I still don’t understand the love for The Underground Railroad, cool concept but found it boring.
LevyMevy on
The #1 book has been my favorite book of all time since I read it last year. Nothing else has ever been “in my head” the way this book was. It felt like reading my own auto-biography.
This feels like a personal victory to me lol
Puzzled-Silver6935 on
No Murakami or Erdrich is very surprising. Would’ve expected at least one
deepad9 on
The absence of any volume of Karl Ove Knausgaard’s *My Struggle* on the entire list is a travesty.
macnalley on
The most glaring omissions on this list are certainly from international authors in translation. Others have mentioned the lack of Knausgaard and Murakami (although I’m less surprised by Murakami since he seems to be held as a bit lowbrow by the establishment). But I was most surprised at Olga Tokarczuk’s not being present. She won the Nobel so recently, and while I understand *Books of Jacob*, despite being her opus and tour de force, is probably daunting and still unread, I know a lot of people who have read and greatly admired *Flights* and *Drive Your Plow over the Bones of the Dead*, even though I myself have not read them.
I am curious though what everyone would put on their list. Here’s mine:
* *2666* by Roberto Bolaño
* *Books of Jacob* by Olga Tokarczuk
* *Tainaron: Mail from Another City* by Leena Krohn (Technically written in the ’80s, but allowable by NYT rules, since the English translation was not until the 2000s.)
* *Wolf Hall* by Hilary Mantel
* *Never Let Me Go* by Kazuo Ishiguro
* *White Teeth* by Zadie Smith
* *Tyll* by Daniel Kehlmann
* *Kafka on the Shore* by Haruki Murakami (I seriously debated this one. I don’t think it’s one of the best novels or even one of my favorites. But when I first read it about 10 years ago, I read it in two sittings, and it has remained vibrantly in my brain since. And I think that counts for something when the other books I considered for its spot (*Runaway*, *Middlesex*, *Lincoln in the Bardo*) have felt more transitory.)
* *The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay* by Michael Chabon
* *Fun Home* by Alison Bechdel
anoleo201194 on
No Gillian Flynn but Tomorrow and Tomorrow and Tomorrow gets a nod?
jimmyslaysdragons on
Thanks for sharing! I consider myself a pretty avid reader, so I was surprised to have not even heard of 30-40% of these. But I mostly read nonfiction and sci-fi, and the list seemed to lean very heavily toward a specific subset of American literary fiction.
The little check boxes were a nice feature. I have read 9 of these books, and I want to read another 25 of them.
Dancing_Clean on
I was totally expecting Susanna Clarke’s Piranesi to make this list.
And I loved Stay True by Hua Hsu so I’m happy to see it get representation.
A Visit from the Goon Squad is a book that annoyed me to bits but I know it’s widely loved and acclaimed.
Say Nothing has been on my list for a while, especially after reading Empire of Pain.
urmom234 on
MY TALLY
I’ve read 18 books on the list …
My Brilliant Friend ● The Underground Railroad ● Never Let Me Go ● The Year of Magical Thinking ● Outline ● Evicted ● Americanah ● White Teeth ● Citizen ● Between the World and Me ● A Mercy ● Persepolis ● The Vegetarian ● Middlesex ● Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, and Tomorrow ● The Story of the Lost Child ● The Days of Abandonment ● On Beauty
… and I want to read 7.
The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao ● Pachinko ● The Years ● The Argonauts ● The Goldfinch ● Detransition, Baby ● The Sympathizer
hellocloudshellosky on
Did James McBride appear anywhere?
I wish they had eliminated the possibility of having an author represented by more than one title, so that we’d have had 100 Authors. Which I know goes against the premise, but I’m so frustrated with how weak this list is that wot the hell.
ss7m on
Was (pleasantly) surprised to see Hurricane Season on there, what an insane read. Though i’m curious how well the book works in English.
