NPR's ~200 reader picked best summer reads

Many of you told us you just can't wait until July 29 — when we unveil the results of the 100 Best Beach Books vote — to start reading. So here's the complete list of around 200 finalists, nominated by you and the NPR Books Board. Happy reading!

Have read 68 of the 200 = 34%! (as of 0809)

The Accidental Tourist by Anne Tyler
The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain
Affinity by Sarah Waters
The Alexandria Quartet by Lawrence Durrell
Alice's Adventures in Wonderland by Lewis Carroll
All the Pretty Horses by Cormac McCarthy
The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay by Michael Chabon
Angle of Repose by Wallace Stegner
Animal Dreams by Barbara Kingsolver
Anna Karenina by Leo Tolstoy
The Art of Racing in the Rain by Garth Stein

Balzac and the Little Chinese Seamstress by Dai Sijie
The Beach by Alex Garland
The Beach House by Mary Alice Monroe
Beach Music by Pat Conroy
Beginner's Greek by James Collins
Bel Canto by Ann Patchett
The Big Sleep by Raymond Chandler
Big Sur by Jack Kerouac
Bonfire of the Vanities by Tom Wolfe
Bonjour Tristesse by Francoise Sagan
Breakfast of Champions by Kurt Vonnegut
Bridget Jones's Diary by Helen Fielding
The Brothers Karamazov by Feodor Dostyevsky

Cannery Row by John Steinbeck
Catch-22 by Joseph Heller
The Catcher in the Rye by J.D. Salinger
Cat's Cradle by Kurt Vonnegut
Cold Mountain by Charles Frazier
Cold Sassy Tree by Olive Ann Burns
Compromising Positions by Susan Isaacs
A Confederacy of Dunces by John Kennedy Toole
The Corrections by Jonathan Franzen
The Count of Monte Cristo by Alexandre Dumas
Cryptonomicon by Neal Stephenson

Dead Until Dark by Charlaine Harris
The Deptford Trilogy by Robertson Davies
Devil in a Blue Dress by Walter Mosely
Dinner at the Homesick Restaurant by Anne Tyler
Disgrace by J.M. Coetzee
Divided Kingdom by Rupert Thomson
Divine Secrets of the Ya-Ya Sisterhood by Rebecca Wells
The Diving Bell and the Butterfly by Jean-Dominique Bauby
Dolores Claiborne by Stephen King
Dracula by Bram Stoker
The Drifters by James Michener
Drop City by T. Coraghessan Boyle
Dune by Frank Herbert

East of Eden by John Steinbeck
Empire Falls by Richard Russo
Ender's Game by Orson Scott Card
The Epicure's Lament by Kate Christensen
Even Cowgirls Get the Blues by Tom Robbins
Eye of the Needle by Ken Follett

A Fine Balance by Rohinton Mistry
Flashman by George MacDonald Fraser
The Fountainhead by Ayn Rand
Frangipani by Celestine Vaite
Franny and Zooey by J.D. Salinger
Fried Green Tomatoes at the Whistle Stop Cafe by Fannie Flagg

Geek Love by Katherine Dunn
The Ginger Man by J.P. Donleavy
The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo by Stieg Larsson
The Godfather by Mario Puzo
Gone with the Wind by Margaret Mitchell
Good in Bed by Jennifer Weiner
The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald
The Great Santini by Pat Conroy
The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society by Mary Ann Barrows

The Harry Potter series, by J.K. Rowling
The Heart Is a Lonely Hunter by Carson McCullers
Heart of Darkness by Joseph Conrad
The History of Love by Nicole Krauss
The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy by Douglas Adams
The Hobbit by J.R.R. Tolkien
A House for Mr. Biswas by V.S. Naipaul
Housekeeping by Marilynne Robinson
How Stella Got Her Groove Back by Terry McMillan
The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins
The Hunt for Red October by Tom Clancy

I Capture the Castle by Dodie Smith
I Know This Much Is True by Wally Lamb
The Illustrated Man by Ray Bradbury
Impossible by Nancy Werlin
Interview with the Vampire by Anne Rice
Into Thin Air by Jon Krakauer

Jaws by Peter Benchley
The Joy Luck Club by Amy Tan

Kafka on the Shore by Haruki Murakami
The Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseini

