Play Book Tag discussion

To celebrate our 15th birthday at PBT we are asking you to compile a list of your favorite books that you have read and that were published in the past 15 years (since 2008).

You do not need to number your lists. Please use the following format:
Book Title – Author – Date Published

As an example:
Project Hail Mary – Andy Weir – 2021

Please feel free to you lists on this thread. If you change your mind on a book on your list, please notify us, so we can keep an accurate record.
If you choose to you can list your honorable mentions.
The deadline for your lists will be September 5, 2023.

The Casual Vacancy - J.K. Rowling - 2012
Gideon the Ninth - Tamsyn Muir - 2019
Razorblade Tears - S.A. Cosby 2021
A Brief History of Seven Killings - Marlon James - 2014
Love, Death & Rare Books - Robert Hellenga - 2020
Djinn Patrol on the Purple Line - Deepa Anappara - 2020
The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue - V.E. Schwab - 2020
Provence, 1970: M.F.K. Fisher, Julia Child, James Beard, and the Reinvention of American Taste - Luke Barr - 2013
The Last Watchman of Old Cairo - LUKAS MICHAEL DAVID - 2018
Speak No Evil - Uzodinma Iweala - 2018
The Book of Emma Reyes: A Memoir in Correspondence - Emma Reyes - 2012
Peacock and Vine: Fortuny and Morris in life and at work - A.S. Byatt - 2016
A Gentleman in Moscow - Amor Towles - 2016
The Night Circus - Erin Morgenstern - 2011
Appetite for America: Fred Harvey and the Business of Civilizing the Wild West--One Meal at a Time - Stephen Fried - 2010

Honorable Mentions:
The Lacuna - Barbara Kingsolver - 2009
The Feather Thief: Beauty, Obsession, and the Natural History Heist of the Century - Kirk Wallace Johnson - 2018
The Weight of Ink - Rachel Kadish - 2017
Circe - Madeline Miller - 2018

The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo - Stieg Larsson - 2008
Matterhorn - Karl Marlantes - 2010
Unbroken - Laura Hillenbrand - 2010
Quiet - Susan Cain - 2012
The Night Circus - Erin Morgenstern - 2012
The Ocean at the End of the Lane - Neil Gaiman - 2013
All the Light We Cannot See - Anthony Doerr - 2014
The Boys in the Boat - Daniel James Brown - 2014
Red Rising - Pierce Brown - 2014
The Martian - Andy Weir - 2014
Being Mortal - Atul Gawande - 2014
The Woman Who Would Be King - Kara Cooney - 2014
Lab Girl - Hope Jahren - 2016
Born a Crime - Trevor Noah - 2016
All Systems Red - Martha Wells - 2017

Honorable Mentions:

The Gargoyle - Andrew Davidson - 2008
Wonder - R J Palacio - 2013
Gone Girl - Gillian Flynn - 2014
The Undying - Anne Boyer - 2019

I'm really happy that this is open for all of us to view. I love seeing everyone's favorites. Let my TBR continue to grow! Thank you for doing all this work for us!

BNB can you clarify the beginning and end dates - publication dates - we can consider? (Some members get advance copies from publishers.)

The Way of Kings - Brandon Sanderson - 2010
The Night Circus - Erin Morgenstern - 2011
Ready Player One - Ernest Cline - 2011
Burial Rites - Hannah Kent - 2013
Challenger Deep - Neal Shusterman - 2015
Lock In - John Scalzi - 2014
The Fifth Season - N.K. Jemisin - 2015
The Library at Mount Char - Scott Hawkins - 2015
Every Heart a Doorway - Seanan McGuire - 2016
Six Wakes - Mur Lafferty - 2017
Born a Crime: Stories from a South African Childhood - Trevor Noah - 2016
The Lost Man - Jane Harper - 2018
The House in the Cerulean Sea - T.J. Klune - 2020
The Thursday Murder Club - Richard Osman - 2020
Project Hail Mary - Andy Weir - 2021

NancyJ wrote: "BNB can you clarify the beginning and end dates - publication dates - we can consider? (Some members get advance copies from publishersi..."

So the publication dates, using first edition published is 2008-2023.

I realize that a book you might want to include could come out in the last months of this year and we are excluding them.

We could ask at the end of the year if there is any which would have been included as an appendum.

