Each year since 1968, around the beginning of December, a list of notable books and/or editor's choice ("Best Books") is announced. Beginning in 2004, it consists of a "100 Notable Books of the Year" list which contains
fiction and
non-fiction titles, 50 of each. From the list of 100, 10 books are awarded the "Best Books of the Year" title, five each of fiction and non-fiction. Other year-end lists include the Best Illustrated Children's Books, in which 10 books are chosen by a panel of judges.
1990s 1998 The Notable Books were announced December 6, 1998. The eleven Editor's Choice books were announced December 6, 1998. •
Lorrie Moore,
Birds of America •
Russell Banks,
Cloudsplitter •
Richard Fortey,
Life: A Natural History of the First Four Billion Years of Life on Earth •
Alice Munro,
The Love of a Good Woman •
Barbara Kingsolver,
The Poisonwood Bible •
David Gates,
Preston Falls •
Ron Chernow,
Titan: The Life of John D. Rockefeller, Sr. •
Richard Holbrooke,
To End a War •
Hilary Spurling,
The Unknown Matisse •
Graham Robb,
Victor Hugo: A Biography •
Philip Gourevitch,
We Wish to Inform You That Tomorrow We Will be Killed With Our Families: Stories from Rwanda 1999 The Notable Books were announced December 5, 1999. The eleven Editor's Choice books were announced December 5, 1999. •
Richard A. Posner,
An Affair of State: The Investigation, Impeachment, and Trial of President Clinton •
Annie Proulx,
Close Range: Wyoming Stories •
Richard Holmes,
Coleridge: Darker Reflections, 1804-1834 •
J. M. Coetzee,
Disgrace •
Antonio Damasio,
The Feeling of What Happens: Body and Emotion in the Making of Consciousness •
John Keegan,
The First World War •
Michael Frayn,
Headlong •
Jean Strouse,
Morgan: American Financier •
Inga Clendinnen,
Reading the Holocaust •
Judith Thurman,
Secrets of the Flesh: A Life of Colette •
Roddy Doyle,
A Star Called Henry 2000s 2000 The Notable Books were announced December 3, 2000. The 10 Editor's Choice books were announced December 3, 2000. •
Jim Crace,
Being Dead • Unknown,
Beowulf (translation by
Seamus Heaney) •
Matt Ridley,
Genome: The Autobiography of a Species in 23 Chapters •
John Updike,
Gertrude and Claudius •
Dave Eggers,
A Heartbreaking Work Of Staggering Genius: A Memoir Based on a True Story •
Philip Roth,
The Human Stain •
Tom Segev,
One Palestine, Complete: Jews and Arabs Under the British Mandate •
Graham Robb,
Rimbaud: A Biography •
Frances FitzGerald,
Way Out There In the Blue: Reagan, Star Wars and the End of the Cold War •
Zadie Smith,
White Teeth 2001 The Notable Books were announced December 2, 2001. The 9 Editor's Choice books were announced December 2, 2001. •
W.G. Sebald,
Austerlitz •
Paula Fox,
Borrowed Finery: A Memoir •
Jonathan Franzen,
The Corrections •
Alice Munro,
Hateship, Friendship, Courtship, Loveship, Marriage •
David McCullough,
John Adams •
Colson Whitehead,
John Henry Days •
Louis Menand,
The Metaphysical Club: A Story of Ideas in America •
Peter Carey,
True History of the Kelly Gang •
Oliver Sacks,
Uncle Tungsten: Memories of a Chemical Boyhood 2002 The Notable Books were announced December 8, 2002. The 7 Editor's Choice books were announced December 8, 2002. •
Miranda Carter,
Anthony Blunt: His Lives •
Ian McEwan,
Atonement •
Lorna Sage,
Bad Blood •
Jeffrey Eugenides,
Middlesex •
Margaret MacMillan,
Paris 1919: Six Months That Changed the World •
William Kennedy,
Roscoe •
Timothy Ferris,
