NYT best book of the 21st century

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The inclusion of Life After Life . . . Yikes

OMG, I flat out loved it. It's one I've reread over and over.

I read it once but feel like I have read it over and over

[Anonymous]

I'm loving that list.

Here is my personal top ten of the 21st century so far:

Olive Kitteridge
Wolf Hall
Gilead
Never Let Me Go
The Road (love a lot of his other books more, but they were written before 2000)
The Year of Magical Thinking
1Q84
A Constellation of Vital Phenomena
Cloud Atlas
The Buddha in the Attic

[Anonymous]

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

I see why people felt entertained by it, and it's a great plot, but it is not a Great Book. At all.

[Anonymous]

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.

Lincoln in the Bardo is a masterpiece!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Overall I think that it’s a pretty good list, but no “All the Light We Cannot See”?! Also shocked “The Dutch House” didn’t make it. Surprised by #1 and #2 as well, I enjoyed both (especially the Warmth of Other Sons) but wouldn’t have put them in the top 5. I probably would have selected Wolf Hall or the Underground Railroad as #1.

I love Ann Patchett but found The Dutch House boring.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I'm loving that list.

Here is my personal top ten of the 21st century so far:

Olive Kitteridge
Wolf Hall
Gilead
Never Let Me Go
The Road (love a lot of his other books more, but they were written before 2000)
The Year of Magical Thinking
1Q84
A Constellation of Vital Phenomena
Cloud Atlas
The Buddha in the Attic

Great list! I haven’t read Joan Didion yet, but I have Year of Magical thinking on my shelf. And I am not a Cormac McCarthy fan, personally, but I agree he belongs on the 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.

NP. Absolutely do read The Great Believers. It’s what made me a fan of Makkai. And I Have Questions was also a DNF for me. I still think about the characters in The Great Believers.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I spent a lot of time on my walk yesterday thinking what #1 might be. I didn’t think it would be My Brilliant Friend but I did LOVE the Neapolitan trilogy. I wondered where The Known World would be but didn’t think #4. Need to try Wolf Hall again I suppose but I’ve tried multiple times and it never grabs me. Pachinko could’ve been top 10 for me.

Overall it’s a good list! I’ve read 35 total but added a bunch to be TBR list.

35 is a lot! I’ve read 17.

What did you add to your TBR list? I read Wolfe Hall and the Neapolitan series (there are 4 of them and I hope you read the fourth one as it’s the best in the series, in my opinion.)

But I think the Wolfe Hall trilogy is superior to the Brilliant Friend series.

I immediately went to Thriftbooks and ordered The Human Stain, Austerlitz, and The Return: Fathers, Sons, and the Land in Between because they were available.

When I find a book I want to read but am not ready for yet, I add it to my Amazon cart and then hit save for later so a queue of books I want to read is always waiting for me- I can then either order on Amazon later or check the saved for later list when I’m at a bookstore for one I know I want. So to that list I added Random Family, The Copenhagen Trilogy, Stay True: A Memoir, 2666, and Postwar: Europe After 1945. But I just now saw Random Family isn’t available anymore although it was earlier today so I think a lot of people are purchasing from this list right now

[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.

NP. Absolutely do read The Great Believers. It’s what made me a fan of Makkai. And I Have Questions was also a DNF for me. I still think about the characters in The Great Believers.

I’m currently reading And the Band Played On by Randy Shilts and have the Great Believers teed up to read once I finish. I’ve heard good things about it so I can’t wait to start.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

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

I see why people felt entertained by it, and it's a great plot, but it is not a Great Book. At all.

+1

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I don't think any science fiction book made the list but The Three Body Problem would have been a good pick.

Station Eleven is kind of science fiction lite.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:What is Station 11 and Tomorrows are doing on this list? Pachinko is way too high.

Disagree about Pachinko, but when I saw Station Eleven on the list I said “What?!” out loud.

I liked Station Eleven but it was the first of multiple novels with similar themes and then Covid came along, which I think weakened its premise. When it came out, it was solid.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I spent a lot of time on my walk yesterday thinking what #1 might be. I didn’t think it would be My Brilliant Friend but I did LOVE the Neapolitan trilogy. I wondered where The Known World would be but didn’t think #4. Need to try Wolf Hall again I suppose but I’ve tried multiple times and it never grabs me. Pachinko could’ve been top 10 for me.

Overall it’s a good list! I’ve read 35 total but added a bunch to be TBR list.

35 is a lot! I’ve read 17.

What did you add to your TBR list? I read Wolfe Hall and the Neapolitan series (there are 4 of them and I hope you read the fourth one as it’s the best in the series, in my opinion.)

But I think the Wolfe Hall trilogy is superior to the Brilliant Friend series.

I immediately went to Thriftbooks and ordered The Human Stain, Austerlitz, and The Return: Fathers, Sons, and the Land in Between because they were available.

When I find a book I want to read but am not ready for yet, I add it to my Amazon cart and then hit save for later so a queue of books I want to read is always waiting for me- I can then either order on Amazon later or check the saved for later list when I’m at a bookstore for one I know I want. So to that list I added Random Family, The Copenhagen Trilogy, Stay True: A Memoir, 2666, and Postwar: Europe After 1945. But I just now saw Random Family isn’t available anymore although it was earlier today so I think a lot of people are purchasing from this list right now

I like listening to memoir and thought it was a good way to absorb Stay True.

[Anonymous]

I read a lot, but have only read 14 of these. Perhaps I’m not high brow enough!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I read a lot, but have only read 14 of these. Perhaps I’m not high brow enough!

Or maybe even more high brow? It’s only books from the 24 years?