Bold indicates I’ve read the work. If I’ve reviewed the work on Rebecca Reads, I’ve included a link.
2025 –
2024 – Night Watch by Jayne Anne Phillips
- Same Bed Different Dreams, by Ed Park (Random House)
- Wednesday’s Child, by Yiyun Li (Farrar, Straus and Giroux)
2023 – Demon Cooperhead by Barbara Kingslover and Trust by Hernan Diaz
- The Immortal King Rao, by Vauhini Vara (W. W. Norton & Company)2012
2022 – The Netanyahus by Joshua CohenÂ
- Monkey Boy, by Francisco Goldman (Grove Press)
- Palmares, by Gayl Jones (Beacon Press)
2021 – The Night Watchman by Louis Erdich
- A Registry of My Passage Upon the Earth, by Daniel Mason (Little, Brown and Company)
- Telephone, by Percival Everett (Graywolf Press)
2020 – The Nickle Boys by Colson Whitehead
- The Dutch House, by Ann Patchett (Harper)
- The Topeka School, by Ben Lerner (Farrar, Straus and Giroux)
2010s
2019 – The Overstory by Richard Powers
- The Great Believers, by Rebecca Makkai (Viking)
- There There, by Tommy Orange (Alfred A. Knopf)
2018 – Less by Andrew Sean Greer
- In the Distance, by Hernan Diaz (Coffee House Press)
- The Idiot, by Elif Batuman (Penguin Press)
2017 – The Underground Railroad by Colson Whitehead
- Imagine Me Gone, by Adam Haslett (Little, Brown)
- The Sport of Kings, by C. E. Morgan (Farrar, Straus and Giroux)
2016 – The Sympathizer by Viet Thanh Nguyen
- Get in Trouble: Stories, by Kelly Link (Random House)
- Maud’s Line, by Margaret Verble (Houghton Mifflin Harcourt)
2015 – All the Light We Cannot See by Anthony Doerr
- Let Me Be Frank With You, by Richard Ford (Ecco)
- Lovely, Dark, Deep, by Joyce Carol Oates (Ecco)
- The Moor’s Account, by Laila Lalami (Pantheon)
2014- The Goldfinch by Donna Tartt
- The Son, by Philipp Meyer (Ecco)
- The Woman Who Lost Her Soul, by Bob Shacochis (Atlantic Monthly Press)
2013 – The Orphan Master’s Son by Adam Johnson
- The Snow Child, by Eowyn Ivey (Reagan Arthur/Little, Brown)
- What We Talk About When We Talk About Anne Frank, by Nathan Englander (Alfred A. Knopf)
2012 – na
- Swamplandia!, by Karen Russell (Alfred A. Knopf)
- The Pale King, by David Foster Wallace (Little, Brown and Company)
- Train Dreams, by Denis Johnson (Farrar, Straus and Giroux)
2011 – A Visit from the Goon Squad (Egan)
- The Privileges, by Jonathan Dee (Random House)
2010 – Tinkers by Paul Harding
- 2010 Love in Infant Monkeys by Lydia Millet
- 2010 In Other Rooms, Other Wonders by Daniyal Mueenuddin
2000s
2009 – Olive Kitteridge by Elizabeth Strout
- 2009 The Plague of Doves by Louise Erdrich
- 2009 All Souls by Christine Schutt
2008 – The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao (Diaz)
- 2008 Tree of Smoke by Denis Johnson
- 2008 Shakespeare’s Kitchen by Lore Segal
2007 – The Road (McCarthy)
- 2007 After This by Alice McDermott
- 2007 The Echo Maker by Richard Powers
- 2006 The March by E.L. Doctorow
- 2006 The Bright Forever by Lee Martin
2005 – Gilead (Robinson)
- 2005 War Trash by Ha Jin
- 2005 An Unfinished Season by Ward Just
2004 – The Known World (Jones)
- 2004 American Woman by Susan Choi
- 2004 Evidence of Things Unseen by Marianne Wiggins
2003 – Middlesex (Eugenides)
- 2003 Servants of the Map: Stories by Andrea Barrett
- 2003 You Are Not a Stranger Here by Adam Haslett
2002 – Empire Falls (Russo)
- 2002 The Corrections by Jonathan Franzen
- 2002 John Henry Days by Colson Whitehead
2001 – The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay (Chabon)
- 2001 Blonde by Joyce Carol Oates
- 2001 The Quick and the Dead by Joy Williams
2000 – Interpreter of Maladies (Lahiri)
- 2000 Close Range: Wyoming Stories by Annie Proulx
- 2000 Waiting by Ha Jin
1990s
1999 – The Hours (Cunningham)
- 1999 Cloudsplitter by Russell Banks
- 1999 The Poisonwood Bible by Barbara Kingsolver
1998 – American Pastoral (Roth)
- 1998 Underworld by Don DeLillo
- 1998 Bear and His Daughter: Stories by Robert Stone
1997 – Martin Dressler: The Tale of an American Dreamer (Millhauser)
- 1997 Unlocking the Air and Other Stories by Ursula K. LeGuin
