Read any good books lately? We open the phone lines to get listener picks for the most memorable books of the year, the best books to give as gifts and other suggestions for life-changing reads.
Here is a list of books mentioned on air during the show.
If you are interested in buying one of these books, you can support KQED by clicking on the title, which will take you to that book on Amazon.com. A portion of the profit will go to KQED.
These titles are also available from your local independent bookseller. You can find the one nearest you at The Northern California Independent Booksellers Assocation's website.
- 11/22/63: A Novel – Stephen King
- 13 Bankers: The Wall Street Takeover and the Next Financial Meltdown – Simon Johnson, James Kwak
- 1Q84 – Haruki Murakami
- 4 Seasons in 4 Weeks: Awakening the Power, Wisdom, and Beauty in Every Woman's Nature – Suzanne Mathis McQueen
- A Game of Thrones (A Song of Ice and Fire, Book 1) – George R.R. Martin
- A Hologram for the Kings – Dave Eggers
- A Mermaid's Tale: A Personal Search for Love and Lore – Amanda Adams
- A Personal Matter – Kenzaburo Oë, John Nathan
- Alif the Unseen – G. Willow Wilson
- All Gone: A Memoir of My Mother's Dementia. With Refreshments – Alex Witchel
- American Gospel: God, the Founding Fathers, and the Making of a Nation – Jon Meacham
- An Episode in the Life of a Landscape Painter – César Aira
- An Unreasonable Woman: A True Story of Shrimpers, Politicos, Polluters, and the Fight for Seadrift, Texas – Diane Wilson
- Arcadia – Lauren Groff
- Arguably: Essays by Christopher Hitchens – Christopher Hitchens
- Autism's False Prophets: Bad Science, Risky Medicine, and the Search for a Cure – Paul Offit
- Bayou Farewell: The Rich Life and Tragic Death of Louisiana's Cajun Coast – Mike Tidwell
- Becoming Animal: An Earthly Cosmology – David Abram
- Behind the Beautiful Forevers: Life, Death, and Hope in a Mumbai Undercity – Katherine Boo
- Bel Canto – Ann Patchett
- Born to Run: A Hidden Tribe, Superathletes, and the Greatest Race the World Has Never Seen – Christopher McDougall
- Breaking Trail: A Climbing Life – Arlene Blum
- Brideshead Revisited – Evelyn Waugh
- Broken for You – Stephanie Kallos
- Bruce – Peter Ames Carlin
- Catching the Big Fish: Meditation, Consciousness, and Creativity – David Lynch
- Ceremony – Leslie Marmon Silko
- Chasing My Long Shadows: A tale of love, lust, and taking the long way home – John Bird
- Chickenhawk – Robert Mason
- Chloe's Kitchen: 125 Easy, Delicious Recipes for Making the Food You Love the Vegan Way – Chloe Coscarelli
- Citizen-in-Chief: The Second Lives of the American Presidents – Leonard Bernardo, Jennifer Weiss
- Code Name Verity – Elizabeth E. Wein
- Data Insights: New Ways to Visualize and Make Sense of Data – Hunter Whitney
- David Park: A Painter's Life – Nancy Boas
- Dead Ringer – William Cone
- Dearie: The Remarkable Life of Julia Child – Bob Spitz
- Denting the Bosch: A Novel of Marriage, Friendship and Expensive Household Appliances – Teresa Link
- Desert Air – George Steinmetz
- Destiny of the Republic: A Tale of Madness, Medicine and the Murder of a President – Candice Millard
- Don't Buy It: The Trouble with Talking Nonsense about the Economy – Anat Shenker-Osorio
- Donnybrook: A Novel – Frank Bill
- Dreaming in French: The Paris Years of Jacqueline Bouvier Kennedy, Susan Sontag, and Angela Davis – Alice Kaplan
