The 100 Best Books of the 21st Century

This list from the Guardian caught my attention back in September, but I've been so slack about the place here, that it's only now that it caught my attention again this week, that I'm getting around to finishing off this post. 

It's a worthy list. I'd be very happy with myself to read all of these, even some more of these books. 

100. I Feel Bad About My Neck - Nora Ephron 2006

99. Broken Glass - Alain Mabanckou 2005, translated by Helen Stevenson 2009

98. The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo - Stieg Larsson 2005, translated by Steven T Murray 2008

97. Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire - J.K. Rowling 2000

96. A Little Life - Hanya Yanagihara 2015

95. Chronicles: Volume One - Bob Dylan 2004

94. The Tipping Point - Malcolm Gladwell 2000

93. Darkmans - Nicola Barker 2007

92. The Siege - Helen Dunmore 2001

91. Light - M. John Harrison 2002

90. Visitation - Jenny Erpenbeck 2008, translated by Susan Bernofsky 2010

89. Bad Blood - Lorna Sage 2000

88. Noughts & Crosses - Malorie Blackman 2001

87. Priestdaddy - Patricia Lockwood 2017

86. Adults in the Room - Yanis Varoufakis 2017

85. The God Delusion - Richard Dawkins 2006

84. The Cost of Living - Deborah Levy 2018

83. Tell Me How It Ends - Valeria Luiselli 2016, translated by Luiselli with Lizzie Davis 2017

82. Coraline - Neil Gaiman 2002

81. Harvest - Jim Crace 2013

80. Stories of Your Life and Others - Ted Chiang 2002

79. The Spirit Level - Richard Wilkinson and Kate Pickett 2009

78. The Fifth Season - N.K. Jemisin 2015

77. Signs Preceding the End of the World - Yuri Herrera 2009, translated by Lisa Dillman 2015

76. Thinking, Fast and Slow - Daniel Kahneman 2011

75. Drive Your Plow Over the Bones of the Dead - Olga Tokarczuk 2009, translated by Antonia Lloyd-Jones 2018

74. Days Without End - Sebastian Barry 2016

73. Nothing to Envy - Barbara Demick 2009

72. The Age of Surveillance Capitalism - Shoshana Zuboff 2019

71. Jimmy Corrigan: The Smartest Kid on Earth - Chris Ware 2000

70. Notes on a Scandal - Zoë Heller 2003

69. The Infatuations - Javier Marías 2011, translated by Margaret July Costa 2013

68. The Constant Gardener - John Le Carré 2001

67. The Silence of the Girls - Pat Barker 2018

66. Seven Brief Lessons on Physics - Carlo Rovelli 2014

65. Gone Girl - Gillian Flynn 2012

64. On Writing - Stephen King 2000

63. The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks - Rebecca Skloot 2010

62. Mother's Milk - Edward St Aubyn 2006

61. This House of Grief - Helen Garner 2014

60. Dart - Alice Oswald 2002

59. The Beauty of the Husband - Anne Carson 2002

58. Postwar - Tony Judt 2005

57. The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay - Michael Chabon 2000

56. Underland - Robert Macfarlane 2019

55. The Omnivore's Dilemma - Michel Pollan 2006

54. Women & Power - Mary Beard 2017

53. True History of the Kelly Gang - Peter Carey 2000

52. Small Island - Andrea Levy 2004

51. Brooklyn - Colm Tóibín 2009

50. Oryx and Crake - Margaret Atwood 2003

49. Why Be Happy When You Could Be Normal - Jeanette Winterson 2011

48. Night Watch - Terry Pratchett 2002

47. Persepolis - Marjane Satrapi 2000-2003, translated by Mattias Ripa 2003-2004

46. Human Chain - Seamus Heaney 2010

45. Levels of Life - Julian Barnes 2013

44. Hope in the Dark - Rebecca Solnit 2004

43. Citizen: An American Lyric - Claudia Rankine 2014

42. Moneyball - Michael Lewis 2010

41. Atonement - Ian McEwan 2001

40. The Year of Magical Thinking - Joan Didion 2005

39. White Teeth - Zadie Smith 2000

38. The Line of Beauty - Alan Hollinghurst 2004

37. The Green Road - Anne Enright 2015

36. Experience - Martin Amis 2000

35. The Hare with Amber Eyes - Edmund de Waal 2010

34. Outline - Rachel Cusk 2014

33. Fun Home - Alison Bechdel 2006

32. The Emperor of All Maladies - Siddhartha Mukherjee 2010

31. The Argonauts - Maggie Nelson 2015

30. The Underground Railroad - Colson Whitehead 2016

29. A Death in the Family - Karl Ove Knausgaard 2009, translated by Don Bartlett 2012

28. Rapture - Carol Ann Duffy 2005

27. Hateship, Friendship, Courtship, Loveship, Marriage - Alice Munro 2001