Women Talking - Miriam Toews -2018
The Guns at Last Light: The War in Western Europe, 1944-1945 - Rick Atkinson - 2013
We Were the Lucky Ones -Georgia Hunter - 2017
A King's Ransom - Sharon Kay Penman - 2014
All the Light We Cannot See - Anthony Doerr - 2014
Cutting for Stone - Abraham Verghese - 2009
Destiny of the Republic: A Tale of Madness, Medicine and the Murder of a President - Candice Millard - 2011
Dragon Haven - Robin Hobb -2010
The Map of Salt and Stars - Zeyn Joukhadar - 2018
The Boys in the Boat: Nine Americans and Their Epic Quest for Gold at the 1936 Berlin Olympics - Daniel James Brown - 2013
The Splendid and the Vile: A Saga of Churchill, Family, and Defiance During the Blitz - Erik Larson -2020
Say Nothing: A True Story of Murder and Memory in Northern Ireland - Patrick Radden Keefe - 2018
The British Are Coming: The War for America, Lexington to Princeton, 1775-1777 - Rick Atkinson - 2019
Facing the Mountain: A True Story of Japanese American Heroes in World War II - Daniel James Brown - 2021
Holy Sister - Mark Lawrence -2019

Honorable Mention

I Am Pilgrim - 2014 - Terry Hayes
Assassin's Fate - 2017 -Robin Hobb
The Secrets Between Us - 2018 Thrity Umrigar
Empire of Pain: The Secret History of the Sackler Dynasty - Patrick Radden Keefe

People of the Book - Geraldine Brooks - 2008
The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo - Stieg Larsson - 2008
The Help - Kathryn Stockett - 2009
The Martian - Andy Wier = 2011
Rules of Civility - Amor Towles - 2011
All the Light We Cannot See - Anthony Doerr - 2014
The Nightingale - Kristin Hannah - 2015
Lab Girl - Hope Jahren - 2016
Born a Crime - Trevor Noah - 2016
Rules of Magic - Alice Hoffman - 2017
Where the Crawdads Sing - Delia Owens - 2018
The Dutch House - Ann Patchett - 2019
The Four Winds - Kristin Hannah - 2021
Project Hail Mary - Andy Weir - 2021
Weyward - Emilia Hart - 2023

I will come back another day to edit the list I'm working on. I did 15 years, silly me! That was only after I had been using the entire century (not sure where I pulled that from, but I hadn't read this today.)

I many not give many books 5 stars, but I read so many that there are too many choices even for me! However, if I limit authors to only one book I can eliminate one, and then I'll reconsider ones I know no one else has read, but might not eliminate those all if I really think they need to be kept.

The Sentence - Louise Erdrich - 2021
Cloud Cuckoo Land - Anthony Doerr - 2021
The Flight Portfolio - Julie Orringer - 2019
The Overstory - Richard Powers - 2018
The Weight of Ink - Rachel Kadish - 2017
A Gentleman in Moscow- Amor Towles -2016
All the Light We Cannot See - Anthony Doerr - 2014
Far From the Tree: Parents, Children and the Search for Identity -Andrew Solomon - 2012
The Garden of Evening Mists - Tan Twan Eng - 2011
Under Heaven - Guy Gavriel Kay - 2010
The Night Circus - Erin Morgenstern - 2011
The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society - Mary Ann Shaffer - 2008
The Covenant of Water - Abraham Verghese - 2023
Station Eleven - Emily Mandel St. John - 2014
Lincoln in the Bardo - George Saunders - 2017

The Night Circus - Erin Morgenstern - 2011
The Martian - Andy Weir - 2011
The Boys in the Boat: Nine Americans and Their Epic Quest for Gold at the 1936 Berlin Olympics - Daniel James Brown - 2013
Station Eleven - Emily St. John Mandel - 2014
This Tender Land - William Kent Krueger - 2020
Caste - Isabel Wilkerson (GR keeps giving me different titles for this one) - 2020
In the Distance - Hernan Diaz - 2017
The Goldfinch - Donna Tarrtt - 2013
Becoming - Michelle Obama (again GR refuses to find it) - 2018
Klara and the Sun -Kazuo Ishiguro - 2021
Migrations- Charlotte McConaghy - 2020
Still Life - Sarah Winman - 2021
Demon Copperhead - Barbara Kingsolver - 2022
Project Hail Mary - Andy Weir - 2021
When Everything Changed: The Amazing Journey of American Women from 1960 to the Present - Gail Collins - 2009

Many many being listed by others were on the list before I had to get ruthless. As I cut them, I sent hope out that someone else would include them.

I felt the same way about Gideon the Ninth, so glad you included it!

Nicole wrote: "I felt the same way about Gideon the Ninth, so glad you included it!"

