World Book Night has announced its list of picks for its 2013 World Book Night U.S., as well its new honorary chairpeople, Ann Patchett and James Patterson. The organization, which aims to encourage readining, selected the 30 titles for its annual event through a process relying on the selections of independent booksellers and librarians. The books chosen will then be printed as, the organization explained, "special, not-for-sale paperbacks." The titles selected for World Book Night 2013 are:
The Handmaid’s Tale, Margaret Atwood (Anchor Books/Random House)
City of Thieves, David Benioff (Plume/Penguin Book Group)
Fahrenheit 451, Ray Bradbury (Simon & Schuster Paperbacks)
My Antonia, Willa Cather (public domain; edition tbd)
Girl with a Pearl Earring, Tracy Chevalier (Plume/Penguin Book Group)
The House on Mango Street, Sandra Cisneros (Vintage/Random House) - also in Spanish
The Alchemist, Paulo Coelho (HarperOne/HarperCollins) - also in Spanish
The Language of Flowers, Vanessa Diffenbaugh (Ballantine Books/Random House)
The Worst Hard Time, Timothy Egan (Mariner Books/HoughtonMifflinHarcourt)
Bossypants, Tina Fey (Regan Arthur/Back Bay Books)
Still Alice, Lisa Genova (Gallery Books/Simon & Schuster)
Looking for Alaska, John Green (Speak/Penguin Book Group)
Playing for Pizza, John Grisham (Dell/Random House)
Mudbound, Hillary Jordan (Algonquin Books/Workman Publishing)
The Phantom Tollbooth, Norton Juster (Yearling/Random House)
Moneyball, Michael Lewis (W.W. Norton)
The Tender Bar, J.R. Moehringer (Hyperion)
Devil in a Blue Dress, Walter Mosley (Washington Square Press/Simon & Schuster)
Middle School: The Worst Years of My Life, James Patterson (Little, Brown Books for Young Readers)
Population: 485, Michael Perry (HarperPerennial/HarperCollins)
Good Omens, Terry Pratchett & Neil Gaiman (HarperTorch/HarperCollins)
The Lightning Thief, Rick Riordan (Disney)
Montana Sky, Nora Roberts (Jove/Penguin Book Group)
Look Again, Lisa Scottoline (St. Martin’s)
Me Talk Pretty One Day, David Sedaris (Back Bay Books/Little, Brown)
The No. 1 Ladies’ Detective Agency, Alexander McCall Smith (Anchor Books/Random House)
Glaciers, Alexis M. Smith (Tin House Books)
A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur’s Court, Mark Twain (public domain; edition tbd)
Salvage the Bones, Jesmyn Ward (Bloomsbury)
Favorite American Poems; Large Print edition, various authors (Dover)
For those interested in volunteering to give out copies of the books the site to apply is now open at www.worldbooknight.org.
