The 10 Best Books of 2021 from The New York Times

Yesterday I watched a live stream of The 10 Best Books of 2021 from The New York Times. It was so fun! Presented by the editors of The New York Times Book Review, each chose their favorites and talked about how these five fiction and five nonfiction books made the list. I enjoyed seeing the faces of the reviewers and hearing them talk. Not surprisingly, there were a lot of loaded book cases in the backgrounds! There was a Zoom afterparty and I checked in for a minute, but I didn’t have time to stay long. I wished I had because the editors were holding an open discussion of the books, plus they invited viewers to talk about their own favorites.

Although I haven’t read any of these, I’ve already reserved copies of many from the library, so look out for future reviews!

All links, blurbs and quotes are from Amazon.

FICTION

How Beautiful We Were by Imbolo Mbue

A fearless young woman from a small African village starts a revolution against an American oil company in this sweeping, inspiring novel from the New York Times bestselling author of Behold the Dreamers.

Intimacies by Katie Kitamura

A novel from the author of A Separation, an electrifying story about a woman caught between many truths.

When We Cease to Understand the World by Benjamin Labatut

A fictional examination of the lives of real-life scientists and thinkers whose discoveries resulted in moral consequences beyond their imagining.

The Love Songs of W.E.B. Du Bois by Honorée Fanonne Jeferrs

“A vibrant and tender coming-of-age novel. Ailey Pearl Garfield is a young girl reckoning with what it means to be a Black woman in America.” – Time

No One Is Talking about This by Patricia Lockwood

From “a formidably gifted writer” (The New York Times Book Review), a book that asks: Is there life after the internet?

NONFICTION

Red Comet by Heather Clark

The highly anticipated biography of Sylvia Plath that focuses on her remarkable literary and intellectual achievements, while restoring the woman behind the long-held myths about her life and art.

How the Word Is Passed: A Reckoning with the History of Slavery Across America by Clint Smith

Beginning in his hometown of New Orleans, Clint Smith leads the reader on an unforgettable tour of monuments and landmarks—those that are honest about the past and those that are not—that offer an intergenerational story of how slavery has been central in shaping our nation’s collective history, and ourselves.

On Juneteenth by Annette Gordon-Reed

The essential, sweeping story of Juneteenth’s integral importance to American history, as told by a Pulitzer Prize–winning historian and Texas native.

Invisible Child: Poverty, Survival & Hope in an American City by Andrea Elliott

“Destined to become one of the classics of the genre” (Newsweek), the riveting, unforgettable story of a girl whose indomitable spirit is tested by homelessness, poverty, and racism in an unequal America—from Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Andrea Elliott of The New York Times

The Copenhagen Trilogy: Childhood; Youth; Dependency by Tove Ditlevsen

Called “a masterpiece” by The New York Times, the acclaimed trilogy from Tove Ditlevsen, a pioneer in the field of genre-bending confessional writing.

Have you read any of these books? Which ones would you like to read? To start, I’d like to read How Beautiful We Were, Intimacies, No One Is Talking about This, Red Comet, Invisible Child and The Copenhagen Trilogy.

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