NPR’s Best Books of the Year

‘Tis the season for best books lists, and NPR’s is a huge one. It also has an interface that is a bit different from the others. To the left of NPR’s “Books We Love” main page are categories that range from “Staff Picks” to “Realistic Fiction” to the spicy “The Dark Side.” Readers can choose multiple categories in order to get just the right recommendation based on NPR’s editors’ faves. The site boasts that there are 3,600 possible recommendations. Whew

Playing around a bit, we got the below suggestions:

“Funny Stuff” + “Seriously Great Writing”

The Heaven & Earth Grocery Store by James McBride

Y/N by Esther Yi

The Laughter by Sonora Jha

“Identity & Culture” + “Sci Fi, Fantasy & Speculative Fiction”

Damned If You Do by Alex Brown

People Collide by Isle McElroy

We Are a Haunting by Tyriek White

“Historical Fiction” + “The Dark Side”

Vampires of El Norte by Isabel Cañas

Lone Women by Victor LaValle

The Reformatory by Tananarive Due

To mix and match for your own recommendations, visit NPR’s Books We Love page.

Find more news and stories of interest from the book world in Breaking in Books.