NYT Best Books of the 21st Century: Reader’s Choice

Updated about 2 months ago
100 Books

“When the Book Review published a list of the 100 best books of the century, we knew we'd hear from readers who were incensed or gutted or driven wild by grief. How could So-and-So's book not make the cut?
One of the best things about working in books is just this: the passion of our constituency. No way would we deprive readers of the chance to vote for their own list and make their voices heard.
And so you have. Here's the Readers' Choice: Best Books of the 21st Century. There's some overlap between your list and ours - we agreed on 39 books.” - NYT

Position	Details	Rating	Readers Count
#1	Demon Copperhead Barbara Kingsolver	4.41	407 reads
#2	All the Light We Cannot See Anthony Doerr	4.19	898 reads
#3	A Gentleman in Moscow Amor Towles	4.22	514 reads
#4	The Goldfinch Donna Tartt	3.94	674 reads
#5	Pachinko Min Jin Lee	4.24	569 reads
#6	Educated: A Memoir Tara Westover	4.43	1,065 reads
#7	Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, and Tomorrow Gabrielle Zevin	4.11	1,588 reads
#8	My Brilliant Friend Elena Ferrante Ann Goldstein (Translator)	4.05	350 reads
#9	Never Let Me Go Kazuo Ishiguro	3.82	1,033 reads
#10	Station Eleven Emily St. John Mandel	4.08	1,224 reads
#11	A Little Life	4.13	678 reads
#12	The Overstory Richard Powers	4.07	303 reads
#13	The Underground Railroad Colson Whitehead	4.02	434 reads
#14	Wolf Hall Hilary Mantel	3.95	251 reads
#15	The Road Cormac McCarthy	4.03	1,405 reads
#16	Lincoln in the Bardo George Saunders	3.89	295 reads
#17	Atonement Ian McEwan	3.89	356 reads
#18	Middlesex Jeffrey Eugenides	4.14	377 reads
#19	Americanah Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie	4.23	326 reads
#20	The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay Michael Chabon	4.23	316 reads
#21	Homegoing Yaa Gyasi	4.47	335 reads
#22	Hamnet Maggie O'Farrell	4.17	261 reads
#23	The Warmth of Other Suns: The Epic Story of America's Great Migration Isabel Wilkerson	4.46	104 reads
#24	Bel Canto Ann Patchett	3.79	166 reads
#25	Gilead Marilynne Robinson	3.94	135 reads
#26	The Corrections Jonathan Franzen	3.81	190 reads
#27	Normal People Sally Rooney	3.63	1,209 reads
#28	Cutting for Stone Abraham Verghese	4.03	99 reads
#29	Say Nothing: A True Story of Murder and Memory in Northern Ireland Patrick Radden Keefe	4.44	220 reads
#30	A Visit from the Goon Squad Jennifer Egan	3.79	307 reads
#31	Circe Madeline Miller	4.24	1,672 reads
#32	Cloud Cuckoo Land Anthony Doerr	4.26	317 reads
#33	The Book Thief Markus Zusak	4.32	1,470 reads
#34	Cloud Atlas David Mitchell	3.93	529 reads
#35	The Covenant of Water Abraham Verghese	4.32	113 reads
#36	The Year of Magical Thinking Joan Didion	4.03	263 reads
#37	The Nickel Boys Colson Whitehead	4.27	301 reads
#38	The Great Believers Rebecca Makkai	4.49	124 reads
#39	Olive Kitteridge Elizabeth Strout	4.02	162 reads
#40	The Kite Runner Khaled Hosseini	4.16	1,247 reads
#41	Life After Life Kate Atkinson	3.66	215 reads
#42	The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao Junot Díaz	3.71	316 reads
#43	Between the World and Me Ta-Nehisi Coates	4.55	547 reads
#44	The Heaven & Earth Grocery Store James McBride	3.86	170 reads
#45	There There Tommy Orange	3.93	280 reads
