The Book Thread Book • Page 171

non fiction. Follows the Chatham A’s 2002 season

 

https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2024/books/best-books-21st-century.html

NYT best books of the 21st century list. I've read 13/100, which is actually more than I thought considering how little I keep up with new books. A few random observations:
- Awesome to see Never Let Me Go up so high
- I continue to not get the fawning over Tomorrow and Tomorrow and Tomorrow
- I guess I should read Elena Ferrante?
- Looking at the individual ballots, Stephen King is an absolute god for voting for Under the Dome

 

Is there a way to see the list of 100 not behind a paywall?

 

100. Tree of Smoke - Denis Johnson

99. How to Be Both - Ali Smith

98. Bel Canto - Ann Patchett

97. Men We Reaped - Jesmyn Ward

96. Wayward Lives, Beautiful Experiments - Saidiya Hartman

95. Bring Up the Bodies - Hilary Mantel

94. On Beauty - Zadie Smith

93. Station Eleven - Emily St. John Mandel

92. The Days of Abandonment - Elena Ferrante

91. The Human Stain - Philip Roth

90. The Sympathizer - Viet Thanh Nguyen

89. The Return - Hisham Matar

88. The Collected Stories of Lydia Davis - Lydia Davis

87. Detransition, Baby - Torrey Peters

86. Frederick Douglass - David W. Blight

85. Pastoralia - George Saunders

84. The Emperor of All Maladies - Siddhartha Mukherjee

83. When We Cease to Understand the World - Benjamín Labatut

82. Hurricane Season - Fernanda Melchor

81. Pulphead - John Jeremiah Sullivan

80. The Story of the Lost Child - Elena Ferrante

79. A Manual for Cleaning Women - Lucia Berlin

78. Septology - Jon Fosse

77. An American Marriage - Tayari Jones

76. Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, and Tomorrow - Gabrielle Zevin

