new york times book review july 25 2021

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The Book Review

• UPDATED BIWEEKLY

The world's top authors and critics join host Gilbert Cruz and editors at The New York Times Book Review to talk about the week's top books, what we're reading and what's going on in the literary world. Listen to this podcast in New York Times Audio, our new iOS app for news subscribers. Download now at nytimes.com/audioapp

Kate Atkinson on the Return of Jackson Brodie

The British writer Kate Atkinson has had a rich and varied career since publishing her first book in 1996. But she may be best known for her Jackson Brodie series of crime novels. Sarah Lyall speaks with Atkinson about the sixth entry in the series, "Death at the Sign of the Rook."

21st Century Books Special Edition: Isabel Wilkerson on 'The Warmth of Other Suns'

As part of its recent "100 Best Books of the 21st Century" project, The New York Times Book Review is interviewing some of the authors whose books appeared on the list. This week, Isabel Wilkerson joins host Gilbert Cruz to discuss her 2010 book about the Great Migration.

Book Club: 'My Brilliant Friend,' by Elena Ferrante

The New York Times Book Review recently published a list of The 100 Best Books of the 21st Century. The top choice was “My Brilliant Friend,” by Elena Ferrante, translated by Ann Goldstein. In this week’s episode, MJ Franklin discusses the book with fellow editors Joumana Khatib, Emily Eakin and Gregory Cowles.

21st Century Books Special Edition: Jennifer Egan on 'A Visit from the Goon Squad'

As part of its recent “100 Best Books of the 21st Century" project, The New York Times Book Review is interviewing some of the authors whose books appeared on the list. This week, Jennifer Egan discusses discuss her Pulitzer-winning novel about the music industry, "A Visit From the Goon Squad."

Liz Moore on Her Summer Camp Mystery "The God of the Woods"

A summer camp in the Adirondacks. A rich girl gone missing, 14 years after her older brother also disappeared. A prominent local family harboring dark secrets. On this week’s episode, author Liz Moore chats with Gilbert Cruz about her new novel “The God in the Woods.”

What We're Reading This Summer

On this week’s episode, host Gilbert Cruz chats with his colleagues Joumana Khatib and Anna Dubenko about the books that have been occupying their attention this season.

21st Century Books Special Edition: George Saunders on 'Lincoln in the Bardo'

As part of its recent "100 Best Books of the 21st Century" project, The New York Times Book Review is interviewing some of the authors whose books appeared on the list. This week, George Saunders joins host Gilbert Cruz.

Sarah Jessica Parker on Her Life in Publishing

Since 2016, the renowned actress has also worked in publishing, bringing her name and love of books to imprints at two companies. In this episode, she discusses what that work has meant to her.

Hosts & Guests

Gilbert cruz, george saunders, sarah jessica parker, min jin lee, colson whitehead, lev grossman, mj franklin, joumana khatib, lauren christensen, griffin dunne, ratings & reviews.

Very weird that you’ve never read house of mirth!

cyndyluwhoo

MJ, please practice your presentation and lose the unnecessary word “like”! I find myself starting to count the number of “likes” you use and then have to stop listening. I would love to stick with the discussion but the irritation over the adolescent speech pattern chases me away.

Summer reads

My favorite episode for now. I learned but mostly I laughed. Thank you for teaching and tickling me.

New Favorite Episode

Just finished listening to the August 9 episode and I relished every minute. Maybe because Gilbert C and I are enjoying the same book at the same time? But no, Anna Dubenko and Joumana Khatib were just as much fun. These are all readers with wide interests and firm opinions (don't try to borrow a book from Anna) and their love of books and reading shines through. I might listen again.

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Booklist Queen

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The New York Times Fiction Bestseller List 2021

Go beyond just the current list of New York Times Fiction Best Sellers of 2021 to discover every bestselling book listed on the NYT Bestseller List in 2021.

Since 1931, The New York Times has been publishing a weekly list of bestselling books. Since then, becoming a New York Times bestseller has become a dream for virtually every writer.

When I first started reading adult fiction, one of the first places I went for book recommendations was the New York Times Fiction Best Sellers. I wanted to know what books were the most widely read, and start with those.

However, scrolling through the list week by week on The New York Times website is rather annoying. I just wanted all the bestselling fiction books gathered together in one place.

When I couldn’t find it, I decided to create it.

Here are all the New York Times fiction bestsellers from 2021. Instead of just the current best seller list , which you can find all over the place, I’ve compiled a list of every book that has appeared on the New York Times Fiction Best Sellers list in 2021 for Hardcover Fiction. 

Note: The week count in this list stops on the last week of 2021. Visit the 2022 Bestseller List if you want to find out which books kept ranking into the next year.

Since this is a bit of a sprawling post, feel free to jump to the section that most interests you or take your time scrolling through the complete list of New York Times fiction best sellers.

Quick Links

• #1 Fiction Best Sellers of 2021
• Heavyweights (10+ Weeks)
• Fan Favorites (5+ Weeks)
• Honorable Mention (2+ Weeks)
• One Hit Wonders

Don’t Miss a Thing

#1 New York Times Fiction Best Sellers of 2021

Where the Crawdads Sing

Delia owens.

(133 Weeks) For years, Kya Clark has survived alone in the marshes of the North Carolina coast. Dubbed “The Marsh Girl” by the locals, she was abandoned by her family and has been raised by nature itself. Now, as she comes of age, she begins to yearn for something more than her loneliness – maybe even a connection with the locals.

