Listeners share their most memorable reads of the year and tell us what books would make good gifts.
California Apricots: The Lost Orchards of Silicon Valley by Robin Chapman
The Circle by Dave Eggers
Dissident Gardens: A Novel by Jonathan Lethem
The Goldfinch by Donna Tartt
Guests:
Christin Evans, owner of Booksmith in San Francisco and buyer for Kepler's in Menlo Park
Sheryl Cotleur, buyer for Copperfield's Books
Hatching Twitter: A True Story of Money, Power, Friendship and Betrayal by Nick Bilton
Saltscapes: The Kite Aerial Photography of Cris Benton by Cris Benton
Lean In: Women, Work, and the Will To Lead by Sheryl Sandberg
The Lowland by Jhumpa Lahiri
Trees in Paradise: A California History by Jared Farmer
Who Owns the Future? by Jaron Lanier
The Wolf Of Wall Street by Jordan Belfort
The Cartographer of No Man's Land by P.S. Duffy
The Circle by Dave Eggers
David and Goliath: Underdogs, Misfits, and the Art of Battling Giants by Malcolm Gladwell
A History of the World in 12 Maps by Jerry Brotton
On Paper: The Everything of Its Two-Thousand-Year History by Nicolas A. Basbanes
Someone by Alice McDermott
1Q84 by Haruki Murakami
The 100-Year-Old Man Who Climbed Out the Window and Disappeared by Jonas Jonasson
A is for Activist by Innosanto Nagara
Ageless Erotica by Joan Price
Americanah by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie
And Now You Can Go by Vendela Vida
Animal Farm by George Orwell
Authentic Happiness: Using the New Positive Psychology to Realize Your Potential for Lasting Fufillment by Martin E. P. Seligman
The Battle for Social Security: From FDR's Vision to Bush's Gamble by Nancy J. Altman
Bold Spirit: Helga Etsby's Forgotten Walk Across Victorian America by Linda Lawrence Hunt
The Boys in the Boat: Nine Americans and Their Epic Quest for Gold at the 1936 Berlin Olympics by Daniel James Brown
Burying Ben by Ellen Kirschman
The Diviners by Libba Bray
The Black Swan: The Impact of the Highly Improbable by Nassim Nicholas Taleb
Champion of Choice: The Life and Legacy of Women's Advocate Nafis Sadik by Cathleen Miller
Countdown: Our Last, Best Hope for a Future on Earth? by Alan Weisman
Dead Men Hike No Trails by Rick McKinney
Endurance: Shackleton's Incredible Voyage by Alfred Lansing
Fairyland: A Memoir of My Father by Alysia Abbott
Far From the Tree: Parents, Children and the Search for Identity by Andrew Solomon
Free Spirit: Growing Up On the Road and Off the Grid by Joshua Safran
Give and Take: A Revolutionary Approach to Success by Adam M. Grant
The Glass Castle: A Memoir by Jeannette Walls
God Is Not Great: How Religion Poisons Everything by Christopher Hitchens
God's Hotel: A Doctor, a Hospital, and a Pilgrimage to the Heart of Medicine by Victoria Sweet
Golden Boy by Tara Sullivan
The Goldfinch by Donna Tartt
The Grapes of Wrath by John Steinbeck
Hanukkah at Valley Forge by Stephen Krensky and Greg Harlin
Hard Road West: History and Geology along the Gold Rush Trail by Keith Heyer Meldahl
Hellgoing: Stories by Lynn Coady
Here on the Edge: How a Small Group of World War II Conscientious Objectors Took Art And Peace from the Margins to the Mainstream by Steve McQuiddy
Hyperbole and a Half: Unfortunate Situations, Flawed Coping Mechanisms, Mayhem, and Other Things That Happened by Allie Brosh
Living the Good Life: How to Live Sanely and Simply in a Troubled World by Helen and Scott Nearing
In Meat We Trust: An Unexpected History of Carnivore America by Maureen Ogle
The Interestings by Meg Wolitzer
The Joy of Not Working: A Book for the Retired, Unemployed, and Overworked by Ernie J. Zelinski
The Ladies' Paradise by Émile Zola
Lord of the Barnyard: Killing the Fatted Calf and Arming the Aware in the Cornbelt by Tristan Egolf
The Martian by Andy Weir
My Magical Palace by Kunal Mukherjee
A Natural History of the Senses by Diane Ackerman
New Leadership into the 21st Century Yahya ibn Shabazz
Neptune's Inferno: The U.S. Navy at Guadalcanal by James D. Hornfischer
No god but God: The Origins and Evolution of Islam by Reza Aslan
Of Walking in Ice by Werner Herzog
The Old Man and the Sea by Ernest Hemingway
On My Swedish Island: Discovering the Secrets of Scandinavian Well-being by Julie Catterson Lindahl
Oz Reimagined: New Tales from the Emerald City and Beyond by John Joseph Adams and Douglas Cohen
Palestinian and Jewish Recipes for Peace by The Jewish-Palestinian Living Room Dialogue Group
Paris France by Gertrude Stein
The People's Advocate: The Life and Legacy of America's Most Fearless Public Interest Lawyer by Daniel Sheehan
The Presidents Club: Inside the World's Most Exlcusive Fraternity by Nancy Gibbs and Michael Duffy
The Price of Inequality: How Today's Divided Society Endagers Our Future by Joseph E. Stiglitz
Red Mars by Kim Stanley Robinson
The Saga of the Seven Sisters: Early Pioneer Families of Napa California by Gilbert Gray Patchett
The Satanic Verses by Salman Rushdie
The Sea Glass Rush by Bev Jacquemet
Season of the Witch: Enchantment, Terror, and Deliverance in the City of Love by David Talbot
Ship Breaker by Paolo Bacigalupi
The Social Animal: The Hidden Sources of Love, Character, and Achievement by David Brooks
The Song of Achilles by Madeline Miller
Tatya Tope's Operation Red Lotus by Parag Tope
Telegraph Avenue by Michael Chabon
Tenth of December: Stories by George Saunders
This is How You Lose Her by Junot Diaz
Tinkers by Paul Harding
TransAtlantic: A Novel by Colum Mccann
Transform Tomorrow: Awakening the Super Saver in Pursuit of Retirement Readiness by Stig Nybo
The Twin by Gerband Bakker
The Universe Versus Alex Woods by Gavin Extence
The Unlikely Pilgrimage of Harold Fry by Rachel Joyce
Virgin Soul by Judy Juanita
We Should Never Meet: Stories by Aimee Phan
What Do Women Want?: Adventures in the Science of Female Desire by Daniel Bergner
When the Elephants Dance by Tess Uriza Holthe
Wishful Thinking: A Seeker's ABC by Frederick Buechner
The World Is Round Gertude Stein