26. Capital in the Twenty First Century - Thomas Piketty 2013, translated by Arthur Goldhammer 2014

25. Normal People - Sally Rooney 2018

24. A Visit from The Goon Squad - Jennifer Egan 2011 (see my review)

23. The Noonday Demon - Andrew Solomon 2001

22. Tenth of December - George Saunders 2013

21. Sapiens - Yuval Noah Harari 2011, translated by Harari with John Purcell and Haim Watzman 2014

20. Life After Life - Kate Atkinson 2013 (see my review)

19. The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time - Mark Haddon 2003

18. The Shock Doctrine - Naomi Klein 2007

17. The Road - Cormac McCarthy 2006 (see my review)

16. The Corrections - Jonathan Franzen 2001

15. The Sixth Extinction - Elizabeth Kolbert 2014

14. Fingersmith - Sarah Waters 2002

13. Nickel and Dimed - Barbara Ehrenreich 2001

12. The Plot Against America - Philip Roth 2001

11. My Brilliant Friend - Elena Ferrante 2011, translated by Ann Goldstein 2012

10. Half of a Yellow Sun - Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie 2006

9. Cloud Atlas - David Mitchell 2004

8. Autumn - Ali Smith 2016

7. Between the World and Me - Ta-Nehisi Coates 2015

6. The Amber Spyglass - Philip Pullman 2000

5. Austerlitz - W.G. Sebald 2001, translated by Anthea Bell 2001

4. Never Let Me Go - Kazuo Ishiguro 2005

3. Secondhand Time - Svetlana Alexievich 2013, translated by Bela Shayevich 2016

2. Gilead - Marilynne Robinson 2004

1. Wolf Hall - Hilary Mantel 2009


Damn, I'm really going to have to read Wolf Hall sometime. It's so daunting though. 

I'm impressed! I've read 19/100

Not great by most standards, but pretty good for me. 

I've finished two of these books (Normal People, Autumn) in the last month or so and I finished a Top Ten title this week! Ali Smith's Autumn. I don't think it would make my Top Ten, but I'm glad to have read it. 

I've started 4 of these books but not finished them (for various reasons). I need to crack on. Many of them are already in the house.

Time's Best 10 Fiction Books of the 2010s

We're hurtling towards the end of a decade, and the end of a decade lists are coming.

Time has released a Best 10 Fiction Books of the past 10 years. It's an interesting list. I've considered reading all but one of these books, and have most of them in the house somewhere. I should try to read through this list.

A Visit from the Goon Squad - Jennifer Egan (2010) (see my review)

My Brilliant Friend - Elena Ferrante (2011)

Gone Girl - Gillian Flynn (2012)

Americanah - Chimamanda Ngozi Adiche (2013)

Life After Life - Kate Atkinson (see my review)

Tenth of December - George Saunders (2013)

The Sellout - Paul Beatty (2015)

Sing, Unburied Sing - Jesmyn Ward (2017) (see my review)

Little Fires Everywhere - Celeste Ng (2017)

The Nickel Boy - Colson Whitehead (2019)

30% read. Not a terrible result for me. I listened to two of them, and read one.

It's a very American-centric list. 70%
60% female authors.

The Time article claims that Gone Girl is responsible for the whole Girl genre thing. I think that actually dates back at least to The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo which was released in English in 2008.  I saw the movie and really didn't like the last third. I'd passed on the idea of reading the book, but maybe I'll have to look at it now?

I'd also decided to pass on My Brilliant Friend. I didn't read it at the peak of the hype, and then I read a picture book by Elena Ferrante (The Beach at Night), which I really, really hated...

Time has released both Fiction and Nonfiction lists. I think I need to try and look at my best books of the decade.

100 21st Century Novels to Love

It's been a while between Listmanias here but I was very inspired after coming across this list thanks to Eric Karl Anderson and his wonderful booktube channel. 

The Times created this list of favourite novels of the 21st century so far. Sadly it is behind a paywall (at least for those of us outside the UK, not sure if it the same for everyone). But Eric discussed all the books, so I can here too. I'm not sure if there was any particular reason for the order, but I've chosen to alphabetise it. 

