enthralling work. |
2010 - Selection(s) | |
Columbine
2010 - Selection(s) This fine work of investigative journalism challenges the myths and misconceptions of the Columbine tragedy. |
2010 - Selection(s) | |
The Hawk and the Dove: Paul Nitze, George Kennan, and the History of the Cold War
2010 - Selection(s) The remarkable half-century friendship and rivalry between two influential strategists who helped shape American policy is brought to life in this insightful dual biography. |
2010 - Selection(s) | |
The Anthologist: A Novel
2010 - Selection(s) A charming failure, poet Paul Chowder struggles to regain his muse and his girlfriend while watching deadlines slip by. |
2010 - Selection(s) | |
Zeitoun
2010 - Selection(s) This powerful account explores the devastation of post-Katrina New Orleans through the eyes of a Syrian-American who remained and endured the resulting chaos and confusion. |
2010 - Selection(s) | |
Face
2010 - Selection(s) Autobiographical poems experimenting with various styles and forms explore childhood, fatherhood, and the trials, perks and humor of minor celebrity. |
2010 - Selection(s) | |
Await Your Reply: A Novel
2010 - Selection(s) This chilling exploration of the modern meaning of identity follows three people on the fringes of society. |
2010 - Selection(s) | |
The Good Soldiers
2010 - Selection(s) An embedded reporter describes the human cost paid by an Army battalion on the streets of Iraq in language that is searing, visceral and immediate. |
2010 - Selection(s) | |
What Goes On: Selected and New Poems 1995-2009
2010 - Selection(s) Completely accessible poems written in ordinary language deal with cats, love, barfights, desire, melancholia and relationships. |
2010 - Selection(s) | |
Little Bee: A Novel
2010 - Selection(s) The compelling voice of a refugee illuminates the life-changing friendship between two women that began with a horrifying encounter on a secluded Nigerian beach. |
2010 - Selection(s) | |
The Lost City of Z: A Tale of Deadly Obsession in the Amazon
2010 - Selection(s) An intrepid reporter sets out to uncover the mysterious fate the last of the great Victorian explorers in this thrilling adventure. |
2010 - Selection(s) | |
Spooner
2010 - Selection(s) A boy struggles to navigate the vagaries of the world with the lifelong guidance of his stepfather in this funny and heartbreaking tale. |
2010 - Selection(s) | |
The Photographer: Into War-torn Afghanistan with Doctors Without Borders
2010 - Selection(s) Using mixed visual media, this stunning memoir vividly depicts the struggles and accomplishments of a humanitarian mission in an unforgiving terrain. |
2010 - Selection(s) | |
Tinkers
2010 - Selection(s) In this lyrical novel, the life of a dying man is examined through the smallest moments of time and memory. |
2010 - Selection(s) | |
The Age of Wonder: How the Romantic Generation Discovered the Beauty and Terror of Science
2010 - Selection(s) This lively, stellar group biography animates the engrossing accounts of the research that inspired a sense of awe in poets and scientists alike. |
2010 - Selection(s) | |
The Vagrants: A Novel
2010 - Selection(s) The execution of a dissident woman reverberates through her small town in the aftermath of China’s Cultural Revolution. |
2010 - Selection(s) | |
Snakehead: An Epic Tale of the Chinatown Underworld & the American Dream
2010 - Selection(s) Human trafficking and its subsequent effects on the American economy and social structures are documented in this fast-paced panoramic expose. |
2010 - Selection(s) | |
Let the Great World Spin: A Novel
2010 - Selection(s) Phillipe Petit’s highwire walk between the Twin Towers provides the backdrop for this rich portrait of the unlikely connections among a group of New Yorkers... |
2010 - Selection(s) | |
Born to Run: A Hidden Tribe, Superathletes, and the Greatest Race the World Has Never Seen
