I was going to say that the 21st century just started, but we are twenty years into it already. The above linked article talks about the 100 best books so far in this century. 80 years from now, some of these books won’t show up, and a whole bunch of other books will show. I wonder about the 20th century. I’ll have to look those books up.
100
I Feel Bad About My Neck
by Nora Ephron (2006)
99
Broken Glass
by Alain Mabanckou (2005), translated by Helen Stevenson (2009)
98
The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo
by Stieg Larsson (2005), translated by Steven T Murray (2008)
97
Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire
by JK Rowling (2000)
96
A Little Life
by Hanya Yanagihara (2015)
95
Chronicles: Volume One
by Bob Dylan (2004)
94
The Tipping Point
by Malcolm Gladwell (2000)
93
Darkmans
by Nicola Barker (2007)
92
The Siege
by Helen Dunmore (2001)
91
Light
by M John Harrison (2002)
90
Visitation
by Jenny Erpenbeck (2008), translated by Susan Bernofsky (2010)
89
Bad Blood
by Lorna Sage (2000)
88
Noughts & Crosses
by Malorie Blackman (2001)
87
Priestdaddy
by Patricia Lockwood (2017)
86
Adults in the Room
by Yanis Varoufakis (2017)
85
The God Delusion
by Richard Dawkins (2006)
84
The Cost of Living
by Deborah Levy (2018)
83
Tell Me How It Ends
by Valeria Luiselli (2016), translated by Luiselli with Lizzie Davis (2017)
82
Coraline
by Neil Gaiman (2002)
81
Harvest
by Jim Crace (2013)
80
Stories of Your Life and Others
by Ted Chiang (2002)
79
The Spirit Level
by Richard Wilkinson and Kate Pickett (2009)
78
The Fifth Season
by NK Jemisin (2015)
77
Signs Preceding the End of the World
by Yuri Herrera (2009), translated by Lisa Dillman (2015)
76
Thinking, Fast and Slow
by Daniel Kahneman (2011)
75
Drive Your Plow Over the Bones of the Dead
by Olga Tokarczuk (2009), translated by Antonia Lloyd-Jones (2018)
74
Days Without End
by Sebastian Barry (2016)
73
Nothing to Envy
by Barbara Demick (2009)
72
The Age of Surveillance Capitalism
by Shoshana Zuboff (2019)
71
Jimmy Corrigan: The Smartest Kid on Earth
by Chris Ware (2000)
70
Notes on a Scandal
by Zoë Heller (2003)
69
The Infatuations
by Javier Marías (2011), translated by Margaret Jull Costa (2013)
68
The Constant Gardener
by John le Carré (2001)
67
The Silence of the Girls
by Pat Barker (2018)
66
Seven Brief Lessons on Physics
by Carlo Rovelli (2014)
65
Gone Girl
by Gillian Flynn (2012)
64
On Writing
by Stephen King (2000)
63
The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks
by Rebecca Skloot (2010)
62
Mother’s Milk
by Edward St Aubyn (2006)
61
This House of Grief
by Helen Garner (2014)
60
Dart
by Alice Oswald (2002)
59
The Beauty of the Husband
by Anne Carson (2002)
58
Postwar
by Tony Judt (2005)
57
The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay
by Michael Chabon (2000)
56
Underland
by Robert Macfarlane (2019)
55
The Omnivore’s Dilemma
by Michael Pollan (2006)
54
Women & Power
by Mary Beard (2017)
53
True History of the Kelly Gang
by Peter Carey (2000)
52
Small Island
by Andrea Levy (2004)
51
Brooklyn
by Colm Tóibín (2009)
50
Oryx and Crake
by Margaret Atwood (2003)
49
Why Be Happy When You Could Be Normal?
by Jeanette Winterson (2011)
48
Night Watch
by Terry Pratchett (2002)
47
Persepolis
by Marjane Satrapi (2000-2003), translated by Mattias Ripa (2003-2004)
46
Human Chain
by Seamus Heaney (2010)
45
Levels of Life
by Julian Barnes (2013)
44
Hope in the Dark
by Rebecca Solnit (2004)
43
Citizen: An American Lyric
by Claudia Rankine (2014)
42
Moneyball
by Michael Lewis (2010)
41
Atonement
by Ian McEwan (2001)
40
The Year of Magical Thinking
by Joan Didion (2005)
39
White Teeth
by Zadie Smith (2000)
38
The Line of Beauty
by Alan Hollinghurst (2004)
37
The Green Road
by Anne Enright (2015)
36
Experience
by Martin Amis (2000)
35
The Hare with Amber Eyes
by Edmund de Waal (2010)
34
Outline by Rachel
Cusk (2014)
33
Fun Home
by Alison Bechdel (2006)
32
The Emperor of All Maladies
by Siddhartha Mukherjee (2010)
31
The Argonauts
by Maggie Nelson (2015)
30
The Underground Railroad
by Colson Whitehead (2016)
29
A Death in the Family
by Karl Ove Knausgaard (2009), translated by Don Bartlett (2012)
28
Rapture
by Carol Ann Duffy (2005)
27
Hateship, Friendship, Courtship, Loveship, Marriage
by Alice Munro (2001)
26
Capital in the Twenty First Century
by Thomas Piketty (2013), translated by Arthur Goldhammer (2014)
25
Normal People
by Sally Rooney (2018)
24
A Visit from The Goon Squad
by Jennifer Egan (2011)
23
The Noonday Demon
by Andrew Solomon (2001)
22
Tenth of December
by George Saunders (2013)
21
Sapiens
by Yuval Noah Harari (2011), translated by Harari with John Purcell and Haim Watzman (2014)
20
Life After Life
by Kate Atkinson (2013)
19
The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night‑Time
by Mark Haddon (2003)
18
The Shock Doctrine
by Naomi Klein (2007)
17
The Road
by Cormac McCarthy (2006)
16
The Corrections
by Jonathan Franzen (2001)
15
The Sixth Extinction
by Elizabeth Kolbert (2014)
14
Fingersmith
by Sarah Waters (2002)
13
Nickel and Dimed
by Barbara Ehrenreich (2001)
12
The Plot Against America
by Philip Roth (2004)
11
My Brilliant Friend
by Elena Ferrante (2011), translated by Ann Goldstein (2012)
10
Half of a Yellow Sun
by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie (2006)
9
Cloud Atlas
David Mitchell (2004)
8
Autumn
by Ali Smith (2016)
7
Between the World and Me
by Ta-Nehisi Coates (2015)
6
The Amber Spyglass
by Philip Pullman (2000)
5
Austerlitz
by WG Sebald (2001), translated by Anthea Bell (2001)
4
Never Let Me Go
by Kazuo Ishiguro (2005)
3
Secondhand Time
by Svetlana Alexievich (2013), translated by Bela Shayevich (2016)
I am a busy mom to two mini adult children. I am learning to do things that don't revolve around their schedules, and I am doing things for myself now. I am trying to bounce back after a difficult time, and it's slow going.
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