2008-2012 Notable Books for Adults

Description
This is a list of ALA Notable Books for Adults from 2008-2012. The 2013 and 2014 Notable Books each have their own lists on LibraryThing.
1
The Yiddish Policemen's Union
by Michael Chabon
11,253 members
447 reviews
3.8
5 Members
aulsmith, sturlington, edparks, gypsysmom, ahef1963
2
Room
by Emma Donoghue
16,140 members
1,027 reviews
4
4 Members
dara85, gypsysmom, ahef1963, kara.shamy,
3
The Thousand Autumns of Jacob de Zoet
by David Mitchell
6,506 members
332 reviews
4.1
3 Members
aulsmith, isiri, sturlington
4
The Sisters Brothers
by Patrick deWitt
4,763 members
341 reviews
3.9
4 Members
sturlington, edparks, gypsysmom, ahef1963
5
Olive Kitteridge
by Elizabeth Strout
11,258 members
657 reviews
3.9
3 Members
isiri, sturlington, edparks
6
On Chesil Beach
by Ian McEwan
9,043 members
388 reviews
½ 3.6
3 Members
isiri, gypsysmom, ahef1963
7
The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks
by Rebecca Skloot
17,025 members
779 reviews
4.2
3 Members
edparks, gypsysmom, ahef1963
8
The Art of Fielding
by Chad Harbach
4,584 members
254 reviews
3.9
2 Members
isiri, edparks
9
The Tiger's Wife
by Téa Obreht
6,042 members
354 reviews
½ 3.5
3 Members
edparks, gypsysmom, ahef1963
10
The Sense of an Ending
by Julian Barnes
9,260 members
576 reviews
3.8
2 Members
isiri, kara.shamy
11
The Year of the Flood
by Margaret Atwood
8,183 members
380 reviews
3.9
2 Members
sturlington, gypsysmom
12
Crooked Letter, Crooked Letter
by Tom Franklin
2,602 members
264 reviews
3.9
2 Members
dara85, edparks
13
The Emperor of All Maladies: A Biography of Cancer
by Siddhartha Mukherjee
6,068 members
219 reviews
½ 4.3
2 Members
isiri, ahef1963
14
The Hakawati
by Rabih Alameddine
1,015 members
37 reviews
3.9
2 Members
edparks, kara.shamy
15
The Lonely Polygamist
by Brady Udall
1,477 members
111 reviews
½ 3.7
2 Members
dara85, edparks
16
Let the Great World Spin
by Colum McCann
6,597 members
328 reviews
4
2 Members
isiri, edparks
17
The Hare with Amber Eyes: A Hidden Inheritance
by Edmund De Waal
4,161 members
168 reviews
4
2 Members
isiri, gypsysmom
18
A Visit from the Goon Squad
by Jennifer Egan
9,857 members
552 reviews
½ 3.7
3 Members
isiri, edparks, ahef1963,sturlington
Explanations
19
An Arsonist's Guide to Writers' Homes in New England
by Brock Clarke
1,731 members
94 reviews
3
2 Members
sturlington, edparks
20
Tinkers
by Paul Harding
4,156 members
244 reviews
½ 3.5
2 Members
sturlington, edparks
21
Just Kids
by Patti Smith
6,669 members
268 reviews
4.2
Member
hipdeep
22
Columbine
by Dave Cullen
4,397 members
222 reviews
½ 4.3
Member
dara85
23
Stitches: A Memoir
by David Small
2,145 members
180 reviews
4.1
Member
ManWithAnAgenda
24
The Lost City of Z: A Tale of Deadly Obsession in the Amazon
by David Grann
5,752 members
276 reviews
3.9
Member
ManWithAnAgenda
25
Lost Memory of Skin
by Russell Banks
856 members
48 reviews
½ 3.6
Member
edparks
26
The World Without Us
by Alan Weisman
6,417 members
200 reviews
3.8
Member
aulsmith
27
A Mercy
by Toni Morrison
4,047 members
144 reviews
½ 3.7
Member
kara.shamy
28
Brooklyn
by Colm Tóibín
6,416 members
337 reviews
½ 3.7
Member
aulsmith
29
Zeitoun
by Dave Eggers
4,568 members
191 reviews
4.1
Member
dara85
30
Nothing to Envy: Ordinary Lives in North Korea
by Barbara Demick
3,746 members
195 reviews
½ 4.4
Member
ahef1963
31
Away
by Amy Bloom
2,163 members
129 reviews
½ 3.5
Member
kara.shamy
32
The Surrendered
by Chang-Rae Lee
809 members
56 reviews
3.8
Member
edparks
33
Freedom
by Jonathan Franzen
10,741 members
426 reviews
3.8
Member
edparks
34
City of Thieves
by David Benioff
6,048 members
332 reviews
4.2
Member
edparks
35
Spooner
by Pete Dexter
563 members
20 reviews
½ 3.7
Member
edparks
36
The Other Hand
by Chris Cleave
9,179 members
553 reviews
½ 3.7
Member
gypsysmom
37
Swamplandia!
