NYT best book of the 21st century

[Anonymous]

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

Maybe you just read a lot of nonfiction? It’s very fiction heavy.

[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 your taste - I will add these books to my TBR list.

[Anonymous]

I’m thrilled that 2666 is in the top ten. It’s so good, heartbreaking but also engaging and pulls you in. I find many of the books on this to be chilly, and somewhat performative in their emotional resonance.

My top 10:
Love, dishonor, marry, die, cherish, perish
Hamnet
Never let me go
2666
My sister the serial killer
Bad blood
Nothing to see here
The first bad man
Office of historical corrections
The beautiful things heaven bears

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I’m thrilled that 2666 is in the top ten. It’s so good, heartbreaking but also engaging and pulls you in. I find many of the books on this to be chilly, and somewhat performative in their emotional resonance.

My top 10:
Love, dishonor, marry, die, cherish, perish
Hamnet
Never let me go
2666
My sister the serial killer
Bad blood
Nothing to see here
The first bad man
Office of historical corrections
The beautiful things heaven bears

I’ve never read 2666. Does it have a lot of violence? Somewhere I got that impression and it put me off reading it.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I’m thrilled that 2666 is in the top ten. It’s so good, heartbreaking but also engaging and pulls you in. I find many of the books on this to be chilly, and somewhat performative in their emotional resonance.

My top 10:
Love, dishonor, marry, die, cherish, perish
Hamnet
Never let me go
2666
My sister the serial killer
Bad blood
Nothing to see here
The first bad man
Office of historical corrections
The beautiful things heaven bears

I’ve never read 2666. Does it have a lot of violence? Somewhere I got that impression and it put me off reading it.

It has some violence, yes, and an overarching theme about evil. The fourth section is about the murder of women in cuidad Juarez. It’s quite sad. But even so, I found it less disturbing than the torture porn in A Little Life (which was a dnf for me for that reason).

[Anonymous]

Oh I am SO glad A Little Life didn’t make the list. If A Little Life has no haters, I’m dead.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

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 your taste - I will add these books to my TBR list.

I’m that PP- If you haven’t read it yet, you should also add Say Nothing which ended up at #19. I just read it in June and it really was phenomenal.

[Anonymous]

I would include Cormac McCarthy, The Road and Philip Roth, The Plot Against America.

[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.

Or Ted Chiang’s books of short stories.

[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.

Cloud Atlas and Never Let Me Go.

[Anonymous]

I feel like I read a lot- about 100 books a year- but I’ve only read 31 of these books. Feel like I have a lot of catching up to do!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

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

Or Ted Chiang’s books of short stories.

I thought Project Hail Mary was great.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I would include Cormac McCarthy, The Road and Philip Roth, The Plot Against America.

Include where? Both are on the list.

[Anonymous]

Walter Kempowski, All For Nothing gets my vote for best novel of the century I've read so far. Was disappointed it's not on the Times list, but maybe the few of the voters read it.

But I liked a lot of the books on the list and I have about a dozen or so that are on my to read list.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Any Italians here? I heard that the Neapolitan quartet books are much better in English. Curious to hear it that’s true.

I really struggle with these books - I've read too. I feel like they are overwrought and full of self importance. I've chalked some of it up to the translation - someone is ALWAYS saying something ironically when i think they mean sardonically or maybe sarcastically. The overuse of irony drove me crazy.