The Kojo Nnamdi Show

This year's recommendations for the best summer reading from book editors and independent bookstore owners.

Bridget Warren, Chief of Programming at Prince George's County Memorial Library System

The Complete Aubrey/Maturin Novels (Vol. 5 volumes) (Aubrey/Maturin Novels)

by Patrick O'Brian

W. W. Norton & Company

McSweeney's Enchanted Chamber of Astonishing Stories

by

Vintage

Passing Through

by Colin Channer

One World/Ballantine

The Stone that the Builder Refused

by Madison Smartt Bell

Vintage

The Prodigal: A Poem

by Derek Walcott

Farrar, Straus and Giroux

Damned If I Do: Stories

by Percival Everett

Graywolf Press

Mystery

Gargantuan: A Ruby Murphy Mystery (Ruby Murphy Mysteries)

by Maggie Estep

Broadway

The Pearl Diver

by Jeff Talarigo

Anchor

Out: A Novel

by Natsuo Kirino

Vintage

The Drowning Tree: A Novel

by Carol Goodman

Ballantine Books

Non-fiction

Queen: The Life and Music of Dinah Washington

by Nadine Cohodas

Billboard Books

Faithful: Two Diehard Boston Red Sox Fans Chronicle The Historic 2004 Season

by Stewart O'Nan and Stephen King

Thorndike Press

Journey from the Land of No: A Girlhood Caught in Revolutionary Iran

by Roya Hakakian

Crown

Journey from the Land of No: A Girlhood Caught in Revolutionary Iran

by Roya Hakakian

Crown

Unforgivable Blackness: The Rise and Fall of Jack Johnson

by Geoffrey C. Ward

Vintage

Who the Hell's in It: Portraits and Conversations

by Peter Bogdanovich

Knopf

On the Wing: To the Edge of the Earth with the Peregrine Falcon

by Alan Tennant

Martin Secker & Warburg Ltd

Gift & Cofeetable Books

The Sweet Breath of Life: A Poetic Narrative of the African-American Family

by Ntozake Shange

Atria Books

The Golden Age of DC Comics: 365 Days

by Les Daniels, Chip Kidd, Geoff Spear

Harry N. Abrams

We Shall Overcome With 2 Audio CDs: The History of the Civil Rights Movement as It Happened

by Herb Boyd

Sourcebooks MediaFusion

Many Are Called

by Walker Evans

Yale University Press

Cookbooks

Pure Chocolate: Divine Desserts and Sweets from the Creator of Fran's Chocolates

by Fran Bigelow, Helene Siegel

Clarkson Potter

A Year in a Vegetarian Kitchen: Easy Seasonal Dishes for Family and Friends

by Jack Bishop

Houghton Mifflin Harcourt

Books for Smart Alecks (Humor)

The Brick Testament: The Story of Christmas

by Brendan Powell Smith

Quirk Books

Children

O Holy Night: Christmas with the Boys Choir of Harlem

by Public Domain

Amistad

Hands : Growing up to Be an Artist

by Lois Ehlert

Harcourt Children's Books

Sure as Sunrise: Stories of Bruh Rabbit and His Walkin' Talkin' Friends

by Alice McGill

Houghton Mifflin Books for Children

Bucking the Sarge

by Christopher Paul Curtis

Wendy Lamb Books

Shelia Egan, "A Likely Story" Children’s Bookstore

For Younger Readers

This is Thanksgiving

by Harriet Ziefert

Blue Apple Books

Room for a Little One: A Christmas Tale

by Martin Waddell

Margaret K. McElderry Books

Peekaboo Zoo: A Lift-The-Flap Book (Lamaze : Infant Development System : 18 Months & Up)

by Susan Hood

Rc2

Baby's Box of Fun

by Marion Dane Bauer, Karen Katz

Little Simon

Ish

by Peter H. Reynolds

Candlewick

You're All My Favorites Book and Toy Gift Set

by Sam McBratney

Candlewick

Bear Stays Up for Christmas

by Karma Wilson

Margaret K. McElderry Books

Make Way for McCloskey: A Robert McCloskey Treasury

by Robert McCloskey

Viking Juvenile

Unwitting Wisdom: An Anthology of Aesop's Fables

by Helen Ward

Chronicle Books

For Older Readers

Annie, Between the States

by L. M. Elliott

HarperTeen

Mystery at Blackbeard's Cove

by Audrey Penn

Tanglewood Press

Here in Harlem: Poems in Many Voices

by Walter Dean Myers

Holiday House

Millions

by Frank Cottrell Boyce

Macmillan Children's Books

Barbara Hoffert, Editor of the Book Review at Library Journal

Fiction

The Courage Consort

by Michel Faber

Mariner Books

Birds Without Wings

by Louis de Bernieres

Vintage

The Distance Between Us

by Masha Hamilton

Unbridled Books

Cheat and Charmer: A Novel

by Elizabeth Frank

Random House Trade Paperbacks

Seven Types of Ambiguity

by Elliot Perlman

Riverhead Hardcover

A Black Englishman: A Novel

by Carolyn Slaughter

Farrar, Straus and Giroux

Confessions of a Teen Sleuth: A Parody

by Chelsea Cain

Bloomsbury USA

Non-fiction

Kafka: A Biography

by Nicholas Murray

Yale University Press

Toast

by Nigel Slater

Gotham

They Made America: From the Steam Engine to the Search Engine: Two Centuries of Innovators

by Harold Evans, Gail Buckland, David Lefer

Back Bay Books

Unforgivable Blackness: The Rise and Fall of Jack Johnson

by Geoffrey C. Ward

Vintage

Poetry

The Prodigal: A Poem

by Derek Walcott

Farrar, Straus and Giroux

Door in the Mountain: New and Collected Poems, 1965-2003 (Wesleyan Poetry Series)

by Jean Valentine

Wesleyan