Two spots for Bolaño is well deserved, but Against the Day got snubbed.
frenchfriedpizza on
1 My Brilliant Friend Elena Ferrante; translated by Ann Goldstein 2012
2 The Warmth of Other Suns Isabel Wilkerson 2010
3 Wolf Hall Hilary Mantel 2009
4 The Known World Edward P. Jones 2003
5 The Corrections Jonathan Franzen 2001
6 2666 Roberto Bolaño; translated by Natasha Wimmer 2008
7 The Underground Railroad Colson Whitehead 2016
8 Austerlitz W.G. Sebald; translated by Anthea Bell 2001
9 Never Let Me Go Kazuo Ishiguro 2005
10 Gilead Marilynne Robinson 2004
11 The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao
12 The Year of Magical Thinking Joan Didion 2005
13 The Road Cormac McCarthy 2006
14 Outline Rachel Cusk 2015
15 Pachinko Min Jin Lee 2017
16 The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay
17 The Sellout Paul Beatty 2015
18 Lincoln in the Bardo George Saunders 2017
19 Say Nothing Patrick Radden Keefe 2019
20 Erasure Percival Everett 2001
21 Evicted Matthew Desmond 2016
22 Behind the Beautiful Forevers Katherine Boo 2012
23 Hateship, Friendship, Courtship, Loveship, Marriage Alice Munro 2001
24 The Overstory Richard Powers 2018
25 Random Family Adrian Nicole LeBlanc 2003
Jrebeclee on
Wolf Hall is my favorite book, love seeing it so high on the list!
blessup_ on
I’ve tried to read My Brilliant Friend literally 4 times and can’t get into it. It bums me out. On paper it’s exactly the type of book I would like. Anyone else?
wafflesandlicorice on
Wow, I have read exactly three of these. But I do have another 20 or so sitting in my TBR piles in my house, and probably another dozen on my TBR list.
Maukeb on
I have a sneaking suspicion that this will be one of the last times we see a Munro book ranked this highly on a ‘best of’ list.
[deleted] on
[deleted]
mogwai316 on
Zero books on the list from Suzanna Clarke, Neil Gaiman, Jeff Vandermeer, and China Mieville. It really indicates that the voters are just ignoring literary fantasy/sci-fi because it’s “genre fiction” even though authors such as these are writing just as creative, unique, and meaningful works as any author that gets classified as “literary fiction”.
_unrealcity_ on
I’ve read 15 (a few more I DNF’d). My Brilliant Friend is well, brilliant, and I’ve no issues seeing it in the top spot.
The Sympathizer should be wayyyy higher on the list…out of the 15 that I’ve read it’d probably be #1 for me personally.
So glad to see Han Kang here, one of my favorite authors. But no Japanese fiction??? Really? I’d for one add Meiko Kawakami’s Breasts and Eggs.
Tomorrow, Tomorrow, and Tomorrow will probably be a polarizing pick…seemed like it was mostly popular among booktokers…but I personally really enjoyed it too and it was a nice surprise to see it here.
Didn’t like Bel Canto, surprised to see it here as Ann Patchett’s only entry. A Visit From the Good Squad and Station Eleven were pretty forgettable imo, but they were quite popular so I guess not super surprising picks.
RunDNA on
I’d like to see a similar list from a hundred years ago and compare it to the works that are well-known today.
-UnicornFart on
I HAVE BEEN WAITING FOR SOMEONE TO POST THIS WITHOUT A STUPID FUCKING PAYWALL
THANK YOU
Danuscript on
I’ve read six of them:
Never Let Me Go
The Road
Lincoln in the Bardo
Atonement
Tomorrow and Tomorrow and Tomorrow
Station Eleven
Most of these books I think are great and belong here, but I found Station Eleven boring. Great premise but the book doesn’t live up to it.
Sunwinec on
Pachinko? Number 15? Really? It’s good but not that good.
LuminaTitan on
I’m a fan of Denis Johnson’s works. How is Train Dreams and Tree of Smoke?
chattahattan on
My Brilliant Friend (or really, the Neapolitan novels as a whole, since I think of them more as one very long story) at #1 was a pleasant surprise and, in my view, definitely earned. An absolute epic of womanhood. There is absolutely no writer I’ve ever read who can capture the nuances of a person’s internal life quite like Ferrante.
whyduhitme on
No Good lord bird, no cloud cuckoo land, 2 of my most recent favorites. The sellout on here is pretty awesomr
trytoholdon on
Tomorrow and Tomorrow and Tomorrow continues to be one of the most overrated books of the 21st century. You spend decades following characters through a tedious plot only to realize at the end that they’re all insufferable.
Reneeisme on
I’ve read around Twenty and agree that most of these are five stars for me. But a Visit From the Goon Squad is a weird choice. It was fun and interesting but I don’t remember anything remarkable about it really. Just a wacky romp. Also “The Years” was amazing but I felt like it was very a very niche trip down memory lane for women of a certain age. I loved it because it was aimed right at me, but wonder if it has a broad appeal.
ngfdsa on
One book that is missing that I haven’t seen others mention is Betty by Tiffany McDaniel. One of the most powerful books I’ve ever read
Grace_Omega on
Never Let Me Go at number nine let’s fucking gooooo
I would have substituted The Underground Railroad with The Nickel Boys, I thought that was much better.
