52 Award-Winning Titles Every Book Lover Should Read
This is one of the 743 lists we use to generate our main The Greatest Books list.
About this list
Book, 52 Books
This is a list from a book that the ALA, the American Library Association published. The ALA is a nonprofit organization based in the United States that promotes libraries and library education internationally. It is the oldest and largest library association in the world, with more than 57,000 members.
This list was originally published in 2021 and was added to this site about 2 years ago.
| Rank | Book | Authors | Year | Country | Language | Actions |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 9290 | The Poet X | Elizabeth Acevedo | 2018 | American | English | |
| 17008 | Lost Memory Of Skin | Russell Banks | 2011 | American | English | |
| 17008 | The Girl Who Drank The Moon | Kelly Barnhill | 2016 | American | English | |
| 17008 | The Line Becomes A River | Francisco Cantú | 2018 | American | English | |
| 17008 | Moonglow | Michael Chabon | 2016 | American | English | |
| 8839 | The Water Dancer | Ta-Nehisi Coates | 2019 | American | English | |
| 17008 | New Kid | Jerry Craft | 2019 | American | English | |
| 17008 | Claire Of The Sea Light | Edwidge Danticat | 2013 | Haitian | English | |
| 1392 | Evicted | Matthew Desmond | 2016 | American | English | |
| 14165 | This Is How You Lose Her | Junot Diaz | 2012 | American | English | |
| 1431 | All the Light We Cannot See | Anthony Doerr | 2014 | American | English | |
| 14165 | Manhattan Beach | Jennifer Egan | 2017 | American | English | |
| 14901 | Short Nights Of The Shadow Catcher | Timothy Egan | 2012 | American | English | |
| 17008 | The Doomsday Machine | Daniel Ellsberg | 2017 | American | English | |
| 14901 | The Forgotten Waltz | Anne Enright | 2011 | Irish | English | |
| 2064 | The Round House | Louise Erdrich | 2012 | American | English | |
| 5594 | Canada | Richard Ford | 2012 | American | English | |
| 14901 | Fathoms | Rebecca Giggs | 2020 | Australian | English | |
| 17008 | Feast Your Eyes | Myla Goldberg | 2019 | American | English | |
| 12261 | The Bully Pulpit | Doris Kearns Goodwin | 2013 | American | English | |
| 3252 | Killers Of The Flower Moon | David Grann | 2017 | American | English | |
| 8874 | Midnight In Chernobyl | Adam Higginbotham | 2024 | British | English | |
| 17008 | Hello, Universe | Erin Entrada Kelly | 2017 | American | English | |
| 17008 | Dig | A. S. King | 2019 | American | English | |
| 9034 | The Crossover | Kwame Alexander | 2014 | American | English | |
| 10911 | We Are Okay | Nina LaCour | 2017 | American | English | |
| 2605 | Heavy | Kiese Laymon | 2018 | American | English | |
| 17008 | On Such A Full Sea | Chang-rae Lee | 2014 | American | English | |
| 8439 | March | John Lewis | 2013 | American | English | |
| 2703 | Lost Children Archive | Valeria Luiselli | 2019 | Mexican | English | |
| 10424 | Dopesick | Beth Macy | 2018 | American | English | |
| 2086 | The Great Believers | Rebecca Makkai | 2018 | American | English | |
| 6528 | Hold Still | Sally Mann | 2015 | American | English | |
| 14165 | Catherine The Great | Robert K. Massie | 2011 | American | English | |
| 14901 | Last Stop On Market Street | Matt de la Peña | 2015 | American | English | |
| 17008 | Merci Suárez Changes Gears | Meg Medina | 2018 | Mexican-American | English | |
| 10406 | I'll Give You The Sun | Jandy Nelson | 2014 | American | English | |
| 921 | The Sympathizer | Viet Thanh Nguyen | 2015 | American | English | |
| 2410 | There There | Tommy Orange | 2018 | American | English | |
| 17008 | Blood At The Root | Patrick Phillips | 2016 | British | English | |
| 12439 | Figuring | Maria Popova | 2019 | American | English | |
| 10924 | Spillover | David Quammen | 2012 | American | English | |
| 17008 | Bone Gap | Laura Ruby | 2015 | British | English | |
| 5108 | Swamplandia! | Karen Russell | 2011 | American | English | |
| 1019 | Lincoln in the Bardo | George Saunders | 2017 | American | English | |
| 17008 | The Book Of Aron | Jim Shepard | 2015 | American | English | |
| 8331 | Swing Time | Zadie Smith | 2016 | British | English | |
| 3585 | Just Mercy | Bryan Stevenson | 2014 | American | English | |
| 740 | The Goldfinch | Donna Tartt | 2013 | American | English | |
| 4588 | Nora Webster | Colm Toibin | 2014 | Irish | English | |
| 1648 | Sing, Unburied, Sing | Jesmyn Ward | 2017 | American | English | |
| 769 | The Underground Railroad | Colson Whitehead | 2016 | American | English |