NYT best book of the 21st century

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Loved Wolf Hall and would certainly include it on the list; haven't read the others.

Should I read The Great Believers? I have to admit, I was disappointed by Rebecca Makkai's I Have Some Questions For You. It was a DNF for me.

The Great Believers is worlds better than I Have Some Questions For You. It's one of my favorite books; it's a gut-punching, pull-at-all-your-emotions type of story.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I'm enjoying looking through this list as it's released each day. How many books have you read so far from the list? And are you planning to submit a list of your own? They have a place for reader submissions. It's really hard to narrow down to just ten, but here's my best effort.

Wolf Hall by Hilary Mantel
North Woods by Daniel Mason
Lincoln in the Bardo by George Saunders
The Children’s Book by A.S. Byatt
Gilead by Marilynne Robinson
John Adams by David McCullough
Homegoing by Yaa Gyasi
The New Jim Crow by Michelle Alexander
The Great Believers by Rebecca Makkai
Circe by Madeline Miller

Such a provincial, self-centered selection. Where are the great global books?

OP here, I get it and sort of agree with you. I read quite a bit of translated fiction published since 2000 (in fact, one of my reading themes for the year is "women in translation") but when I looked for books I'd rated 5 stars, they just didn't make the cut for me personally.

Just in the last few months I've read:
A Modern Family by Helga Flatland
THe Easy Life in Kamusari by Shion Miura
The Pastor by Hanne Orstavik
Three Sisters by Bi Feiyu
Drive Your Plow Over the Bones of the Dead by Olga Tokarczuk

What would you put on a list with more global selections? I'd love to add them to my reading list.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Loved Wolf Hall and would certainly include it on the list; haven't read the others.

Should I read The Great Believers? I have to admit, I was disappointed by Rebecca Makkai's I Have Some Questions For You. It was a DNF for me.

The Great Believers was much better than I Have Some Questions for You, in my opinion. It evokes the time period and setting so perfectly, and is a look at the AIDS crisis that I hadn't seen before.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Loved Wolf Hall and would certainly include it on the list; haven't read the others.

Should I read The Great Believers? I have to admit, I was disappointed by Rebecca Makkai's I Have Some Questions For You. It was a DNF for me.

The Great Believers was much better than I Have Some Questions for You, in my opinion. It evokes the time period and setting so perfectly, and is a look at the AIDS crisis that I hadn't seen before.

Agree. The Great Believers is one of my all-time favorite books. It is worlds better than I Have Some Questions for You (which I also actually liked).

[Anonymous]

The Great Believers > I Have Some Questions for You, but neither are a book of the year much less a century.

[Anonymous]

Did Stephen King really pick one of his books as a top 10 or am I misreading?

[Anonymous]

I listened to I have Questions for you while doing household chores, walking, etc. Really enjoyed the book. But no way does it belong on a best of the “century” list.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Did Stephen King really pick one of his books as a top 10 or am I misreading?

haha, he did! I noticed that. Several of the authors whose picks were published picked their own books.

What a dumb system for creating this list. But I still love any excuse to talk about books.

[Anonymous]

Would probably put My Struggle by Karl Ove Knausgaard on the list.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Did Stephen King really pick one of his books as a top 10 or am I misreading?

haha, he did! I noticed that. Several of the authors whose picks were published picked their own books.

What a dumb system for creating this list. But I still love any excuse to talk about books.

Who else?!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Where's Murakami and Yoshimoto, and other non-American writers?

I only attempted Lincoln in the Bardo and tossed it very quickly aside. Totally unreadable.

The NYT list is not final. I'm sure these authors will appear at the top of the list.

Wow, they didn't make the list.

[Anonymous]

I’m kind of surprised by #1. It wasn’t even the best in the series!

[Anonymous]

Homegoing and Circe are both masterpieces in my opinion. I think about both of those books daily.

[Anonymous]

Of the 19 of the books I have read, I would say that about half were like eating my vegetables: good for me but not really enjoyable. I think I value a good, fun or interesting story over great literature. It may be why I enjoyed the nonfiction books on the list the best.

[Anonymous]

The omission of All the Light You Cannot See and Gentleman in Moscow proves that it's not a good list.