L.A. Confidential by James Ellroy
Lamb by Christopher Moore
The Last Aloha by Gaellen Quinn
The Last Girls by Lee Smith
Les Miserables by Victor Hugo
Life of Pi by Yann Martel
Light Years by James Salter
Like Water for Chocolate by Laura Esquivel
The Lincoln Lawyer by Michael Connelly
Little Children by Tom Perrotta
The Little Friend by Donna Tartt
The Little Prince by Antoine de Saint-Exupery
Little Women by Louisa May Alcott
Lolita by Vladimir Nabokov
Lonesome Dove by Larry McMurtry
The Lord of the Flies by William Golding
The Lord of the Rings by J.R.R. Tolkien
Love in the Time of Cholera by Gabriel Garcia Marquez
Lucky Jim by Kingsley Amis
Lush Life by Richard Price

Master and Commander by Patrick O'Brian
The Memoirs of a Beautiful Boy by Robert Leleux
Middlesex by Jeffrey Eugenides
Money by Martin Amis
Moonstone by Wilkie Collins
The Mosquito Coast by Paul Theroux
Motherless Brooklyn by Jonathan Lethem
Murder on the Orient Express by Agatha Christie

The Neon Rain: A Dave Robicheaux Novel by James Lee Burke
Nine Stories by J.D. Salinger
The No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency by Alexander McCall Smith

The Old Man and the Sea by Ernest Hemingway
Olive Kitteridge by Elizabeth Strout
On Beauty by Zadie Smith
One for the Money by Janet Evanovich
Outlander by Diana Gabaldon

Peace, Love and Baby Ducks by Lauren Myracle
Pet Semetary by Stephen King
Pillars of the Earth by Ken Follett
The Pilot's Wife by Anita Shreve
Pnin by Vladimir Nabokov
The Poisonwood Bible by Barbara Kingsolver
Possession by A.S. Byatt
Presumed Innocent by Scott Turow
Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen
The Prince of Tides by Pat Conroy
The Princess Bride by William Goldman
Prodigal Summer by Barbara Kingsolver

The Queen of the South by Arturo Perez-Reverte
The Quincunx by Charles Palliser

The Razor's Edge by W. Somerset Maugham
Rebecca by Daphne du Maurier
Red Dragon by Thomas Harris
The Red Tent by Anita Diamant
The Road by Cormac McCarthy
The Rum Diary by Hunter S. Thompson

Salty by Mark haskell Smith
The Secret History by Donna Tartt
The Shell Seekers by Rosamunde Pilcher
She's Come Undone by Wally Lamb
The Shining by Stephen King
Shogun by James Clavell
Sick Puppy by Carl Hiaasen
The Sirens of Titan by Kurt Vonnegut
Snow Crash by Neal Stephenson
Snow Falling on Cedars by David Guterson
A Soldier of the Great War by Mark Helprin
The Stand by Stephen King
The Stone Diaries by Carol Shields
The Stories of John Cheever by John Cheever
Straight Man by Richard Russo
Strangers on a Train by Patricia Highsmith
A Suitable Boy by Vikram Seth
Summer of '42 by Herman Raucher
Summer Sisters by Judy Blume
The Sun Also Rises by Ernest Hemingway

The Talented Mr. Ripley by Patricia Highsmith
Tender Is the Night by F. Scott Fitzgerald
The Thirteenth Tale by Diane Setterfield
The Thorn Birds by Colleen McCullough
The Time Traveler's Wife by Audrey Niffenegger
The Tin Roof Blowdown by James Lee Burke
Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy by John Le Carre
To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee
Tortilla Flat by John Steinbeck
Treasure Island by Robert Louis Stevenson
A Tree Grows in Brooklyn by Betty Smith
Triple Zeck: A Nero Wolfe Omnibus by Rex Stout
Twilight by Stephenie Meyer

Unaccustomed Earth by Jhumpa Lahiri
The Unbearable Lightness of Being by Milan Kundera
Under the Tuscan Sun by Frances Mayes

Valley of the Dolls by Jacqueline Susann
Vanity Fair by William Thackeray
A Very Long Engagement by Sebastien Japrisot

War and Peace by Leo Tolstoy
Water for Elephants by Sara Gruen
The Waves by Virginia Woolf
The White Lioness by Henning Mankell
The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle by Haruki Murakami
The World According to Garp by John Irving
Wuthering Heights by Emily Bronte
The Yiddish Policemen's Union by Michael Chabon

Related NPR Stories

100 Best Beach Books Ever: Final Voting July 15, 2009

Nielsen BookData NZ Bookseller's Choice Award (2009)

Rita Angus: An Artist's Life by Jill Trevelyan, published by Te Papa Press, has won the 2009 Nielsen BookData NZ Bookseller's Choice Award, which is the title booksellers voted as the book they most enjoyed selling during the year.