Seeing in the Dark: How Backyard Stargazers Are Probing Deep Space and Guarding Earth from Interplanetary Peril 2003 The Notable Books were announced December 7, 2003. The 9 Editor's Choice books were announced December 7, 2003. •
Caroline Alexander,
The Bounty: The True Story of the Mutiny on the Bounty •
Monica Ali,
Brick Lane •
T. Coraghessan Boyle,
Drop City •
Jonathan Lethem,
The Fortress of Solitude •
William Taubman,
Khrushchev: The Man and His Era •
Edward P. Jones,
The Known World •
Gabriel García Márquez,
Living to Tell the Tale •
Adrian Nicole LeBlanc,
Random Family: Love, Drugs, Trouble, and Coming of Age in the Bronx •
Claire Tomalin,
Samuel Pepys: The Unequalled Self 2004 The 100 Notable Books were announced December 5, 2004. The 10 Best Books were announced December 12, 2004. •
Ron Chernow,
Alexander Hamilton •
Bob Dylan,
Chronicles: Volume One •
David Hackett Fischer, ''
Washington's Crossing'' •
Stephen Greenblatt,
Will in the World: How Shakespeare Became Shakespeare •
Ha Jin,
War Trash •
Alice Munro,
Runaway •
Orhan Pamuk,
Snow •
Marilynne Robinson,
Gilead •
Philip Roth,
The Plot Against America •
Colm Tóibín,
The Master 2005 The 100 Notable Books were announced December 4, 2005. The 10 Best Books were announced December 11, 2005. •
Joan Didion,
The Year of Magical Thinking •
Mary Gaitskill,
Veronica •
Jonathan Harr,
The Lost Painting: The Quest for a Caravaggio Masterpiece •
Tony Judt,
Postwar: A History of Europe Since 1945 •
Ian McEwan,
Saturday •
Haruki Murakami,
Kafka on the Shore •
George Packer, ''
The Assassins' Gate: America in Iraq'' •
Curtis Sittenfeld,
Prep •
Zadie Smith,
On Beauty •
Mark Stevens and
Annalyn Swan,
de Kooning: An American Master 2006 The 100 Notable Books were announced December 3, 2006. The 10 Best Books were announced December 10, 2006. •
Richard Ford,
The Lay of the Land •
Amy Hempel,
The Collected Stories of Amy Hempel •
Claire Messud, ''The Emperor's Children'' •
Marisha Pessl,
Special Topics in Calamity Physics •
Nathaniel Philbrick,
Mayflower: A Story of Courage, Community, and War •
Michael Pollan, ''
The Omnivore's Dilemma: A Natural History of Four Meals'' •
Gary Shteyngart,
Absurdistan •
Rory Stewart,
The Places In Between •
Danielle Trussoni,
Falling Through the Earth: A Memoir •
Lawrence Wright,
The Looming Tower: Al-Qaeda and the Road to 9/11 2007 The 100 Notable Books were announced December 2, 2007. The 10 Best Books were announced December 9, 2007. •
Roberto Bolaño,
The Savage Detectives •
Rajiv Chandrasekaran, ''
Imperial Life in the Emerald City: Inside Iraq's Green Zone'' •
Linda Colley,
The Ordeal of Elizabeth Marsh: A Woman in World History •
Joshua Ferris,
Then We Came to the End •
Denis Johnson,
Tree of Smoke: A Novel •
Mildred Armstrong Kalish,
Little Heathens •
Per Petterson,
Out Stealing Horses •
Alex Ross,
The Rest Is Noise: Listening to the Twentieth Century •
Michael Thomas,
Man Gone Down: A Novel •
Jeffrey Toobin,
The Nine: Inside the Secret World of the Supreme Court 2008 The 100 Notable Books were announced November 26, 2008. The 10 Best Books were announced December 14, 2008. •
Julian Barnes,
Nothing to Be Frightened Of •
Roberto Bolaño,
2666 •
Drew Gilpin Faust,
This Republic of Suffering: Death and the American Civil War •
Dexter Filkins,
The Forever War •
Patrick French,
The World Is What It Is: The Authorized Biography of V. S. Naipaul •
Jhumpa Lahiri,
Unaccustomed Earth •
Jane Mayer,
