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