Organizers described Rita Angus: An Artist's Life as "the first biography of this well-loved and significant New Zealand artist . . . a pioneer of modern painting during the 1930s and 1940s who went on to become one of New Zealand's leading 20th century artists." The book has more than 150 artworks and photographs.

Macavity Awards (1987-2008)

The Macavity Awards are a literary award for mystery writers. Nominated and voted upon annually by the members of the Mystery Readers International, the award is named for the "mystery cat" of T. S. Eliot's Old Possum's Book of Practical Cats. The award is given in four categories -- best novel, best first novel, best nonfiction, and best short story. In recent years a new award, the Sue Feder Historical Mystery, has been given in conjunction with the Macavity Awards.

Best Mystery Novel

* 2008 - What the Dead Know, Laura Lippman
* 2007 - The Virgin of Small Plains, Nancy Pickard
* 2006 - The Lincoln Lawyer, Michael Connelly
* 2005 - The Killing of the Tinkers, Ken Bruen
* 2004 - The House Sitter, Peter Lovesey
* 2003 - Winter and Night, S. J. Rozan
* 2002 - Folly, Laurie R. King
* 2001 - A Place of Execution, Val McDermid
* 2000 - The Flower Master, Sujata Massey
* 1999 - Blood Work, Michael Connelly
* 1998 - Dreaming of the Bones, Deborah Crombie
* 1997 - Bloodhounds, Peter Lovesey
* 1996 - Under the Beetle's Cellar, Mary Willis Walker
* 1995 - She Walks These Hills, Sharyn McCrumb
* 1994 - The Sculptress, Minette Walters
* 1993 - Bootlegger's Daughter, Margaret Maron
* 1992 - I.O.U., Nancy Pickard
* 1991 - If Ever I Return Pretty Peggy-O, Sharyn McCrumb
* 1990 - A Little Class on Murder, Carolyn Hart
* 1989 - A Thief of Time, Tony Hillerman
* 1988 - Marriage is Murder, Nancy Pickard
* 1987 - A Taste for Death, P. D. James

Best First Mystery

* 2008 - In The Woods, Tana French
* 2007 - Mr. Clarinet, Nick Stone
* 2006 - Immoral, Brian Freeman
* 2005 - Dating Dead Men, Harley Jane Kozak
* 2004 - Maisie Dobbs, Jacqueline Winspear
* 2003 - In the Bleak Midwinter, Julia Spencer-Fleming
* 2002 - Open Season, C. J. Box
* 2001 - A Conspiracy of Paper, David Liss
* 2000 - Inner City Blues, Paula L. Woods
* 1999 - Sympathy for the Devil, Jerrilyn Farmer
* 1998 - Dead Body Language, Penny Warner
* 1997 - Death in Little Tokyo, Dale Furutani
* 1996 - The Strange Files of Fremont Jones, Dianne Day
* 1995 - Do Unto Others, Jeff Abbott
* 1994 - Death Comes as Epiphany, Sharan Newman
* 1993 - Blanche on the Lam, Barbara Neely
* 1992 - (tie) Murder on the Iditarod Trail, Sue Henry
and Zero at the Bone, Mary Willis Walker
* 1991 - Postmortem, Patricia Cornwell
* 1990 - Grime and Punishment, Jill Churchill
* 1989 - The Killings at Badger's Drift, Caroline Graham
* 1988 - The Monkey's Raincoat, Robert Crais
* 1987 - (tie) The Ritual Bath, Faye Kellerman and A Case of Loyalties, Marilyn
Wallace


Sue Feder Historical Mystery

* 2008: Mistress of the Art of Death, Ariana Franklin
* 2007: Oh Danny Boy, Rhys Bowen (added#1 Murphy's Law)
* 2006: Pardonable Lies, Jacqueline Winspear (added#1 Maisie Dobbs)

Egon Hostovský Prize (1976-2000 incomplete)

In the United States, Egon Hostovský worked for Radio Free Europe but never stopped being a full-time Czech writer. He never mastered the English language and all his novels had to be translated from Czech which was one of the reasons he never became a star novelist in the United States. Meanwhile, Egon Hostovský's novels were banned in Czechoslovakia. One of his most important books, “Všeobecné spiknutí”, or “The Plot”, did get published in Prague in 1969, in the aftermath of the brief period of liberalization known as the Prague Spring. Egon Hostovský never visited his native country again, and died in New Jersey in 1973. A year later, his wife Regina established the Egon Hostovský Award, a literary prize for proscribed Czech writers which was awarded to such Czech authors as Ludvík Vaculík, Ivan Klíma, Egon Bondy and others.

