My take on The 100 Best Books of the 21st Century

After dissecting all three lists, "what should I read next?!" is both a blessing and a curse.

There has been all sorts of intoxicating buzz since The New York Times Book Review published The 100 Best Books of the 21st Century. In fact so much uproar that it prompted a NYT Reader Top 100 List and a Book Enthusiast: Crowdsourced Top 100 List.

It is an exciting time to be a person who loves books.

Becca Freeman

writes the popular Substack: Book Enthusiast. Last month she dedicated herself to a massive project — she crowdsourced her readers top 100! With a clearly detailed methodology and her analytical meets organizational skills firing, she published the results in record time, countdown style. Each day a neatly skillful list punctuated with deft commentary. I had been pouring over each release with enthusiasm.

Yes, I submitted my top 10 when Becca released her poll!

Yes, a lot of my votes made the list overall and the Top 20!

Yes, I have counted how many books I’ve read from each list. Starting with the NYT Top 100, where I’ve got a whopping 4/100! I appreciated the articles interactive feature.

The Goldfinch has long been the answer to what is your favorite book? Exceptional, Exhilarating. Everything. Demon Copperhead, Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, and Tomorrow are two I read recently as to have recommended them both via this newsletter. They are striking, exemplary highlights of my reading career. A Visit from the Goon Squad is still a big deal, however, not as impactful on me as the former three.

I’ve read 20/100 from the NYT Readers list and 39/100 from Becca’s List. Of Becca’s Top 10 — I am 7/10. Book nerds are you with me!? Tell me your stats.

Okay, here is where we get at the goods: The THREE-FERS. There are 15 books that made all three lists. I am 3/15. Considering the three (✔️) are favorites, I’ve deduced there’s a good chance I will love the rest of this list. What about you? How many three-fers have you read?

• Say Nothing — Patrick Radden Keefe

• Atonement — Ian McEwan

• The Year of Magical Thinking — Joan Didion

• The Underground Railroad — Colson Whitehead

• Bel Canto — Ann Patchett

• Middlesex — Jeffrey Eugenides

• My Brilliant Friend — Elena Ferrante

• Never Let Me Go — Kazou Ishiguro

• Americanah — Chimamanda Ngozi

• The Goldfinch — Donna Tartt ✔️

• The Great Believers — Rebecca Makkai

• Station Eleven — Emily St. John Mandel

• Pachinko — Min Jin Lee

• Demon Copperhead — Barbara Kingsolver ✔️

• Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, and Tomorrow — Gabrielle Zevin ✔️

As I was compiling my NYT I want to read list, and Becca was busy gathering the Three-fers for us, I realized I had a ton of overlap.

This is ambitious! It all leans so literary, deep, powerful, some historical — which yes! — but I’m into many other genres, too. This is not a pressure cooker filled list, more like books-for-thought.

Books that avid readers felt were huge snubs are what propelled both crowdsourced lists. There is a lot of intersection between Becca’s List and the NYT Readers List, which feels vindicating for everyone who had snub-rage!

References to NYT below are the crowdsourced READERS LIST.

What else do I want to read!?

• The Great Alone — Kristin Hannah (#27 Becca’s List). If you have not experienced KH’s brilliant storytelling yet, here is your sign. (This was my sign!) The Women started out on this list but I’ve finished it.

• The Devil in The White City — Erik Larson. This is my husbands favorite book! It is was sitting on our bookshelf clocking in at #68 for the NYT crowd and #91 for the Becca crowd. (Reading this right now!)

• All The Light We Cannot See — Anthony Doerr. All the high praise and I just haven’t read it yet! #2 NYC / #11 BL.

• Becoming — Michelle Obama. #51 BL. I do audio books once in awhile, thinking this will be my next one.

• My remaining 3 from Becca’s Top 10. (#11, #21, #52 respectively on the NYT crowdsourced list.)

  • A Little Life — Hanya Yanagihara

  • Homegoing — Yaa Gyasi

  • Nightingale — Kristin Hannah

a flashing screen grab from the NYT Reader List.

What should YOU read?! These brilliant memoirs should be top of your list:

• Educated — Tara Westover (#6 NYT / #7 BL)

• Know My Name — Chanel Miller (#70 NYT / #8 BL)

• The Glass Castle — Jeanette Walls (#89 NYT / #48 BL)

• Crying in H Mart — Michelle Zauner. (#72 NYT / #56 BL)

Consider the following if you’re deciding what to read next:

• Anything by Taylor Jenkins Reid. The Seven Husband’s of Evelyn Hugo (#3 Becca’s List), Daisy Jones & The Six (#25 BL) are indeed her best work. Her writing shines with drama. Malibu Rising, Carrie Soto Is Back — both hit high! Though nary a mention from the NYT crowd for TJR.

• I guess we are grouping by author now. Let’s call out Khaled Hosseini. I’m hopeful you’ve all read his beloved classic, The Kite Runner which was released in 2003. (#40 NYT / #29 BL). But did you go on to read A Thousand Splendid Sons (#95 NYT / #97 BL) or And The Mountains Echoed? All three are deeply moving and important stories that will leave you stunned for a lifetime.

• Ann Patchett is a crowd favorite. Her books ignite a good-natured controversial spark among readers. I loved Commonwealth and The Dutch House, while Tom Lake was (surprisingly, to me) rather dull. All three are on Becca’s List, the latter two on NYTs. I look forward to reading Bel Canto (a Threefer!) and to see where it falls on my AP ranking.

