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. [Source]

Fiction

  • Americanah by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie
  • Life After Life by Kate Atkinson
  • Claire of the Sea Light by Edwidge Danticat
  • Too Bright to Hear Too Loud to See by Juliann Garey
  • Enon by Paul Harding
  • Unchangeable Spots of Leopards by Kristopher Jansma
  • The Dinner by Herman Koch
  • Constellation of Vital Phenomena by Anthony Marra
  • The Woman Upstairs by Claire Messud
  • Tale for the Time Being by Ruth Ozeki
  • The Goldfinch by Donna Tartt

Nonfiction

  • Lawrence in Arabia: War, Deceit, Imperial Folly and the Making of the Modern Middle East by Scott Anderson
  • Year Zero: A History of 1945 by Ian Baruma
  • On Paper: The Everything of Its Two-Thousand Year History by Nicholas Basbanes
  • To the End of June: The Intimate Life of American Foster Care by Cris Beam
  • The Boys in the Boat: Nine Americans and Their Quest for Gold at the 1936 Berlin Olympics by Daniel James Brown
  • Five Days at Memorial: Life and Death in a Storm-Ravaged Hospital by Sheri Fink
  • The Riddle of the Labyrinth: the Quest to Crack an Ancient Code by Margalit Fox
  • On the Map: A Mind-Expanding Exploration of the Way the World Looks by Simon Garfield
  • Johnny Cash: The Life by Robert Hilburn
  • The Skies Belong to Us: Love and Terror in the Golden Age of Hijacking by Brendan I. Koerner
  • Animal Wise: The Thoughts and Emotions of our Fellow Creatures by Virginia Morell
  • Command and Control: Nuclear Weapons, the Damascus Accident, and the Illusion of Safety by Eric Schlosser
  • Faraway Nearby by Rebecca Solnit