Topol, Jáchym. Sister City Silver (2000)
The first novel by the young Czech poet and rock lyricist Jáchym Topol. Winner of the Egon Hostovský Prize as best Czech book of the year.

Berková, Alexandra. Magorie (1991)
won the Egon Hostovsky Prize as the best Czech book of the year.

Klíma, Ivan. My First Loves (1990)
won the Egon Hostovský Prize for best prose work of the year in 1990 (the first time it could be awarded in Prague)

Kresadlo, Jan (pseud for Vaclav Pinkava). GraveLarks (1984)
was published by Josef Škvorecký's emigre publishing house '68 publishers, and obtained the 1984 Egon Hostovský prize.

Grusa, Jiri. The Questionnaire: Or Prayer for a Town and a Friend. (1979)
The novel was the winner of the 1979 Egon Hostovsky Prize for best piece of Czech fiction published abroad.

Salivarová, Zdena. Ashes, Ashes, All Fall Down (1976)
Awarded the Egon Hostovský Memorial Prize for best Czech fiction written in exile, 1976.

Rachel Carson Environment Book Award (2008-2009)

SA 072409: Andrew Nikiforuk's Tar Sands: Dirty Oil and the Future of a Continent has won the $10,000 Rachel Carson Environment Book Award, presented by the Society of Environmental Journalists. Nikiforuk, the first Canadian to win the prize, will be honored during an awards ceremony in the Concourse Hotel and Governor’s Club in Madison, Wis., on October 7, the first day of SEJ’s 19th annual conference.

From Society of Environmental Journalists:

1st Place:
Andrew Nikiforuk. Tar Sands: Dirty Oil and the Future of a Continent

Andrew Nikiforuk paints an alarming picture in northern Alberta, Canada: International oil companies clear cut huge swaths of boreal forest, rake off the boggy soil, scoop up giant shovelfuls of oil sands with the largest machines on earth and use copious amounts of boiling water to separate tarry bitumen from the sand so it can be turned into petroleum for your car in Kansas. The toxic residue that comes off the sands is stored behind gigantic dikes that leak, and downstream people and fish are sick. In his authoritative new book “Tar Sands: Dirty Oil and the Future of a Continent,” Nikiforuk illustrates how an industry born in the 1960s has already industrialized an area larger than Florida. Nikiforuk shows that government agencies kowtow to industry, and that its models for monitoring environmental degradation are dubious. He found credible voices that question the sustainability of an explosively growing industry whose lifeblood is fresh water, an industry with holding ponds that rival, by volume, some of the largest dams on the globe. Until the 1970s, Chipewyan and Cree Indians lived off this rich land with no gas, electricity, telephone or running water. Today, Alberta is becoming the Saudi Arabia of the West. Foreign nationals easily outnumber locals, and the labor and housing shortages make Fort McMurray one of the most expensive places to live in the world. As oil reserves dwindle worldwide, this book sheds frightening new light on the future of energy.

Honorable Mention (two, in alphabetized order by author’s last name):

David Michaels. Doubt is Their Product: How Industry's Assault on Science Threatens Your Health

Some books carry weight for the specific stories they tell. Others stand out for the clarity they bring to many, many stories. Doubt Is Their Product is one of the latter — a clarifying analysis of the strategies corporations, politicians and their allies use to defend dangerous products against damning science and common sense. Michaels focuses particularly on the tobacco industry, where the strategy of sowing doubt about clear science was first perfected, and on environmental hazards including asbestos, lead and vinyl chloride. But the strategies of doubt and confusion he exposes are prevalent in every scientific “debate,” from the human role in climate change to the reality of evolution. Writing as an epidemiologist, and from his personal experience as an Energy Department regulator for environment, safety and health in the Clinton Administration, Michaels brings a rare level of depth and credibility to his analysis. More important, he also offers direct, practical approaches to combating the problem of manufactured doubt in legal and policy decisions. Doubt Is Their Product will be a revelatory experience for anyone interested in the environment or in corporate regulation, and an invaluable tool for environmental journalists seeking to penetrate behind the veils of secrecy and obfuscation that surround so many environmental stories.

