Book Log Extra: New York Times 100 Best Books of the 21st Century

The New York Times took a break from trying to get Joe Biden to drop out of the Presidential race to slow-release its list of the 100 best books of the current century (it did it in groups of 20 over the course of the week). I was going to say that this seemed a little presumptuous, except that The Guardian did the same thing... in 2019 (their top pick was Wolf Hall by Hilary Mantel, which in true American fashion I've not read but have seen the TV adaptation). 

The NYT's list is paywalled, so no link for you. But here's the list, with the ones I've read in bold (17 as opposed to 22 on the Guardian's list, though I did start The Last Samurai and bailed on it).

100. Tree of Smoke by Denis Johnson

99. How to Be Both by Ali Smith

98. Bel Canto by Ann Patchett

97. Men We Reaped by Jesmyn Ward

96. Wayward Lives, Beautiful Experiments by Saidiya Hartman

95. Bring Up the Bodies by Hilary Mantel

94. On Beauty by Zadie Smith

93. Station Eleven by Emily St. John Mandel

92. The Days of Abandonment by Elena Ferrante

91. The Human Stain by Philip Roth

90. The Sympathizer by Viet Thanh Nguyen

89. The Return by Hisham Matar

88. The Collected Stories of Lydia Davis by Lydia Davis

87. Detransition, Baby by Torrey Peters

86. Frederick Douglass by David W. Blight

85. Pastoralia by George Saunders

84. The Emperor of All Maladies by Siddhartha Mukherjee

83. When We Cease to Understand the World by Benjamin Labatut

82. Hurricane Season by Fernanda Melchor

81. Pulphead by John Jeremiah Sullivan

80. The Story of the Lost Child by Elena Ferrante

79. A Manual for Cleaning Women by Lucia Berlin

78. Septology by Jon Fosse

77. An American Marriage by Tayari Jones

76. Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, and Tomorrow by Gabrielle Zevin

75. Exit West by Mohsin Hamid

74. Olive Kitteridge by Elizabeth Strout

73. The Passage of Power by Robert Caro

72. Secondhand Time by Svetlana Alexievich

71. The Copenhagen Trilogy by Tove Ditlevsen

70. All Aunt Hagar's Children by Edward P. Jones

69. The New Jim Crow by Michelle Alexander

68. The Friend by Sigrid Nunez

67. Far From the Tree by Andrew Solomon

66. We the Animals by Justin Torres

65. The Plot Against America by Philip Roth

64. The Great Believers by Rebecca Makkai

63. Veronica by Mary Gaitskill

62. 10:04 by Ben Lerner

61. Demon Copperhead by Barbara Kingsolver

60. Heavy by Kiese Laymon

59. Middlesex by Jeffrey Eugenides

58. Stay True by Hua Hsu

57. Nickel and Dimed by Barbara Ehrenreich

56. The Flamethrowers by Rachel Kushner

55. The Looming Tower by Lawrence Wright

54. Tenth of December by George Saunders

53. Runaway by Alice Munro

52. Train Dreams by Denis Johnson

51. Life After Life by Kate Atkinson

50. Trust by Hernan Diaz

49. The Vegetarian by Han Kang

48. Persepolis by Marjane Satrapi

47. A Mercy by Toni Morrison

46. The Goldfinch by Donna Tartt

45. The Argonauts by Maggie Nelson

44. The Fifth Season by N. K. Jemisin

43. Postwar by Tony Judt

42. A Brief History of Seven Killings by Marlon James

41. Small Things Like These by Claire Keegan

40. H is for Hawk by Helen Macdonald

39. A Visit From the Goon Squad by Jennifer Egan

38. The Savage Detectives by Robert Bolano

37. The Years by Annie Ernaux

36. Between the World and Me by Ta-Nehisi Coates

35. Fun Home by Alison Bechdel

34. Citizen by Claudia Rankine

33. Savage the Bones by Jesmyn Ward

32. The Line of Beauty by Alan Hollinghurst

31. White Teeth by Zadie Smith

30. Sing, Unburied, Sing by Jesmyn Ward

29. The Last Samurai by Helen DeWitt

28. Cloud Atlas by David Mitchell

27. Americanah by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie

26. Atonement by Ian McEwan

25. Random Family by Adrian Nicole LeBlanc

24. The Overstory by Richard Powers

23. Hateship, Friendship, Courtship, Loveship, Marriage by Alice Munro

22. Behind the Beautiful Forevers by Katherine Boo

21. Evicted by Matthew Desmond

20. Erasure, Percival Everett

19. Say Nothing: A True Story of Murder and Memory in Northern Ireland by Patrick Radden Keefe

18. Lincoln in the Bardo by George Saunders

17. The Sellout by Paul Beatty

16. The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay by Michael Chabon

15. Pachinko by Min Jin Lee

14. Outline by Rachel Cusk

13. The Road by Cormac McCarthy

12. The Year of Magical Thinking by Joan Didion

11. The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao by Junot Diaz

10. Gilead by Marilynne Robinson

9. Never Let Me Go by Kazuo Ishiguro

8. Austerlitz by W. G. Sebald

7. The Underground Railroad by Colson Whitehead

6. 2666 by Roberto Bolano

5. The Corrections by Jonathan Franzen

4. The Known World by Edward P. Jones

3. Wolf Hall by Hilary Mantel

2. The Warmth of Other Suns by Isabel Wilkerson

1. My Brilliant Friend by Elena Ferrante