Current List

Since 2009 the goal of the Lariat Adult Fiction Reading List has been to highlight outstanding fiction that is simply “a pleasure to read.” Each year, 25 outstanding fiction titles are selected by a nine member committee.

Each year, authors from past and current lists are invited to speak at the Lariat List Adult Fiction Author Event held at the TLA Annual Conference.

2023 Lariat Adult Fiction Reading List 

• Black Cake: A Novel  by Charmaine Wilkerson (Ballantine Books, an imprint of Penguin Random House, 2022)
• Book Lovers by Emily Henry (Berkley, an imprint of Penguin Random House, 2022)
• Breathless by Amy McCulloch (Anchor Books, an imprint of Penguin Random House, 2022)
• The Candid Life of Meena Dave by Namrata Patel (Lake Union Publishing, 2022)
• Carrie Soto Is Back: A Novel by Taylor Jenkins Reid (Ballantine Books, an imprint of Penguin Random House, 2022)
• City on Fire: A Novel by Don Winslow (William Morrow, an imprint of HarperCollins, 2022)
• The Hacienda by Isabel Cañas (Berkley, an imprint of Penguin Random House, 2022)
•  Hester: A Novel by Laurie Lico Albanese (St. Martin’s Press, an imprint of St. Martin’s Publishing Group, 2022)
•  The High House:  A Novel by Jessie Greengrass (Scribner, an imprint of Simon & Schuster, 2022)
•  Iona Iverson’s Rules for Commuting by Clare Pooley (Pamela Dorman Books/Viking, an imprint of Penguin Random House, 2022)
•  Last Summer on State Street:  A Novel by Toya Wolfe (William Morrow, an imprint of HarperCollins, 2022)
•  The Lincoln Highway by Amor Towles (Viking, an imprint of Penguin Random House, 2021)
•  The Maid: A Novel by Nita Prose (Ballantine Books, Penguin Random House, 2022)
•  The Many Daughters of Afong Moy: A Novel by Jamie Ford (Atria Books, an imprint of Simon & Schuster, 2022)
•  Mercury Pictures Presents: A Novel by Anthony Marra (Hogarth, an imprint of Penguin Random House, 2022)
•  The Murder of Mr. Wickham by Claudia Gray (Vintage Books, an imprint of Penguin Random House, 2022)
•  The Paris Apartment: A Novel by Lucy Foley (William Morrow, an imprint of HarperCollins, 2022)
•  Remarkably Bright Creatures by Shelby Van Pelt (Ecco, an imprint of HarperCollins, 2022)
•  Sea of Tranquility by Emily St. John Mandel (Alfred A. Knopf, an imprint of Penguin Random House, 2022)
•  This Time Tomorrow by Emma Straub (Riverhead Books, an imprint of Penguin Random House, 2022)
•  Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, and Tomorrow by Gabrielle Zevin (Alfred A. Knopf, an imprint of Penguin Random House, 2022)
•  The Two Lives of Sara by Catherine Adel West (Park Row Books, 2022).
•  Two Nights in Lisbon by Chris Pavone (MCD / Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2022)
•  West with Giraffes:  A Novel by Lynda Rutledge (Lake Union Publishing, 2021)
•  What Moves the Dead by T. Kingfisher (Tor Nightfire/Tom Doherty Associates, an imprint of Macmillan Publishing Group, 2022)

The members of the 2022-2023 Lariat Adult Fiction Reading List Committee are:
Edward Kownslar (Chair), Esther Garcia (Vice Chair), Merri Lynne Alexander, Diane Bruxvoort, Heather Carter, Jackie Chetzron, Mindy Perez, Cynthia Peterson and Jennifer Shaw.

2023 Lariat Reading List, Annotated

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2022 Lariat Reading List, Annotated