† Review coming soon!
21st Century
2020’s
2023 – Allergic: Our irritated bodies in a changing world by Theresa MacPhail
2023 – The six: The untold story of America’s first women astronauts by Loren Grush
2022 – Ancestor trouble: A reckoning and a reconciliation by Maud Newton
2022 – The big Texas cookbook by the ed. of Texas Monthly
2022 – The emergency: A year of healing and heartbreak in a Chicago ER by Thomas Fisher
2022 – The fishermen and the dragon: Fear, greed, and a fight for justice on the Gulf Coast by Kirk Wallace Johnson
2022 – Healing a divided nation: How the American Civil War revolutionized Western medicine by Carole Adrienne
2022 – A scientific revolution: Ten men and women who reinvented American medicine by Ralph H. Hruban and William Linder
2020 – Cool beans by Joe Yonan
2020 – Good drinks: Alcohol-free recipes for when you’re not drinking for whatever reason by Julia Bainbridge
2010’s
2019 – Feminist cross-stitch by Stephanie Rohr †
2019 – A hastiness of cooks by Cynthia D. Bertelsen
2019 – Houston cooks ed. by Francine Spiering
2019 – Indian-ish: Recipes and antics from a modern American family by Priya Krishna
2018 – Rising: Dispatches from the new American shore by Elizabeth Rush
2018 – What the eyes don’t see: A story of crisis, resistance, and hope in an American city by Mona Hanna-Attisha
2017 – The book jumper by Mechthild Gläser
2017 – The book that changed America: How Darwin’s theory of evolution ignited a nation by Randall Fuller
2017 – Cherry bombe: The cookbook ed. by Kerry Diamond and Claudia Wu
2016 – Appetites by Anthony Bourdain
2016 – Blood red, snow white by Marcus Sedgwick
2016 – The book: A cover-to-cover exploration of the most powerful object of our time by Keith Houston
2016 – From silk to silicon: The story of globalization through ten extraordinary lives by Jeffrey E. Garten
2016 – Hidden figures: The American dream and the untold story of the black women mathematicians who helped win the Space Race by Margot Lee Shetterly
2016 – League of dragons by Naomi Novik
2016 – Locally laid: How we built a plucky industry-changing egg farm — from scratch by Lucie B. Amundsen
2016 – The Romanovs: 1613–1918 by Simon Sebag Montefiore
2016 – The season by Jonah Lisa and Stephen Dyer
2016 – Summer days and summer nights by Stephanie Perkins et al.
2016 – 100 million years of food: What our ancestors ate and why it matters today by Stephen Le
2015 – All the bright places by Jennifer Niven
2015 – All we have is now by Lisa Schroeder
2015 – A darker shade of magic by V.E. Schwab
2015 – The devil you know by Trish Doller
2015 – The dinosaur lords by Victor Milán
2015 – The fangirl’s guide to the galaxy by Sam Maggs
2015 – Galileo’s middle finger: Heretics, activists, and the search for justice in science by Alice Dreger
2015 – The game of love and death by Martha Brockenbrough
2015 – Headstrong: 52 women who changed science — and the world by Rachel Swaby
2015 – Illusionarium by Heather Dixon
2015 – The invention of science: The Scientific Revolution from 1500 to 1750 by David Wootton
2015 – The next species: The future of evolution in the aftermath of Man by Michael Tennesen
2015 – The only woman in the room: Why science is still a boys’ club by Eileen Pollack
2015 – Pip Bartlett’s guide to magical creatures by Jackson Pearce and Maggie Stiefvater
2015 – Proof of forever by Lexa Hillyer
2015 – Things we know by heart by Jessi Kirby
2015 – This is what you just put in your mouth: From eggnog to beef jerky, the surprising secrets of what’s inside everyday products by Patrick Di Justo
2015 – Under a painted sky by Stacey Lee
2015 – Walk on earth a stranger by Rae Carson
2015 – The walls around us by Nova Ren Suma
2015 – We are pirates by Daniel Handler
2015 – Wine folly by Madeline Puckette and Justine Hammack
2015 – Wonder at the edge of the world by Nicole Helget
2014 – All four stars by Tara Dairman
2014 – The birth of the pill: How four crusaders reinvented sex and launched a revolution by Jonathan Eig
2014 – Child of a hidden sea by A.M. Dellamonica
2014 – Clariel by Garth Nix
2014 – Deep blue by Jennifer Donnelly
2014 – Empire of sin: A story of sex, jazz, murder, and the battle for modern New Orleans by Gary Krist
2014 – The monkey’s voyage: How improbable journeys shaped the history of life by Alan de Queiroz
2014 – My true love gave to me by Stephanie Perkins, et al.
