Barnes & Noble Announces the Best Books of 2018

Barnes & Noble, Inc. (NYSE: BKS), the world’s largest retail bookseller, today announced the Best Books of 2018 as chosen by the Company’s expert booksellers. The curated lists highlight books of interest to a wide range of readers, and include the year’s top books overall, as well as by category, including the best thriller and suspense books, history and current affairs, YA, young readers, and kids. Barnes & Noble’s Best Books of the year are online now at BN.com, and are available at Barnes & Noble stores nationwide and online just in time for the holidays. 

“2018 was a big year for books across all categories, including much-anticipated memoirs, political books that made headlines, and new thrillers by some of the world’s bestselling writers,” said Liz Harwell, Senior Director of Merchandising, Trade Books at Barnes & Noble. “We hope the lists remind readers of some of the most popular books of the year, as well as introduce them to new and surprising titles.”

“In the Kids and YA categories, 2018 was truly a blockbuster year, with the release of new editions to fan-favorite series, popular authors with new releases, and debut authors making a name for themselves,” said Stephanie Fryling, Vice President of Merchandising, Children’s Books at Barnes & Noble. “Readers of all ages will find a lot to love in this year’s lists.”

The Best Books of 2018 as curated by Barnes & Noble are:

Best Books of 2018

• An American Marriage, Tayari Jones
• Barracoon: The Story of the Last “Black Cargo”, Zora Neale Hurston
• Becoming, Michelle Obama
• Calypso, David Sedaris
• Circe, Madeline Miller
• Educated, Tara Westover
• Fire & Blood, George R. R. Martin
• Girl, Wash Your Face: Stop Believing the Lies About Who You Are So You Can Become Who You Were Meant to Be, Rachel Hollis
• Leadership: In Turbulent Times, Doris Kearns Goodwin
• The Great Alone, Kristin Hannah
• The President is Missing, Bill Clinton and James Patterson
• The Reckoning, John Grisham
• The Woman in the Window, A.J. Finn
• There There, Tommy Orange
• Unsheltered, Barbara Kingsolver

Best Fiction

• A Place for Us, Fatima Farheen Mirza
• A Spark of Light, Jodi Picoult
• An American Marriage, Tayari Jones
• Circe, Madeline Miller
• Clock Dance, Anne Tyler
• Every Breath, Nicholas Sparks
• The Female Persuasion, Meg Wolitzer
• The Great Alone, Kristin Hannah
• The Hellfire Club, Jake Tapper
• The Immortalists, Chloe Benjamin
• The Next Person You Meet in Heaven, Mitch Albom
• The Perfect Couple, Elin Hilderbrand
• There There, Tommy Orange
• Unsheltered, Barbara Kingsolver
• Where the Crawdads Sing, Delia Owens

Best Thrillers & Suspense

• After Anna, Lisa Scottoline
• Dark Sacred Night, Michael Connelly
• Kingdom of the Blind, Louise Penny
• Lethal White, Robert Galbraith
• Long Road to Mercy, David Baldacci
• Mycroft and Sherlock, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar
• Robicheaux, James Lee Burke
• The Death of Mrs. Westaway, Ruth Ware
• The Disappeared, C.J. Box
• The Escape Artist, Brad Meltzer
• The Other Woman, Daniel Silva
• The Outsider, Stephen King
• The President is Missing, Bill Clinton and James Patterson
• The Reckoning, John Grisham
• The Woman in the Window, A.J. Finn