Publication Date: 14 August 2018 Amazon | Goodreads | More Info

The Vanishing Half

Brit bennett.

(50 Weeks) Growing up in a small black community in the Deep South, the Vignes sisters run away at age sixteen. Though identical twins, their lives end in completely different paths. One returns to live in their hometown while the other secretly passes as white. Bennett explores more than race, as she contemplates how the past affects future generations when their daughters’ lives intersect.

Publication Date: 2 June 2020 Amazon | Goodreads | More Info

American Dirt

Jeanine cummins.

(35 Weeks) In Mexico, bookstore owner Lydia is charmed to meet Javier, a man who shares her taste in books, only to find he is the local drug lord. When her husband exposes Javier’s secrets, the wrath of the cartel falls upon her family. Lydia and her son Luca must flee from his wrath – all the way to American soil.

Publication Date: 21 January 2020 Amazon | Goodreads | More Info

The Last Thing He Told Me

(30 Weeks) Before Owen Michaels disappeared, he smuggled a note to his new wife Hannah: Protect her . Hannah knows he’s referring to his sixteen-year-old daughter Bailey, but Bailey doesn’t want anything to do with Hannah. As Owen’s boss gets arrested and the FBI come knocking, Hannah and Bailey must come together to discover Owen’s secrets.

Publication Date: 4 May 2021 Amazon | Goodreads | More Info

The Four Winds

Kristin hannah.

(27 Weeks) In the Texas panhandle in 1934, severe drought plagues the land. With crops failing, dust storms whip up, leaving the farmers fighting for survival. In the perilous times of the Great Depression, Elsa Martinelli must decide whether to stay and fight for her land or head west to California which offers her family a better life.

Publication Date: 2 February 2021 Amazon | Goodreads | More Info

The Guest list

(25 Weeks) On a remote Irish island, the perfect wedding turns deadly in this thrilling mystery. The high profile wedding between a television star and a magazine publisher is supposed to be the perfect event. Yet once the guests arrive, past conflicts come into play and someone turns up dead. Was it the bride? The best man? The wedding planner?

Anxious People

Fredrik backman.

(24 Weeks) After a failed bank robbery, a banker robber on the run accidentally ends up with a room full of hostages at an open house. After letting all of the hostages go, the police storm the apartment, only to find it empty. Now the police must interview the dysfunctional group to figure out what exactly happened. Backman purposely plays on your assumptions and uses an unusual narration style that gives the story an allegorical feel.

Publication Date: 8 September 2020 Amazon | Goodreads | More Info

Nicholas Sparks

(22 Weeks) After being injured in a bombing in Afghanistan, a Navy doctor settles at his late grandfather’s cabin in North Carolina. While recuperating from his wounds, Trevor Benson never expects to find love, but he can’t fight the attraction he feels to deputy sheriff Natalie Masterson. However, Natalie remains distant, and a sullen teenage girl might be more connected to Trevor’s grandfather’s death than any suspected.

Publication Date: 29 September 2020 Amazon | Goodreads | More Info

If It Bleeds

Stephen king.

(20 Weeks ) A collection of four novellas. In “If It Bleeds,” a standalone sequel to The Outsider , a bomb at a middle school prompts an investigation into the lead reporter by Holly Gibney. Other stories include “Mr. Harriagan’s Phone,” “The Life of Chuck,” and “Rat.”

Publication Date: 21 April 2020 Amazon | Goodreads | More Info

A Time for Mercy

John grisham.

(19 Weeks) John Grisham returns you to Clanton, Mississipi, the setting of his debut novel A Time to Kill . After appearing in the novel Sycamore Row , lawyer Jake Brigance is back, this time defending a teenager accused of killing a local deputy. With demand rising for a swift guilty verdict and the death penalty, Brigance realizes the town is against him as he pleads for mercy along with justice.

Publication Date: 13 October 2020 Amazon | Goodreads | More Info

Billy Summers

(18 Weeks) From the master of fiction comes a new novel about a good guy in a bad job. Sniper for hire Billy Summers is picky about his jobs. The decorated Iraq war veteran only accepts hits on men who are truly evil. Before getting out of the game, Billy decides to accept one last job when everything goes wrong.

Publication Date: 3 August 2021 Amazon | Goodreads | More Info

The President’s Daughter

Bill clinton and james patterson.

(13 Weeks) Former President Bill Clinton and master storyteller James Patterson collaborate for a second time on a summer political thriller. When Former US President Matthew Keating’s daughter is abducted by a madman, he uses the skills he learned as a Navy SEAL to set out on a one-man mission to get her back, while the entire world watches in real time.

Publication Date: 7 June 2021 Amazon | Goodreads | More Info

The Evening and the Morning

Ken follett.

(12 Weeks) Thirty years after publishing The Pillars of the Earth , Ken Follett has written a prequel revealing the events that led up to his epic work. At the end of the Dark Ages in England, one man’s determination to make his abbey the center of learning changes the lives of a boatbuilder, a noblewoman, and the monk in unexpected ways.

Publication Date: 15 September 2020 Amazon | Goodreads | More Info

Ready Player Two

Ernest cline.

