Each winter, the public submits suggestions for next year’s book. In January, a panel of community members reviews the suggestions, narrowing that list down to 10 titles, and then chooses two or three books to present for a public vote.
Final 10 Selections
- The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian
Sherman Alexie - The Art of Racing in the Rain
Garth Stein - Await Your Reply
Dan Chaon - Daisy Fay and the Miracle Man
Fannie Flagg - Fifty Miles From Tomorrow: A Memoir of Alaska and the Real People
William L. Iggiagruk Hensley - Mudbound
Hillary Jordan - Olive Kitteridge
Elizabeth Strout - The Places in Between
Rory Stewart - Stoner
John E. Williams - Winter’s Bone
Daniel Woodrell
Other Suggested Titles
- 84 Charing Cross Road
Helene Hanff - Adolf Hitler: The Definitive Biography
John Toland - The Adventures of Tom Sawyer
Mark Twain - The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn
Mark Twain - Almost Perfect
Brian Katcher - America, America
Ethan Canin - Arc of Justice: A Saga of Race, Civil Rights and Murder in the Jazz Age
Kevin Boyle - At the Elbows of My Elders: One Family’s Journey Toward Civil Rights
Gail Milissa - Auntie Mame: An Irreverent Escapade
Patrick Dennis - The Beautiful Things That Heaven Bears
Dinaw Mengestu - Beka Lamb
Zee Edgell - Big Burn: Teddy Roosevelt and the Fire That Saved America
Timothy Egan - Blind Your Ponies
Stanley G. West - The Blind Side: Evolution of a Game
Michael Lewis - Blame
Michelle Huneven - Book Thief, The
Markus Zusak - The Boy Who Harnessed the Wind: Creating Currents of Electricity and Hope
William Kamkwamba - Bridge of Sighs
Richard Russo - Broken For You
Stephanie Kallos - Bus 9 to Paradise: A Loving Voyage
Leo Buscaglia - The Case For God
Karen Armstrong - Case Histories
Kate Atkinson - Catching Fire
Richard Wrangham - Ceremony
Leslie Silko - Cheap: The High Cost of Discount Culture
Ellen Ruppel Shell - City and the City
China Miéville - City of Thieves
David Benioff - Clara’s War: One Girl’s Story of Survival
Clara Kramer - A Confederacy of Dunces
John Kennedy Toole - The Cure for Grief
Nellie Hermann - Day After Night
Anita Diamant - David Copperfield
Charles Dickens - Demon Haunted World: Science as a Candle in the Dark
Carl Sagan - Desert Queen: The Extraordinary Life of Gertrude Bell
Janet Wallach - Dewey: The Small-Town Library Cat Who Touched the World
Vicki Myron - Dinner at the Homesick Restaurant
Anne Tyler - Driftless
David Rhodes - Emergency: This Book Will Save Your Life
Neil Strauss - The End of Faith: Religion, Terror and the Future of Reason
Sam Harris - Fallen Founder: The Life of Aaron Burr
Nancy Isenberg - Ford County: Stories
John Grisham - The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo
Stieg Larsson - God Grew Tired of Us: A Memoir
John Bul Dau - Going Postal
Terry Pratchett - The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society
Mary Ann Shaffer - Half the Sky: Turning Oppression Into Opportunity for Women Worldwide
Nicholas Kristof & Sheryl WuDunn - The Help
Kathryn Stockett - Here Comes Everybody: The Power of Organizing Without Organizations
Clay Shirky - Homer’s Odyssey: A Fearless Feline Tale…
Gwen Cooper - Hotel on the Corner of Bitter and Sweet
Jamie Ford - House at the End of the Road: The Story of Three Generations…Interracial Family
W. Ralph Eubanks - I, Robot
Isaac Asimov - I’m Just Here for the Food: Food + Heat = Cooking
Alton Brown - In Cold Blood
Truman Capote - Interpreter of Maladies
Jhumpa Lahiri - Josie’s Story: A Mother’s Inspiring Crusade to Make Medical Care Safe
Sorrel King - The Juliet Club
Suzanne Harper - Kennedy and the Berlin Wall: A Hell of a Lot Better Than a War
W. R Smyser - Kiyo’s Story: A Japanese-American Family’s Quest for the American Dream
Kiyo Sato - Land of Marvels
Barry Unsworth - The Last Founding Father: James Monroe and a Nation’s Call to Greatness
Harlow Giles Unger - The Last Olympian (Percy Jackson & the Olympians, Book 5)
Rick Riordan - Light on Snow
Anita Shreve - The Likeness
Tana French - The Lost Dog
Michelle de Kretser - Love in the Time of Cholera
Gabriel Garcia Marquez - Loving Frank
Nancy Horan - Makers
Cory Doctorow - The Manual of Detection
Jedediah Berry - March
Geraldine Brooks - A Mercy
Toni Morrison - Middlesex
Jeffrey Eugenides - Miracle on 34th Street
Valentine Davies - The Missing
Tim Gautreaux - The Moonflower Vine
Jetta Carleton - My Jim: A Novel
Nancy Rawles - My Losing Season: A Memoir
Pat Conroy - Netherland
Joseph O’Neill - Nocturnes: Five Stories of Music and Nightfall
Kazuo Ishiguro - Old School
Tobias Wolff - On Chesil Beach
Ian McEwan - The Outlander
Gil Adamson - Outliers: The Story of Success
Malcolm Gladwell - Payback: Debt and the Shadow Side of Wealth
Margaret Eleanor Atwood - People of the Book
Geraldine Brooks - Perfect Creatures
Tracy Chevalier - The Physick Book of Deliverance Dane
Katherine Howe - A Prayer for Owen Meany
John Irving - Pretty Birds
Scott Simon - Ray Bradbury’s Fahrenheit 451: The Authorized Adaptation
Ray Bradbury & Tim Hamilton - Red Leaves
Thomas Cook - Remarkable Creatures
Tracy Chevalier - The Road
Cormac McCarthy - Rope Walk
Carrie Brown - Run
Ann Patchett - Sarah’s Key
Tatiana de Rosnay - The School of Essential Ingredients
Erica Bauermeister - Shoot the Moon
Billie Letts - Sister Carrie
Theodore Dreiser - Something for the Pain: One Doctor’s Account of Life and Death in the ER
Paul Austin - Straight Man
Richard Russo - Stranger in a Strange Land
Robert Heinlein - Suite Francais
Irene Nemirovsky - Taking on the Trust: How Ida Tarbell Brought Down…Standard Oil
Steve Weinberg - The Talent Code: Greatness Isn’t Born. It’s Grown. Here’s How.
Daniel Coyle - The Talented Mr Ripley
Patricia Highsmith - Telex from Cuba
Rachel Kushner - Ten-Cent Plague: The Great Comic Book Scare and How It Changed America
David Hajdu - Thirteen Reasons Why
Jay Asher - The Time Traveler’s Wife
Audrey Niffenegger - Twilight (Twilight Series)
Stephenie Meyer - Uncommon Defense: Indian Allies in the Blackhawk War
John Hall - The Virgin of Small Plains
Nancy Pickard - Warrior
Marie Brennan - Waste: Uncovering the Global Food Scandal
Stuart Tristram - White Tiger
Aravind Adiga - Why Things Bite Back: Technology and the Revenge of Unintended Consequences
Edward Tanner - Winston’s War: A Novel of Conspiracy
Michael Dobbs - Wicked: The Life and Times of the Wicked Witch of the West
Gregory Maguire - The Widow’s Season
Laura Brodie - With Wings Like Eagles: A History of the Battle of Britain
Michael Korda - The World is Flat
Thomas L. Friedman