Nancy A. Nichols. Lake Effect: Two Sisters and a Town's Toxic Legacy

One problem with environmental books is that they are often difficult to read. The language is technical, the list of toxics is long, and the warnings are impersonal. If you put down the book for the above reasons, the message is lost. Nancy Nichols makes the book very personal with her history of childhood along the polluted shores of Lake Michigan with her sister Sue. We care about the list of toxics in the water because she convinces us that it lies behind the cancer that killed her sister and eventually turned her own body against her. We care about these two women and what happened to them because the author makes them real, not cardboard cutouts for us to cluck over and then forget. “I cried for my sister. I cried because I didn’t think I could have children. I cried because I was afraid that if I did have children I would die of ovarian cancer when they were little or that I would pass on this horrible disease to them, or both.” That’s hardly impersonal, and it sure isn’t technical language. And yet, Nichols’ skills as a journalist allow her to investigate the history of pollution in the lake, particularly as it affects her home town of Waukegan, Illinois. She kicks butt and names names, in both industry and government. It’s a powerful story about the devastating effect of chemicals in our environment, told in a way that makes us all care.

2008 Rachel Carson Environment Book Award
1st Place:
Callum Roberts. The Unnatural History of the Sea

Honorable Mention: 2008 Rachel Carson Environment Book Award
Alan Weisman.The World Without Us

Honorable Mention: 2008 Rachel Carson Environment Book Award
Peter Heller. The Whale Warriors: The Battle at the Bottom of the World to Save the Planet's Largest Mammals

New PEN/Pinter Prize

from SA 072209:
Awards: New PEN/Pinter Prize
Honoring a "British writer who shows exemplary 'engagement with the times,'" the new PEN/Pinter prize, named in honor of the late Harold Pinter, will be given annually by English PEN "to reward a writer who casts an 'unflinching, unswerving' gaze upon the world, and who shows a 'fierce intellectual determination . . . to define the real truth of our lives and our societies,'" the Guardian reported.

The winner will receive £1,000 (US$1,645), and £1,000 will be given "to an imprisoned writer of conscience of their choice, selected in consultation with English PEN's Writers in Prison Committee," according to the Guardian. The initial prize, to be presented on October 14 at the British Library, will be judged by Pinter's widow, Antonia Fraser, Tom Stoppard, English PEN president Lisa Appignanesi, broadcaster Mark Lawson and National Theatre director Nicholas Hytner.

Sapir Prize of Israel

The Sapir Prize of Israel is a prestigious annual literary award awarded for a work of fine literature. The prize is awarded by Mifal Hapayis (Israel's state lottery), and is a part of the organization's cultural initiatives. It carries the name of Pinhas Sapir, the late Israeli Minister of Finance, and was first awarded in 2000.

From Complete Review 070309:
Sapir Prize fiasco

They've been trying their darnedest to make the Sapir Prize the Israeli equivalent of the Man Booker Prize, but they keep failing miserably. As I mentioned a few months back, many of the major Israeli authors (David Grossman, Meir Shalev, Aharon Appelfeld, A.B. Yehoshua, Amos Oz) do not submit their works for consideration, which already waters things down. Now they're having problems giving it to anyone .....
They did find a winner this year recently -- 'The House of Dajani', by Alon Hilu (see his official site) -- but now, as for example The Jerusalem Post reports, Winner of prestigious Sapir Prize forced to give it back:

Alon Hilu, winner of this year's prestigious Sapir Prize for literature, will be forced to give back the NIS 150,000 award after the Legal Forum for the Land of Israel raised concerns of a conflict of interest between him and one of the judges, former Meretz leader Yossi Sarid.

See also Maya Sela's appropriately question-mark-filled report at Haaretz, Nat'l lotto revokes Sapir Prize due to conflict of interest.
Surely it's time to close this thing down and start over.

(Updated - 5 July): Indeed, it doesn't look like their attempt to re-judge the prize will work out well: as Maya Sela reports in Haaretz, a lot of Authors withdraw from book contest amid dispute.