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The 100 Best Books of the 21st Century, According to the New York Times

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The New York Times has been releasing their list of the 100 Best Books of the 21st Century 20 titles at a time this week, and now all 100 are available to browse. They asked 503 “literary luminaries” — including authors, editors, librarians, critics, and Book Riot’s own Jeff O’Neal and Rebecca Schinsky — to share their top ten books published in the U.S. since 2000 and tallied them up into the final list.

You can also check out the full top ten ballots of many of the authors who participated, including Stephen King, Min Jin Lee, Marlon James, Roxane Gay, and many more.

While browsing through the list, you can check off the books you’ve read and the books you want to read to create a shareable graphic at the end.

Underground Railroad by Colson Whitehead book cover

Here are the top ten books of the 21st century, according to the New York Times:

10) Gilead by Marilynne Robinson (2004)

9) Never Let Me Go by Kazuo Ishiguro (2005)

8) Austerlitz by W.G. Sebald, translated by Anthea Bell (2001)

7) The Underground Railroad by Colson Whitehead (2016)

6) 2666 by Roberto Bolaño, translated by Natasha Wimmer (2008)

cover of My Brilliant Friend (#1 in The Neapolitan Novels) by Elena Ferrante (local)

5) The Corrections by Jonathan Franzen (2001)

4) The Known World by Edward P. Jones (2003)

3) Wolf Hall by Hilary Mantel (2009)

2) The Warmth of Other Suns by Isabel Wilkerson (2010)

1) My Brilliant Friend by Elena Ferrante, translated by Ann Goldstein (2012)

Several authors appear on the list multiple times, including Elena Ferrante, who has three titles in the top 100: My Brilliant Friend at #1, The Story of the Lost Child at #80, and The Days of Abandonment at #92.

Alice Munro has two titles on the list at the same time as the literary world grapples with her legacy this week in the wake of her daughter sharing how Munro dismissed her experience of being sexually assaulted by Munro’s husband. Since the list has been in the works for a long time, this inclusion is bad timing — but Junot Díaz was asked to participate and has a title included, despite multiple allegations of sexual harassment and misogynistic harassment, including directed at several other authors.

You can see the full list at The New York Times.

Find more news and stories of interest from the book world in Breaking in Books.

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