Best History & Current Affairs

• Fascism: A Warning, Madeleine Albright
• Fear, Bob Woodward
• Heartland: A Memoir of Working Hard and Being Broke in the Richest Country on Earth,Sarah Smarsh
• I’ll be Gone in the Dark: One Woman’s Obsessive Search for the Golden State Killer, Michelle McNamara
• In the Hurricane’s Eye: The Genius of George Washington and the Victory at Yorktown, Nathaniel Philbrick
• Indianapolis: The True Story of the Worst Sea Disaster in U.S. Naval History and the Fifty-Year Fight to Exonerate an Innocent Man, Lynn Vincent and Sara Vladic
• Leadership: In Turbulent Times, Doris Kearns Goodwin
• Lincoln’s Last Trial: The Murder Case That Propelled Him to the Presidency, Dan Abrams
• On Desperate Ground: The Marines at the Reservoir, the Korean War’s Greatest Battle, Hampton Sides
• Presidents of War, Michael Beschloss
• The Library Book, Susan Orlean
• The Restless Wave: Good Times, Just Causes, Great Fights, and Other Appreciations, John McCain
• The Soul of America: The Battle for Our Better Angels, Jon Meacham
• These Truths: A History of the United States, Jill Lepore
• 21 Lessons for the 21^st Century, Yuval Noah Harari

Best YA

• A Map of Days: The Fourth Novel of Miss Peregrine’s Peculiar Children, Ransom Riggs
• Bridge of Clay, Markus Zusak
• Children of Blood and Bone, Tomi Adeyemi
• Dear Evan Hansen: The Novel, Val Emmich
• Dry, Neal Shusterman and Jarrod Shusterman
• Kingdom of Ash, Sarah J. Maas
• Leah on the Offbeat, Becky Albertalli
• #MurderTrending, Gretchen McNeil
• Queen of Air and Darkness, Cassandra Clare
• Sadie, Courtney Summers
• Seafire, Natalie C. Parker
• The Cheerleaders, Kara Thomas
• The Hate U Give, Angie Thomas
• The Hazel Wood, Melissa Albert
• The Loneliest Girl in the Universe, Lauren James
• The Strange Fascinations of Noah Hypnotik, David Arnold
• Thunderhead, Neal Shusterman
• War Storm, Victoria Aveyard
• What If It’s Us, Becky Albertalli and Adam Silvera

Best Young Readers

• Amal Unbound, Aisha Saeed
• Diary of a Wimpy Kid: The Meltdown, Jeff Kinney
• Dog Man: Lord of the Fleas, Dav Pilkey
• Dork Diaries: Tales from a Not-So-Happy Birthday, Rachel Renée Russell
• Fantastic Beasts: The Crimes of Grindelwald, J.K. Rowling
• Flashback, Shannon Messenger
• Illegal, Eoin Colfer
• Louisiana’s Way Home, Kate DiCamillo
• Making Friends, Kristen Gudsnuk
• Monstrous Devices, Damien Love
• Sheets, Brenna Thummler
• Short & Skinny, Mark Tatulli
• Spy School Goes South, Stuart Gibbs
• Squirm, Carl Hiaasen
• Sunny, Jason Reynolds
• The Hive Queen, Tui T. Sutherland
• The Last Kids on Earth and the Cosmic Beyond, Max Brallier
• The Magic Misfits: The Second Story, Neil Patrick Harris
• The Miscalculations of Lightning Girl, Stacy McAnulty
• The Storm Runner, J.C. Cervantes
• The Wild Robot Escapes, Peter Brown

Best Kids

• Be Kind, Pat Zietlow Miller
• Builder Brothers: Big Plans, Drew Scott and Jonathan Scott
• Dear Girl,, Amy Krouse Rosenthal
• Elbow Grease, John Cena
• Fiona the Hippo, Richard Cowdrey
• Grumpy Monkey, Suzanne Lang
• I Lost My Tooth!, Mo Willems
• I’ve Loved You Since Forever, Hoda Kotb
• Little Blue Truck’s Springtime, Alice Schertle
• Mary Poppins, P.L. Travers
• Princesses Save the World, Savannah Guthrie
• She Persisted Around the World: 13 Women Who Changed History, Chelsea Clinton
• She’s Got This, Laurie Hernandez
• The Day You Begin, Jacqueline Woodson
• We Don’t Eat Our Classmates, Ryan T. Higgins
• What Do You Do with a Chance?, Kobi Yamada

To see all of Barnes & Noble’s Best Books of 2018, including lists for biography, personal growth, cookbooks, science fiction, and graphic novels, go to BN.com.