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