And you did All Systems Red!

Had too! I also nominated it for the 100 fiction list - we’ll see if it makes it through! :)

We Were the Lucky Ones is actually Non-Fiction - All True

I have 13 I want on my list for sure, and need to make decisions on the other two!

Wait - 15 for 15 does not discriminate fiction/NF. As i was going through, I already created my NF list and its bigger than I imagined.

I'm with Cindy. I have 12 very serious contenders for the top 15 (fiction) books. Two I haven't read yet, and only one I will get to by August's end and 16 more next level contenders thrown apart by just a hair..

The Leisure Seeker- Michael Zadoorian- 2009
The Magic Strings of Frankie Presto- Albom Mitch- 2012
The Library Book- Susan Orlean- 2018
Finding Dorothy- Elizabeth Letts- 2019
In the Dismal Swamp- Patrick Balester- 2008
In the Heart of the Canyon- Elizabeth Hyde- 2009
Spirit Horses- Alan Evans- 2009
The Dog Stars- Peter Heller- 2012
Finding Me- Viola Davis- 2022
The Pale-Faced Lie- David Crow- 2019
The Island of Sea Women- Lisa See- 2019
Tidewater: A Novel-Libbie Hawker-2015
The Boston Girl- Anita Diamant- 2014
Demons Are a Ghoul's Best Friend- Victoria Laurie- 2008
Singularity-Kathryn Casey- 2008

I'm loving seeing all these list.

Many have books I considered putting on my list, some I'm undecided about and some which are on my list.

It is a hard task, but I love the reminder of all the many books I've loved during this time period.

The Heretic Queen - Michelle Moran - 2008
The Angel's Game - Carlos Ruiz Zafón - 2008
Room - Emma Donoghue - 2010
Unbroken: A World War II Story of Survival, Resilience, and Redemption - Laura Hillenbrand - 2010
The Night Circus - Erin Morgenstern - 2011
11/22/63 - Stephen King - 2011
The Golem and The Jinni - Sang Golem dan Sang Jin - Helene Wecker - 2013
Red Rising - Pierce Brown - 2014
The Girl With All the Gifts - M.R. Carey -2014
The Nightingale - Kristin Hannah - 2015
The Wonder - Emma Donoghue - 2016
The Beautiful Ones - Silvia Moreno-Garcia - 2017
Ninth House - Leigh Bardugo - 2019
Mexican Gothic - Silvia Moreno-Garcia - 2020
The Very Secret Society of Irregular Witches - Sangu Mandanna - 2022

Amy wrote: "We Were the Lucky Ones is actually Non-Fiction - All True"

No Amy it is a fictional account based on a true story

Is that so? I hadn’t known that. I don’t know how much of it is sectional, and how much of it is not, but does that mean it’s not on the top 100 nonfiction list? Because it should be on one list or the other.

I do not think it is there, and if it is not, it is one that I think I will add when re-do it.

I know there are notes in the back of the book on where she took liberties with the people and places.

It was a darn good book!

There is a genre that is fictionalized non-fiction or some similar name where most of the book is real/true with some creatively added material fleshing it out or providing a structure. I have read 2 or 3 over the last few years - The Cottingley Secret includes real diaries letters etc. From the time period around which a fictional structure written to enhance and add researched materials. The Lost Love Letters of Henri Fournier is almost entirely real and true.

However, for this list of 15, it can be any genre, not just fiction.

All the Light We Cannot See – Anthony Doerr – 2014
Hamnet – Maggie O'Farrell – 2020
The Mirror & the Light – Hilary Mantel – 2020
Victory City – Salman Rushdie – 2023
The Immortal King Rao – Vauhini Vara – 2022
Piranesi – Susanna Clarke – 2020
The Colony – Audrey Magee – 2022
We Measure the Earth with Our Bodies – Tsering Yangzom Lama – 2022
The Winter Soldier– Daniel Mason – 2018
The Seven Moons of Maali Almeida – Shehan Karunatilaka – 2022
The Covenant of Water – Abraham Verghese – 2023
Once Upon a River – Diane Setterfield – 2019
Project Hail Mary – Andy Weir – 2021
In Ascension – Martin MacInnes – 2023
The Memory of Love – Aminatta Forna – 2010

Honorable Mention:
10 Minutes 38 Seconds in This Strange World – Elif Shafak – 2019
The Nix – Nathan Hill – 2016
The Goldfinch – Donna Tartt – 2013
The Queen of the Night – Alexander Chee – 2016
A Gentleman in Moscow – Amor Towles – 2016
To The Bright Edge of the World – Eowyn Ivey – 2016
In the Kingdom of Ice: The Grand and Terrible Polar Voyage of the USS Jeannette – Hampton Sides – 2014
Dead Wake: The Last Crossing of the Lusitania – Erik Larson – 2015



My reading has exploded since 2016 (and I read lots of new releases) so the majority of my selections are newer books. I hope one day to get a chance to go back to 2008 and read more of the noteworthy books. I am sure the PBT Lists posted here will help me select which ones to add to my TBR.

