ALA's Notable Books Council announces 2008 top picks

PHILADELPHIA - The Notable Books Council of the Reference and User Services Association (RUSA), a division American Library Association (ALA), today released its 2008 list of outstanding books for the general reader. The titles are selected for their significant contribution to the expansion of knowledge and for the pleasure they can provide to adult readers.

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. The Council consists of members selected from the membership of RUSA's Collection Development and Evaluation Section (CODES).

This is "The List for America's Readers:"

FICTION

Bloom, Amy, Away, Random House (ISBN: 9781400063567)

Carlson, Ron, Five Skies, Penguin-Viking (ISBN: 9780670038503)

Chabon, Michael, The Yiddish Policeman's Union, HarperCollins (ISBN: 9780007149827)

Clarke, Brock, An Arsonist's Guide to Writers' Homes in New England, Algonquin (ISBN:
9781565125513)

Clinch, John, Finn: a novel, Random House (ISBN: 9781400065912)

Englander, Nathan, The Ministry of Special Cases, Knopf (ISBN: 9780375404931)

Holthe, Tess Uriza, The Five-Forty-Five to Cannes, Crown (ISBN: 9780307351852)

Jones, Lloyd, Mister Pip, Dell (ISBN: 9780385341066)

McEwan, Ian, On Chesil Beach, Nan A. Talese (ISBN: 9780385522403)

Malouf, David, Complete Stories, Pantheon (ISBN: 9780375424977)

Pettersen, Per, Out Stealing Horses, Graywolf (ISBN: 9781555974701)

Trevor, William, Cheating at Canasta, Penguin/Viking (ISBN: 9780670018376)


NONFICTION

Ackerman, Diane, The Zookeeper's Wife: A War Story, W.W. Norton (ISBN: 9780393061727)

Angier, Natalie, The Canon, Houghton Mifflin (ISBN: 9780618242955)

Ayres, Ian, Super Crunchers, Bantam Books (ISBN: 9780553805406)

Godwin, Peter, When a Crocodile Eats the Sun, Little Brown (ISBN: 9780316158947)

Groopman, Jerome, How Doctors Think, Houghton Mifflin Company (ISBN: 9780618610037)

Howell, Georgina, Gertrude Bell: Queen of the Desert, Shaper of Nations; FSG 780374161620)

Isaacson, Walter, Einstein: His Life and Universe, S & S, (ISBN: 9780743264730)

Kingsolver, Barbara, Animal, Vegetable, Miracle: A Year of Food Life, HarperCollins (ISBN: 9780060852559)

Margonelli, Lisa, Oil on the Brain, Doubleday-Nan Talese (ISBN: 9780385511452)

Weisman, Alan, The World Without Us, St. Martins (ISBN: 9780312347291


POETRY

Bosselaar, Laure-Anne, A New Hunger, Ausable Press (ISBN: 9781931337328)

Kennedy, X.J., In a Prominent Bar in Secaucus, Johns Hopkins (ISBN: 9780801886539)

This list will be available on the Notable Books Web page on the RUSA/ALA Web site
(http://www.ala.org/rusa/notable.html) with annotations at a later date.

Members of this year's committee are: Sara Maxine Taffae (Chair), State Library of
Louisiana; Patricia L. Gregory (Vice-Chair), Saint Louis University; Alicia Kathryn Ahlvers, Kansas City Public Library; Susie F. Brown; Shaker Heights Public Library; Hope Cockrell, Denton Public Library; Daniel J. Gillane, Lafayette Public Library;
Steven Jablonski, Skokie Public Library; A. Issac Pulver, Saratoga Springs Public Library; Rhea Joyce Rubin, Rubin Consulting; Andrea J. Slonosky, Long Island University-Brooklyn Campus; Shawna Saavedra Thorup, Fayetteville Public Library; and Brenda Clark Wegener, Mercantile Library; with Brad Hooper, Booklist.