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Notable Books for Adults
The selections for the 2019 Notable Books list have been announced by the Reference and User Services Association, a division of the American Library Association. Since 1944 the Notable Books Council has annually selected a list of very good, very readable and at times very important fiction, nonfiction and poetry books for the adult reader. Books may be selected for their significant contribution to the expansion of knowledge or for the pleasure they can provide to adult readers. Titles were selected from books published in 2018. Titles available at your Library may be requested through the title link to the library's catalog.
Fiction
- Waiting for Eden by Elliot Ackerman
- Friday Black by Nana Kwame Adejei-Brenyah
- Washington Black by Esi Edugyan
- An American Marriage by Tayari Jones
- The Mars Room by Rachel Kushner
- The Great Believers by Rebecca Makkai
- Warlight by Michael Ondaatje
- There There by Tommy Orange
- The Overstory by Richard Powers
- The House of Broken Angels: a Novel by Luis Alberto Urrea
- Don't Skip out on Me by Willy Vlautin
Non-Fiction
- High-Risers: Cabrini-Green and the Fate of American Public Housing by Ben Austen
- American Prison: A Reporter's Undercover Journey into the Business of Punishment by Shane Bauer
- Frederick Douglass: Prophet of Freedom by David W. Blight
- Rush: Revolution, Madness, and the Visionary Doctor Who Became a Founding Father by Stephen Fried
- Call Me American: A Memoir by Abdi Nor Iftin
- The Feather Thief: Beauty, Obsession, and the Natural History Heist of the Century by Kirk Wallace Johnson
- Beneath a Ruthless Sun: A True Story of Violence, Race, and Justice Lost and Found by Gilbert King
- Heavy: An American Memoir by Kiese Laymon
- Dopesick: Dealers, Doctors, and the Drug Company That Addicted America by Beth Macy
- The Tangled Tree: A Radical New History of Life by David Quammen
- Rising: Dispatches from the New American Shore by Elizabeth Rush
- Educated: A Memoir by Tara Westover
Poetry
- If They Come for Us: Poems by Fatimah Asghar
- American Sonnets for My Once and Future Assassin by Terrance Hayes
- The Carrying: Poems by Ada Limon