• Two more twofers that you should definitely read are The Vanishing Half by Brit Bennett and Normal People by Sally Rooney. Timeless plots, constantly thought provoking, terrific writing: I adored both.

• Twofers that you should consider are Circe by Madeline Miller, and Lessons in Chemistry by Bonne Garmus. These we middle of the road for me, but folks love ‘em!

• Becca’s list only I think you should read are: Fates and Furies by Lauren Groff, Anxious People by Frederick Backman and Little Fires Everywhere by Celeste Ng. Outstanding writers deliver surprising gifts to the readers through depth, charm, humor, and brilliance.

I love that each time you discover a new-to-you author it is like being initiated into a little club.

another random screen grab from the NYT reader list.

Authors and 21st Century crazes to geek out over?!

• Gillian Flynn — Gone Girl is a twofer, not to be confused with actual second place (#2 BL). This defined a new league of psychological thriller. Sharp Objects and Dark Places are not on the lists but are critically acclaimed, enthralling reads IMO if you’re a dark twisty thrill me off reader.

• The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins is high on Becca’s list at #12 and middle of the pack for NYT Readers at #56. You all read The Hunger Games in 2008 followed by Catching Fire and Mockingjay, right? We love a trilogy!

• Jodi Picoult — no lists! I’m not outraged but speaking 21st Century overall, maybe I’m surprised? Do we feel like she was snubbed? Leaving Time, Small Great Things and Wish You Were Here were literary fiction greats to me!

• A Gentleman in Moscow by Amor Towles. How many books are on your DNF list? This is the ONLY ONE on mine! I have tried to read this book three times? #3 NYT! / #42 BL.

• Elizabeth Strout — her writing is glimmery, poetic and intriguing. I guess Olive Kittredge is the one to read, it is on both NYT lists and won the Pulitzer Prize (fiction) in 2009. I’ve read My Name is Lucy Barton and Anything is Possible which I enjoyed, they fall middle of the pack for me (and made no lists).

Becca’s Crowdsourced List Only

• EmHen fans — Beach Read + Book Lovers are the two on Becca’s list. For me these are good but not favorites.

• Elin Hilderbrand — 28 Summers grabbed the #95 spot and that’s it. A very good Elin book!

• Colleen Hoover — induces author mania for sure. Becca’s list has her psychological thriller Verity at #69 but that’s all for Colleen!

• ACOTAR girlies (not me atm!) but I recall one of these made the cut.

• Stieg Larsson — Girl With The Dragon Tattoo is #54. When the frenzy was big I read the trilogy (Girl Who Played With Fire, Girl Who Kicked The Hornets Nest). It’s fun to recall how riveting these books were!

• Crazy Rich Asians by Kevin Kwan is another ‘first book that started a trilogy craze’ at #88. If you vibed the first one, did you read China Rich Girlfriend and Rich People Problems? Oh how I devoured these from 2013 — 2017, I loved the outrageousness, the food descriptions and the lavish settings!

• Carley Fortune — regulars know I am a huge Carley tug at your heart summer romance Fortune fan. Every Summer After is BL #66.

I’ve been intrigued by the raw data (excel spreadsheet) Becca shared!

To set the stage: Book #100 had 26 votes vs. book #1 had a whopping 358, # 2 had 236. Remember: we voted for our TOP 10. I wrote this entire post before I jumped into the raw data spreadsheet. I decided to pour through it — and came back to add these points. I’ve gone completely book nerd. We’re almost done here!

• What about personal favorite books after #100 which missed top honors? Real Americans by Rachel Khong (a newly proclaimed favorite for me) had 20 votes. Funny Story (the best EmHen IMO) had 15 votes. Both of these came out in 2024.

• I pondered if Liz Moore got any love as I think she’s outstanding. Long Bright River had 21 votes!

• This is no doubt a very large, very broad category of you were not my top pick, but I liked you, I’m curious where you are on this list?! Such A Fun Age by Kiley Reid and The Most Fun We Ever Had by Clare Lombardo both had 19 votes. American Dirt by Jeanine Cummins had 16. All three were solid, provoking, glad-I-read-them books!

• Books with few votes that deeply moved me: Before We Were Yours by Lisa Wingate = 8 votes, Lilac Girls by Martha Hall Kelly = 6 votes. These are powerful historical fiction novels. If we have the same taste, I would recommend them to you!

• Books from the original NYT list pop up in Becca’s raw data, which means readers do have them as favorites, just not on a large scale with this particular demographic. The aforementioned A Visit from the Goon Squad by Jennifer Eagan had 18 votes. Jesmyn Ward keeps popping up in this category and she’s now an author whose club I want to enter.

• Small Great Things by Jodi Picoult had 15. There you are, Jodi! Oh look, there is my favorite Elin, The Blue Bistro with 14 votes.

For the most part, I am not one to miss a trending read, a trilogy, a fan favorite author, the latest mania: these books are great for a reason. However, I won’t jump on every single bandwagon and sometimes not right away. I favor literary fiction, women’s fiction, historical fiction, coming-of-age stories, memoirs, romance, romcoms, and thrillers. Be choosy and go read what speaks to your soul! But don’t be afraid to branch out, either!

Okay, your turn. If you dissected these lists or made mention of them, drop your link in the comments.

Are you still grieving any that were snubbed?

What is/are your favorite book(s) of all time?!

Happy Reading,