(12 Weeks) Ernest Cline returns with a sequel to his science fiction bestseller, Ready Player One . After winning James Halliday’s contest, Wade Watts finds another easter egg hidden in Halliday’s vaults – a technological advance leagues ahead of the OASIS. Wade and his friends must solve this new riddle in a plot eerily reminiscent of the first book. And, yes, Wil Wheaton is narrating the audiobook.

Publication Date: 24 November 2020 Amazon | Goodreads | More Info

The Hill We Climb

Amanda gorman.

(12 Weeks) In 2021, Amanda Gorman became the youngest presidential inaugural poet in US history when she read her poem, “The Hill We Climb,” at President Biden’s inauguration. A special edition hardcover copy of her inaugural poem with a foreword by Oprah Winfrey.

Publication Date: 30 March 2021 Amazon | Goodreads | More Info

(12 Weeks) At 17, Samuel Sooleyman gets the chance of a lifetime: a trip to America with his South Sudanese teammates to play basketball in front of college scouts. While there, war breaks out across South Sudan, ransacking his village and killing his father. When he is offered a scholarship to play at North Carolina Central, Samuel uses his raw talent and determination to succeed, desperately hoping to bring his family to America.

Publication Date: 27 April 2021 Amazon | Goodreads | More Info

The Paper Palace

Miranda cowley heller.

(12 Weeks) On a July morning, Elle wakes up at The Paper Palace, her family’s summer home, with an enormous choice facing her. The previous night, she had sex with her childhood best friend Jonas while their spouses chatted in the kitchen. Now Elle must decide between the perfectly happy married life she has made with Peter or the life that could have been with Jonas if tragedy hadn’t struck.

Publication Date: 6 July 2021 Amazon | Goodreads | More Info

(11 Weeks) As a troubled teenager, Maggie Dawes was sent to live with her aunt in a remote North Carolina beach town. Her life is changed forever when she met Bryce Trickett, a handsome local teen who taught her to love the island and introduced her to photography before he heads off to West Point. Now a renowned travel photographer, Maggie recounts the story of her first love to her young assistant after Maggie is diagnosed with a crippling illness.

Publication Date: 28 September 2021 Amazon | Goodreads | More Info

The Sentinel

Lee child and andrew child.

(10 Weeks) In the 25th Jack Reacher novel, Lee Child teams up with his younger brother Andrew. When Jack Reacher intervenes in an ambush in Tennessee, he meets an unassuming IT manager. Recently fired from his job after a cyberattack, Rusty Rutherford just wants to clear his name. Instead, they stumble upon a much larger conspiracy.

Publication Date: 27 October 2020 Amazon | Goodreads | More Info

Golden Girl

Elin hilderbrand.

(10 Weeks) On a brilliant June day, author Vivian Howe is killed in a hit-and-run car accident. She finds herself in the Beyond, where she is allowed to view one last summer and is granted three “nudges” to those she left behind. The mother of three must choose how she will help her three children, as they struggle with adulthood and discover secrets she had kept buried. Elin Hilderbrand is known for writing some of the best beach reads, so you won’t want to miss her latest book.

Publication Date: 1 June 2021 Amazon | Goodreads | More Info

The Lincoln Highway

Amor towles.

(10 Weeks) After spending a year at a prison work farm for involuntary manslaughter, eighteen-year-old Emmett Watson returns to his Nebraska hometown. With his mother gone and his father recently deceased, Emmett plans to pick up his eight-year-old brother and head West. But his plans are derailed when two friends from the work farm suddenly appear with a scheme of their own.

Publication Date: 5 October 2021 Amazon | Goodreads | More Info

Apples Never Fall

Liane moriarty.

(9 Weeks) It should be the golden years for Stan and Joy Delaney now that they’ve sold their tennis academy and settled into retirement, so why aren’t they happy? When they welcome a bleeding stranger into their home, her arrival begins a cascade of events. Now Joy is missing, and the four grown Delaney children wonder if their father might have done it. Liane Moriarty’s books always make for exciting reads, so you’ll want to keep your eye out for her latest novel this fall.

Publication Date: 14 September 2021 Amazon | Goodreads | More Info

The Judge’s List

(8 Weeks) After taking on a criminal syndicate that was paying off a federal judge in The Whistler , Florida Board of Judicial Conduct investigator Lacy Stoltz returns in Grisham’s latest thriller. In her latest case, the crimes are even worse than before. Instead of taking bribes, a corrupt judge is taking lives with his own hit list.

Publication Date: 19 October 2021 Amazon | Goodreads | More Info

Fortune and Glory

Janet evanovich.

(8 Weeks) The 27th Stephanie Plum novel. After Grandma Mazur’s new husband dies, he leaves her the key to his massive fortune. As Stephanie and her grandma search for the treasure, they realize they aren’t the only ones looking. Stephanie’s old nemesis from Little Havana is hot on the trail. Can Stephanie outwit her? And will she finally decide between Joe Morelli and Ranger?

Publication Date: 10 November 2020 Amazon | Goodreads | More Info

State of Terror

Hillary rodham clinton and louise penny.

(7 Weeks) Former Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton teams up with acclaimed mystery novelist Louise Penny in one of the most-anticipated best new thriller books of Fall 2021. Years of American withdrawal from the world stage have left a power vacuum that its enemies have been more than happy to fill. After a series of terrorist attacks, novice Secretary of State Ellen Adams, under the administration of her rival, must unravel a deadly global conspiracy.

Publication Date: 12 October 2021 Amazon | Goodreads | More Info

A Gambling Man

David baldacci.