- 1997 The Manikin by Joanna Scott
1996 – Independence Day (Ford)
- 1996 Mr. Ives’ Christmas by Oscar Hijuelos
- 1996 Sabbath’s Theater by Philip Roth
1995 – The Stone Diaries (Shields)
- 1995 What I Lived For by Joyce Carol Oates
- 1995 The Collected Stories by Grace Paley
1994 – The Shipping News (Proulx)
- 1994 The Collected Stories by Reynolds Price
- 1994 Operation Shylock: A Confession by Philip Roth
1993 – A Good Scent from a Strange Mountain (Butler)
- 1993 At Weddings and Wakes by Alice McDermott
- 1993 Black Water by Joyce Carol Oates
1992 – A Thousand Acres (Smiley)
- 1992 Mao II by Don DeLillo
- 1992 Jernigan by David Gates
- 1992 Lila: An Inquiry into Morals by Robert M. Pirsig
1991 – Rabbit at Rest (Updike)
- 1991 Mean Spirit by Linda Hogan
- 1991 The Things They Carried by Tim O’Brien
1990 – The Mambo Kings Play Songs of Love (Hijuelos)
- 1990 Billy Bathgate by E.L. Doctorow
1980s
1989 – Breathing Lessons (Tyler)
- 1989 Where I’m Calling From by the late Raymond Carver
- 1988 Persian Nights by Diane Johnson
- 1988 That Night by Alice McDermott
1987 – A Summons to Memphis (Taylor)
- 1987 Paradise by Donald Barthelme
- 1987 Whites by Norman Rush
1986 – Lonesome Dove (McMurtry)
- 1986 Continental Drift by Russell Banks
- 1986 The Accidental Tourist by Anne Tyler
1985 – Foreign Affairs (Lurie)
- 1985 I Wish This War Were Over by Diana O’Hehir
- 1985 Leaving the Land by Douglas Unger
1984 – Ironweed (Kennedy)
- 1984 The Feud by Thomas Berger
- 1984 Cathedral by Raymond Carver
1983 – The Color Purple (Walker)
- 1983 Rabbis and Wives by the late Chaim Grade
- 1983 Dinner at the Homesick Restaurant by Anne Tyler
1982 – Rabbit is Rich (Updike)
- 1982 Housekeeping by Marilynne Robinson
- 1982 A Flag for Sunrise by Robert Stone
1981 – A Confederacy of Dunces (Toole)
- 1981 Godric by Frederick Buechner
- 1981 So Long, See You Tomorrow by William Maxwell
1980 – The Executioner’s Song (Mailer)
- The Ghost Writer by Philip Roth
- Birdy by William Wharton
1970s
1979 – The Stories of John Cheever (Cheever) (excerpts)
1978 – Elbow Room (McPherson)
1977 – None given
1976 – Humboldt’s Gift (Bellow)
1975 – The Killer Angels (Shaara)
1974 – None given
1973 – The Optimist’s Daughter (Welty)
1972 – Angle of Repose (Stegner)
1971 – None given
1970 – Collected Stories by Jean Stafford (Stafford)
1960s
1969 – House Made of Dawn (Momaday)
1968 – The Confessions of Nat Turner (Styron)
1967 – The Fixer (Malamud)
1966 – Collected Stories by Katherine Anne Porter (Porter)
1965 – The Keepers Of the House (Grau)
1964 – None given
1963 – The Reivers (Faulkner)
1962 – The Edge of Sadness (Edwin O’Connor)
1961 – To Kill a Mockingbird (Lee)
1960 – Advise and Consent (Drury)
1950s
1959 – The Travels of Jaimie McPheeters (Taylor)
1958 – A Death in the Family (Agee)
1957 – None
1956 – Andersonville (Kantor)
1955 – A Fable (Faulkner)
1954 – None
1953 – The Old Man and the Sea (Hemingway)
1952 – The Caine Mutiny (Wouk)
1951 – The Town (Richter)
1950 – The Way West (Guthrie)
1940s
1949 – Guard of Honor (Cozzens)
1948 – Tales of the South Pacific (Michener)
1947 – All the King’s Men (Warren)
1946 – None
1945 – Bell for Adano (Hersey)
1944 – Journey in the Dark (Flavin)
1943 – Dragon’s Teeth I (Sinclair)
1942 – In This Our Life (Glasgow)
1941 – None
1940 – The Grapes of Wrath (Steinbeck)
1930s
1939 – The Yearling (Rawlings)
1938 – The Late George Apley (Marquand)
1937 – Gone with the Wind (Mitchell)
1936 – Honey in the Horn (Davis)
1935 – Now in November (Johnson)
1934 – Lamb in His Bosom (Miller)
1933 – The Store (Stribling)
1932 – The Good Earth (Buck)
1931 – Years of Grace (Barnes)
1930 – Laughing Boy (Lafarge)
1920s
1929 – Scarlet Sister Mary (Peterkin)
1928 – The Bridge of San Luis Rey (Wilder)
1927 – Early Autumn (Bromfield)
1926 – Arrowsmith (Lewis)
1925 – So Big (Ferber)
1924 – The Able McLauglins (Wilson)
1923 – One of Ours (Cather)
1922 – Alice Adams (Tarkington)
1921 – The Age of Innocence (Wharton)
1920 – None
1919 – The Magnificent Ambersons (Tarkington)
1918 – His Family (Poole)