Suggested Titles

The public submitted suggestions for this year's book this winter. In January, a panel of community members reviewed the suggestions, narrowed that list down to 11 titles (indicated in red below) and then voted on which books to present to the public.

  • 1776
    David McCullough
  • 1984
    George Orwell
  • Alchemist, The
    Paulo Coelho
  • Alias Grace
    Margaret Atwood
  • Animal Dreams
    Barbara Kingsolver
  • Beekeepers Apprentice
    Laurie King
  • Bel Canto
    Ann Prachett
  • Benjamin Franklin
    Walter Isaacson
  • Big Muddy Blues
    Bill Lambrecht
  • Birdsong
    Sebastian Faulks
  • Birthday Boys, The
    Beryl Bainbridge
  • Black Skin, White Masks
    Frantz Fanon
  • Black Swan Green
    David Mitchell
  • Blink
    Ted Dekker
  • Body and Soul
    Frank Conroy
  • Brooklyn Follies
    Paul Auster
  • Brothers
    Da Chen
  • Carry Me Down
    M J. Hyland
  • Cat in the Hat, The
    Dr. Seuss
  • Catrimony
    Kim Levin
  • Center of Everything
    Laura Moriarity
  • Change me into Zeus' Daughter
    Barbara R. Moss
  • A Child Called It
    Dave Pelzer
  • Color of Water
    James McBride
  • Color Purple, The
    Alice Walker
  • Confederates in the Attic
    Tony Horwitz
  • Crow Lake
    Mary Lawson
  • Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time
    Mark Haddon
  • Da Vinci Code, The
    Dan Brown
  • Dante Club, The
    Matthew Pearl
  • Dark is rising, The
    Susan Cooper
  • Death of Vishnu
    Manil Suri
  • Democracy's Edge
    Frances Moore Lappe
  • Devil's Highway
    Luis Urrea
  • Diet for a Small Planet /aka Hope's Edge
    Frances Moore Lappe
  • A Dirty Job: A Novel
    Christopher Moore
  • Dispossessed, The
    Ursula LeGuin
  • Dreams from My Father
    Barack Obama
  • Ear, the Eye & the Arm, The
    Nancy Farmer
  • Eat the Document
    Dana Spiotta
  • Elements of Style
    Wendy Wasserstein
  • Ender's Game
    Orson Scott Card
  • Enough
    Bill McKibben
  • Faith Club
    Idliby Ranya
  • Family Matters
    Rohinton Mistry
  • Fahrenheit 451
    Ray Bradbury
  • Fast Food Nation
    Eric Schlosser
  • Flags of our Fathers
    James Bradley
  • Flamboya Tree
    Clara Kelly
  • Flamingo Rising
    Larry Baker
  • Fooling with Words
    Bill Moyers
  • Fortunate Son
    Walter Mosley
  • Freakonomics
    Stephen Levitt
  • Ghost of Emmett Till, The
    W. James Richardson
  • Gilead
    Marilynne Robinson
  • Glass Castle, The
    Jeanette Walls
  • God Delusion, The
    Richard Dawkins
  • Golden Compass
    Philip Pullman
  • Good Earth, The
    Pearl Buck
  • Good Scent from a Strange Mountain
    Robert Olen Butler
  • Grapes of Wrath, The
    John Steinbeck
  • Great Good Place, The
    Ray Oldenburg
  • Guests of the Ayatollah
    Mark Bowden
  • HaHa, The
    Dave King
  • Half Broken Things
    Morag Joss
  • Hand to Guide Me
    Denzel Washington
  • Harry Potter & the Goblet of Fire
    J. K. Rowling
  • Hatchet
    Gary Paulsen
  • Heartbreaking Work of Stagering Genius
    Dave Eggers
  • Historian, The
    Elizabeth Kostova
  • Homegrown Democrat
    Garrison Keillor
  • House of Leaves
    Mark Z. Danielewski
  • How to Talk to a Liberal if You Must
    Ann Coulter
  • I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings
    Maya Angelou
  • I Should Be Extremely Happy in Your Company
    Brian Hall
  • In Cold Blood
    Truman Capote
  • Inconvenient Truth
    Al Gore
  • Independence Day
    Richard Ford
  • Inheritance of Loss, The
    Kiran Desai
  • Inspiration, Your Ultimate Calling
    Wayne Dyer
  • Interpreter of Maladies
    Jhumpa Lahiri
  • Intuition
    Allegra Goodman
  • Ishmael
    Daniel Quinn
  • Judge & Jury
    James Patterson
