2018 Starting List for the OBOC Selection Process
If you are looking for some good books to read, there are many on this list. They just weren't necessarily right for the One Book program for many different reasons. Some titles were taken off the list quickly, others went down to the final choices. To read more about the selection process and the criteria we use, click here.
NOTE: These titles are presented in no particular order.
The five titles that the committee selected for the One Book, Your Vote are underlined in this list.
OBOC Titles for 2018
Starting List
1. Lily and the Octopus (Steven Rowley)
2. The Faith Club: A Muslim, A Christian, A Jew– Three Women Search for Understanding (Ranya Idliby, Suzanne Oliver, and Priscilla Warner)
3. The Blue Orchard: A Novel (Jackson Taylor)
4. Eligible: A Modern Retelling of Pride and Prejudice (Curtis Sittenfield)
5. My Grandmother Asked Me to Tell You She’s Sorry (Fredrik Backman)
6. The Other Wes Moore: One Name, Two Fates (Wes Moore)
7. Strangers in Their Own Land: Anger and Mourning on the American Right (Arlie Russell Hochschild)
8. The Mathews Men: Seven Brothers and the War Against Hitler’s U-boats (William Geroux)
9. The Perfect Comeback of Caroline Jacobs: A Novel (Matthew Dicks)
10. America’s First Daughter: A Novel (Stephanie Dray and Laura Kamoie)
11. A Different Kind of Daughter: The Girl Who Hid from the Taliban in Plain Sight (Maria Toorpakai and Katharine Holstein)
12. Five Days at Memorial: Life and Death in a Storm-Ravaged Hospital
(Sheri Fink)
13. Grant Park (Leonard Pitts, Jr.)
14. Just Mercy: A Story of Justice and Redemption (Bryan Stevenson)
15. The Underground Railroad: A Novel (Colson Whitehead)
16. News of the World: A Novel (Paulette Jiles)
17. A Gentleman in Moscow: A Novel (Amor Towles)
18. The Vegetarian: A Novel (Han Kang)
19. Evicted: Poverty and Profit in the American City (Matthew Desmond)
20. The Girls of Atomic City: The Untold Story of the Women Who Helped Win World War II (Denise Kierman)
21. We Show What We Have Learned and Other Stories (Clare Beams)
22. In the Garden of Beasts: Love, Terror and an American Family in Hitler’s Berlin (Erik Larson)
23. In the Land of Armadillos: Stories (Helen Maryles Shankman)
24. Dark Money: The Hidden History of the Billionaires Behind the Rise of the Radical Right (Jane Mayer)
25. The Eighty -Dollar Champion: Snowman, the Horse That Inspired a Nation (Elizabeth Letts)
26. Except the Dying (Maureen Jennings)
27. When Breath Becomes Air (Paul Kalanithi)
28. Another Brooklyn: A Novel (Jacqueline Woodson)
29. The Forgetting Time: A Novel (Sharon Guskin)
30. A Great Reckoning: A Novel (Louise Penny)
31. Commonwealth (Ann Patchett)
32. Libertarians on the Prairie: Laura Ingalls Wilder, Rose Wilder Lane, and the Making of the Little House Books (Christine Woodside)
33. Liar, Temptress, Soldier, Spy: Four Women Undercover in the Civil War (Karen Abbott)
34. Heat and Light: A Novel (Jennifer Haigh)
35. All the Missing Girls: A Novel (Megan Miranda)
36. The Bakery Girls (Florence Ditlow)
37. The Hummingbird: A Novel (Stephen Kiernan)