(7 Weeks) Fresh out of prison, WWII veteran Aloysius Archer heads to California for a head start in the 1950s. On the way, he stops in Reno and picks up a fire-red convertible and an aspiring actress. When they arrive in Bay Town, Archer joins a well-known PI to investigate a blackmail case of an up-and-coming politician.

Publication Date: 20 April 2021 Amazon | Goodreads | More Info

The Law of Innocence

Michael connelly.

(7 Weeks) After a big courtroom win, Lincoln Lawyer Mickey Haller is pulled over by the police who find the body of a former client in his trunk. Unable to post bail, Haller must defend himself against murder charges from his jail cell while fending off enemies from the inside and out. Haller knows that it’s not enough to get a not guilty verdict. To be free of the charges, he must find out who really did it.

Beautiful World, Where Are You

Sally rooney.

(6 Weeks) Hitting the upper end of the new adult genre, Sally Rooney’s latest novel follows the lives of four single 30ish Irish protagonists as they try to find their way in life. On a whim, Alice, a novelist, invites Felix, a warehouse worker she just met, to travel to Rome with her. Meanwhile, while recovering from a breakup, Alice’s best friend Eileen begins flirting with Simon, a childhood friend.

Publication Date: 7 September 2021 Amazon | Goodreads | More Info

Life After Death

Sister souljah.

(6 Weeks) In the sequel to The Coldest Winter Ever , Winter Santiago is out of prison and ready to take her to get her revenge, reclaim her father’s status, and reunite with Midnight. But Winter’s business partner Simone is also out for revenge, and Winter is her main target.

Publication Date: 2 March 2021 Amazon | Goodreads | More Info

A Court of Silver Flames

Sarah j. maas.

(6 Weeks) The fifth book in Maas’s bestselling fantasy series, A Court of Thorns and Roses . Haunted by the horrors of the previous war, Nesta’s temper is constantly on edge, and no one seems to bother her more than Cassian. When the human queens threaten the fragile peace, she must work with Cassian to save the kingdom.

Publication Date: 16 February 2021 Amazon | Goodreads | More Info

Harlan Coben

(6 Weeks) Twenty years ago, a rich heiress was abducted. Although she escaped, her captors were never found or the family’s items recovered. When his suitcase is found at a murder scene, Windsor Horne Lockwood III, “Win” to his friends, becomes entangled in an investigation into two cold cases where the suspect may have also been involved in domestic terrorism.

Publication Date: 16 March 2021 Amazon | Goodreads | More Info

The Cellist

Daniel silva.

(6 Weeks) In his twenty-third novel, Gabriel Allon investigates the death of Viktor Orlov, his friend who was once the richest man in Russia. A crusader against the Russian regime, Orlov was killed by a nerve agent in his heavily-guarded London apartment. MI6 believes an investigative reporter is a Russian assassin, but Allon finds the truth is much darker than anyone knows.

Publication Date: 13 July 2021 Amazon | Goodreads | More Info

The Stranger in the Lifeboat

Mitch albom.

(6 Weeks) How would you react if you called for help from God and He answered? In Albom’s new Christian novel, a group of shipwrecked strangers pulls a man from the sea. He claims to be “The Lord” and can save them, but only if they all believe in him.

Publication Date: 2 November 2021 Amazon | Goodreads | More Info

A Slow Fire Burning

Paula hawkins.

(5 Weeks) When a young man is murdered on a London houseboat, police investigate three women: his one-night stand Laura, his grieving aunt Carla, and his nosy neighbor Miriam. Even though Miriam spotted Laura leaving the houseboat that night covered in blood, she is loath to say anything. For Miriam knows exactly what it’s like to be in the wrong place at the wrong time.

Publication Date: 31 August 2021 Amazon | Goodreads | More Info

The Madness of Crowds

Louise penny.

(5 Weeks) As New Year’s Eve approaches, Chief Inspector Armand Gamache is surprised when he is requested to serve as security for a lecture by a visiting statistics professor. When he looks into Professor Abigail Robinson, Gamache is shocked by her views and begs for the lecture to be canceled. Accusing him of academic censorship, the university refuses, and as the professor’s ideas start to seep across Three Pines, Gamache must deal with a murder and the spreading madness.

Publication Date: 24 August 2021 Amazon | Goodreads | More Info

While Justice Sleeps

Stacey abrams.

(5 Weeks) Young law clerk Avery Keene is trying to balance her work with legendary Justice Howard Wynn with her troubled family life. When Justice Wynn falls into a coma, Avery is surprised to learn she is named his legal guardian and power of attorney. As politicians vie to replace the ailing judge, Avery learns that Justice Wynn was researching a dangerous merger that involves a conspiracy at the highest levels of government.

Publication Date: 11 May 2021 Amazon | Goodreads | More Info

The Russian

James patterson and james o. born.

(5 Weeks) In the thirteenth book in the series, Detective Michael Bennett connects a series of murders of young women in New York City to similar cases in San Francisco and Atlanta. Detective Bennett must do his best to solve the case without falling into the killer’s trap – all while preparing for his wedding to Mary Catherine.

Publication Date: 25 January 2021 Amazon | Goodreads | More Info

Star Wars: Light of the Jedi

Charles soule.

(4 Weeks) Two hundred years before the events of The Phantom Menace, the High Republic is at its peak. Peace flourishes under the rule of the Senate and the watchful eye of the Jedi. When a hyperspace catastrophe with sinister roots tears a ship apart, the shrapnel threatens an entire system and the Jedi are pushed to their limits.