2010 - Selection(s) One journalist’s quest to discover the secrets of the reclusive Tarahumara Indians leads to an exciting and dangerous endurance race. |
2010 - Selection(s) | |
A Mercy: A Novel
2010 - Selection(s) Four women—white, mixed race, black and Native American—become a makeshift family under the care of a "good" man in colonial America. |
2010 - Selection(s) | |
Tears in the Darkness: The Story of the Bataan Death March and Its Aftermath
2010 - Selection(s) In-depth, brutal and moving this narrative provides multiple perspectives into a tragic WWII episode in the Philippines. |
2010 - Selection(s) | |
Generosity: An Enhancement
2010 - Selection(s) In this postmodern indictment of the biotech industry, a student’s unnerving happiness seems to hold the key to banishing despair from the human genetic code. |
2010 - Selection(s) | |
Provenance: How a Con Man & A Forger Rewrote the History of Modern Art
2010 - Selection(s) This enthralling page-turner describes how archivists uncovered one of the most extensive frauds in recent art history. |
2010 - Selection(s) | |
The Convalescent
2010 - Selection(s) Rovar Pfiegman, bus dwelling meat salesman, fulfills his destiny as the last of the last of his clan, in this oddly imaginative tale. |
2010 - Selection(s) | |
Brooklyn: A Novel
2010 - Selection(s) A young Irish woman faces heart-wrenching decisions in this unabashedly romantic and deceptively simple story of immigration and belonging. |
2010 - Selection(s) |
Title | Year | |
---|---|---|
Dangerous Laughter: Thirteen Stories
2009 - Selection(s) Knopf |
2009 - Selection(s) | |
The Dark Side: The Inside Story of How The War on Terror Turned into a War on American Ideals
2009 - Selection(s) Doubleday |
2009 - Selection(s) | |
Resistance
2009 - Selection(s) Doubleday/Nan A. Talese |
2009 - Selection(s) | |
In Defense of Food: An Eater's Manifesto
2009 - Selection(s) Penguin |
2009 - Selection(s) | |
Olive Kitteridge
2009 - Selection(s) Random House |
2009 - Selection(s) | |
American-Made: The Enduring Legacy of the WPA: When FDR Put the Nation to Work
2009 - Selection(s) Bantam |
2009 - Selection(s) | |
The Ginseng Hunter
2009 - Selection(s) Doubleday/Nan A. Talese |
2009 - Selection(s) | |
Traffic: Why We Drive the Way We Do (and What It Says about Us)
2009 - Selection(s) Knopf |
2009 - Selection(s) | |
The Hakawati
2009 - Selection(s) Knopf |
2009 - Selection(s) | |
The Bin-Ladens: An Arabian Family in the American Century
2009 - Selection(s) Penguin Press |
2009 - Selection(s) | |
The Suicide Index: Putting My Father's Death in Order
2009 - Selection(s) Harcourt |
2009 - Selection(s) | |
The Wasted Vigil
2009 - Selection(s) Knopf |
2009 - Selection(s) | |
This Republic of Suffering: Death and the American Civil War
2009 - Selection(s) Knopf |
2009 - Selection(s) | |
Special Orders: Poems
2009 - Selection(s) Knopf |
2009 - Selection(s) | |
Peace
2009 - Selection(s) Knopf |
2009 - Selection(s) | |
The Forever War
2009 - Selection(s) Knopf |
2009 - Selection(s) | |
Ghost Soldiers: Poems
2009 - Selection(s) Ecco |
2009 - Selection(s) | |
City of Thieves: A Novel
2009 - Selection(s) Viking |
2009 - Selection(s) | |
Defying Dixie: The Radical Roots of Civil Rights, 1919-1950
2009 - Selection(s) Norton |
2009 - Selection(s) | |
The Plague of Doves
2009 - Selection(s) HarperCollins |
2009 - Selection(s) | |
The Hemingses of Monticello: An American Family
2009 - Selection(s) Norton |
2009 - Selection(s) | |
Atmospheric Disturbances
2009 - Selection(s) Farrar Straus & Giroux |
2009 - Selection(s) | |
Pictures at a Revolution: Five Movies and the Birth of the New Hollywood
2009 - Selection(s) Penguin |
2009 - Selection(s) | |
Unaccustomed Earth
2009 - Selection(s) Knopf |
2009 - Selection(s) | |
A Voyage Long and Strange: Rediscovering the New World
2009 - Selection(s) Holt |
2009 - Selection(s) |
Title | Year | |
---|---|---|
The Complete Stories
