Table of Contents
Introduction vii
About the Awards vii
My All-Time Favorite Books x
Reading Log xii
1 The Poet X Elizabeth Acevedo 2
2 Lost Memory of Skin Russell Banks 6
3 The Girl Who Drank the Moon Kelly Barnhill 10
4 The Line Becomes a River: Dispatches from the Border Francisco Cantú 14
5 Moonglow Michael Chabon 18
6 The Water Dancer Ta-Nehisi Coates 22
7 New Kid Jerry Craft, illustrated by the author 26
8 Claire of the Sea Light Edwidge Danticat 30
9 Evicted: Poverty and Profit in the American City Matthew Desmond 34
10 This Is How You Lose Her Junot Díaz 38
11 All the Light We Cannot See Anthony Doerr 42
12 Manhattan Beach Jennifer Egan 46
13 Short Nights of the Shadow Catcher: The Epic Life and Immortal Photographs of Edward Curtis Timothy Egan 50
14 The Doomsday Machine: Confessions of a Nuclear War Planner Daniel Ellsberg 54
15 The Forgotten Waltz Anne Enright 58
16 The Round House Louise Erdrich 62
17 Canada Richard Ford 66
18 Fathoms: The World in the Whale Rebecca Giggs 70
19 Feast Your Eyes Myla Goldberg 74
20 The Bully Pulpit: Theodore Roosevelt, William Howard Taft, and the Golden Age of Journalism Doris Kearns Goodwin 78
21 Killers of the Flower Moon: The Osage Murders and the Birth of the FBI David Grann 82
22 Midnight in Chernobyl: The Untold Story of the World's Greatest Nuclear Disaster Adam Higginbotham 86
23 Hello, Universe Erin Entrada Kelly 90
24 Dig A. S. King 94
25 The Crossover Kwame Alexander 98
26 We Are Okay Nina LaCour 102
27 Heavy: An American Memoir Kiese Laymon 106
28 On Such a Full Sea Chang-rae Lee 110
29 March: Book Three John Lewis Andrew Aydin, illustrated Nate Powell 114
30 Lost Children Archive Valeria Luiselli 118
31 Dopesick: Dealers, Doctors, and the Drug Company That Addicted America Beth Macy 122
32 The Great Believers Rebecca Makkai 126
33 Hold Still: A Memoir with Photographs Sally Mann 130
34 Catherine the Great: Portrait of a Woman Robert K. Massie 134
35 Last Stop on Market Street Matt de la Peña, illustrated Christian Robinson 138
36 Merci Suarez Changes Gears Meg Medina 142
37 I'll Give You the Sun Jandy Nelson 146
38 The Sympathizer Viet Thanh Nguyen 150
39 There There Tommy Orange 154
40 Blood at the Root: A Racial Cleansing in America Patrick Phillips 158
41 Figuring Maria Popova 162
42 Spillover: Animal Infections and the Next Human Pandemic David Quammen 166
43 Bone Gap Laura Ruby 170
44 Swamplandia! Karen Russell 174
45 Lincoln in the Bardo George Saunders 178
46 The Book of Aron Jim Shepard 182
47 Swing time Zadie Smith 186
48 Just Mercy: A Story of Justice and Redemption Bryan Stevenson 190
49 The Goldfinch Donna Tartt 194
50 Nora Webster Colm Tóibín 198
51 Sing, Unburied, Sing Jesmyn Ward 202
52 The Underground Railroad Colson Whitehead 206
About the American Library Association 211