We asked three critics to share their favorites of the year, and they served up diverse offerings heavily weighted toward fiction.

We loved Oprah’s Book Club selections this year, but here are our editors’ other standouts—from the thought-provoking to the heartwarming to the hilarious.

The best nonfiction books of the year tackle undeniably difficult topics. Many are personal stories about surviving the unthinkable. Salman Rushdie describes the violent attack that nearly killed him.