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Notable Books for Adults
The selections for the 2021 Notable Books list have been announced by the Reference and User Services Association, a division of the American Library Association. Since 1944 the Notable Books Council has annually selected a list of very good, very readable and at times very important fiction, nonfiction and poetry books for the adult reader. Books may be selected for their significant contribution to the expansion of knowledge or for the pleasure they can provide to adult readers. Titles were selected from books published in 2020. Titles available at your Library may be requested through the title link to the library's catalog.
Fiction
- Leave the World Behind by Rumaan Alam
- The Vanishing Half by Brit Bennett
- Piranesi by Susanna Clarke
- The Office of Historical Corrections by Danielle Evans
- Breasts and Eggs by Mieko Kawakami
- Temporary by Hilary Leichter
- Deacon King Kong by James McBride
- Hamnet by Maggie O'Farrell
- Little Eyes by Samanta Schweblin
- Shuggie Bain by Douglas Stuart
- Run Me to Earth by Paul Yoon
Non-Fiction
- A Knock at Midnight: A Story of Hope, Justice and Freedom by Brittany K. Barnett
- Children of the Land by Marcelo Hernandez Castillo
- Carville's Cure: Leprosy, Stigma and the Fight for Justice by Pam Fessler
- Hidden Valley Road: Inside the Mind of an American Family by Robert Kolker
- Just Us: An American Conversation by Claudia Rankine
- Oak Flat: A Fight for Sacred Land in the American West by Lauren Redniss
- Becoming Wild: How Animal Cultures Raise Families, Create Beauty, and Achieve Peace by Carl Safina
- We Have Been Harmonized: Life in China's Surveillance State by Kai Strittmatter
- Memorial Drive: A Daughter's Memoir by Natasha Trethewey
- Caste: The Origins of Our Discontents by Isabel Wilkerson
- Wilmington's Lie: The Murderous Coup of 1898 and the Rise of White Supremacy by David Zucchino
Poetry
- Owed by Joshua Bennett
- Postcolonial Love Poem by Natalie Diaz
- Kontemporary Amerikan Poetry by John Murillo