38. A Year of Wonder: A Novel of the Plague (Geraldine Brooks)
39. 1666: Plague, War, and Hellfire (Rebecca Rideal)
40. My Name is Lucy Barton: A Novel (Elizabeth Strout)
41. La Rose: A Novel (Louise Erdrich)
42. No Knives in the Kitchens of This City: A Novel (Khaled Khalifa and Leri Price)
43. The Nest (Cynthia d’Aprix Sweeney)
44. A Murder in Time: A Novel (Julie McElwain)
45. Sleeping Giants (Sylvain Neuvel)
46. Underground Airlines (Ben Winters)
47. Dark Matter: A Novel (Blake Crouch)
48. Truly Madly Guilty (Liane Moriarty)
49. The Midnight Assassin: Panic, Scandal, and the Hunt for America’s First Serial Killer (Skip Hollandsworth)
50. Five Presidents: My Extraordinary Journey with Eisenhower, Kennedy, Johnson, Nixon, and Ford (Clint Hill and Lisa McCubbin)
51. Winter Fortress: The Epic Mission to Sabotage Hitler’s Atomic Bomb (Neal Bascomb)
52. The Woman in Cabin 10 (Ruth Ware)
53. The Patron Saint of Liars (Ann Patchett)
54. Moshi-Moshi: A Novel (Banana Yoshimoto)
55. George Washington’s Secret Spy War: The Making of America’s First Spymaster (John A. Nagy)
56. Odessa Sea (Clive Cussler)
57. Where the Heart Is (Billie Letts)
58. Pennsylvania (Michael Bunker)
59. Into the American Woods: Negotiations on the Pennsylvania Frontier (James Merrel)
60. Are We Smart Enough to Know How Smart Animals Are? (Frans de Waal)
61. The Sandcastle Girls (Chris Bohjalian)
62. Irresistible North: From Venice to Greenland on the Trail of the Zen Brothers (Andrea Di Robilant)
63. My Grandfather Would Have Shot Me: A Black Woman Discovers Her Family’s Nazi Past (Jennifer Teege and Nikola Sellmair)
64. Small Great Things (Jodi Picoult)
65. Poison Study (Maria V. Snyder)
66. All the Ugly and Wonderful Things (Bryn Greenwood)
67. Graveyard Book (Neil Gaiman)
68. Throne of Glass (Sarah J. Maas)
69. It Ends With Us (Colleen Hoover)
70. Labyrinth Lost (Zoraida Cordova)
71. Hillbilly Elegy (J. D. Vance)
NOTE: These titles are presented in no particular order.
The five titles that the committee selected for the One Book, Your Vote are underlined in this list.
OBOC Titles for 2018
Starting List
1. Lily and the Octopus (Steven Rowley)
2. The Faith Club: A Muslim, A Christian, A Jew– Three Women Search for Understanding (Ranya Idliby, Suzanne Oliver, and Priscilla Warner)
3. The Blue Orchard: A Novel (Jackson Taylor)
4. Eligible: A Modern Retelling of Pride and Prejudice (Curtis Sittenfield)
5. My Grandmother Asked Me to Tell You She’s Sorry (Fredrik Backman)
6. The Other Wes Moore: One Name, Two Fates (Wes Moore)
7. Strangers in Their Own Land: Anger and Mourning on the American Right (Arlie Russell Hochschild)
8. The Mathews Men: Seven Brothers and the War Against Hitler’s U-boats (William Geroux)
9. The Perfect Comeback of Caroline Jacobs: A Novel (Matthew Dicks)
10. America’s First Daughter: A Novel (Stephanie Dray and Laura Kamoie)
11. A Different Kind of Daughter: The Girl Who Hid from the Taliban in Plain Sight (Maria Toorpakai and Katharine Holstein)
12. Five Days at Memorial: Life and Death in a Storm-Ravaged Hospital
(Sheri Fink)