2014 – Popular: Vintage wisdom for a modern geek by Maya Van Wagenen
2014 – The word exchange by Alena Graedon
2013 – The astronaut wives club by Lily Koppel
2013 – The barefoot queen by Ildefonso Falcones
2013 – Boxers; Saints by Gene Luen Yang
2013 – The burning sky by Sherry Thomas
2013 – The circle by Dave Eggers
2013 – A natural history of dragons by Marie Brennan
2013 – Relish: My life in the kitchen by Lucy Knisley
2013 – The rithmatist by Brandon Sanderson
2013 – Rose under fire by Elizabeth Wein
2013 – Splintered by A.G. Howard
2013 – Wildlife of the Concho Valley by Terry Maxwell
2012 – Consider the fork: A history of how we cook and eat by Bee Wilson
2012 – The cookbook library: Four centuries of the cooks, writers, and recipes that made the modern cookbook by Anne Willan and Mark Cherniavsky
2012 – The diviners by Libba Bray
2012 – Freeman by Leonard Pitts, Jr.
2012 – The Smitten Kitchen cookbook by Deb Perelman
2012 – Seraphina by Rachel Hartman
2012 – We are what we pretend to be by Kurt Vonnegut
2011 – The girl of fire and thorns by Rae Carson
2011 – Ready player one by Ernest Cline
2010 – Chocolate wars: The 150-year rivalry between the world’s greatest chocolate makers by Deborah Cadbury
2010 – Cooking for geeks: Real science, great hacks, and good food by Jeff Potter
2010 – Lone star legend by Gwendolyn Zepeda
2000’s
2009 – Going bovine by Libba Bray
2009 – The greatest show on Earth by Richard Dawkins
2009 – Soulless by Gail Carriger
2009 – Warbreaker by Brandon Sanderson
2008 – Bonk: The curious coupling of science and sex by Mary Roach
2008 – Your inner fish: A journey into the 3.5-billion-year history of the human body by Neil Shubin
2006 – The girls who went away by Ann Fessler
2006 – His majesty’s dragon by Naomi Novik
2006 – Mistborn by Brandon Sanderson
2006 – The road to Dr Pepper, Texas: The story of Dublin Dr Pepper by Karen Wright
2005 – Elantris by Brandon Sanderson
2003 – The classic ten: The true story of the little black dress and nine other fashion favorites by Nancy MacDonnell Smith
2002 – Color stories: Behind the scenes of America’s billion-dollar beauty industry by Mary Lisa Gavenas
2002 – French lessons: Adventures with a knife, fork, and corkscrew by Peter Mayle
2001 – The Eyre affair by Jasper Fforde
2001 – The seven daughters of Eve: The science that reveals our genetic ancestry by Bryan Sykes
2000 – Founding brothers: The revolutionary generation by Joseph J. Ellis
20th Century
1990’s
1999 – Reason for hope: A spiritual journey by Jane Goodall
1998 – The meaning of flowers by Gretchen Scoble and Ann Field
1998 – Riptide by Douglas Preston and Lincoln Child
1997 – 100 flowers and how they got their names by Diana Wells
1997 – Vegetarian cooking for everyone by Deborah Madison
1996 – Sperm wars: Infidelity, sexual conflict, and other bedroom battles by Robin Baker
1995 – The golden compass by Philip Pullman †
1995 – Relic by Douglas Preston and Lincoln Child
1994 – Naturalist by Edward O. Wilson
1994 – Wizard’s first rule by Terry Goodkind
1993 – The shipping news by Annie Proulx †
1992 – The wives of Henry VIII by Antonia Fraser
1991 – A year in Provence by Peter Mayle
1990 – Jurassic Park by Michael Crichton †
1980’s
1988 – Manufacturing consent by Noam Chomsky and Edward S. Herman
1985 – The handmaid’s tale by Margaret Atwood
1985 – Lonesome Dove by Larry McMurtry
1984 – The hunt for Red October by Tom Clancy
1982 – The color purple by Alice Walker
1982 – The good old boys by Elmer Kelton
1970’s
1979 – The hitchhiker’s guide to the galaxy by Douglas Adams
1979 – Kindred by Octavia E. Butler
1978 – A contract with God and other tenement stories by Will Eisner †
1977 – Ceremony by Leslie Marmon Silko
1975 – Crocodile on the sandbank by Elizabeth Peters
1974 – The chocolate war by Robert Cormier †
1972 – All creatures great and small by James Herriot
1972 – Watership Down by Richard Adams
1971 – In the shadow of Man by Jane Goodall
1970 – Bury my heart at Wounded Knee by Dee Brown
1960’s
1969 – The Betty Crocker cookbook by the General Mills Betty Crocker Kitchens
1969 – I know why the caged bird sings by Maya Angelou †
1969 – Slaughterhouse-five by Kurt Vonnegut
1969 – Ubik by Philip K. Dick †
1968 – The double helix: A personal account of the discovery of the structure of DNA by James D. Watson