by Karen Russell
4,028 members
253 reviews
½ 3.4
Member
sturlington
38
Finn
by Jon Clinch
814 members
48 reviews
3.8
Member
edparks
39
In Defense of Food: An Eater's Manifesto
by Michael Pollan
8,172 members
213 reviews
4
Member
gypsysmom
40
Thinking, Fast and Slow
by Daniel Kahneman
15,065 members
268 reviews
4.1
Member
isiri
41
The Warmth of Other Suns: The Epic Story of America's Great Migration
by Isabel Wilkerson
6,718 members
208 reviews
½ 4.5
Member
ahef1963
42
Out Stealing Horses
by Per Petterson
4,553 members
260 reviews
3.9
Member
gypsysmom
43
Mister Pip
by Lloyd Jones
3,679 members
184 reviews
3.8
Member
gypsysmom
44
Skippy Dies
by Paul Murray
2,503 members
137 reviews
3.9
Member
isiri
45
The Canon: A Whirligig Tour of the Beautiful Basics of Science
by Natalie Angier
1,824 members
46 reviews
½ 3.6
Member
isiri
46
The Vagrants
by Yiyun Li
915 members
44 reviews
3.9
Member
edparks
47
The Cat's Table
by Michael Ondaatje
2,674 members
136 reviews
½ 3.7
Member
gypsysmom
48
The Tiger: A True Story of Vengeance and Survival
by John Vaillant
1,488 members
76 reviews
4
Member
gypsysmom
49
The Five-Forty-Five to Cannes
by Tess Uriza Holthe
75 members
2 reviews
3.8
Member
edparks
50
Atmospheric Disturbances: A Novel
by Rivka Galchen
949 members
48 reviews
3.2
Member
gypsysmom
51
Next
by James Hynes
343 members
18 reviews
½ 3.5
Member
edparks
52
Five Skies
by Ron Carlson
381 members
25 reviews
3.9
Member
edparks
53
Selected Stories
by William Trevor
266 members
3 reviews
½ 4.3
Member
edparks
54
Unaccustomed Earth
by Jhumpa Lahiri
6,093 members
208 reviews
4.1
Member
edparks
55
Matterhorn
by Karl Marlantes
3,141 members
138 reviews
½ 4.3
Member
edparks
56
Await Your Reply
by Dan Chaon
1,667 members
156 reviews
½ 3.7
Member
edparks
57
Nashville Chrome
by Rick Bass
104 members
6 reviews
½ 3.7
Member
edparks
58
The Last Stand : Custer, Sitting Bull, and the Battle of the Little Bighorn
by Nathaniel Philbrick
1,810 members
41 reviews
4
Member
edparks
59
The Swerve: How the World Became Modern
by Stephen Greenblatt
4,194 members
152 reviews
3.9
Member
edparks
60
Generosity: An Enhancement
by Richard Powers
711 members
33 reviews
3.8
Member
edparks
61
The Tragedy of Arthur
by Arthur Phillips
645 members
61 reviews
½ 3.6
Member
edparks
62
We the Animals
by Justin Torres
1,496 members
74 reviews
½ 3.6
Member
edparks
63
Animal, Vegetable, Miracle: A Year of Food Life
by Barbara Kingsolver
8,278 members
275 reviews
4.1
Member
sturlington,hipdeep
64
The Zookeeper's Wife: A War Story
by Diane Ackerman
5,434 members
217 reviews
½ 3.5
Member
gypsysmom,dara85
65
Einstein: His Life and Universe
by Walter Isaacson
6,490 members
107 reviews
4.2
67
Washington: A Life
by Ron Chernow
3,822 members
98 reviews
½ 4.4
68
The Information: A History, a Theory, a Flood
by James Gleick
