The Kojo Nnamdi Show

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

Barbara Hoffert
Editor, Library Journal Book Review

Fiction

The Air We Breathe: A Novel

by Andrea Barrett

W. W. Norton & Company

Grub

by Elise Blackwell

The Toby Press

Beethoven Was One-Sixteenth Black: And Other Stories

by Nadine Gordimer

Farrar, Straus and Giroux

Orpheus Lost: A Novel

by Janette Turner Hospital

W. W. Norton & Company

Nonfiction

The Zookeeper's Wife: A War Story

by Diane Ackerman

W. W. Norton & Company

Other Colors: Essays and a Story

by Orhan Pamuk

Knopf

Young Adult Literature

The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian (Alexie, Sherman)

by Sherman Alexie

Little, Brown Books for Young Readers

Candida Mannozzi
Owner, Candida's World of Books

Travel or Gift Books

Lonely Planet 2008 Bluelist (Lonely Planet's Bluelist)

by Lonely Planet

Lonely Planet

Lonely Planet The Africa Book (General Pictorial)

by Lonely Planet

Lonely Planet

The Asia Book (General Pictorial)

by Lonely Planet

Lonely Planet

A Little Bit of Paris

by Jean-Jacques Sempe

Universe

Africa

by

Taschen

The Grand Tour

by Harry Seidler

Taschen

Fiction

The Adventures of Amir Hamza (Modern Library)

by Ghalib Lakhnavi, Abdullah Bilgrami

Modern Library

Three Bags Full: A Sheep Detective Story

by Leonie Swann

Flying Dolphin Press

A Concise Chinese-English Dictionary for Lovers: A Novel

by Xiaolu Guo

Nan A. Talese

Non-Fiction/Humor

The Latke Who Couldn't Stop Screaming: A Christmas Story

by Lemony Snicket

McSweeney's

How to Make Friends and Oppress People: Classic Travel Advice for the Gentleman Adventurer

by Vic Darkwood

Thomas Dunne Books

Kids' Books

Christmas Around the World: A Pop-Up Book

by Chuck Fischer

Little, Brown and Company

The Great Race

by Dawn Casey, casey Dawn

Barefoot Books

Riddle of the Nile

by Deborah Nash

Frances Lincoln Children's Books

Dinah Paul
Owner, A Likely Story Children's Bookstore

Who's That Baby?: New-Baby Songs

by Sharon Creech

HarperCollins

Walk Two Moons

by Sharon Creech

HarperCollins

Ruby Holler (Joanna Cotler Books)

by Sharon Creech

HarperCollins

Half Magic

by Edward Eager

Sandpiper

Knight's Castle

by Edward Eager

Sandpiper

The Tale of Despereaux: Being the Story of a Mouse, a Princess, Some Soup and a Spool of Thread

by Kate DiCamillo

Candlewick

The Miraculous Journey of Edward Tulane

by Kate DiCamillo

Candlewick

Winter Babies Wear Layers (An Urban Babies Wear Black Book)

by Michelle Sinclair Colman

Tricycle Press

Living Color

by Steve Jenkins

Houghton Mifflin Books for Children

I'm The Biggest Thing in the Ocean

by Kevin Sherry

Dial

The Nixie's Song (Beyond The Spiderwick Chronicles, Book 1)

by Tony DiTerlizzi, Holly Black

Simon & Schuster Children's Publishing

The Castle Corona

by Sharon Creech

HarperCollins

If a Tree Falls at Lunch Period

by Gennifer Choldenko

Harcourt Children's Books

Todd Stewart,
Vertigo Books

Fiction

The Bone People: A Novel

by Keri Hulme

Penguin (Non-Classics)

Mr. Darwin's Shooter

by Roger MacDonald

Penguin (Non-Classics)

Like You'd Understand, Anyway: Stories

by Jim Shepard

Knopf

The Beautiful Things That Heaven Bears

by Dinaw Mengestu

Riverhead Hardcover

De Niro's Game

by Rawi Hage

Steerforth

The Pirate's Daughter

by Margaret Cezair-Thompson

Unbridled Books

Mister Pip

by Lloyd Jones

The Dial Press

Nonfiction

All the Rage: The Boondocks Past and Present

by Aaron McGruder

Three Rivers Press

The Slave Ship: A Human History

by Marcus Rediker

Viking Adult

The Art of Political Murder: Who Killed the Bishop?

by Francisco Goldman

Grove Press

Evolution: Five Decades of Printmaking by David C. Driskell

by Adrienne L. Childs

Pomegranate Communications

Crazy '08: How a Cast of Cranks, Rogues, Boneheads, and Magnates Created the Greatest Year in Baseball History

by Cait Murphy

Smithsonian