I think The New York Times has broken the book community by revealing their list of 100 best books of the 21st century (so far). Soon to follow was the readers’ best books too, which I think a lot of people were able to relate to a little more. I love a book challenge, so thought I would jump on the bandwagon and see how many of the 100 books I have read so far.
I’ll update it over the months as I read more of the titles. So far, the ones I have read fall into two extremes: 5 star reads, and ones I DNF’d as they weren’t my cup of tea.
Read so far: 11/100
1.) Demon Copperhead // Barbara Kingsolver
2.) All the Light We Cannot See // Anthony Doerr
3.) A Gentleman in Moscow // Amor Towles
4.) The Goldfinch // Donna Tartt
5.) Pachinko // Min Jin Lee
6.) Educated // Tara Westover
7.) Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, and Tomorrow // Gabrielle Zevin8.) My Brilliant Friend // Elena Ferrante
9.) Never Let Me Go // Kazuo Ishiguro
10.) Station Eleven // Emily St. John Mandel
11.) A Little Life // Hanya Yanagihara
12.) The Overstory // Richard Powers
13.) The Underground Railroad // Colson Whitehead
14.) Wolf Hall // Hilary Mantel
15.) The Road // Cormac McCarthy
16.) Lincoln in the Bardo // George Saunders
17.) Atonement // Ian McEwan
18.) Middlesex // Jeffrey Eugenides
19.) Americanah // Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie
20.) The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay // Michael Chabon
21.) Homegoing // Yaa Gyasi
22.) Hamnet // Maggie O’Farrell
23.) The Warmth of Other Suns // Isabel Wilkerson
24.) Bel Canto // Ann Patchett
25.) Gilead // Marilynne Robinson
26.) The Corrections // Jonathan Franzen
27.) Normal People // Sally Rooney
28.) Cutting for Stone // Abraham Verghese
29.) Say Nothing // Patrick Radden Keefe
30.) A Visit From the Goon Squad // Jennifer Egan
31.) Circe // Madeline Miller
32.) Cloud Cuckoo Land // Anthony Doerr
33.) The Book Thief // Markus Zusak
34.) Cloud Atlas // David Mitchell
35.) The Covenant of Water // Abraham Verghese
36.) The Year of Magical Thinking // Joan Didion
37.) The Nickel Boys // Colson Whitehead
38.) The Great Believers // Rebecca Makkai
39.) Olive Kitteridge // Elizabeth Strout
40.) The Kite Runner // Khaled Hosseini
41.) Life After Life // Kate Atkinson
42.) The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao // Junot Díaz
43.) Between the World and Me // Ta-Nehisi Coates
44.) The Heaven & Earth Grocery Store // James McBride
45.) There There // Tommy Orange
46.) The Song of Achilles // Madeline Miller
47.) Lessons in Chemistry // Bonnie Garmus
48.) On Earth We’re Briefly Gorgeous // Ocean Vuong
49.) Gone Girl // Gillian Flynn
50.) James // Percival Everett
51.) Caste // Isabel Wilkerson
52.) The Nightingale // Kristin Hannah
53.) Trust // Hernan Diaz
54.) 11/22/63 // Stephen King
55.) Braiding Sweetgrass // Robin Wall Kimmerer
56.) The Hunger Games // Suzanne Collins
57.) Small Things Like These // Claire Keegan58.) White Teeth // Zadie Smith
59.) Where the Crawdads Sing // Delia Owens
60.) The Dutch House // Ann Patchett
61.) North Woods // Daniel Mason
62.) The Sympathizer // Viet Thanh Nguyen
63.) The Fifth Season // N.K. Jemisin
64.) 2666 // Roberto Bolaño
65.) Evicted // Matthew Desmond
66.) Just Kids // Patti Smith
67.) Piranesi // Susanna Clarke
68.) The Devil in the White City // Erik Larson
69.) Killers of the Flower Moon // David Grann
70.) Know My Name // Chanel Miller
71.) Sing, Unburied, Sing // Jesmyn Ward
72.) Crying in H Mart // Michelle Zauner (I read most of this and then DNF’d it – wasn’t for me!)
73.) Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows // J.K. Rowling
74.) Klara and the Sun // Kazuo Ishiguro
75.) The Lincoln Highway // Amor Towles
76.) Just Mercy // Bryan Stevenson
77.) Sapiens // Yuval Noah Harari
78.) Kafka on the Shore // Haruki Murakami
79.) 1Q84 // Haruki Murakami
80.) Deacon King Kong // James McBride
81.) The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks // Rebecca Skloot
82.) Tom Lake // Ann Patchett
83.) Let the Great World Spin // Colum McCann
84.) Tenth of December // George Saunders
85.) When Breath Becomes Air // Paul Kalanithi
86.) Life of Pi // Yann Martel
87.) Girl, Woman, Other // Bernardine Evaristo
88.) The Plot Against America // Philip Roth
89.) The Glass Castle // Jeannette Walls
90.) In the Dream House // Carmen Maria Machado
91.) Project Hail Mary // Andy Weir
92.) Drive Your Plow Over the Bones of the Dead // Olga Tokarczuk
93.) Remarkably Bright Creatures // Shelby Van Pelt (I DNF’d this one as well!)
94.) The Bee Sting // Paul Murray
95.) A Thousand Splendid Suns // Khaled Hosseini
96.) The Vanishing Half // Brit Bennett
97.) My Year of Rest and Relaxation // Ottessa Moshfegh
98.) Shuggie Bain // Douglas Stuart
99.) Empire of Pain // Patrick Radden Keefe
100.) A Man Called Ove // Fredrik Backman (Another DNF)
You can have a look at the original article on The New York Times website.
How many books from the list have you read?