2008 - Selection(s) These intense, powerful stories range from lyrical to violent portrayals of how the Australian landscape changes its inhabitants. |
2008 - Selection(s) | |
The Canon: A Whirligig Tour of the Beautiful Basics of Science
2008 - Selection(s) This exhilarating introduction presents the fundamentals of science through interviews and clear, witty explanations. |
2008 - Selection(s) | |
Finn
2008 - Selection(s) The dark secrets of Huck Finn’s brutal father, “Pap,” are imagined in this violent tale of life on the Mississippi. |
2008 - Selection(s) | |
Einstein: His Life and Universe
2008 - Selection(s) Newly available documents help create a vivid, three-dimensional portrait of one of the twentieth-century’s iconic geniuses. |
2008 - Selection(s) | |
The Five-Forty-Five to Cannes
2008 - Selection(s) Linked by an accidental death and by a train route, these 10 stories offer colorful characters and intense dramas entwined into an exemplary novel-in-stories. |
2008 - Selection(s) | |
Gertrude Bell: Queen of the Desert, Shaper of Nations
2008 - Selection(s) The unexpected story of British explorer, adventurer, and diplomat Bell reveals her influence on the shape of modern-day Iraq. |
2008 - Selection(s) | |
Five Skies
2008 - Selection(s) As three men build a ramp for a daredevil jump across an Idaho gorge, each exposes tender wounds and experiences significant changes. |
2008 - Selection(s) | |
How Doctors Think
2008 - Selection(s) Pharmaceutical companies, managed care, and medical training all contribute to how physicians automatically think. Groopman shows how patients can interact with doctors to avoid misdiagnoses. |
2008 - Selection(s) | |
The Ministry of Special Cases
2008 - Selection(s) By turns humorous and tragic, this sometimes surreal novel examines Jewish culture during Argentina’s “dirty war” and chronicles the disappearance of one family’s son. |
2008 - Selection(s) | |
Oil on the Brain: Adventures from the Pump to the Pipeline
2008 - Selection(s) This eye-opening, highly readable account of a commonplace yet indispensable substance is a complete study of oil’s journey from well to consumer. |
2008 - Selection(s) | |
Mister Pip
2008 - Selection(s) As her once familiar life crumbles in the face of civil war, a young island girl is transformed by her reading of Great Expectations. |
2008 - Selection(s) | |
Super-Crunchers: Why Thinking-by-Numbers Is the New Way to Be Smart
2008 - Selection(s) This accessible, thought-provoking work vividly explains how information collection and statistical analysis play a part in every facet of our daily lives. |
2008 - Selection(s) | |
On Chesil Beach
2008 - Selection(s) Miscommunication and apprehension imperil a new marriage in this powerful story of a young couple honeymooning on England’s Chesil Beach in the early 1960s. |
2008 - Selection(s) | |
When a Crocodile Eats the Sun: A Memoir of Africa
2008 - Selection(s) This harrowing memoir recounts a journalist’s return to his elderly parents in dictator Robert Mugabe’s Zimbabwe, where he uncovers family secrets and witnesses a country... |
2008 - Selection(s) | |
Out Stealing Horses
2008 - Selection(s) In this spare and beautiful novel, aging widower Tron Sanders, who lives alone on the Norwegian tundra, contemplates his childhood, which was shaped by World... |
2008 - Selection(s) | |
The World without Us
2008 - Selection(s) Discover the ruins of humankind on a people-free earth and nature’s response in this provocative, scrupulously researched experiment in creative thinking. |
2008 - Selection(s) | |
An Arsonist's Guide to Writers' Homes in New England
2008 - Selection(s) Released from prison after burning down Emily Dickinson’s house, an accidental arsonist reinvents himself in this incendiary send-up of the state of American letters. |
2008 - Selection(s) | |
The Pesthouse
