Notes: An exploration of nature that forces readers to consider the threat posed by human behavior to a world of astonishing diversity. Winner of the 2015 Pulitzer Prize for General Nonfiction and the 2015 Los Angeles Times Book Prize for Science and Technology.

Notes: An imaginative and intricate novel inspired by the horrors of World War II and written in short, elegant chapters that explore human nature and the contradictory power of technology. Winner of the 2015 Pulitzer Prize for Fiction.

Notes: This novel centers on the experiences of surgeon Dorrigo Evans in a Japanese POW camp on the now infamous Thailand-Burma railway. Winner of the 2014 Man Booker Prize for Fiction.

Notes: Twelve-year-old narrator Josh Bell uses the rhythms of a poetry jam to emulate the "moving & grooving/popping and rocking" of life on the basketball court with his twin brother, J.B. This powerful novel in verse paints an authentic portrait of a closely-knit family on the brink of crisis. Swish! This book is nothing but net! Winner of the 2015 John Newbury Medal.

Notes: In four delightful “visual chapters,” Beekle, an imaginary friend, undergoes an emotional journey looking for his human. Santat uses fine details, kaleidoscopic saturated colors, and exquisite curved and angular lines to masterfully convey the emotional essence of this special childhood relationship. Winner of the 2015 Caldecott Medal.

Notes: A meditation on race in America as well as a personal story by the national correspondent of The Atlantic, framed as a letter to his teenage son. Winner of the 2015 National Book Award for non-fiction.

Notes: In Age of Ambition, Evan Osnos describes the greatest collision taking place in China: the clash between the rise of the individual and the Communist Party’s struggle to retain control. Winner of the 2014 National Book Award for Nonfiction.

Notes: Area X is an abandoned and apparently unspoiled stretch of US coastline, held under strict quarantine by a mysterious government agency called the Southern Reach. Into this place come the biologist and her colleagues: a surveyor, a linguist, and a psychologist. They are all women. Winner of the 2015 Nebula Award.

Notes: Set in Kingston, Jamaica, where James was born, the book is a fictional history of the attempted murder of Bob Marley in 1976. Winner of the 2015 Man Booker Prize for fiction

Notes: Brown Girl Dreaming is a 2014 adolescent novel by author Jacqueline Woodson. It discusses the author's childhood as an African-American growing up in the sixties and seventies in South Carolina and New York. Winner of the 2014 National Book Award for Young People's Literature.