Publication Date: 5 January 2021 Amazon | Goodreads | More Info

John Sandford

(4 Weeks) In the 31st book of his popular Prey series, Lucas Davenport and Virgil Flowers join forces to solve a maritime mystery. While off-duty, a Coast Guardsman notices a suspicious boat pick up a diver in the middle of the ocean, he knows something fishy is happening. When the Coast Guard responds, three men are killed and the FBI is called in to investigate their murders.

Publication Date: 13 April 2021 Amazon | Goodreads | More Info

Nora Roberts

(4 Weeks) Following in the footsteps of her mother’s celebrity fitness brand, Adrian has established her own line of successful yoga and workout videos. When threatening notes in rhyme start to appear, Adrian can dismiss it as easily as her mother. Moving back to Maryland, Adrian reconnects with her childhood crush at the same time a series of murders rocks her world.

Publication Date: 25 May 2021 Amazon | Goodreads | More Info

(4 Weeks) Scott Horvath, America’s top spy, has a decision before him. Retire with his beautiful girlfriend in Norway or return. When he sees a man step out of a taxi in Oslo, a man he killed years ago, Horvath’s past comes back to haunt him and sends him on a path all the way to the Artic Circle.

Publication Date: 20 July 2021 Amazon | Goodreads | More Info

Go Tell the Bees That I Am Gone

Diana gabaldon.

(3 Weeks) In the 9th Outlander book, a reunited Claire and Jamie face being torn asunder again as the American Revolution approaches their North Carolina home. After finally being reunited with their daughter Brianna and her family, the family is worried as the tensions of the colonists grow and the perils of the 1700s seem less safe than they thought.

Publication Date: 23 November 2021 Amazon | Goodreads | More Info

Call Us What We Carry

In 2021, Amanda Gorman became the youngest presidential inaugural poet in US history when she read her poem, “The Hill We Climb,” at President Biden’s inauguration. In her expanded collection, Amanda Gorman becomes a new voice in American poetry.

Publication Date: 7 December 2021 Amazon | Goodreads | More Info

Save for Later

Heavyweights (10+ Weeks on the NYT Bestseller List)

The Midnight Library

(53 Weeks) In the Midnight Library, there are two books – one book for the life you’ve lived and one for the one you could have lived. Nora Seed must decide which book to choose from. What if she had made different choices? Would her life truly have been better?

Publication Date: 29 September 2020 Amazon | Goodreads |  More Info

The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue

V. e. schwab.

(43 Weeks) To escape a forced marriage, Addie LaRue makes a bargain with the devil in 1714. She gets to live forever, but the catch is she will be forgotten by everyone she meets. After 300 years, Addie has become resigned to her fate until she meets a young man who remembers her name.

Publication Date: 6 October 2020 Amazon | Goodreads |  More Info

Project Hail Mary

(16 Weeks) In a last-ditch effort to save Earth from an extinction-level event, a group of astronauts is sent on a desperate mission in a cobbled-together spacecraft. But when Ryland Grace wakes up, he has no memory of his mission or why the rest of the crew is dead. The sole survivor, he must take on an impossible task with no margin for failure.

Malibu Rising

Taylor jenkins reid.

(16 Weeks) In 1983, four famous siblings throw an epic summer party at their Malibu mansion. Secrets come out, the party gets out of control, and a fire will burn it all down by dawn. Malibu Rising is a gorgeous family drama that surpasses a simple beach read. The story of the Riva children abandoned by their famous rockstar father is heartbreakingly sad and yet still hopeful. The characters come alive as each sibling ponders if they can escape their parents’ fates.

Publication Date: 01 June 2021 Amazon | Goodreads | More Info

Cloud Cuckoo Land

Anthony doerr.

(11 Weeks) From the author of All the Light We Cannot See comes an ambitious work of literary fiction. Doerr’s novel toggles between three timelines – the Fall of Constantinople in 1453, present-day Idaho, and interstellar ship far in the future. Each piece explores the power of stories as a fictional ancient Greek comedy weaves throughout the entire book. The awe-inspiring power of the written word that Doerr evokes in every sentence will be appreciated by literary fiction lovers.

Fan Favorites (5+ Weeks on the New York Times Bestseller List)

Klara and the Sun by Kazuo Ishiguro

Amazon | Goodreads | More Info

(9 Weeks) An “Artificial Friend” named Klara is purchased to serve as a companion to an ailing 14-year-old girl.

Deadly Cross by James Patterson

Amazon | Goodreads

(8 Weeks) The 28th book in the Alex Cross series. An investigation of a double homicide of the ex-wife of the Vice President and sends Alex Cross to Alabama to investigate.

The Lost Apothecary by Sarah Penner

(7 Weeks) An aspiring historian in London finds a clue that might put to rest unsolved apothecary murders from 200 years ago.

Daylight by David Baldacci

(7 Weeks) The F.B.I. agent Atlee Pine’s search for her kidnapped twin sister overlaps with a military investigator’s hunt for someone involved in a global conspiracy.  

Harlem Shuffle by Colson Whitehead

(7 Weeks) Ray Carney, a family man who sells furniture on 125th Street, gets a new clientele made up of vicious and unsavory characters.