- Embracing Israel/Palestine: A Strategy to Heal and Transform the Middle East – Michael Lerner
- Existence – David Brin
- Far From the Tree: Parents, Children and the Search for Identity – Andrew Solomon
- Fight Club – Chuck Palahniuk
- Game Change: Obama and the Clintons, McCain and Palin, and the Race of a Lifetime – John Heilemann, Mark Haperin
- George Gershwin: An Intimate Portrait – Walter Rimler
- George's Secret Key to the Universe – Stephen and Lucy Hawking
- Give Us This Day – Sidney Stewart
- God Is Not Great: How Religion Poisons Everything – Christopher Hitchens
- Going to Solace – Amanda McTigue
- Gone Girl: A Novel – Gillian Flynn
- Half the Sky: Turning Oppression into Opportunity for Women Worldwide – Nicholas Kristof, Sheryl WuDunn
- Hallucinations – Oliver Sacks
- Happiness Is a Chemical in the Brain: Stories – Lucia Perillo
- Hiding in the Open: A Young Fugitive in Nazi-Occupied Poland – Zenon Neumark
- Hogfather – Terry Pratchett
- How the French Invented Love: Nine Hundred Years of Passion and Romance – Marilyn Yalom
- I Heart Sonoma: How to Live & Drink in Wine Country – Daedalus Howell
- If the Universe Is Teeming with Aliens, Where is Everybody? – Stephen Webb
- In One Person: A Novel – John Irving
- In the Garden of Beasts: Love, Terror, and an American Family in Hitler's Berlin – Erik Larson
- In the Skin of a Lion – Michael Ondaatje
- In the Woods – Tana French
- Infidel – Ayaan Hirsi Ali
- Ladies of the Field: Early Women Archaeologists and Their Search for Adventure – Amanda Adams
- Lamb: The Gospel According to Biff, Christ's Childhood Pal – Christopher Moore
- Leaving the Atocha Station – Ben Lerner
- Life: A User's Manual – Georges Perec
- Lionel Asbo – Martin Amis
- Love and Shame and Love: A Novel – Peter Orner
- Love, InshAllah: The Secret Love Lives of American Muslim Women – Nura Maznavi, Ayesha Mattu (editors)
- Lunch Bucket Paradise: A True-Life Novel – Fred Setterberg
- Manuscript Found in Accra – Paulo Coelho
- Maps for Lost Lovers – Nadeem Aslam
- Matterhorn: A Novel of the Vietnam War – Karl Marlantes
- Maya Roads: One Woman's Journey Among the People of the Rainforest – Mary Jo McConahay
- Memory of Fire Trilogy – Eduardo Galeano
- Midnight Rising: John Brown and the Raid That Sparked the Civil War – Tony Horwitz
- Mystic Cool: A proven approach to transcend stress, achieve optimal brain function, and maximize your creative intelligence – Don Joseph Goewey
- Neither Wolf Nor Dog: On Forgotten Roads with an Indian Elder – Kent Nerburn
- Our Andromeda – Brenda Shaughnessy
- Paris, Paris: Journey into the City of Light – David Downie
- Queen of America: A Novel – Luis Alberto Urrea
- Railsea – China Miéville
- Roll Me Up and Smoke Me When I Die: Musings from the Road – Willie Nelson, Kinky Friedman
- Run to Overcome: The Inspiring Story of an American Champion's Long-Distance Quest to Achieve a Big Dream – Meb Keflezighi
- Sacre Bleu: A Comedy d'Art – Christopher Moore
- Save Our Ballet: A Story of Hope During a Recession – Anton Ness
- Season of the Witch: Enchantment, Terror and Deliverance in the City of Love – David Talbot
- Secrets of High States – Jim Dines
- She's Come Undone – Wally Lamb
- Sleeping with Mae West (And Other Stories) – Robert E. Yim
- Still Life – Louise Penny
- Subversives: The FBI's War on Student Radicals, and Reagan's Rise to Power – Seth Rosenfeld
- Sweet Tooth – Ian McEwan
- Swim: Why We Love the Water – Lynn Sherr
- The Age of Orphans: A Novel – Laleh Khadivi
