ALA's Notable Books

The Notable Books Council of the American Library Association recently released its list of outstanding books for 2008.

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. (From the Notable Books Council press release)

Fiction
Away by Amy Bloom
Five Skies by Ron Carlson
The Yiddish Policeman's Union by Michael Chabon
An Arsonist's Guide to Writers' Homes in New England by Brock Clarke
Finn: A Novel by John Clinch
The Ministry of Special Cases by Nathan Englander
The Five-Forty-Five to Cannes by Tess Uriza Holthe
Mister Pip by Lloyd Jones
On Chesil Beach by Ian McEwan
Complete Stories by David Malouf
Out Stealing Horses by Per Pettersen
Cheating at Canasta by William Trevor

Nonfiction
The Zookeeper's Wife: A War Story by Diane Ackerman
The Canon by Natalie Angier
Super Crunchers by Ian Ayres
When a Crocodile Eats the Sun by Peter Godwin
How Doctors Think by Jerome Groopman
Gertrude Bell: Queen of the Desert, Shaper of Nations by Georgina Howell
Einstein: His Life and Universe by Walter Isaacson
Animal, Vegetable, Miracle: A Year of Food Life by Barbara Kingsolver
Oil on the Brain by Lisa Margonelli
The World Without Us by Alan Weisman

Poetry
A New Hunger by Laure-Anne Bosselaar
In a Prominent Bar in Secaucus by X.J. Kennedy