2008 - Selection(s) Pestilence is the backdrop for this surprisingly hopeful tale of Margaret and Franklin, young survivors traveling across postapocalyptic America both to escape and to begin... |
2008 - Selection(s) | |
The Zookeeper's Wife: A War Story
2008 - Selection(s) Graceful writing reveals the gentle nature of Antonina Zabinski, who hoped to save the Warsaw Zoo and instead was able to hide hundreds of Jews... |
2008 - Selection(s) | |
Away
2008 - Selection(s) This beautifully written novel follows Lillian Leyb, a Russian immigrant who embarks on an arduous westward journey across the U.S. in the 1920s in search... |
2008 - Selection(s) | |
The Yiddish Policemen's Union
2008 - Selection(s) What if Israel were relocated to a piece of land leased from Alaska? This genre-blending tour de force explores an outlandish premise with enthusiasm and... |
2008 - Selection(s) | |
A New Hunger
2008 - Selection(s) Palpable longing and uncommon beauty engender universality in this adroit and haunting collection. |
2008 - Selection(s) | |
Cheating at Canasta
2008 - Selection(s) This sublime collection of melancholy short stories exploring relationships between friends, family, and lovers is the work of a master craftsman at the top of... |
2008 - Selection(s) | |
Animal, Vegetable, Miracle: A Year of Food Life
2008 - Selection(s) This entertaining account of a family’s year eating only locally produced food presents both serious and humorous facts and anecdotes about nutrition, agribusiness, and food... |
2008 - Selection(s) | |
In a Prominent Bar in Secaucus: New and Selected Poems, 1955-2007
2008 - Selection(s) Presenting the best of a 50-year career, Kennedy proves that poetry with meter and rhyme is still exciting and alive. |
2008 - Selection(s) |
Title | Year | |
---|---|---|
Blind Willow, Sleeping Woman
2007 - Selection(s) Knopf, $24.95 The 24 stories in this collection depict ordinary life at once vivid and surreal. Each story uncovers for the reader the vastness of... |
2007 - Selection(s) | |
James Tiptree, Jr.: The Double Life of Alice B. Sheldon
2007 - Selection(s) St. Martin’s, $27.95 |
2007 - Selection(s) | |
Beautiful Dreamer
2007 - Selection(s) St. Martin’s/Thomas Dunne, $21.95 In this taut, spare parable, a white man tries to prevent the lynching of a black man and gets caught up... |
2007 - Selection(s) | |
Firman: Adventures of a Metropolitan Lowlife
2007 - Selection(s) Coffee House, paper, $14.95 Wry humor, melancholy, and poignant yearning suffuse this life story of an amazingly literate rat born in a Boston bookstore doomed... |
2007 - Selection(s) | |
The Heartless Stone: A Journey through the World of Diamonds, Deceit, and Desire
2007 - Selection(s) St. Martin’s, $24.95 |
2007 - Selection(s) | |
The Madonnas of Leningrad
2007 - Selection(s) Morrow, $23.95 Dean artfully parallels a woman’s descent into Alzheimer’s and her role in the concealment of paintings at the Hermitage during the siege of... |
2007 - Selection(s) | |
Fun Home: A Family Tragicomic
2007 - Selection(s) Houghton, $19.95 |
2007 - Selection(s) | |
Famous
2007 - Selection(s) Univ. of Nebraska, paper, $17.95 |
2007 - Selection(s) | |
The Inheritance of Loss
2007 - Selection(s) Grove/Atlantic, $24 Frustration and loss color the lives of five Indian people. Their interwoven stories, from rural India to Manhattan, are told in lush language... |
2007 - Selection(s) | |
The Worst Hard Time: The Untold Story of Those Who Survived the Great American Dust Bowl
2007 - Selection(s) Houghton, $28 |
2007 - Selection(s) | |
Burning Wyclif
2007 - Selection(s) Texas Tech Univ., $19.95 |
2007 - Selection(s) | |
The Whistling Season
2007 - Selection(s) Harcourt, $25 Rural Montana in 1909 is the central character in this humorous novel of life on the prairie. Change moves in with a widow... |
2007 - Selection(s) | |
The Weather Makers: How Man Is Changing the Climate and What It Means for Life on Earth