That Summer by Jennifer Weiner

(6 Weeks) Daisy Shoemaker receives emails intended for a woman leading a more glamorous life and finds there was more to this accident.

The Awakening by Nora Roberts

(6 Weeks) The first book in the Dragon Heart Legacy series. Breen Kelly travels through a portal in Ireland to a land of faeries and mermaids.

The Sanatorium by Sarah Pearse

(6 Weeks) Elin Warner must find her estranged brother’s fiancée, who goes missing as a storm approaches a hotel that was once a sanatorium in the Swiss Alps.

Neighbors by Danielle Steel

(5 Weeks) A Hollywood recluse’s perspective changes when she invites her neighbors into her mansion after an earthquake.

We Begin at the End by Chris Whitaker

(5 Weeks) Trouble might start for the chief of police and a self-proclaimed outlaw teen when a man is released from prison.

21st Birthday by James Patterson and Maxine Paetro

(5 Weeks) The 21st book in the Women’s Murder Club series. New evidence changes the investigation of a missing mother.

The Other Black Girl by Zakiya Dalila Harris

(5 Weeks) Tension unfurls when two young Black women meet against the starkly white backdrop of New York City book publishing.

The Personal Librarian by Marie Benedict and Victoria Christopher Murray

(5 Weeks) A Black woman who becomes one of the most powerful people in the art and book world is forced to hide her true identity.

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The New York Times Reveals Their 10 Best Books Of 2021

Carina Pereira

Carina Pereira, born in ‘87, in Portugal. Moved to Belgium in 2011, and to Rotterdam, The Netherlands, in 2019. Avid reader, changing interests as the mods strikes. Whiles away the time by improvising stand-up routines she’ll never get to perform. Books are a life-long affair, audiobooks a life-changing discovery of adulthood. Selling books by day, writer by night. Contact

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As the end of the year approaches, various platforms start putting together a selection of the books they believe deserve to have the literary spotlight of the last 365 days.

From Goodreads Choice Awards , to the Top Five Books Of The Year At Amazon , these lists are often a great way to compare what is going around our own social media bubble, and what the mainstream media and platforms deem the best of. (Amazon’s list has one book in common with the New York Times. Read this whole post and see if you can guess which one before you click that link.)

Book Riot is obviously not an exception in this matter – we are always down to tell you all about our favourite reads – and you can check out the books we held most dear to our hearts in 2021 here .

The 10 Best Books Of The Year as it is currently presented by The New York Times has been going on since pretty much the beginning of the Book Review magazine, back in 1896.

After several changes across the years, in 2004 the list has taken the shape that is still being used today: as fall arrives, the editors start reading, discussing, and choosing what will become their definitive list of the ten best books of the year.

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These are their choices for 2021:

• How Beautiful We Were by Imbolo Mbue
• Intimacies by Katie Kitamura
• The Love Song Of W. E. B. Du Bois by Honorée Fanonne Jeffers
• No One Is Talking About This by Patricia Lockwood
• When We Cease To Understand The World by Benjamín Labatut, translated by Adrian Nathan West
• The Copenhagen Trilogy by Tove Ditlevsen, translated by Tiina Nunnally and Michael Favala Goldman
• How The Word Is Passed: A Reckoning With The History Of Slavery Across America by Clint Smith
• Invisible Child: Poverty, Survival and Hope In An American City by Andrea Elliott
• On Juneteenth by Annette Gordon-Reed
• Red Comet: The Short Life And Blazing Art Of Sylvia Plath by Heather Clark

As it’s common with the New York Times 10 Best Books Of The Year lists, the first five books are labelled under the genre literary fiction, and the other five are works of non-fiction, although Labatut is said to stand on the edge of both.

This year’s list includes two books in translation. Or, if we are in the mood to be pedantic, we can say it actually includes four, since Ditlevsen’s are actually three books put together and they can be found and purchased on their own (nice little way to include 12 books in a list of 10, New York Times!). Likewise, you’ll find several important works around social justice themes, including class and race, both fiction and non-fiction.

The Love Songs Of W.E.B Du Bois was one of the picks of Oprah’s Book Club 2021. It was also nominated for Time’s best books of 2021. Similarly, other books on the above list also fell under the Time’s 2021 best of non-fiction: Juneteenth , How The Word Is Passed , Invisible Child , and The Copenhagen Trilogy .

Fifty percent of the books nominated were written by authors of colour. Last year, this same list included forty percent authors of colour.

Read more about each of the 10 books listed above in this link. And for those with full access to the New York Times website, here are 100 Notable Books released in 2021 that their editors put together.

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Whether you’re on vacation at the beach or find yourself with a little more time for reading, summer is always a good time to pick up a new book. Jeffrey Brown has recommendations from two News Hour regulars for our arts and culture series, CANVAS.

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Geoff Bennett:

Whether you're on vacation at the beach or find yourself with a little more time for reading, summer is always a good time to pick up a new book.

Jeffrey Brown gets recommendations now from two "NewsHour" regulars for our arts and culture series, Canvas.

Jeffrey Brown:

And to talk about summer books and reading, I'm joined by Ann Patchett, author and owner of Parnassus Bookstore in Nashville, Tennessee. And Gilbert Cruz, he's the editor of The New York Times Book Review.

Thanks, both, for joining us.

Ann, you want to start with fiction?

Ann Patchett, Owner, Parnassus Books:

Sure thing.

