"Outside a dog a book is man's best friend, inside a dog it is too dark to read!" -Groucho Marx========="The person, be it gentleman or lady, who has not pleasure in a good novel, must be intolerably stupid." -Jane Austen========="I don’t believe in the kind of magic in my books. But I do believe something very magical can happen when you read a good book."-JK Rowling========"I spend a lot of time reading." -Bill Gates=========“Ahhh. Bed, book, kitten, sandwich. All one needed in life, really.” -Jacqueline Kelly=========

Friday, July 12, 2024

NYT Best Books of the 21st Century

Photo credit: New York Times



The New York Times published a list of the Best Books of the 21st Century this week. They have dribbled out the list over the week in batches of twenty. Today was the final installment. If you can get past their pay firewall, please go to the NYT and check out the whole list, if not, see the list of the best twenty below. What do you think? Do you agree with their choices?

20. Erasure by Percival Everett, 2001
19. Say Nothing: A True Story of Murder and Memory in Northern Ireland by Patrick Radden Keefe, 2019
18. Lincoln in the Bardo by George Saunders, 2017
17. The Sellout: A Novel by Paul Beatty, 2015
15. Pachinko by Min Jin Lee, 2017
14. Outline by Rachel Cusk, 2015
13. The Road by Cormac McCarthy, 2006
12. The Year of Magical Thinking by Joan Didion, 2005
10. Gilead by Marilynne Robinson, 2004
  9. Never Let Me Go by Kazuo Ishiguro, 2005
  8. Austerlitz by W.G. Sebald, 2001
  7. The Underground Railroad by Colson Whitehead, 2016
  6. 2666 by Roberto Bolano, translated by Natasha Wimmer, 2008
  5. Corrections: A Novel by Jonathan Franzen, 2001
  4. The Known World by Edward P. Jones, 2003 *
  3. Wolf Hall by Hilary Mantel, 2009 *
  2. The Warmth of Other Suns: The Epic Story of America's Great Migration by Isabel Wilkerson, 2010 *
  1. My Brilliant Friend by Elena Ferrante *

(((Note: Hyperlinks provided for books reviewed by me; underlined books were read but not reviewed; * are books on my TBR. )))

I've read 36 of the 100 books. Many, many are favorites. (If you click on the photo it should make the image larger so can scrutinize the covers.)

14 books which were already on my TBR list or added because of this NTY list.

Do you see any notable omissions? I do, though I know the list makers had to draw the line at 100. But I wish they had included:
  • The Lincoln Highway or A Gentleman in Moscow by Amor Towles
  • All the Light We Cannot See or Cloud Cuckoo Land by Anthony Doer
  • The Orphan Master's Son by Adam Johnson
  • Let the Great World Spin by Colum McCann
  • There There by Tommy Orange or La Rose by Louise Erdrich
I noticed that many of the 100 books on the 'Best' list were also Pulitzer or National Book Award winners. I am more familiar with the fiction titles, but I do recognize several nonfiction titles from those lists, too.

Do you like to look at 'Best' book lists? What titles would you include in your best books of the 21st century that you don't see here? 


I missed the linky deadline so will attempt to remember to link up to the discussion page in August.



-Anne
Posted by at
Labels: ,

No comments:

Post a Comment

I look forward to your comments and interactions! Join in the conversation.

Subscribe to: Post Comments (Atom)