2002 Notable Books for Adults announced

Contact: Donavan Vicha


312-280-4397

For Immediate Release


January 21, 2002

2002 Notable Books for Adults announced

The Notable Books Council of the Reference and User Services Association (RUSA), a division of the American Library Association (ALA), has compiled its year 2002 list of outstanding books for the general reader. These titles have been selected for their significant contribution to the expansion of knowledge and for the pleasure they can provide to adult readers. This is "The List for America's Readers:"

Fiction

  • Carey, Peter, "True History of the Kelly Gang," Knopf, $25 (ISBN: 0-375-41084-8)
  • Chaon, Dan, "Among the Missing," Ballantine, $22 (ISBN: 0-345-44162-1)
  • Davis, Lydia, "Samuel Johnson Is Indignant: Stories," McSweeney's, $16 (ISBN: 0-9703355-9-8)
  • Everett, Percival, "Erasure: A Novel," UP New England, $24.95 (ISBN: 1-58465-090-7)
  • Franzen, Jonathan, "The Corrections: A Novel," Farrar, Straus & Giroux, $26 (ISBN: 0-374-12998-3)
  • Gordimer, Nadine, "The Pickup: A Novel," Farrar, Straus & Giroux, $24 (ISBN: 0-374-23210-5)
  • MacLeod, Alistair, "Island: The Complete Stories," Norton, $24 (ISBN: 0-393-05035-1)
  • Olds, Bruce, "Bucking the Tiger," Farrar, Straus & Giroux, $25 (ISBN: 0-374-11727-6)
  • Sebald, W.G., "Austerlitz," Random House, $$25.95 (ISBN: 0-375-50483-4)
  • Suri, Manil, "The Death of Vishnu," Norton, $24.95 (ISBN: 0-393-05042-4)
  • Winegardner, Mark, "Crooked River Burning," Harcourt, $27 (ISBN: 0-15-100294-0)

Nonfiction

  • Arana, Marie, "American Chica: Two Worlds, One Childhood," Dial, $23.95 (ISBN: 0-385-31962-2)
  • Connell, Evan, "Aztec Treasure House: New and Selected Essays," Counterpoint, $28 (ISBN: 1-58243-162-0)
  • Elliot, Jason, "An Unexpected Light: Travels in Afghanistan," Picador, $30 (ISBN: 0-312-27459-9)
  • Halberstam, David, "War in a Time of Peace: Bush, Clinton and the Generals," Scribner, $28 (ISBN: 0-7432-0212-0)
  • Hallinan, Joseph T., "Going up the River: Travels in a Prison Nation," Random House, $24.95 (ISBN: 0-375-50263-7)
  • Hessler, Peter, "River Town: Two Years on the Yangtze," HarperCollins, $26 (ISBN: 0-06-019544-4)
  • Hillenbrand, Laura, "Seabiscuit: an American Legend," Random House, $24.95 (ISBN: 0-375-50291-2)
  • Lerner, Barron H., "The Breast Cancer Wars: Hope, Fear & the Pursuit of a Cure in Twentieth-Century America," Oxford, $30 (ISBN: 0-19-514261-6)
  • Martinez, Ruben, "Crossing Over: A Mexican Family on the Migrant Trail," Metropolitan, $26 (ISBN: 0-8050-4908-8)
  • McCullough, David, "John Adams," Simon & Schuster, $35 (ISBN: 0-684-81363-7)
  • Schlosser, Eric, "Fast Food Nation: The Dark Side of the All-American Meal," Houghton, $25 (ISBN: 0-395-97789-4)
  • Smith, Jean Edward, "Grant," Simon & Schuster, $35 (ISBN: 0-684-94926-7)
  • Solomon, Andrew, "The Noonday Demon: An Atlas of Depression," Scribner, $28 (ISBN: 0-684-85466-X)

Poetry

  • Collins, Billy, "Sailing Alone around the Room: New and Selected Poems," Random House, $21.95 (ISBN: 0-375-50380-3)
  • Mueller, Melinda, "What the Ice Gets: Shackleton's Antarctic Expedition 1914-1916," Van West, $14 (ISBN: 0-9677021-1-9)

This list is available three ways: the
Notable Books Web page, ALA Fax-on-Demand service and in a camera-ready kit from ALA. For the Fax-on-Demand service, call 1-800-545-2433, press 4, then enter document number 403. The Notable Books list will be included in
ALA's Guide to Best Reading in 2002. This kit contains all the reading lists from ALA, for children through adult readers, and has camera-ready brochures and bookmarks for each list. The kit will be available after June 1. Call ALA Order Fulfillment, 1-800-545-2433, press 7 to order. The kit is $29.95.

Since 1944, the goal of the Notable Books Council has been to make available to the nation's readers a list of 26 very good, very readable, and at times very important fiction, nonfiction, and poetry books for the adult reader. The Council consists of members selected from the membership of RUSA /CODES (Collection Development and Evaluation Section). RUSA is a division of the American Library Association.