#46	The Song of Achilles Madeline Miller	4.27	1,809 reads
#47	Lessons in Chemistry Bonnie Garmus	4.14	730 reads
#48	On Earth We're Briefly Gorgeous Ocean Vuong	3.97	502 reads
#49	Gone Girl Gillian Flynn	3.95	1,493 reads
#50	James Percival Everett	4.44	186 reads
#51	Caste Isabel Wilkerson	4.43	231 reads
#52	The Nightingale Kristin Hannah	4.34	516 reads
#53	Trust Hernan Diaz Ada Arduini (Translator)	3.78	194 reads
#54	11/22/63 Stephen King	4.32	890 reads
#55	Braiding Sweetgrass: Indigenous Wisdom, Scientific Knowledge, and the Teachings of Plants Robin Wall Kimmerer	4.53	241 reads
#56	The Hunger Games Suzanne Collins	4.12	4,542 reads
#57	Small Things Like These Claire Keegan	4.14	405 reads
#58	White Teeth Zadie Smith	3.82	177 reads
#59	Where the Crawdads Sing Delia Owens	4.07	1,062 reads
#60	The Dutch House Ann Patchett	4.01	284 reads
#61	North Woods Daniel Mason	4.32	92 reads
#62	The Sympathizer Viet Thanh Nguyen	4.07	202 reads
#63	The Fifth Season N.K. Jemisin	4.35	1,234 reads
#64	2666 Roberto Bolaño Natasha Wimmer (Translator)	3.91	103 reads
#65	Evicted: Poverty and Profit in the American City Matthew Desmond	4.59	181 reads
#66	Just Kids Patti Smith	4.18	214 reads
#67	Piranesi Susanna Clarke	4.24	1,435 reads
#68	The Devil in the White City Erik Larson	3.99	603 reads
#69	Killers of the Flower Moon: The Osage Murders and the Birth of the FBI David Grann	4.15	487 reads
#70	Know My Name Chanel Miller	4.71	243 reads
#71	Sing, Unburied, Sing Jesmyn Ward	4.08	172 reads
#72	Crying in H Mart Michelle Zauner	4.25	626 reads
#73	Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows J. K. Rowling	4.43	4,117 reads
#74	Klara and the Sun Kazuo Ishiguro	3.79	774 reads
#75	The Lincoln Highway Amor Towles	4.19	168 reads
#76	Just Mercy Bryan Stevenson	4.75	189 reads
#77	Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind Yuval Noah Harari	4.23	1,280 reads
#78	Kafka on the Shore Haruki Murakami Philip Gabriel (Translator)	3.98	830 reads
#79	1Q84 Haruki Murakami Jay Rubin (Translator) Philip Gabriel	3.67	482 reads
#80	Deacon King Kong James McBride	4.18	68 reads
#81	Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks Rebecca Skloot	4.18	396 reads
#82	Tom Lake Ann Patchett	4.03	191 reads
#83	Let the Great World Spin Colum McCann	4.11	85 reads
#84	Tenth of December George Saunders	4.03	156 reads
#85	When Breath Becomes Air Paul Kalanithi	4.37	533 reads
#86	Life of Pi Yann Martel	3.84	982 reads
#87	Girl, Woman, Other Bernardine Evaristo	4.28	201 reads
#88	The Plot Against America Philip Roth	3.67	98 reads
#89	The Glass Castle Jeannette Walls	4.17	430 reads
#90	In the Dream House	4.46	307 reads
#91	Project Hail Mary Andy Weir	4.45	2,699 reads
#92	Drive Your Plow Over the Bones of the Dead Olga Tokarczuk Antonia Lloyd-Jones (Translator)	3.79	204 reads
#93	Remarkably Bright Creatures Shelby Van Pelt	4.15	524 reads
#94	The Bee Sting Paul Murray	4.21	105 reads
#95	A Thousand Splendid Suns Khaled Hosseini	4.35	633 reads
#96	The Vanishing Half Brit Bennett	4.11	528 reads
#97	My Year of Rest and Relaxation Ottessa Moshfegh	3.72	557 reads
#98	Shuggie Bain Douglas Stuart	4.26	153 reads
#99	Empire of Pain: The Secret History of the Sackler Dynasty Patrick Radden Keefe	4.57	187 reads
#100	A Man Called Ove Fredrik Backman Henning Koch (Translator)	4.37	858 reads