3,701 members
121 reviews
4
69
Destiny of the Republic: A Tale of Madness, Medicine, and the Murder of a President
by Candice Millard
3,531 members
173 reviews
½ 4.3
71
The Plague of Doves
by Louise Erdrich
2,452 members
94 reviews
½ 3.7
72
Arguably: Essays by Christopher Hitchens
by Christopher Hitchens
2,172 members
38 reviews
4.1
73
This Republic of Suffering: Death and the American Civil War
by Drew Gilpin Faust
2,107 members
54 reviews
4
74
A Voyage Long and Strange: Rediscovering the New World
by Tony Horwitz
2,039 members
59 reviews
3.9
75
Traffic: Why We Drive the Way We Do (and What It Says About Us)
by Tom Vanderbilt
1,974 members
78 reviews
½ 3.6
76
How Doctors Think
by Jerome Groopman
1,750 members
50 reviews
½ 3.7
77
The Forever War
by Dexter Filkins
1,573 members
42 reviews
4.1
78
Last Call: The Rise and Fall of Prohibition
by Daniel Okrent
1,562 members
46 reviews
4
79
The Hemingses of Monticello: An American Family
by Annette Gordon-Reed
1,510 members
37 reviews
3.9
80
Malcolm X: A Life of Reinvention
by Manning Marable
1,304 members
32 reviews
4.1
81
Turn right at Machu Picchu
by Mark Adams
1,281 members
37 reviews
3.8
82
Super Crunchers: Why Thinking-by-Numbers Is the New Way to Be Smart
by Ian Ayres
1,206 members
32 reviews
½ 3.6
83
The Ministry of Special Cases
by Nathan Englander
1,146 members
38 reviews
½ 3.7
84
The Lotus Eaters
by Tatjana Soli
1,112 members
90 reviews
4
85
The Anthologist: A Novel
by Nicholson Baker
1,091 members
63 reviews
3.8
87
The Good Soldiers
by David Finkel
997 members
35 reviews
4.2
88
When a Crocodile Eats the Sun
by Peter Godwin
970 members
36 reviews
4.2
89
Citizens of London : the Americans who stood with Britain in its darkest, finest hour
by Lynne Olson
927 members
52 reviews
4.2
90
Travels in Siberia
by Ian Frazier
842 members
37 reviews
4
91
Gertrude Bell: Queen of the Desert, Shaper of Nations
by Georgina Howell
792 members
20 reviews
½ 3.7
92
Inside Scientology: The Story of America's Most Secretive Religion
by Janet Reitman
755 members
35 reviews
3.8
93
Pictures at a Revolution: Five Movies and the Birth of the New Hollywood
by Mark Harris
739 members
31 reviews
4.2
94
The Memory Palace
by Mira Bartók
708 members
24 reviews
3.8
95
Provenance: how a con man and a forger rewrote the history of modern art
by Laney Salisbury
666 members
27 reviews
4
96
Illuminations
by Arthur Rimbaud
663 members
12 reviews
3.9
97
The Bin Ladens: An Arabian Family in the American Century
by Steve Coll
632 members
15 reviews
3.9
98
Dangerous Laughter: Thirteen Stories
by Steven Millhauser
625 members
29 reviews
3.8
99
Apollo's Angels : A History of Ballet
by Jennifer Homans
614 members
14 reviews
4
100
The Photographer: Into War-torn Afghanistan with Doctors Without Borders
by Emmanuel Guibert
579 members
27 reviews
½ 4.3