  • Kite Runner, The
    Khaled Hosseini
  • Known World, The
    Edward P. Jones
  • Lemon Tree, The
    Sandy Tolen
  • Letter to a Christian Nation
    Sam Harris
  • Life of Pi
    Jhumpa Lahiri
  • Losing Julia
    Jonathan Hull
  • Love in the Driest Season
    Neely Tucker
  • Love Medicine
    Louise Erdrich
  • Lovely Bones, The
    Alive Sebold
  • Mama Day
    Gloria Naylor
  • March
    Geraldine Brooks
  • Mark Twain: A Life
    Ron Powers
  • Marley & Me
    John Grogan
  • Memory Keeper's Daughter, The
    Kim Edwards
  • Middlesex
    Jeffrey Eugenides
  • Midwives
    Chris Bohjalian
  • Mists of Avalon, The
    Marion Zimmer Bradley
  • Momo
    Michael Ende
  • Montana 1948
    Larry Watson
  • Most Uncommon Degree of Popularity
    Kathleen Giles Seidel
  • Mother Tongue
    Demetria Martinez
  • Mother's Milk
    Edward St. Aubyn
  • Mountains Beyond Mountains
    Tracy Kidder
  • My Name is Asher Lev
    Chaim Potok
  • My Sister's Keeper
    Jodi Picoult
  • Namesake, The
    Jhumpa Lahiri
  • Night
    Eli Weisel
  • Night Watch, The
    Sarah Waters
  • Nisei Daugher
    Monica Itoi Sone
  • Nursing Against the Odds
    Suzanne Gordon
  • Omnivore's Dilemma
    Michael Pollan
  • One Good Turn
    Kate Atkinson
  • Oracle Bones
    Peter Hessler
  • Ordinary Man
    Paul Rusesabagina
  • Other Boleyn Girl, The
    Phillipa Gregory
  • People of Paper, The
    Salvador Plascencia
  • Persuasion
    Jane Austen
  • Peyton Place and Return to
    Grace Metalious
  • Poisonwood Bible
    Barbara Kingsolver
  • A Prayer for Owen Meany
    John Irving
  • Red Bird Christmas
    Fannie Flagg
  • Rich Dad Poor Dad
    Robert Kiyosaki
  • River Horse
    Wm Least Heat Moon
  • River Rising
    Athol Dickson
  • River Town
    Peter Hessler
  • Road, The
    Cormac McCarthy
  • Rocket Boys
    Homer Hickam
  • Roots
    Alex Haley
  • Ruined Map, The
    Kobo Abe
  • Secret Life of Bees
    Sue Monk Kidd
  • Secret River, The
    Kate Grenville
  • Shepherd of the Hills, The
    Harold Bell Wright
  • She's Come Undone
    Wally Lamb
  • Slaughterhouse-Five
    Kurt Vonnegut
  • Snow
    Orhan Pamuk
  • Spirit Catches you and you fall down
    Anne Fadiman
  • Standing in the Rainbow
    Fannie Flagg
  • Stiff
    Mary Roach
  • Still Life with Rice
    Helie Lee
  • Suitable Boy, A
    Seth Vikram
  • Suite Francais
    Irne Nmirovsky
  • Surely You're Joking, Mr. Feynman
    Richard Feynman
  • Tender Bar, The: A Memoir
    J.R. Moehringer
  • Terrorist
    John Updike
  • Theft: A Love Story
    Peter Carey
  • Thirteenth Tale
    Diane Setterfield
  • Three Cups of Tea
    Greg Mortenson
  • Three Day Road
    Joseph Boyden
  • Through Wolf's Eyes
    Jane Lindskold
  • Till We Have Faces
    C. S. Lewis
  • Torch
    Cheryl Strayed
  • Truth & Beauty
    Ann Patchett
  • Two Souls Indivisible
    James S. Hirsch
  • Unbearable Lightness of Being, The
    Milan Kundera
  • Under the Banner of Heaven
    Jon Krakauer
  • Victory of Reason, The
    Rodney Stark
  • Virginian, The
    Owen Wister
  • Waiting
    Ha Jin
  • Waiting for Snow in Havanna
    Carlos Eire
  • Watchmen
    Alan Moore
  • Water For Elephants
    Sarah Gruen
  • What is the What
    Dave Eggers
  • What's the Matter with Kansas
    Thomas Frank
  • When the Emperor was Divine
    Julie Otsuka
  • Where the Heart Is
    Billie Letts
  • While They are at War
    Kristin Henderson
  • Wild at Heart
    John Eldridge
  • Woman Warrior
    Maxine Hong Kingston
  • World Is Flat, The
    Thomas Friedman
  • Worst Hard Time
    Thomas Egan
  • Worst Person in the World
    Keith Olbermann
  • Year of Magical Thinking, The
    Joan Didion
  • Zorro
    Isabel Allende