The Dark Side: The Inside Story of How The War on Terror Turned into a War on American Ideals •
Steven Millhauser,
Dangerous Laughter: Thirteen Stories •
Toni Morrison,
A Mercy •
Joseph O'Neill,
Netherland 2009 The 100 Notable Books were announced December 6, 2009. The 10 Best Books were announced December 13, 2009. •
Liaquat Ahamed,
Lords of Finance: The Bankers Who Broke the World •
David Finkel,
The Good Soldiers •
Richard Holmes,
The Age of Wonder: How the Romantic Generation Discovered the Beauty and Terror of Science •
Mary Karr,
Lit: A Memoir •
Jonathan Lethem,
Chronic City •
Maile Meloy,
Both Ways Is the Only Way I Want It •
Lorrie Moore,
A Gate at the Stairs •
Carol Sklenicka, ''Raymond Carver: A Writer's Life'' •
Kate Walbert,
A Short History of Women •
Jeannette Walls,
Half Broke Horses 2010s 2010 The 100 Notable Books were announced November 24, 2010. The 10 Best Books were announced December 1, 2010. •
Ann Beattie,
The New Yorker Stories •
Emma Donoghue,
Room •
Jennifer Egan,
A Visit from the Goon Squad •
Jonathan Franzen,
Freedom •
Jennifer Homans, ''Apollo's Angels: A History of Ballet'' •
Siddhartha Mukherjee,
The Emperor of All Maladies: A Biography of Cancer •
Stacy Schiff,
Cleopatra: A Life •
Stephen Sondheim,
Finishing the Hat •
William Trevor,
Selected Stories •
Isabel Wilkerson, ''
The Warmth of Other Suns: The Epic Story of America's Great Migration''
2011 The 100 Notable Books were announced November 21, 2011. The 10 Best Books were announced November 30, 2011. •
Ian Brown, ''The Boy in the Moon: A Father's Journey to Understand His Extraordinary Son'' •
Amanda Foreman, ''A World on Fire: Britain's Crucial Role in the American Civil War'' •
Chad Harbach,
The Art of Fielding •
Eleanor Henderson,
Ten Thousand Saints •
Christopher Hitchens,
Arguably: Essays •
Daniel Kahneman,
Thinking, Fast and Slow •
Stephen King,
11/22/63 •
Manning Marable,
Malcolm X: A Life of Reinvention •
Téa Obreht, ''
The Tiger's Wife'' •
Karen Russell,
Swamplandia! 2012 The 100 Notable Books were announced November 27, 2012. The 10 Best Books were announced November 30, 2012. •
Katherine Boo,
Behind the Beautiful Forevers: Life, Death, and Hope in a Mumbai Undercity •
Robert Caro,
The Passage of Power •
Dave Eggers,
A Hologram for the King •
Jim Holt,
Why Does the World Exist?: An Existential Detective Story •
Hilary Mantel,
Bring Up the Bodies •
David Nasaw,
The Patriarch: The Remarkable Life and Turbulent Times of Joseph P. Kennedy •
Kevin Powers,
The Yellow Birds •
Andrew Solomon,
Far From the Tree: Parents, Children and the Search for Identity •
Zadie Smith,
NW •
Chris Ware,
Building Stories 2013 The 100 Notable Books were announced November 27, 2013. The 10 Best Books were announced December 4, 2013. •
Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie,
Americanah •
Kate Atkinson,
Life After Life •
Peter Baker,
Days of Fire: Bush and Cheney in the White House •
Alan S. Blinder,
After the Music Stopped: The Financial Crisis, the Response, and the Work Ahead •
Christopher Clark,
The Sleepwalkers: How Europe Went to War in 1914 •
Sonali Deraniyagala,
Wave •
Sheri Fink,
Five Days at Memorial: Life and Death in a Storm-Ravaged Hospital •
Rachel Kushner,
The Flamethrowers •
Donna Tartt,
The Goldfinch •
George Saunders,
Tenth of December: Stories 2014 The 100 Notable Books were announced. The 10 Best Books were announced December 14, 2014. •
Eula Biss,
On Immunity: An Inoculation •