I am very excited about "Sandwich" by Catherine Newman. If you want a book that has you from hello, this is the one. Family goes to the cape every summer for two weeks. They have kids in their 20s. They have elderly parents and they eat sandwiches. They are very near Sandwich, and they are the sandwich generation.

That's a real summer book, isn't it?

Ann Patchett:

Ah, it is the ultimate summer book.

And, also, if you're feeling a little stressed, get a copy of "Sipsworth" by Simon Van Booy. This one has been flying off the shelf. This is an elderly woman who's very isolated. She meets a mouse, and the mouse brings all of these wonderful people into her life. It sounds hokey. It's not. It is a really terrific book.

And for something a little darker, "Bear" by Julia Phillips, which has the whole fairy tale vibe. Two young sisters working so hard in a very tough existence on an island off the coast of Washington,it all changes when a bear comes to their neighborhood, and it drives the sisters apart.

Also want to give a quick shout-out to something that just came out in paperback, "Crook Manifesto," Colson Whitehead. Love this book so much. If you want some mystery, some cops and robbers, some corruption, some great writing.

Gilbert Cruz, what do you have for us in fiction?

Gilbert Cruz, Books Editor, The New York Times:

The first one is "Swan Song." Elin Hilderbrand, she is a writer who puts a book out every summer. They're all about Nantucket. They all have drama. They all have romance. And somehow I have found myself reading one book of hers a summer for the past decade.

I'm sort of — I have only been to Nantucket for two hours on, like, the coldest day that I can recall. So I have no idea what it's like to be there in the summer, but I sort of do because I have read a dozen Elin Hilderbrand books.

So I'm a big horror person. There's a book called "Horror Movie" by Paul Tremblay. And there's some people who save their scary stuff until October, until the fall. I'm not that person. I like it all year round. And I think there are many people like me.

This is about essentially an independent horror movie that was made years and years ago. A bunch of tragedies happened. It's become a cult film. And the only person left from the production has started to encounter some weird things. So that's "Horror Movie" by Paul Tremblay.

And then, finally, another genre book, a fantasy, "The Bright Sword" by Lev Grossman. If you have heard of Lev Grossman, it's because of his "Magicians" trilogy, which were a set of books that essentially imagined, what if Harry Potter, but with older people and cursing and all the stuff that older teenagers get into.

This new book imagines the days and the months after the death of King Arthur. So there have been many retellings of the King Arthur legend, books, movies, musicals. This one is sort of a sequel.

You went with all genre books for the summer.

OK, Ann, how about nonfiction?

Hanif Abdurraqib, "There's Always This Year," which is — "On Basketball and Ascension." This is a collection of essays about family and love and grief and fathers. But, most importantly, it's all woven together through the lens of basketball.

Hanif Abdurraqib is one of my favorite writers and just someone I learned from every time I read one of his books. Brilliant.

"My Black Country" by Alice Randall, which is a journey through country music's Black past, present, and future. Alice is a fiction writer and a scholar. This is the story of all the people who have been erased in country music's past, and she is restoring them into the landscape. It's a terrific book.

And "Consent" by Jill Ciment, a very slim little memoir. Jill Ciment was 16 years old when she first kissed her art teacher, who was 46. They got married and they stayed together until he died at 86. And it is her looking back on her life and thinking, it was a happy marriage, but, knowing what I know now, maybe there was something a little wrong about that.

And a great book that just came out in paperback that could be read as a companion piece, my favorite, "Monsters: A Fan's Dilemma" by Claire Dederer. You have got a book club, read these two together. Terrific.

Gilbert Cruz, what are your choices for nonfiction?

Gilbert Cruz:

Well, if I sort of went genre with my fiction choices, I'm also going to go a little pop culture with my nonfiction choices.

So the first book I'm going to talk about is "The Future Was Now" by Chris Nashawaty. This is — I love movies, and I think for a lot of people my age who love movies, the summer of 1982, if you care about science fiction and fantasy, stuff like that, was one of the biggest summers of all time. So it had "E.T.," "Poltergeist," "Blade Runner," "Tron," a "Mad Max" sequel, a "Star Trek" sequel.

And this is essentially a history of that summer, a history of those movies. So I'm looking forward to reading that one.

Another pop culture nonfiction book that's coming out later in June is called "Cue the Sun!" the invention of reality TV. This is by Emily Nussbaum. She's been a TV critic for many wonderful publications. And this is a history of modern reality TV. I don't watch reality TV. I never really have. And that means that I am out of the mainstream.

And so from "Cops," to "Survivor," to "The Bachelor," to "The Apprentice, to "Big Brother," to "Love Is Blind," these are some of the most popular shows of the past several decades. And Emily Nussbaum does an amazing job of sort of sketching that whole history in what they're billing as sort of the first comprehensive history of this very important genre.

Ann, have a bookstore. You have a lot of young readers and I know you wanted to give some choices for them.

Yes, I never want to miss a chance to plug some great kids books.

Jarrett and Jerome Pumphrey, two of their classics have just come out in board books. So these are good for babies, for little kids. You can chew on them, "The Old Truck," "The Old Boat," beautiful, simple, terrific illustrations, great, clear story.

If you have a slightly older kid, absolutely, you want to buy a copy of "Ahoy!" by Sophie Blackall. This is a book about imaginative play and how you can have a summer adventure no matter where you are or what you have got to work with. I adore this book and everything Sophie does.