Also Lost Children Archive would definitely be on here, tha fact that it isn’t is a crime.
blhbork21 on
Hot take – The Corrections isn’t even the best Franzen book, let alone #5 in the century
anthropomorphist on
I’ve only heard of 3 of these. clearly i am not of the 21st century lol
GregSays on
WOW, a book I love didn’t make the list and I book I didn’t love is ranked high??
Capable_Average_8425 on
I have to know what book the smallest amount of people selected for “Have Read” on this list is. I’d bet on Robert Caro.
do-not-1 on
Surprised at no Sally Rooney. Normal People was a really impactful book for me, esp reading it when I was in college myself.
notcool_neverwas on
I adore The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay. Glad to see it included.
I’m currently reading Lincoln in the Bardo, after discovering George Saunders’ short-story collections. So far, so good!
The Overstory is a book I keep picking up and, for some reason, keep putting down. I don’t know what it is, I just cannot get into this story enough to just finish the damn thing.
I remember Goon Squad winning the Pulitzer and being so shocked, because I thought that book was awful lol
littlestbookstore on
I’ve read 33 and the only surprise is that I agree with almost nothing
My hot-takes (bring on the downvotes):
Tons of snubs for spec-fic/sci-fi. No Ted Chiang or Ken Liu or Van der Meer or Kelly Link?
Why isn’t Interior Chinatown by Charles Yu on here?
“Trust Exercise” by Susan Choi
No Chang Rae Lee?
All the Light We Cannot See??
George Saunders 3x, really?? He’s great, but seriously
Alice Munro?? I say this as someone who was ever really able to get into her work in the first place
I never understood the appeal of Denis Johnson
Lauren Groff should be on here
Hernan Diaz’s “In the Distance” is far superior to “Trust”
“Austerlitz” is not Sebald’s best either
~~“Blind Assassin” should be on here~~ Ok, I was under the impression that 2000 counted, but ok, crossing it off.
Where is Olga Tokarczuk??
“The Idiot” by Elif Batuman should be on here
Ffs, the NYT is turning into the Academy. Clique-y, political, insiders only. … sorry, not sorry, I have strong feelings
GingerMan027 on
I would have put ‘Cloud Atlas’ higher. I think the movie adaptation wasn’t at all equal to the book and that hurt it.
‘The Road’ was a lesser book by McCarthy, to me.
There’s several there I’ll be checking out. Literally from the library.
Pesto28 on
Homegoing by Yaa Gyasi not on this list is wild, or anything by Lauren Groff
60minutesmoreorless on
My list of Overlooked Titles:
The Map and the Territory – Houellebecq,
The Pale King – Wallace,
Annihilation – Vandermeer,
Gone Girl – Flynn,
A Naked Singularity – de la Pava,
My Struggle – Knausgaard,
A Time for Everything – Knausgaard,
The Infatuations – Marias,
There There – Orange,
House of Leaves – Danielewski,
Orfeo – Richard Powers
squeakyrhino on
*Was very happy to see When We Cease to Understand the World on here. That book blew my mind.
*Surprised that Say Nothing made the list but not Empire of Pain. Both are brilliant! I actually think the latter is better but it might be recency bias.
*I find it interesting how many authors had No Country for Old Men on their lists, but The Road is the only representation McCarthy gets on here.
hevski on
John Irving got snubbed?!
BooksWritten4Girls on
Have read Days of Abandonment, A Manual for Cleaning Women, The Vegetarian, Citizen, White Teeth (dnf), Americanah, Say Nothing, Pachinko (dnf), The Road, Never Let Me Go, Underground Railroad, 2666 (currently reading and The Savage Detectives by Bolaño is my next read)
Pleasantly surprised A Little Life wasn’t on the listed.
Neutrally surprised by no Ottessa Moshfegh (have Death In Her Hands and Lapvona tanked her reputation?)
Less pleasantly surprised by Pachinko’s placement and the lack of: Sayaka Murata, Olga Tokarczuk, Max Porter, David Diop, Hiroko Oyamada, Elisa Shua Dusapin, Natsuo Kirino, Anne Carson, and/or Ocean Vuong.
Would be shocked if they did this a year from now and Chain Gang All Stars wasn’t on it.
thenewyorktimes on
hi! thank you for sharing our list! we do also have more lists from this week, including:
46 Comments
I still don’t understand the love for The Underground Railroad, cool concept but found it boring.