Roz Chast, ''
Can't We Talk about Something More Pleasant?: A Memoir'' •
Anthony Doerr,
All the Light We Cannot See •
Lily King,
Euphoria •
Phil Klay,
Redeployment •
Elizabeth Kolbert,
The Sixth Extinction: An Unnatural History •
Hermione Lee,
Penelope Fitzgerald: A Life •
Jenny Offill,
Dept. of Speculation •
Akhil Sharma,
Family Life •
Lawrence Wright,
Thirteen Days in September: Carter, Begin, and Sadat at Camp 2015 The 100 Notable Books were announced November 27, 2015. The 10 Best Books were announced December 3, 2015. •
Paul Beatty,
The Sellout •
Sven Beckert,
Empire of Cotton: A Global History •
Lucia Berlin,
A Manual for Cleaning Women: Selected Stories •
Ta-Nehisi Coates,
Between the World and Me •
Rachel Cusk,
Outline •
Elena Ferrante,
The Story of the Lost Child: Book 4, The Neapolitan Novels: "Maturity, Old Age" •
Helen Macdonald,
H Is for Hawk •
Åsne Seierstad,
One of Us: The Story of Anders Breivik and the Massacre in Norway •
Magda Szabó,
The Door •
Andrea Wulf, ''
The Invention of Nature: Alexander von Humboldt's New World''
2016 The 100 Notable Books were announced November 23, 2016. The 10 Best Books were announced December 1, 2016. •
Sarah Bakewell,
At the Existentialist Café: Freedom, Being, and Apricot Cocktails •
Matthew Desmond,
Evicted: Poverty and Profit in the American City •
Susan Faludi,
In the Darkroom •
Stefan Hertmans,
War and Turpentine •
Han Kang,
The Vegetarian •
Karan Mahajan,
The Association of Small Bombs •
Hisham Matar,
The Return: Fathers, Sons and the Land in Between •
Jane Mayer,
Dark Money: The Hidden History of the Billionaires Behind the Rise of the Radical Right •
Ian McGuire,
The North Water •
Colson Whitehead,
The Underground Railroad 2017 The 100 Notable Books were announced November 22, 2017. The 10 Best Books were announced November 30, 2017. •
Naomi Alderman,
The Power •
Ron Chernow,
Grant •
James Forman Jr.,
Locking Up Our Own: Crime and Punishment in Black America •
Caroline Fraser,
Prairie Fires: The American Dreams of Laura Ingalls Wilder •
Mohsin Hamid,
Exit West •
Min Jin Lee,
Pachinko •
Patricia Lockwood,
Priestdaddy: A Memoir •
Richard Prum, ''
The Evolution of Beauty: How Darwin's Forgotten Theory of Mate Choice Shapes the Animal World — and Us'' •
Ali Smith,
Autumn •
Jesmyn Ward,
Sing, Unburied, Sing 2018 The 100 Notable Books were announced November 18, 2018. The 10 Best Books were announced November 29, 2018. •
Shane Bauer, ''
American Prison: A Reporter's Undercover Journey into the Business of Punishment'' •
Lisa Brennan-Jobs,
Small Fry •
David W. Blight,
Frederick Douglass: Prophet of Freedom •
Esi Edugyan,
Washington Black •
Lisa Halliday,
Asymmetry •
Rebecca Makkai,
The Great Believers •
Tommy Orange,
There There •
Michael Pollan,
How to Change Your Mind: What the New Science of Psychedelics Teaches Us About Consciousness, Dying, Addiction, Depression, and Transcendence •
Leïla Slimani,
Lullaby •
Tara Westover,
Educated 2019 The 100 Notable Books were announced November 25, 2019. The 10 Best Books were announced November 22, 2019. In 2019 for the first time, the 10 Best Books were announced prior to the 100 Notable Books. •
Kevin Barry,
Night Boat to Tangier •
Sarah M. Broom,
The Yellow House •
Leo Damrosch,
The Club: Johnson, Boswell, and the Friends Who Shaped an Age •
Ted Chiang,
Exhalation: Stories •
Adam Higginbotham, ''
Midnight in Chernobyl: The Untold Story of the World's Greatest Nuclear Disaster'' •
