There are lots and lots of lists out this time of year detailing the best books, but one that I trust a great deal is librarian Nancy Pearl’s list of her favorites. She always picks books by new authors or books off the beaten path or books I seem to have missed somehow. And she picks really really good books, as a rule.

An archived audio version of the list is available online with commentary on why she chose these books. Two of her picks, Then We Came to the End and Alice in Sunderland, are already in my Prospector queue. What are you reading over the break?

Then We Came to the End, Joshua Ferris
In the Woods, Tana French
The Unknown Terrorist, Richard Flanagan
The Zoo-Keeper’s Wife, Diane Ackerman
Alcatraz Versus the Evil Librarians, Brandon Sanderson
Fowl Weather, Bob Tarte
Away, Amy Bloom
By George, Wesley Stace
Gertrude Bell: Queen of the Desert, Shaper of Nations, Georgina Howell
Alice in Sunderland, Bryan Talbot,
Everything Conceivable: How Assisted Reproduction Is Changing Men, Women, and the World, Liza Mundy
Dancing with Rose: Finding Life in the Land of Alzheimer’s, Lauren Kessler