Our top books of the 21st century
What our ballot votes would be, had The New York Times asked us
The NYT just published the 100 best books of the 21st century and wow there’s been a lot of chat. If you haven’t seen it, please do take a peruse as we would love to know your thoughts (sorry, it might be behind a paywall… it was, now it’s not, maybe it will be again).
I’ve seen lots of enthusiastic readers start producing their own lists, and yes I’ve contributed to a few google forms this week enabling readers to build their own crowd-sourced list. I will comment a link to these as they get published!
The NYT has also already responded with a readers’ choice list which I found to be much more recognisably aligned with my top books, but which Today in Books labelled as noticeably more boring. Can’t win, hey? What I think is amazing about this dialogue is how passionate we are about books we love and how diverse our tastes are. To prove this point, Tom and I have decided to share with you our ballots.
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The rules:
The NYT sent a survey to hundreds (503 I believe) of novelists, non fiction writers, academic, book editors, journalists, critics etc and ask them to pick their 10 best books of the 21st century. This is how the top 100 list is compiled.
So, for avoidance of any doubt, here are our selections IN NO PARTICULAR ORDER:
Jen’s list:
A Little Life by Hanya Yanagihara
A New Earth by Eckhart Tolle
American Wife by Curtis Sittenfeld
The Interestings by Meg Wolitzer
Christodora by Tim Murphy
These Precious Days by Ann Patchett
Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, and Tomorrow by Gabrielle Zevin
Eat, Pray, Love by Elizabeth Gilbert
Noughts and Crosses by Malorie Blackman
The Secret Dreamworld of a Shopaholic by Sophie Kinsella
Special mentions to: Wolf Hall by Hilary Mantel and The Song of Achilles by Madeline Miller.
Tom’s list
The Three-Body Problem by Liu Cixin
Kingdom of Fear by Hunter S Thompson
The Amber Spyglass by Philip Pullman
Oryx and Crake by Margaret Atwood
Sing Backwards and Weep by Mark Lanegan
The Road by Cormac McCarthy
Night Watch by Terry Pratchett
The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time by Mark Haddon
The Damned Utd by David Peace
The Tipping Point: How Little Things Can Make a Big Difference by Malcolm Gladwell
No special mentions from Tom because I gave him a 10 book limit and he stuck to it and didn’t cheat like me.
See what I mean about difference? Not a minuscule amount of overlap between the two of us - so great. I have added so many of his list to my to be read pile, starting with The Three-Body Problem.
You can find the full list here.
What would be yours? Leave us a comment below 👇
You can also generate your own graphic like the ones we’ve used above on our website. Complete yours and tag us at @weare.verse so we can see your selection!
Other lists you might also like:
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Please excuse any typos as lovely proof that this writing is not supported by AI 🤖
There are so many to choose from, it’s hard to make a top 10. I keep remembering more. In no particular order here are my 10, actually 11; why not break a rule?
The Kite Runner - Khaled Hosseini
Lessons in Chemistry - Bonnie Garmus
Pachinko - Min Jin Lee
Yellow Face - Rebecca F. Kuang
DCI Ryan series - LJ Ross
The Silent Patient - Alex Michaelides
Becoming - Michelle Obama
Hamnet - Maggie O’Farrell
I am Pilgrim - Terry Hayes
Girl on the Train - Paula Hawkins
Girl Woman Other - Bernadine Evaristo
I’ve finally got a list which could well change by morning!
The Enchanted Wood/ The Faraway Tree - Enid Blyton
The Lover - Marguerite Duras
Louis de Bernieres Latin America Trilogy
The Secret History - Donna Tartt
Wild Swans - Jung Chang
The Beach- Alex Garland
The Paper Palace - Miranda Cowley Heller
How to kill your family- Bella Mackie