2007 - Selection(s) Houghton, $28 |
2007 - Selection(s) | |
William Henry Harrison and Other Poems
2007 - Selection(s) Louisiana State, paper, $16.95 |
2007 - Selection(s) | |
The Secret River
2007 - Selection(s) Canongate, $24 Convicted of theft and transported to Australia, an Englishman creates a new life for himself and his family in this potent story of... |
2007 - Selection(s) | |
There Is No Me without You: One Woman's Odyssey to Rescue Africa's Children
2007 - Selection(s) Bloomsbury, $25.95 |
2007 - Selection(s) | |
The Attack
2007 - Selection(s) Doubleday/Nan A. Talese, $18.95 In this provocative novel, a successful Arab-Israeli surgeon revisits his roots as he seeks understanding of his wife’s death as a... |
2007 - Selection(s) | |
Oracle Bones: A Journey between China's Past and Present
2007 - Selection(s) HarperCollins, $26.95 An American journalist compellingly contrasts China’s past, as revealed through ancient artifacts, with the fiercely competitive spirit of the new generation. |
2007 - Selection(s) | |
The Girls
2007 - Selection(s) Little, Brown, $23.95 Twenty-nine-year-old conjoined twins who know they will soon die set out to record their story. In distinctly separate voices, they reveal lives... |
2007 - Selection(s) | |
Breach of Faith: Hurricane Katrina and the Near Death of a Great American City
2007 - Selection(s) Random, $25.95 |
2007 - Selection(s) | |
The Road
2007 - Selection(s) Knopf, $24 In McCarthy’s unrelenting tale, a father and son struggle to survive on their journey through the deadly, empty winter of a postapocalyptic America... |
2007 - Selection(s) | |
The Judgment of Paris: The Revolutionary Decade That Gave the World Impressionism
2007 - Selection(s) Walker, $28 |
2007 - Selection(s) | |
The People's Act of Love
2007 - Selection(s) Canongate, $24 In 1919, an escaped convict clashes with bizarre cultists and displaced Czech soldiers in a shocking, twist-filled tale set in a remote Siberian... |
2007 - Selection(s) | |
Field Notes from a Catastrophe: Man, Nature, and Climate Change
2007 - Selection(s) Bloomsbury, $22.95 |
2007 - Selection(s) | |
Black Swan Green
2007 - Selection(s) Random, $24.95 Share English teen Jason Taylor’s ace adventures as he takes on unforgiving classmates, a wicked stammer, and the Falklands War, emerging as an... |
2007 - Selection(s) | |
Mayflower: A Story of Courage, Community, and War
2007 - Selection(s) Viking, $29.95 |
2007 - Selection(s) |
Title | Year | |
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World of Our Fathers
1976 - Selection(s) A rich and varied evocation of Jewish immigrant experience at the turn of the century. |
1976 - Selection(s) | |
Friendly Fire
1976 - Selection(s) One family's persistent, painful search for the true circumstances of their son's death in Vietnam. |
1976 - Selection(s) | |
October Light
1976 - Selection(s) Fictional evocation of the value of endurance, dramatized through human conflicts on a Vermont farm and interlocked with excerpts from a melodramatic novel. |
1976 - Selection(s) | |
Passages: Predictable Crises of Adult Life
1976 - Selection(s) Patterns of development common to many adult Americans. |
1976 - Selection(s) | |
Heat and Dust
1976 - Selection(s) The love affair of a contemporary English-woman in India echoes a romance that occured a half century earlier. A novel. |
1976 - Selection(s) | |
Beautiful Swimmers: Watermen, Crabs, and The Chesapeake Bay
1976 - Selection(s) A vivid and affectionately wrought description of the Chesapeake Bay area. |
1976 - Selection(s) | |
The Body is The Hero
1976 - Selection(s) A readable explanation of the ways in which defense mechanisms of the body can organize either to protect or to work against our well-being. |
1976 - Selection(s) | |
Portraits of Chinese Women in Revolution
1976 - Selection(s) Powerful descriptions of suffering and turmoil in the struggle for liberation. Written between 1928 and 1941. |
