Indies Choice Book Awards

The American Booksellers Association recently announced the winners of this year's Indies Choice Awards, as voted on by ABA-member independent booksellers throughout the country. "In the first year that all ABA member booksellers had the opportunity to vote for both the Indies Choice Book Awards and the E.B White Read-Aloud Awards, the result is an outstanding list of winners that reflect the types of books independent bookstores champion best," said ABA CEO Oren Teicher. Winners and honor recipients will be saluted at the Celebration of Bookselling Author Awards Luncheon in May at Book Expo America. Here are this year's winning authors:

• Fiction: Room, Emma Donoghue
• Nonfiction: Unbroken, Laura Hillenbrand
• Adult Debut Book of the Year: Matterhorn, Karl Marlantes
• Young Adult: Revolution, Jennifer Donnelly
• E.B. White Read-Aloud Award for Middle Readers: The Strange Case of Origami Yoda, Tom Angleberger
• E.B.White Read-Aloud Award for Picture Book: Children Make Terrible Pets, Peter Brown
• Most Engaging Author: Laurie Halse Anderson

The independent booksellers also voted to add four books to the Indies Choice Picture Book Hall of Fame:

• Corduroy, Don Freeman
• Mike Mulligan and His Steam Shovel, Virginia Lee Burton
• The Snowy Day, Ezra Jack Keats
• The Very Hungry Caterpillar, Eric Carle

Tough decisions, picking the best books of the year -- so many great books to choose from -- but I think this is a great start on a reading list. Karl Marlantes, author of the Adult Debut Book of the Year, hails from the northwest, having grown up in Seaside and now living outside of Seattle. The novel about the Viet Nam war, many decades in the making, will be available in paperback next month.

Here are the honor award recipients for each of the categories:

Fiction:

Great House, Nicole Krauss

How to Read the Air, Dinaw Mengestu

The Surrendered, Chang-rae Lee

The Thousand Autumns of Jacob de Zoet, David Mitchell

A Visit from the Goon Squad, Jennifer Egan

Nonfiction:

At Home,  Bill Bryson

Cleopatra: A Life, Stacy Schiff

Let's Take the Long Way Home, Gail Caldwell

The Tiger, John Vaillant

The Wave, Susan Casey

Adult Debut Author:

Beneath the Lion's Gaze, Maaza Mengiste

The Emperor of All Maladies, Siddhartha Mukherjee

Major Pettigrew's Last Stand, Helen Simonson

The Quickening, Michelle Hoover

The Wake of Forgiveness, Bruce Machart

Young Adult:

Bamboo People, Mitali Perkins

Before I Fall, Lauren Oliver

Dash & Lily's Book of Dares, Rachel Cohn and David Levithan

Out of My Mind, Sharon Draper

Will Grayson, Will Grayson, John Green and David Levithan

E.B.White Read-Aloud for Middle Readers:

Because of Mr. Terupt, Rob Buyea

The Familiars, Adam Jay Epstein and Andrew Jacobson

Penny Dreadful, Laurel Snyder (Abigal Halpin, illust)

The Sixty-Eight Rooms, Marianne Malone (Greg Call, illust)

A Tale Dark and Grimm, Adam Gidwitz

E.B White Read-Aloud Picture Books:

Bedtime for Bear, Brett Helquist

Chicken Big, Keith Graves

Pete the Cat: I Love My White Shoes, Eric Litwin (James Dean, illust)

A Pig Parade is a Terrible Idea, Michael Ian Black (Kevin Hawkes, illust)

The Quiet Book, Deborah Underwood (Renata Liwska, illust)

Most Engaging Author:

Jonathan Evison

Kevin Henkes

Mitali Perkins

Richard Russo

Terry Tempest Williams

I have to give a special shout-out to one of my favorite picture books of the year, which is also an honors recipient: The Quiet Book, written by Deborah Underwood and illustrated by Renata Liwska. The book is adorable, and I'm happy to report that the follow-up book, The Loud Book, has just been published. My guess? The first book will be more popular with parents, but kids might opt for loud.

I hope you get a chance to enjoy all of these great books, one bite at a time!