The #1 book has been my favorite book of all time since I read it last year. Nothing else has ever been “in my head” the way this book was. It felt like reading my own auto-biography.
This feels like a personal victory to me lol
No Murakami or Erdrich is very surprising. Would’ve expected at least one
The absence of any volume of Karl Ove Knausgaard’s *My Struggle* on the entire list is a travesty.
The most glaring omissions on this list are certainly from international authors in translation. Others have mentioned the lack of Knausgaard and Murakami (although I’m less surprised by Murakami since he seems to be held as a bit lowbrow by the establishment). But I was most surprised at Olga Tokarczuk’s not being present. She won the Nobel so recently, and while I understand *Books of Jacob*, despite being her opus and tour de force, is probably daunting and still unread, I know a lot of people who have read and greatly admired *Flights* and *Drive Your Plow over the Bones of the Dead*, even though I myself have not read them.
I am curious though what everyone would put on their list. Here’s mine:
* *2666* by Roberto Bolaño
* *Books of Jacob* by Olga Tokarczuk
* *Tainaron: Mail from Another City* by Leena Krohn (Technically written in the ’80s, but allowable by NYT rules, since the English translation was not until the 2000s.)
* *Wolf Hall* by Hilary Mantel
* *Never Let Me Go* by Kazuo Ishiguro
* *White Teeth* by Zadie Smith
* *Tyll* by Daniel Kehlmann
* *Kafka on the Shore* by Haruki Murakami (I seriously debated this one. I don’t think it’s one of the best novels or even one of my favorites. But when I first read it about 10 years ago, I read it in two sittings, and it has remained vibrantly in my brain since. And I think that counts for something when the other books I considered for its spot (*Runaway*, *Middlesex*, *Lincoln in the Bardo*) have felt more transitory.)
* *The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay* by Michael Chabon
* *Fun Home* by Alison Bechdel
No Gillian Flynn but Tomorrow and Tomorrow and Tomorrow gets a nod?
Thanks for sharing! I consider myself a pretty avid reader, so I was surprised to have not even heard of 30-40% of these. But I mostly read nonfiction and sci-fi, and the list seemed to lean very heavily toward a specific subset of American literary fiction.
The little check boxes were a nice feature. I have read 9 of these books, and I want to read another 25 of them.
I was totally expecting Susanna Clarke’s Piranesi to make this list.
And I loved Stay True by Hua Hsu so I’m happy to see it get representation.
A Visit from the Goon Squad is a book that annoyed me to bits but I know it’s widely loved and acclaimed.
Say Nothing has been on my list for a while, especially after reading Empire of Pain.
MY TALLY
I’ve read 18 books on the list …
My Brilliant Friend ● The Underground Railroad ● Never Let Me Go ● The Year of Magical Thinking ● Outline ● Evicted ● Americanah ● White Teeth ● Citizen ● Between the World and Me ● A Mercy ● Persepolis ● The Vegetarian ● Middlesex ● Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, and Tomorrow ● The Story of the Lost Child ● The Days of Abandonment ● On Beauty
… and I want to read 7.
The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao ● Pachinko ● The Years ● The Argonauts ● The Goldfinch ● Detransition, Baby ● The Sympathizer
Did James McBride appear anywhere?
I wish they had eliminated the possibility of having an author represented by more than one title, so that we’d have had 100 Authors. Which I know goes against the premise, but I’m so frustrated with how weak this list is that wot the hell.
Was (pleasantly) surprised to see Hurricane Season on there, what an insane read. Though i’m curious how well the book works in English.
Two spots for Bolaño is well deserved, but Against the Day got snubbed.
1 My Brilliant Friend Elena Ferrante; translated by Ann Goldstein 2012
2 The Warmth of Other Suns Isabel Wilkerson 2010
3 Wolf Hall Hilary Mantel 2009
4 The Known World Edward P. Jones 2003
5 The Corrections Jonathan Franzen 2001
6 2666 Roberto Bolaño; translated by Natasha Wimmer 2008
7 The Underground Railroad Colson Whitehead 2016
8 Austerlitz W.G. Sebald; translated by Anthea Bell 2001
9 Never Let Me Go Kazuo Ishiguro 2005
10 Gilead Marilynne Robinson 2004
11 The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao
12 The Year of Magical Thinking Joan Didion 2005
13 The Road Cormac McCarthy 2006
14 Outline Rachel Cusk 2015
15 Pachinko Min Jin Lee 2017
16 The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay
17 The Sellout Paul Beatty 2015
18 Lincoln in the Bardo George Saunders 2017
19 Say Nothing Patrick Radden Keefe 2019
20 Erasure Percival Everett 2001
21 Evicted Matthew Desmond 2016
22 Behind the Beautiful Forevers Katherine Boo 2012
23 Hateship, Friendship, Courtship, Loveship, Marriage Alice Munro 2001
24 The Overstory Richard Powers 2018
25 Random Family Adrian Nicole LeBlanc 2003
Wolf Hall is my favorite book, love seeing it so high on the list!
