That's a Lot of Books!

I posted the 2018/2019 Texas Library Association Lariat Adult Fiction Reading List a few days ago, but I thought I'd list all the books that were nominated from which we chose, by vote, the 25 that made the final list.

The Lariat Committee was required to read all the books that were nominated. They encompass a wide variety of genre fiction: Mystery, Thriller, Romance, Science Fiction, Fantasy, Historical Fiction, Short Stories, and a lot of what I'd call "Literary Fiction."  There were another 55 books that were read by different members of the committee, and then withdrawn from selection for one reason or another. There were a number of other books I read this year that I wish I could have nominated, but I was limited to 8!

The one book that I nominated that did NOT make the Lariat List this year is A Key to Treehouse Living by Elliot Reed, which was a gem (!), but had an unusual structure: a coming-of-age tale told in a series of encyclopedia entries, through which the story slowly unfolds. I recommend this one for its unique narrative and poignancy. 

It was hard to narrow this list down to 25, and a number did not make the Lariat List that I wish would have (and a few I didn't care for that much myself). But, the reason we have 9 committee members is so that it is a well-balanced reading list, and doesn't rely on any one person's particular taste.

A number of these books also appear on other year-end reading lists, and a few are gems that didn't get much publicity, but were good reads.

If you'd like, let me know if any of these titles were among your favorites this year!

TITLE	AUTHOR (Last, First)
Freshwater	Emezi, Akwaeke
The House of Broken Angels	Urrea, Louis Alberto
How to Stop Time	Haig, Matt
Sing Unburied Sing	Ward, Jesmyn
Less: A Novel	Greer, Andrew Shaw
Speak No Evil	Iweala, Uzodinma
Beneath a Scarlet Sky	Sullivan, Mark
Flying at Night	Brown, Rebecca L.
If You Leave Me	Kim, Crystal Hana
My Ex-Life	McCauley, Stephen
Heads of the Colored People	Thompson-Spires, Nafissa
Meet Me at the Museum	Youngson, Anne
The Indigo Girl	Boyd, Natasha
Dear Mrs. Bird	Pearce, AJ
Need to Know	Cleveland, Karen
Darkest Time of Night	Finley, Jeremy
Space Opera	Valente, Catherynne M.
Confusion of Languages, The	Fallon, Siobhan
Anatomy of a Scandal	Vaughan, Sarah
Exhibit Alexandra	Bell, Natasha
Semiosis	Burke, Sue
The Woman in the Window	Finn, A. J.
Star of the North	John, D.B.
There There: A Novel	Orange, Tommy
A Princess in Theory	Cole, Alyssa
Gateway To The Moon	Morris, Mary
Trail of Lightning	Roanhorse, Rebecca
The Key to Treehouse Living	Reed, Elliot
The Hunger	Katsu, Alma
The Last Time I Lied	Sager, Riley
The Mere Wife	Headley, Maria
The Book of Hidden Things	Dimitri, Francesco
Foundryside	Bennett, Robert Jackson
The Changeling	LaValle, Victor
Fruit of the Drunken Tree	Contreras, Ingrid Rojas
The Kiss Quotient	Hoang, Helen
Tell the Machine Goodnight	Williams, Katie
Rust & Stardust	Greenwood, T. (Tammy)
Big Woods	Cobb, May
Before I Saw You	Sorrells, Amy K.
America for Beginners	Franqui, Leah
The Stars Now Unclaimed	Williams, Drew
The 7 Deaths of Evelyn Hardcastle	Turton, Stuart
Where the Crawdads Sing	Owens, Delia
The Immortalists	Benjamin, Chloe
The Black God's Drums	Clark, P. Djèlí
This Mournable Body	Dangarembga, Tsitsi
River of Stars	Hua, Vanessa
She Would Be King	Moore, Wayétu
The Summer Wives	Williams, Beatriz
The Prisoner in the Castle	MacNeal, Susan Elia
Washington Black	Edugyan, Esi
The Broken Girls	St. James, Simone
Everything Here is Beautiful	Lee, Mira T.