And America's favorite author for young people, Kate DiCamillo has a new novel out called "Ferris." It's about raccoons, chandeliers, S&H Green Stamps, grandmothers, love and happiness. It's a story about a happy family. Call me crazy, my favorite.

Ann Patchett and Gilbert Cruz, thanks very much.

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In his more than 30-year career with the News Hour, Brown has served as co-anchor, studio moderator, and field reporter on a wide range of national and international issues, with work taking him around the country and to many parts of the globe. As arts correspondent he has profiled many of the world's leading writers, musicians, actors and other artists. Among his signature works at the News Hour: a multi-year series, “Culture at Risk,” about threatened cultural heritage in the United States and abroad; the creation of the NewsHour’s online “Art Beat”; and hosting the monthly book club, “Now Read This,” a collaboration with The New York Times.

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The New York Times Book Review: 125 Years of Literary History Hardcover – November 2, 2021

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• Publisher ‏ : ‎ Clarkson Potter (November 2, 2021)
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‘New York Times’ Reveals Its Best Books of 2021

BY Michael Schaub • Nov. 29, 2021

The New York Times Book Review unveiled its list of the 10 best books of the year , with titles by Honorée Fannone Jeffers, Patricia Lockwood, and Clint Smith among those making the cut.

Jeffers was honored for her debut novel, The Love Songs of W.E.B. Du Bois , which was a finalist for this year’s Kirkus Prize and longlisted for the National Book Award.

Lockwood made the list for her Booker Prize-finalist No One Is Talking About This , while Imbolo Mbue was honored for her novel How Beautiful We Were . The other two works of fiction selected by the Times were Intimacies by Katie Kitamura and the genre-defying When We Cease To Understand the World by Benjamín Labatut, translated by Adrian Nathan West. Kitamura’s novel made the National Book Award fiction longlist, while Labatut’s book was on the prize’s translated literature shortlist.

Smith’s How the Word Is Passed: A Reckoning With the History of Slavery Across America , also longlisted for the National Book Award,was one of the nonfiction books to make the Times list, along with Annette Gordon-Reed’s On Juneteenth .

Other nonfiction books on the list included Andrea Elliott’s Invisible Child: Poverty, Survival and Hope in an American City and Tove Ditlevsen’s memoir cycle,  The Copenhagen Trilogy: Childhood; Youth; Dependency , translated by Tiina Nunnally and Michael Favala Goldman.

Rounding out the list was Heather Clark’s Red Comet: The Short Life and Blazing Art of Sylvia Plath . The biography, a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize and National Book Critics Circle Award, was published in 2020; when asked on Twitter why it was named one of the Times’ notable books of 2021, Times Book Review editor Pamela Paul explained , “We used to make the cut after the Holiday issue and carry the titles over [to the] following year. Moving forward, it’s the full calendar year.”

Michael Schaub is a Texas-based journalist and regular contributor to NPR.

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Times Critics’ Top Books of 2021

The Times’s staff critics give their choices of the best fiction and nonfiction works of the year.

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This was a remarkably rich and capacious year for nonfiction. While we all continued to grapple with urgent developing news about the coronavirus, climate change and global politics, authors widened the aperture, publishing books on a dizzying number of subjects: the history of Black artists in the film industry; an American woman who joined the Nazi resistance in Germany; midcentury creative ferment in New York City; the groundbreaking mathematician Kurt Gödel; the playwright Tom Stoppard. Other books told the stories of an 18th-century Irish poem, the “first civil rights movement,” one modest cotton sack that reflects the immense trauma of slavery. We read about gay nightlife and Juneteenth and Watergate, and all of this doesn’t nearly cover the entire list.

In fiction and poetry, it was a year of well-established names delivering strong work, with new novels from Rachel Cusk, Jonathan Franzen, Colm Toibin, Dana Spiotta, Gary Shteyngart and Katie Kitamura, brilliant second novels by Atticus Lish and Asali Solomon, and a vital collection of poems about history and mortality by Rita Dove.

Below, selections by The New York Times’s daily book critics of their favorite titles from the past 12 months. The choices come from our four staff critics, Dwight Garner, Jennifer Szalai, Molly Young and Alexandra Jacobs , as well as Parul Sehgal , who was a critic for The Times until July of this year.

An annual note on methodology: The critics limit themselves in this process, each choosing only from those books he or she reviewed for The Times since last year at this time. For more of their thoughts about what they read in 2021, you can read their related roundtable discussion . —  John Williams

REIGN OF TERROR: How the 9/11 Era Destabilized America and Produced Trump, by Spencer Ackerman. (Viking.) Spencer Ackerman contends that the American response to 9/11 made President Trump possible. He presents the evidence for this thesis with an impressive combination of diligence and verve, guiding us through two decades and showing how any prospect of national unity in response to 9/11 buckled under the incoherence of the wars that followed. The resulting narrative, our critic Jennifer Szalai wrote, is “upsetting, discerning and brilliantly argued.”

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TRAVELING BLACK: A Story of Race and Resistance, by Mia Bay. (The Belknap Press of Harvard University.) In this superb history, the question of literal movement becomes a way to understand the civil rights movement writ large. “Once one of the most resented forms of segregation, travel segregation is now one of the most forgotten,” Bay writes. Szalai wrote that Bay is “an elegant storyteller, laying out the stark stakes at every turn while also showing how discrimination wasn’t just a matter of crushing predictability but often, and more insidiously, a haphazard jumble of risks.”

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