I’ve tried to read My Brilliant Friend literally 4 times and can’t get into it. It bums me out. On paper it’s exactly the type of book I would like. Anyone else?
Wow, I have read exactly three of these. But I do have another 20 or so sitting in my TBR piles in my house, and probably another dozen on my TBR list.
I have a sneaking suspicion that this will be one of the last times we see a Munro book ranked this highly on a ‘best of’ list.
[deleted]
Zero books on the list from Suzanna Clarke, Neil Gaiman, Jeff Vandermeer, and China Mieville. It really indicates that the voters are just ignoring literary fantasy/sci-fi because it’s “genre fiction” even though authors such as these are writing just as creative, unique, and meaningful works as any author that gets classified as “literary fiction”.
I’ve read 15 (a few more I DNF’d). My Brilliant Friend is well, brilliant, and I’ve no issues seeing it in the top spot.
The Sympathizer should be wayyyy higher on the list…out of the 15 that I’ve read it’d probably be #1 for me personally.
So glad to see Han Kang here, one of my favorite authors. But no Japanese fiction??? Really? I’d for one add Meiko Kawakami’s Breasts and Eggs.
Tomorrow, Tomorrow, and Tomorrow will probably be a polarizing pick…seemed like it was mostly popular among booktokers…but I personally really enjoyed it too and it was a nice surprise to see it here.
Didn’t like Bel Canto, surprised to see it here as Ann Patchett’s only entry. A Visit From the Good Squad and Station Eleven were pretty forgettable imo, but they were quite popular so I guess not super surprising picks.
I’d like to see a similar list from a hundred years ago and compare it to the works that are well-known today.
I HAVE BEEN WAITING FOR SOMEONE TO POST THIS WITHOUT A STUPID FUCKING PAYWALL
THANK YOU
I’ve read six of them:
Never Let Me Go
The Road
Lincoln in the Bardo
Atonement
Tomorrow and Tomorrow and Tomorrow
Station Eleven
Most of these books I think are great and belong here, but I found Station Eleven boring. Great premise but the book doesn’t live up to it.
Pachinko? Number 15? Really? It’s good but not that good.
I’m a fan of Denis Johnson’s works. How is Train Dreams and Tree of Smoke?
My Brilliant Friend (or really, the Neapolitan novels as a whole, since I think of them more as one very long story) at #1 was a pleasant surprise and, in my view, definitely earned. An absolute epic of womanhood. There is absolutely no writer I’ve ever read who can capture the nuances of a person’s internal life quite like Ferrante.
No Good lord bird, no cloud cuckoo land, 2 of my most recent favorites. The sellout on here is pretty awesomr
Tomorrow and Tomorrow and Tomorrow continues to be one of the most overrated books of the 21st century. You spend decades following characters through a tedious plot only to realize at the end that they’re all insufferable.
I’ve read around Twenty and agree that most of these are five stars for me. But a Visit From the Goon Squad is a weird choice. It was fun and interesting but I don’t remember anything remarkable about it really. Just a wacky romp. Also “The Years” was amazing but I felt like it was very a very niche trip down memory lane for women of a certain age. I loved it because it was aimed right at me, but wonder if it has a broad appeal.
One book that is missing that I haven’t seen others mention is Betty by Tiffany McDaniel. One of the most powerful books I’ve ever read
Never Let Me Go at number nine let’s fucking gooooo
I would have substituted The Underground Railroad with The Nickel Boys, I thought that was much better.
Also Lost Children Archive would definitely be on here, tha fact that it isn’t is a crime.
Hot take – The Corrections isn’t even the best Franzen book, let alone #5 in the century
I’ve only heard of 3 of these. clearly i am not of the 21st century lol
WOW, a book I love didn’t make the list and I book I didn’t love is ranked high??
I have to know what book the smallest amount of people selected for “Have Read” on this list is. I’d bet on Robert Caro.