Amy wrote: "Wait - 15 for 15 does not discriminate fiction/NF. As i was going through, I already created my NF list and its bigger than I imagined. ..."

Oh, shoot! I was also separating fiction from nonfiction! Thank you for mentioning this. I need to try again! (Which means I have more than 13 and will need to whittle further...)

ETA: Ok, not as bad as I thought. I think I've only added 3 nonfiction, which means I only need to take out one altogether... But I should check my entire list again (on LT); I had written things down on paper, but I realized part-way through (I think) that I was doing both fiction and non-... then thought it was only fiction, so I think my paper does not have all the possible non-fiction it could.

The Sentence - Louise Erdrich - 2021
Etta and Otto and Russell and James - Emma Hooper - 2015
Dominicana - Angie Cruz - 2019
News of the World - Paulette Jiles - 2016
Lab Girl - Hope Jahren - 2016
Ask Again, Yes - Mary Beth Keane - 2019
The Last Watchmen of Old Cairo - Michael David Lukas - 2018
The Dutch House - Ann Patchett - 2019
Everything Here is Beautiful - Mira Lee - 2018
The Unseen World - Liz Moore - 2016
Salt Houses - Hala Alyan - 2017
All the Light We Cannot See - Anthony Doer - 2014
On the Move: A Life - Oliver Sacks - 2015
The Help - Kathryn Stockett - 2009
The Love Song of Miss Queenie Hennessy - Rachel Joyce - 2014

Honorable Mentions:

The Goldfinch - Donna Tartt - 2013
The Hate U Give - Angie Thomas - 2017
Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, and Tomorrow - Gabrielle Zevin - 2022
Dinners with Ruth: A Memoir on the Power of Friendships - Nina Totenberg - 2022
Wild: From Lost to Found on the Pacific Crest Trail -Cheryl Strayed - 2012
True Biz - Sara Novic - 2022

Cloud Cuckoo Land - Anthony Doerr - 2021
The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue - VE Schwab - 2020
Deacon King Kong - James McBride - 2020
The Only Plane in the Sky: An Oral History of 9/11 - Garrett Graff - 2019
The Heart's Invisible Furies - John Boyne - 2017
Beartown - Fredrick Backman - 2016
The Fifth Season - NK Jemison - 2015
Between the World and Me - Ta-Nehisi Coates - 2015
The Book of the Unnamed Midwife - Meg Elison - 2014
A Constellation of Vital Phenomena - Anthony Mara - 2013
The Golem and the Jinni - Helene Wecker - 2013
The Help - Kathryn Stockett - 2009
Matterhorn - Karl Malantes - 2010
Cutting for Stone - Abraham Verghese - 2009
The Language of Flowers - Vanessa Diffenbaugh - 2011

Happy to see both Last Watchman of Old Cairo and Addie LaRue popping up!

Those are both somewhere on my list as well. I am for this 15 for 15 going to separate fiction and nonfiction. Because I already started compiling a list of non-fiction books that I think are worthy of the hundred fiction list. And I have a good 30 to pare down to my 15. As I said, I won’t be posting mine for a couple of weeks, because I’m reading demon copperhead this month. And that and the covenant of water are two that I would want to try to get to you before compiling this list. It is very unlikely I will get through a covenant of water in August, but I left some space in my mind for a future good read. But the truth is it’s already covered by you guys so it doesn’t actually need to be added by me. But it was pretty interesting to see what makes the list. A lot of beginnings of phenomenal series. Including Beartown and Golem and the Jinni. I’m excited to pare down that list, and see what actually makes it. Glad to know I can have some honorable mentions.