75. Exit West - Mohsin Hamid

74. Olive Kitteridge - Elizabeth Strout

73. The Passage of Power - Robert Caro

72. Secondhand Time - Svetlana Alexievich

71. The Copenhagen Trilogy - Tove Ditlevsen

70. All Aunt Hagar’s Children - Edward P. Jones

69. The New Jim Crow - Michelle Alexander

68. The Friend - Sigrid Nunez

67. Far From the Tree - Andrew Solomon

66. We the Animals - Justin Torres

65. The Plot Against America - Philip Roth

64. The Great Believers - Rebecca Makkai

63. Veronica - Mary Gaitskill

62. 10:04 - Ben Lerner

61. Demon Copperhead - Barbara Kingsolver

60. Heavy - Kiese Laymon

59. Middlesex - Jeffrey Eugenides

58. Stay True - Hua Hsu

57. Nickel and Dimed - Barbara Ehrenreich

56. The Flamethrowers - Rachel Kushner

55. The Looming Tower - Lawrence Wright

54. Tenth of December - George Saunders

53. Runaway - Alice Munro

52. Train Dreams - Denis Johnson

51. Life After Life - Kate Atkinson

50. Trust - Hernan Diaz

49. The Vegetarian - Han Kang

48. Persepolis - Marjane Satrapi

47. A Mercy - Toni Morrison

46. The Goldfinch - Donna Tartt

45. The Argonauts - Maggie Nelson

44. The Fifth Season - N.K. Jemisin

43. Postwar - Tony Judt

42. A Brief History of Seven Killings - Marlon James

41. Small Things Like These - Claire Keegan

40. H Is for Hawk - Helen Macdonald

39. A Visit From the Goon Squad - Jennifer Egan

38. The Savage Detectives - Roberto Bolaño

37. The Years - Annie Ernaux

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

35. Fun Home - Alison Bechdel

34. Citizen - Claudia Rankine

33. Salvage the Bones - Jesmyn Ward

32. The Line of Beauty - Alan Hollinghurst

31. White Teeth - Zadie Smith

30. Sing, Unburied, Sing - Jesmyn Ward

29. The Last Samurai - Helen DeWitt

28. Cloud Atlas - David Mitchell

27. Americanah - Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie

26. Atonement - Ian McEwan

25. Random Family - Adrian Nicole LeBlanc

24. The Overstory - Richard Powers

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

22. Behind the Beautiful Forevers - Katherine Boo

21. Evicted - Matthew Desmond

20. Erasure - Percival Everett

19. Say Nothing - Patrick Radden Keefe

18. Lincoln in the Bardo - George Saunders

17. The Sellout - Paul Beatty

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

15. Pachinko - Min Jin Lee

14. Outline - Rachel Cusk

13. The Road - Cormac McCarthy

12. The Year of Magical Thinking - Joan Didion

11. The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao - Junot Díaz

10. Gilead - Marilynne Robinson

9. Never Let Me Go - Kazuo Ishiguro

8. Austerlitz - W.G. Sebald

7. The Underground Railroad - Colson Whitehead

6. 2666 - Roberto Bolaño

5. The Corrections - Jonathan Franzen

4. The Known World - Edward P. Jones

3. Wolf Hall - Hilary Mantel

2. The Warmth of Other Suns - Isabel Wilkerson

1. My Brilliant Friend - Elena Ferrante
   

 

I've read about 5 of those lol, not proud of that. glad to see The Fifth Season there, what a book

 

I’m also at 13. The lack of genre fiction on here makes me seriously side eye it a bit, despite it not being surprising.

 

I have read exactly two of those. Cloud Atlas and The Road lol

 

That's up very soon on my to read list, definitely looking forward to it.

I thought it had come out in the '90s, but now that I see it was in 2000 I am actually a little surprised A Storm of Swords didn't make it. Seems like that would have been the one to break through since the show obviously did.

 

it's a tough read at times but very very good, definitely earns the accolades. I didn't like the sequels as much but I know a lot of people who loved the entire trilogy

 

I’m surprised at the lack of Japanese fiction, but I guess it comes down to who submitted ballots in the end

 

No small press books so I just couldn’t give a shit about that list.

 

I’ve read three on the list.

Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, and Tomorrow
Fun Home
The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao

There’s a few on there I want to read but also a majority I have no interest in lol

 

I’m halfway through The Wager and I gotta be honest… it’s not holding my interest at all. I’m genuinely shocked because so many people recommended it to me and it’s right in my wheelhouse. It’s just not clicking for me.

 

A book I consider the worst book I’ve ever read is on that list, so that gives me enough insight into many of the 87 I haven’t read or heard of to know I’m not going to that list for many recs.

 

Which one?

I don’t think it’s among the worst I’ve ever read, but I’ve never been able to finish Kavalier and Clay despite how lauded it is.

 

Lincoln in the Bardo.

I struggled to finish Kavalier and Clay as well.

 

Lincoln in the Bardo is so overrated and comes away a little weightless by the end. Also kind of wild that there’s not a single poetry book on there.

 

They did ask a lot of writers to submit ballots, it’s not a list they themselves came up with, so it’s not really their fault what ended up being on there

 

I think if I were voting, some of my ten would be something like

Shadow of the Wind by Carlos Ruiz Zafon
Words of Radiance by Brandon Sanderson
All The Light We Cannot See by Anthony Doerr
Catching Fire by Suzanne Collins
The Hate U Give by Angie Thomas
Project Hail Mary by Andy Weir

The included Never Let Me Go and The Goldfinch would definitely be in the mix, too. Maybe The Kite Runner. Harry Potter 4 or 6.

Definitely forgetting a lot while I’m ruminating over my quick lunch before getting in the pool.

 

It’s hard because they allowed fiction and nonfiction

 

They really should have separated them.

You can see some of the ballots from authors here, but it’s behind the NYT paywall.

Stephen King, Sarah Jessica Parker and More Share Their Top Books of the 21st Century

 

I’m shocked Gone Girl wasn’t on there. I saw a bunch of people put it on their lists and that book had a stranglehold over everyone for a bit (and I did really enjoy it).

Some others I would have expected on there just based on how they were received critically (not necessarily because I like all of them or think they should):

All the Light We Cannot See
Everything is Illuminated
Kafka on the Shore
No Country For Old Men
Educated

 

Starting Red Rising

 

bout halfway through Angel of Indian Lake, absolutely fantastic so far. some of the most emotional lines in the whole trilogy and it's still getting to the really good stuff. I like that we're mostly back in Jade's POV to end it even though I appreciated getting the other characters in Reaper

 

Has anyone read Demon Copperhead? I have a little book club with my friends and we are starting that this week.