Surprised at no Sally Rooney. Normal People was a really impactful book for me, esp reading it when I was in college myself.
I adore The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay. Glad to see it included.
I’m currently reading Lincoln in the Bardo, after discovering George Saunders’ short-story collections. So far, so good!
The Overstory is a book I keep picking up and, for some reason, keep putting down. I don’t know what it is, I just cannot get into this story enough to just finish the damn thing.
I remember Goon Squad winning the Pulitzer and being so shocked, because I thought that book was awful lol
I’ve read 33 and the only surprise is that I agree with almost nothing
My hot-takes (bring on the downvotes):
Tons of snubs for spec-fic/sci-fi. No Ted Chiang or Ken Liu or Van der Meer or Kelly Link?
Why isn’t Interior Chinatown by Charles Yu on here?
“Trust Exercise” by Susan Choi
No Chang Rae Lee?
All the Light We Cannot See??
George Saunders 3x, really?? He’s great, but seriously
Alice Munro?? I say this as someone who was ever really able to get into her work in the first place
I never understood the appeal of Denis Johnson
Lauren Groff should be on here
Hernan Diaz’s “In the Distance” is far superior to “Trust”
“Austerlitz” is not Sebald’s best either
~~“Blind Assassin” should be on here~~ Ok, I was under the impression that 2000 counted, but ok, crossing it off.
Where is Olga Tokarczuk??
“The Idiot” by Elif Batuman should be on here
Ffs, the NYT is turning into the Academy. Clique-y, political, insiders only. … sorry, not sorry, I have strong feelings
I would have put ‘Cloud Atlas’ higher. I think the movie adaptation wasn’t at all equal to the book and that hurt it.
‘The Road’ was a lesser book by McCarthy, to me.
There’s several there I’ll be checking out. Literally from the library.
Homegoing by Yaa Gyasi not on this list is wild, or anything by Lauren Groff
My list of Overlooked Titles:
The Map and the Territory – Houellebecq,
The Pale King – Wallace,
Annihilation – Vandermeer,
Gone Girl – Flynn,
A Naked Singularity – de la Pava,
My Struggle – Knausgaard,
A Time for Everything – Knausgaard,
The Infatuations – Marias,
There There – Orange,
House of Leaves – Danielewski,
Orfeo – Richard Powers
*Was very happy to see When We Cease to Understand the World on here. That book blew my mind.
*Surprised that Say Nothing made the list but not Empire of Pain. Both are brilliant! I actually think the latter is better but it might be recency bias.
*I find it interesting how many authors had No Country for Old Men on their lists, but The Road is the only representation McCarthy gets on here.
John Irving got snubbed?!
Have read Days of Abandonment, A Manual for Cleaning Women, The Vegetarian, Citizen, White Teeth (dnf), Americanah, Say Nothing, Pachinko (dnf), The Road, Never Let Me Go, Underground Railroad, 2666 (currently reading and The Savage Detectives by Bolaño is my next read)
Pleasantly surprised A Little Life wasn’t on the listed.
Neutrally surprised by no Ottessa Moshfegh (have Death In Her Hands and Lapvona tanked her reputation?)
Less pleasantly surprised by Pachinko’s placement and the lack of: Sayaka Murata, Olga Tokarczuk, Max Porter, David Diop, Hiroko Oyamada, Elisa Shua Dusapin, Natsuo Kirino, Anne Carson, and/or Ocean Vuong.
Would be shocked if they did this a year from now and Chain Gang All Stars wasn’t on it.
hi! thank you for sharing our list! we do also have more lists from this week, including:
* [the 10 best books of the century according to other writers and book lovers and ](https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2024/books/authors-top-books-21st-century.html?unlocked_article_code=1.6k0.NjCP.DIiABaqV9bjO&smid=re-nytimes)
* [a list of books that didn’t make our “Best Books of the 21st Century” list](https://www.nytimes.com/2024/07/11/books/review/favorite-books-stephen-king-megan-abbott.html?unlocked_article_code=1.6k0.b_5N.bQrLNyRxcSae&smid=re-nytimes) but these authors still made a case for them
and all of these can be read without an NYT subscription!
edit: spacing
This would be a really fun challenge on StoryGraph, I can’t search right this second but I’ll edit if I find one or make one myself
[Someone already made one here!!](https://app.thestorygraph.com/reading_challenges/8fd5b3ce-13df-4490-9d76-49f2cd1b7258)
Wolf Hall getting some love!! Awesome. RIP Hilary Mantel