All the Light We Cannot See - Anthony Doerr - 2014
Being Mortal: Medicine and What Matters in the End - Atul Gawande - 2014
The Boys in the Boat: Nine Americans and Their Epic Quest for Gold at the 1936 Berlin Olympics - Daniel James Brown - 2013
Carrie Soto Is Back - Taylor Jenkins Reid - 2022
City of Thieves - David Benioff - 2008
Deacon King Kong - James McBride - 2020
Dinner with Edward: A Story of an Unexpected Friendship - Isabel Vincent - 2016
A Gentleman in Moscow - Amor Towles - 2016
The Island of Sea Women - Lisa See - 2019
A Man Called Ove - Fredrik Backman - 2012
Our Souls at Night - Kent Haruf - 2015
The Rose Code - Kate Quinn - 2021
Station Eleven - Emily St. John Mandel - 2014
The Tsar of Love and Techno - Anthony Marra - 2015
West with Giraffes - Lynda Rutledge - 2021

Honorable Mention
Eleven Hours - Pamela Erens - 2016
The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society - Mary Ann Shaffer - 2008
The Help - Kathryn Stockett - 2009
The Lincoln Highway - Amor Towles - 2021
The Martian - Andy Weir - 2011

The Boys in the Boat: Nine Americans and Their Epic Quest for Gold at the 1936 Berlin Olympics - Daniel James Brown - 2013
Demon Copperhead - Barbara Kingsolver - 2022
Do Not Say We Have Nothing - Madeleine Thien - 2016
Embassytown - China Miéville - 2011
A Gentleman in Moscow - Amor Towles - 2016
Gone Girl - Gillian Flynn - 2012
The Gray House - Mariam Petrosyan - 2009
The Heart's Invisible Furies - John Boyne - 2017
Life After Life - Kate Atkinson - 2013
The Martian - Andy Weir - 2011
The Night Circus - Erin Morgenstern - 2011
The Only Plane in the Sky: An Oral History of 9/11 - Garrett M. Graff - 2019
Skeletons at the Feast - Chris Bohjalian - 2008
Unbroken: A World War II Story of Survival, Resilience and Redemption - Laura Hillenbrand - 2010
The Year of the Flood - Margaret Atwood - 2009

The Reading List - Sara Nisha Adams - 2021
A Ladder to the Sky - John Boyne - 2018
When All Is Said - Anne Griffin - 2019
Crying in H Mart - Michelle Zauner - 2021
Born a Crime: Stories From a South African Childhood - Trevor Noah - 2016
Driving Miss Norma: One Family's Journey Saying "Yes" to Living - Tim Bauerschmidt - 2017
Beartown - Fredrik Backman - 2016
Being Mortal: Medicine and What Matters in the End - Atul Gawande - 2014
The Nightingale - Kristin Hannah - 2015
Our Souls at Night - Kent Haruf - 2015
When Breath Becomes Air - Paul Kalinithi - 2016
The Unlikely Pilgrimage of Harold Fry - Rachel Joyce - 2012
A Man Called Ove - Fredrik Backman - 2012
Burying Father Tim - Tom Robertson - 2008
Unbroken: A World War II Story of Survival, Resilience and Redemption - Laura Hillenbrand -2010

Thrilled to see so many adding The Boys in the Boat: Nine Americans and Their Epic Quest for Gold at the 1936 Berlin Olympics, such a great story!

Joanne wrote: "Thrilled to see so many adding The Boys in the Boat: Nine Americans and Their Epic Quest for Gold at the 1936 Berlin Olympics, such a great story!"

And such a surprise, as I bet most of you, like me, had no particular interest in the sport of rowing before this book!

. This a a fun activity. I love seeing what people choose and looking back at my reading history to make my selections

So we hit the magic number of 15 people posting their 15 for 15 list.

Booknblues wrote: "So we hit the magic number of 15 people posting their 15 for 15 list."

🌞

Tenth of December - George Saunders - 2013
Unbroken: A World War II Story of Survival, Resilience, and Redemption by Laura Hillebrand - 2010
Being Mortal: Medicine and What Matters in the End - Agul Gwande - 2014
Purity - Jonathan Franzen - 2015
Hot Milk - Deborah Levy - 2015
The Nix - Nathan Hill - 2016
Born a Crime: Stories from a South African Childhood - Trevor Noah - 2016
The Heart's Invisible Furies - John Boyne - 2017
Bad Blood: Secrets and Lies in a Silicon Valley Startup - John Carreyou - 2018
In the Dream House: A Memoir - Carmen Maria Machado - 2019
The Colony by Audrey Magee - 2022
The Signature of All Things - Elizabeth Gilbert - 2013
Shotgun Lovesongs - Nicholas Butler - 2014
The Boys in the Boat - Daniel Brown - 2013
Anything is Possible - Elizabeth Strout - 2017

Anita, six of those are on my shortlist!!!!