1976 - Selection(s) | |
Gramp
1976 - Selection(s) One family's decision to keep a dying grandfather at home results in this unflinchingly honest photographic essay. |
1976 - Selection(s) | |
Letters of E.B. White
1976 - Selection(s) Clarity, candor, intelligence, and wit glow from the pages of what may prove to be White's autobiography. |
1976 - Selection(s) | |
The Strong Brown God: The Story of The Niger River
1976 - Selection(s) Cultures clash and blend along the river Niger in a vivid narrative of exploration, exploitation, and survival. |
1976 - Selection(s) | |
The Russians
1976 - Selection(s) Astute, eminently readable observations of Soviet life-styles and attitudes in the early 1970s. |
1976 - Selection(s) | |
Face of Battle
1976 - Selection(s) Three British victories over a period of 500 years are thoroughly examined in this original and brilliant work. |
1976 - Selection(s) | |
Easter Parade: A Novel
1976 - Selection(s) Tragic tale of two sisters who spend a life-time seeking the love and security they were denied in childhood. |
1976 - Selection(s) | |
The Damnable Question: A Study in Anglo-Irish Relations
1976 - Selection(s) A powerful book that brings together the tragic facts about Anglo-Irish relations between 1800 and the Easter Uprising. |
1976 - Selection(s) | |
The Takeover
1976 - Selection(s) The upper classes get their comeuppance in this sparkling, witty novel. |
1976 - Selection(s) | |
Children of The Sun: A Narrative of "decadence" in England After 1918
1976 - Selection(s) An examination of the generation who refused to follow their fathers' patterns of living and so created a brilliant new era in British life and... |
1976 - Selection(s) | |
Family Feeling
1976 - Selection(s) A strong-willed woman struggles through the tangles of Jewish family relationships in a superbly written novel. |
1976 - Selection(s) | |
World of Wonders
1976 - Selection(s) A master illusionist recounts his rise to fame and in so doing gives the final answer to "who killed Boy Staunton?" The third novel in... |
1976 - Selection(s) | |
The Woman Warrior: Memoirs of a Girlhood Among Ghosts
1976 - Selection(s) A young American woman recounts memories and myths from her Chinese heritage in an effort to reconcile past and present cultures. |
1976 - Selection(s) | |
Kinflicks; a novel
1976 - Selection(s) Flashbacks reveal Ginny's Babcock's sad, funny progress from cheerleader to lesbian to farmer to housewife. |
1976 - Selection(s) | |
Ordinary People
1976 - Selection(s) The return of a young son from a mental hospital triggers reexaminations and new awareness of family relationships. A first novel. |
1976 - Selection(s) | |
Adolf Hitler
1976 - Selection(s) Drawn from more than 250 interviews and available facts, including some previously unpublished. A basic work. |
1976 - Selection(s) | |
The Survivor: The Anatomy of Life in The Death Camps
1976 - Selection(s) A convincing argument, based upon personal accounts, that survival in concentration camps required strong feelings of community and responsibility. |
1976 - Selection(s) | |
Born on The Fourth of July
1976 - Selection(s) An angry cry from the heart of a young man who went to Vietnam with youthful idealism and returned broken in body and spirit. |
1976 - Selection(s) | |
The View From Highway #1; essays on television
1976 - Selection(s) A thought-provoking study of the shortcomings of televison programming and its impact. |
1976 - Selection(s) | |
The Black Family in Slavery and Freedom, 1750-1925
1976 - Selection(s) A landmark book that will bring about a reevaluation of the slave experience. |
1976 - Selection(s) | |
Angels At The Ritz and Other Stories
1976 - Selection(s) Incidents and individuals spotlighted and explored with grace, accuracy, and humanity. |
1976 - Selection(s) | |
Interview With History