1968 – Dragonflight by Anne McCaffrey
1968 – A wizard of Earthsea by Ursula K. Le Guin
1967 – The owl service by Alan Garner †
1967 – Rosemary’s baby by Ira Levin
1966 – Wide Sargasso Sea by Jean Rhys
1964 – A moveable feast by Ernest Hemingway
1964 – The personality of the cat and The personality of the dog ed. by Brandt Aymar †
1963 – The bell jar by Sylvia Plath
1962 – The guns of August by Barbara W. Tuchman †
1960 – The rise and fall of the Third Reich by William L. Shirer
1950’s
1958 – Night by Elie Wiesel
1958 – The once and future king by T.H. White
1957 – How the Grinch stole Christmas by Dr. Seuss
1954 – The lord of the rings by J.R.R. Tolkien
1953 – Under Milk Wood by Dylan Thomas
1952 – East of Eden by John Steinbeck
1951 – Foundation by Isaac Asimov
1951 – The sea around us by Rachel Carson
1950 – The Martian chronicles by Ray Bradbury
1940’s
1946 – Man’s search for meaning by Viktor E. Frankl
1945 – Animal farm by George Orwell
1945 – The egg and I by Betty MacDonald
1943 – Le petit prince by Antoine de Saint-Exupéry
1942 – West with the night by Beryl Markham
1940 – The story of my experiments with truth by Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi †
1940 – A tree grows in Brooklyn by Betty Smith †
1930’s
1939 – And then there were none by Agatha Christie †
1939 – How green was my valley by Richard Llewellyn
1939 – Old Possum’s book of practical cats by T.S. Eliot
1938 – Better than beauty: A guide to charm by Helen Valentine and Alice Thompson
1938 – Rebecca by Daphne du Maurier
1937 – The blind owl by Sadegh Hedayat †
1937 – Their eyes were watching God by Zora Neale Hurston †
1936 – Absalom, Absalom! by William Faulkner †
1936 – Gone with the wind by Margaret Mitchell
1934 – The postman always rings twice by James M. Cain
1934 – The Tropic of Cancer by Henry Miller
1931 – The good earth by Pearl S. Buck
1930 – The Maltese falcon by Dashiell Hammett
1920’s
1928 – The call of Cthulhu by H.P. Lovecraft †
1924 – Gentlemen prefer blondes by Anita Loos
1920 – The story of Doctor Dolittle by Hugh Lofting
1910’s
1914 – Letters of a woman homesteader by Elinore Pruitt Stewart
1912 – Tess of the d’Urbervilles by Thomas Hardy
1911 – Peter Pan by J.M. Barrie
1900’s
1908 – Anne of Green Gables by L.M. Montgomery
1907 – The enchanted castle by E. Nesbit
1905 – The house of mirth by Edith Wharton
1902 – The life and adventures of Santa Claus by L. Frank Baum
1900 – Up from slavery by Booker T. Washington
19th Century
1890’s
1899 – The awakening by Kate Chopin
1899 – Fairy and folk tales of the Irish peasantry by W.B. Yeats
1898 – Hawaii’s story by Hawaii’s queen by Lili’uokalani †
1898 – The turn of the screw by Henry James †
1895 – The time machine by H.G. Wells
1894 – The jungle book by Rudyard Kipling
1894 – The wood beyond the world by William Morris
1892 – The adventures and memoirs of Sherlock Holmes by Arthur Conan Doyle
1892 – The yellow wallpaper by Charlotte Perkins Gilman
1890 – The picture of Dorian Gray by Oscar Wilde
1880’s
1887 – Ten days in a mad-house by Nellie Bly
1883 – The merry adventures of Robin Hood by Howard Pyle
1883 – Treasure Island by Robert Louis Stevenson †
1870’s
1878 – Anna Karenina by Leo Tolstoy
1877 – Black Beauty by Anna Sewell
1860’s
1869 – Lorna Doone by R.D. Blackmore
1865 – Alice’s adventures in Wonderland by Lewis Carroll
1861 – Incidents in the life of a slave girl by Harriet Jacobs †
1850’s
1854 – North and south by Elizabeth Gaskell
1851 – Moby Dick by Herman Melville
1840’s
1847 – Jane Eyre by Charlotte Brontë
1844 – The Count of Monte Cristo by Alexandre Dumas
1844 – The three musketeers by Alexandre Dumas
1830’s
1839 – Voyage of the Beagle by Charles Darwin
1836 – The little mermaid by Hans Christian Andersen
1831 – The hunchback of Notre-Dame by Victor Hugo †
1820’s
1827 – The birds of America by John James Audubon †
1820 – The legend of Sleepy Hollow by Washington Irving
1810’s
1815 – The complete Brothers Grimm fairy tales by Jacob and Wilhelm Grimm
1800’s
Pre-19th Century
1798 – The rime of the ancient mariner by Samuel Taylor Coleridge †
1767 – The life and opinions of Tristram Shandy, gentleman by Laurence Sterne
1609 – Shakespeare’s sonnets by William Shakespeare †
Pre-Printing Press
c. 1390 – Sir Gawain and the Green Knight by Anonymous, transl. by Simon Armitage