Theresa wrote: "There is a genre that is fictionalized non-fiction or some similar name where most of the book is real/true with some creatively added material fleshing it out or providing a structure. I have read..."

I'm one of those who misunderstood and will have to redo my list.

Recursion, Crouch, Blake, 2019
Internment , Ahmed, Samira, 2019
Thin Air, Paver, Michelle, 2017
Breathing Under Water, Hardcastle, Sophie, 2016
The Last One, Oliva, Alexandra, 2016
A Sea of Glass: Searching for the Blaschkas' Fragile Legacy in an Ocean at Risk (Volume 13), Harvell, C. Drew, 2016
Salt to the Sea, Sepetys, Ruta, 2016
The Martian , Weir, Andy, 2011
The Rise of the Governor: The Walking Dead 1 (The Walking Dead, Kirkman, Robert, 2011
The Mountain Between Us, Martin, Charles, 2010
Feed, Grant, Mira, 2010
Hate List, Brown, Jennifer, 2009
Jasper Jones, Silvey, Craig, 2009
The Hunger Games, Collins, Suzanne, 2008
The Spare Room, Garner, Helen, 2008


Honourable mention
The Subtle Art of Not Giving a F*ck: A Counterintuitive Approach to Living a Good Life, Mark Manson, 2016

Unbroken: A World War II Story of Survival, Resilience and Redemption - Laura Hillenbrand - 2010
The Night Circus - Erin Morgenstern - 2011
A Constellation of Vital Phenomena - Anthony Marra - 2013
The Narrow Road to the Deep North - Richard Flanagan - 2013
Lab Girl - Hope Jahren - 2016
A Gentleman in Moscow - Amor Towles - 2016
The Heart's Invisible Furies - John Boyne - 2012
The Woman Who Smashed Codes: A True Story of Love, Spies, and the Unlikely Heroine who Outwitted America's Enemies - Jason Fagone - 2017
Educated - Tara Westover - 2018
The Trials of Morrigan Crow - Jessica Townsend - 2017
The Colony - Audrey Magee - 2022
The Galaxy, and the Ground Within - Becky Chambers - 2021
The Lost Man - Jane Harper - 2018
Bad Blood: Secrets and Lies in a Silicon Valley Startup - John Carreyrou - 2018
The Long Take - Robin Robertson - 2018

Wow, Kate, we have a lot of overlap! Some on your list are ones I am still contemplating!!

I have three of Kate's on mine as well.

KateNZ wrote: "Unbroken: A World War II Story of Survival, Resilience and Redemption - Laura Hillenbrand - 2010
The Night Circus - Erin Morgenstern - 2011
[book:A Constellation of Vi..."

My nephew who is visiting is visiting is very happy to hear that Morrigan Crow is on your list. it's one of his favorite series. I'm waiting until after family visit is over in a week to make my list.

I love seeing The Night Circus on so many lists! It was one of the first that instantly popped into my mind for this list, as are several others.

Every single list has had more than one book included that I whittled out of my final list - and usually because I knew others would include it on their list.

It pained me to do this list because I had to leave so many books I love out, but here goes:

Cutting for Stone – Abraham Verghese (2009)
The Orphan Master’s Son - Adam Johnson (2012)
A Constellation of Vital Phenomena – Anthony Marra (2013)
Horse – Geraldine Brooks (2022)
Doc – Mary Doria Russell (2011)
The Sentence – Louise Erdrich (2021)
Indian Horse – Richard Wagamese (2012)
The Garden of Evening Mists– Tang Twan Eng (2012)
Cloud Cuckoo Land – Anthony Doerr (2021)
Days without End – Sebastian Barry (2017)
Love, Death & Rare Books -Robert Hellenga (2020)
The Overstory – Richard Powers (2018)
The Lucky Ones – Georgia Hunter(2017)
Deacon King Kong – James McBride (2020)
Project Hail Mary – Andy Weir (2021)

Honorable Mention
The Nickelboys – Colson Whitehead (2019)
Sing Unburied Sing – Jesmyn Ward (2017)
The Sweetness of Water – Nathan Harris (2021)
The Castle Cross the Magnet Carter – Kia Corthron (2016)
The Tsar of Love and Techno – Anthony Marra (2015)
The Investigation – J.M. Lee (2015)
After Story – Larissa Behrendt (2021)
11/22/63 – Stephen King (2011)
Exit West – Mossin Hamid (2017)

So pleased to see Hellenga, BnB!