1976 - Selection(s) Through 14 interviews a talented journalist reveals the strengths and weaknesses of the powerful. |
1976 - Selection(s) | |
Nightmare: The Underside of the Nixon Years
1976 - Selection(s) Comprehensive, documented chronology of White House machinations from 1969 through 1974. |
1976 - Selection(s) | |
New Burlington: The Life and Death of an American Village
1976 - Selection(s) An elegiac encounter with the lives and memories of Ohio villagers whose rural past is doomed by the twentieth century. |
1976 - Selection(s) | |
Roots: The Saga of an American Family
1976 - Selection(s) Epic story of Haley's heritage, traced back over seven generations to a small village in West Africa. |
1976 - Selection(s) | |
Searching for Caleb
1976 - Selection(s) A beautifully crafted novel in which grandfather Peck and his grandson's wife break the traditions of four stultifying generations. |
1976 - Selection(s) | |
Human Intelligence
1976 - Selection(s) Compendium of recent research with special attention to the shortcomings of traditional measurement. |
1976 - Selection(s) | |
Plagues and Peoples
1976 - Selection(s) Stimulating theories based on the interaction between civilizations and disease organisms in world history. |
1976 - Selection(s) | |
The Uses of Enchantment: The Meaning and Importance of Fairy Tales
1976 - Selection(s) A Freudian defense of fairy tales as a means of universal communication. |
1976 - Selection(s) | |
Beyond Culture: Into the Cultural Unconscious
1976 - Selection(s) Demonstrates the dangers of applying one's own processes of thought to civilizations with other customs and languages. |
1976 - Selection(s) | |
Marry Me: A Romance
1976 - Selection(s) Four married suburbanites stumble into the pitfalls of conscience and inconvenience on the rocky roads of love. |
1976 - Selection(s) | |
The Watches of The Night
1976 - Selection(s) Thirteen years after Night Comes to the Cumberlands, Caudill returns to find that the federal programs have turned the mountain people into welfare clients... |
1976 - Selection(s) | |
Bloodbrothers
1976 - Selection(s) The summer of choice for an 18-year old Italian-American is the focus of a vivid novel that embellishes the familiar family theme with dramatic intensity. |
1976 - Selection(s) | |
The Drama of The Oceans
1976 - Selection(s) Beautifully illustrated study of nature's most majestic and mysterious realm, now on the brink of cataclysm. |
1976 - Selection(s) | |
Terra Nostra: A Novel
1976 - Selection(s) A fictional fusion of history and fantasy in graceful translation. This quixotic, erotic epic is as complex and breathtaking as the Spanish culture at its... |
1976 - Selection(s) | |
1876: A Novel
1976 - Selection(s) Wickedly wise telescoping of the scandals and intrigues that marked America's presidential election in its centennial year. |
1976 - Selection(s) | |
Women of The Shadows
1976 - Selection(s) A graphic presentation of the harsh lives and the courage of five women in a poor Italian village. |
1976 - Selection(s) | |
Freedom Spent
1976 - Selection(s) Three case studies which show that, even in America, the legal and judical systems will protect individual rights only if citizens remain determined and vigilant. |
1976 - Selection(s) | |
The Autobiography of My Mother
1976 - Selection(s) A novel of a successful lawyer, her directionless, sensual daughter, and the child who is the focus of their final struggle. |
1976 - Selection(s) | |
Autumn of The Patriarch
1976 - Selection(s) An extravagant novel of the last days of a mythic dictator who ruled 200 years, sired 5,000 children, and died in squalor. |
1976 - Selection(s) | |
The Gates: Poems
1976 - Selection(s) Selected and varied poems, from political through sensual. |
1976 - Selection(s) |
Please contact the Chairperson of the Committe to submit your book for consideration. The new chairperson will be announced in June at the ALA Annual Conference.