Patrick Radden Keefe,
Say Nothing: A True Story of Murder and Memory in Northern Ireland •
Ben Lerner,
The Topeka School •
Valeria Luiselli,
Lost Children Archive •
Julia Phillips,
Disappearing Earth •
Rachel Louise Snyder, ''No Visible Bruises: What We Don't Know About Domestic Violence Can Kill Us''
2020s 2020 The 100 Notable Books were announced November 20, 2020. The 10 Best Books were announced November 23, 2020. Fiction •
Lydia Millet, ''
A Children's Bible'' •
James McBride,
Deacon King Kong •
Maggie O'Farrell,
Hamnet •
Ayad Akhtar,
Homeland Elegies •
Brit Bennett,
The Vanishing Half Nonfiction •
Robert Kolker,
Hidden Valley Road •
Barack Obama,
A Promised Land •
James Shapiro,
Shakespeare in a Divided America •
Anna Wiener,
Uncanny Valley •
Margaret MacMillan,
War: How Conflict Shaped Us 2021 The 100 Notable Books were announced November 22, 2021. The 10 Best Books were announced November 30, 2021. Fiction •
Imbolo Mbue,
How Beautiful We Were •
Katie Kitamura,
Intimacies •
Honorée Fanonne Jeffers,
The Love Songs of W.E.B. Du Bois •
Patricia Lockwood,
No One Is Talking About This •
Benjamín Labatut,
When We Cease to Understand the World Nonfiction •
Tove Ditlevsen,
The Copenhagen Trilogy •
Clint Smith,
How the Word is Passed •
Andrea Elliott,
Invisible Child: Poverty, Survival and Hope in an American City •
Annette Gordon-Reed,
On Juneteenth •
Heather Clark,
Red Comet: The Short Life and Blazing Art of Sylvia Plath 2022 The 100 Notable Books were announced November 22, 2022. The 10 Best Books were announced November 29, 2022. Fiction •
Jennifer Egan,
The Candy House •
Claire-Louise Bennett,
Checkout 19 •
Barbara Kingsolver,
Demon Copperhead •
Namwali Serpell,
The Furrows •
Hernan Diaz,
Trust Nonfiction •
Ed Yong,
An Immense World: How Animal Senses Reveal the Hidden Realms Around Us •
Hua Hsu,
Stay True: A Memoir •
Rachel Aviv,
Strangers to Ourselves: Unsettled Minds and the Stories That Make Us •
Linda Villarosa,
Under the Skin: The Hidden Toll of Racism on American Lives and on the Health of Our Nation •
Fintan O'Toole, ''
We Don't Know Ourselves: a Personal History of Modern Ireland''
2023 The 100 Notable Books were announced November 21, 2023. The 10 Best Books were announced on November 28. Fiction •
Paul Murray,
The Bee Sting •
Nana Kwame Adjei-Brenyah,
Chain-Gang All-Stars •
Maylis de Kerangal,
Eastbound •
Zadie Smith,
The Fraud •
Daniel Mason,
North Woods Nonfiction •
Jonathan Rosen,
The Best Minds: A Story of Friendship, Madness, and the Tragedy of Good Intentions •
Kerry Howley,
Bottoms Up and the Devil Laughs •
John Vaillant,
Fire Weather: A True Story From a Hotter World •
Ilyon Woo,
Master Slave Husband Wife •
Patricia Evangelista,
Some People Need Killing 2024 The 100 Notable Books were announced November 26, 2024. The 10 Best Books were announced on December 3. Fiction •
Miranda July,
All Fours •
Dolly Alderton,
Good Material •
Percival Everett,
James •
Kaveh Akbar,
Martyr! •
Álvaro Enrigue,
You Dreamed of Empires Nonfiction •
József Debreczeni,
Cold Crematorium: Reporting from the Land of Auschwitz •
Jonathan Blitzer,
Everyone Who Is Gone Is Here: The United States, Central America, and the Making of a Crisis •
Lucy Sante,
I Heard Her Call My Name: A Memoir of Transition •
Max Boot,
Reagan: His Life and Legend •
Hampton Sides,
The Wide Wide Sea: Imperial Ambition, First Contact and the Fateful Final Voyage of Captain James Cook ==Studies==