13. Grant Park (Leonard Pitts, Jr.)
14. Just Mercy: A Story of Justice and Redemption (Bryan Stevenson)
15. The Underground Railroad: A Novel (Colson Whitehead)
16. News of the World: A Novel (Paulette Jiles)
17. A Gentleman in Moscow: A Novel (Amor Towles)
18. The Vegetarian: A Novel (Han Kang)
19. Evicted: Poverty and Profit in the American City (Matthew Desmond)
20. The Girls of Atomic City: The Untold Story of the Women Who Helped Win World War II (Denise Kierman)
21. We Show What We Have Learned and Other Stories (Clare Beams)
22. In the Garden of Beasts: Love, Terror and an American Family in Hitler’s Berlin (Erik Larson)
23. In the Land of Armadillos: Stories (Helen Maryles Shankman)
24. Dark Money: The Hidden History of the Billionaires Behind the Rise of the Radical Right (Jane Mayer)
25. The Eighty -Dollar Champion: Snowman, the Horse That Inspired a Nation (Elizabeth Letts)
26. Except the Dying (Maureen Jennings)
27. When Breath Becomes Air (Paul Kalanithi)
28. Another Brooklyn: A Novel (Jacqueline Woodson)
29. The Forgetting Time: A Novel (Sharon Guskin)
30. A Great Reckoning: A Novel (Louise Penny)
31. Commonwealth (Ann Patchett)
32. Libertarians on the Prairie: Laura Ingalls Wilder, Rose Wilder Lane, and the Making of the Little House Books (Christine Woodside)
33. Liar, Temptress, Soldier, Spy: Four Women Undercover in the Civil War (Karen Abbott)
34. Heat and Light: A Novel (Jennifer Haigh)
35. All the Missing Girls: A Novel (Megan Miranda)
36. The Bakery Girls (Florence Ditlow)
37. The Hummingbird: A Novel (Stephen Kiernan)
38. A Year of Wonder: A Novel of the Plague (Geraldine Brooks)
39. 1666: Plague, War, and Hellfire (Rebecca Rideal)
40. My Name is Lucy Barton: A Novel (Elizabeth Strout)
41. La Rose: A Novel (Louise Erdrich)
42. No Knives in the Kitchens of This City: A Novel (Khaled Khalifa and Leri Price)
43. The Nest (Cynthia d’Aprix Sweeney)
44. A Murder in Time: A Novel (Julie McElwain)
45. Sleeping Giants (Sylvain Neuvel)
46. Underground Airlines (Ben Winters)
47. Dark Matter: A Novel (Blake Crouch)
48. Truly Madly Guilty (Liane Moriarty)
49. The Midnight Assassin: Panic, Scandal, and the Hunt for America’s First Serial Killer (Skip Hollandsworth)
50. Five Presidents: My Extraordinary Journey with Eisenhower, Kennedy, Johnson, Nixon, and Ford (Clint Hill and Lisa McCubbin)
51. Winter Fortress: The Epic Mission to Sabotage Hitler’s Atomic Bomb (Neal Bascomb)
52. The Woman in Cabin 10 (Ruth Ware)
53. The Patron Saint of Liars (Ann Patchett)
54. Moshi-Moshi: A Novel (Banana Yoshimoto)
55. George Washington’s Secret Spy War: The Making of America’s First Spymaster (John A. Nagy)
56. Odessa Sea (Clive Cussler)
57. Where the Heart Is (Billie Letts)
58. Pennsylvania (Michael Bunker)
59. Into the American Woods: Negotiations on the Pennsylvania Frontier (James Merrel)
60. Are We Smart Enough to Know How Smart Animals Are? (Frans de Waal)
61. The Sandcastle Girls (Chris Bohjalian)
62. Irresistible North: From Venice to Greenland on the Trail of the Zen Brothers (Andrea Di Robilant)
63. My Grandfather Would Have Shot Me: A Black Woman Discovers Her Family’s Nazi Past (Jennifer Teege and Nikola Sellmair)
64. Small Great Things (Jodi Picoult)
65. Poison Study (Maria V. Snyder)
66. All the Ugly and Wonderful Things (Bryn Greenwood)
67. Graveyard Book (Neil Gaiman)
68. Throne of Glass (Sarah J. Maas)
69. It Ends With Us (Colleen Hoover)
70. Labyrinth Lost (Zoraida Cordova)
71. Hillbilly Elegy (J. D. Vance)