- The Angels' Share – Rayme Waters
- The Art of Non-Conformity: Set Your Own Rules, Live the Life You Want, and Change the World – Chris Guillebeau
- The Book Thief – Marcus Zuzak
- The Christmas that Dan Won the Best Lights Contest – Jonathan Walter
- The Cocktail Waitress – James M. Cain
- The Dark Backward – D.W. Buffa
- The End of Chaos: Quality Laws and the Ascendancy of Democracy – David G. Schrunk
- The Fall of the Roman Empire: A New History of Rome and the Barbarians – Peter Heather
- The Fault in Our Stars – John Green
- The Games – Ted Kosmatka
- The Giants and the Joneses – Julia Donaldson
- The Girl Who Circumnavigated Fairyland in a Ship of Her Own Making – Catherynne M. Valente
- The Golden Spruce: A True Story of Myth, Madness, and Greed – John Vaillant
- The Good Food Revolution: Growing Healthy Food, People, and Communities – Will Allen
- The Holographic Universe: The Revolutionary Theory of Reality – Michael Talbot
- The Hummingbird's Daughter – Luis Alberto Urrea
- The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks – Rebecca Skloot
- The Israel Lobby and U.S. Foreign Policy – John J. Mearsheimer, Stephen M. Walt
- The Last Days of Ptolemy Grey – Walter Mosley
- The Lifeboat: A Novel – Charlotte Rogan
- The Magician – Lev Grossman
- The Name of the Wind (Kingkiller Chronicles, Day 1) – Patrick Rothfuss
- The New Jim Crow – Michelle Alexander
- The News from Spain: Seven Variations on a Love Story – Joan Wickersham
- The Night Circus – Erin Morgenstern
- The One: The Life and Music of James Brown – R.J. Smith
- The Orchardist – Amanda Coplin
- The Paris Wife – Paula McLain
- The Secret History of the War – Waverly Root
- The Secret Race: Inside the Hidden World of the Tour de France: Doping, Cover-ups, and Winning at All Costs – Tyler Hamilton, Daniel Coyle
- The Sense of an Ending – Julian Barnes
- The Signal and the Noise: Why Most Predictions Fail but Some Don't – Nate Silver
- The Sisters Brothers – Patrick deWitt
- The Social Conquest of Earth – Edward O. Wilson
- The Song of Achilles: A Novel – Madeline Miller
- The Source Field Investigations: The Hidden Science and Lost Civilizations Behind the 2012 Prophecies – David Wilcock
- The Tiger: A True Story of Vengeance and Survival – John Vaillant
- The Time of Our Singing: A Novel – Richard Powers
- The Unholy Night – Seth Grahame-Smith
- The Unlikely Pilgrimage of Harold Fry: A Novel – Rachel Joyce
- The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle: A Novel – Haruki Murakami
- The Wise Heart: A Guide to the Universal Teachings of Buddhist Psychology – Jack Kornfield
- Thinking, Fast and Slow – Daniel Kahneman
- This Is How You Lose Her – Junot Diaz
- Traveler of the Century: A Novel – Andrés Neuman
- Ubiquity: Why Catastrophes Happen – Mark Buchanan
- When Women Were Birds – Terry Tempest Williams
- Why America Failed: The Roots of Imperial Decline – Morris Berman
- Why the West Rules–for Now: The Patterns of History, and What They Reveal About the Future – Ian Morris
- Wild: From Lost to Found on the Pacific Crest Trail – Cheryl Strayed
- Winter Garden – Kristin Hannah
- Wolfer – Carter Niemeyer
- Wonder – R. J. Palacio
- Writing to Make a Difference: 25 Powerful Techniques to Boost Your Community Impact – Dalya Massachi
- Yes, Chef: A Memoir – Marcus Samuelsson
- Zoobiquity: What Animals Can Teach Us About Health and the Science of Healing – Barbara Natterson-Horowitz, Kathryn Bowers