As always there's a few books I've read. Many I've meant to read. Some I've bought. And quite a few where I've not heard of either the author or sometimes that particular book. 

A Visit from the Goon Squad - Jennifer Egan (see my review)

All Families are Psychotic - Douglas Coupland

All my Puny Sorrows - Miriam Toews

All That Man Is - David Szalay

All the Light We Cannot See - Anthony Doerr

Americanah - Chimamanda Ngoze Adichie

Any Human Heart - William Boyd

Arlington Park - Rachel Cusk

An Officer and a Spy - Robert Harris

Atonement - Ian McEwen

Breath - Tim Winton 

Brooklyn - Colm Toibin

Burial Rites - Hannah Kent (see my review)

Cloud Atlas - David Mitchell

Conversations with Friends - Sally Rooney

Darkmans - Nicola Barker

Daughters of Jerusalem - Charlotte Mendelson

Digging to America - Anne Tyler

Disobedience - Naomi Alderman

Dissolution - CJ Sansom

English Passengers - Matthew Kneale 

Fingersmith - Sarah Waters

Gilead - Marilynne Robinson

God's Own Country - Ross Raisin

Golden Hill - Francis Spufford

Grief is the Thing with Feathers - Max Porter

Harvest - Jim Crace

Home - Toni Morrison

Home Fire - Kamila Shamsie

Hope: A Tragedy - Shalom Auslander

How to be Good - Nick Hornby

If Nobody Speaks of Remarkable Things - Jon McGregor

I'll Go to Bed at Noon - Gerard Woodward

Late in the Day - Tessa Hadley

Legend of a Suicide - David Vann

Let the Great World Spin - Colum McCann

Life of Pi - Yann Martel

Lincoln in the Bardo - George Saunders

Little Fires Everywhere - Celeste Ng

Middlesex - Jeffrey Eugenides

Midwinter Break - Bernard MacLaverty (see my review)

Mister Pip - Lloyd Jones

Mothering Sunday - Graham Swift

Never Let Me Go - Kazuo Ishiguro

Notes on a Scandal - Zoë Heller

NW - Zadie Smith

Old Filth - Jane Gardam

Olive Kitteridge - Elizabeth Strout

Small Island - Andrea Levy

Spies - Michael Frayn

Star of the Sea - Joseph O'Connor

Stay with Me - Ayobami Adebayo

The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay - Michael Chabon

The Blind Assassin - Margaret Atwood

The Book of the Heathen - Robert Edric

The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Was - Junot Diaz

The Constant Gardener - John Le Carré

The Corrections - Johnathan Franzen

The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time - Mark Haddon

The Essex Serpent - Sarah Perry

The Forgiven - Lawrence Osborne

The Green Road - Ann Enright

The Interestings - Meg Wolitzer

The Line of Beauty - Alan Hollinghurst

The Little Red Chairs - Edna O'Brien

The Noise of Time - Julian Barnes

The Plot Against America - Philip Roth

The Road - Cormac McCarthy (see my review)

The Secret River - Kate Grenville

The Secret Scripture - Sebastian Barry

The Siege - Helen Dunmore

The Son - Philipp Myer

The Underground Railroad - Colson Whitehead

The We Came to the End - Joshua Ferris

The White Tiger - Aravind Adiga

The Year of Runaways - Sunjeev Sahota

The Yellow Birds - Kevin Powers

The Zone of Interest - Martin Amis

Train Dreams - Denis Johnson

True History of the Kelly Gang - Peter Carey

We Need to Talk About Kevin - Lionel Shriver

West - Carys Davies

Wolf Hall - Hilary Mantel

You Don't Have to Live Like This - Benjamin Markovits



Novels in Translation

All for Nothing - Walter Kempowski

Alone in Berlin - Hans Fallada

Austerlitz - W.G Sebald

Flights - Olga Tokarczuk

Frog - Mo Yan

Limonov - Emmanuel Carrère

Lullaby - Leila Slimani (see my review)

My Brilliant Friend - Elena Ferrante

Submission - Michel Houellebecq

Suite Francaise - Irène Némirovsky

The Explosion Chronicles - Yan Lianke

The Great Swindle - Pierre Lemaitre

The Unseen - Roy Jacobsen

The Yacoubian Building - Alaa Al Aswany

War & Turpentine - Stefan Hertmans

Your Face Tomorrow Trilogy - Javier Marias

15/100

2 DNF

Did I Love those 21st Century Novels that I have read? Pretty much yes. I certainly loved, and remember loving English Passengers, Burial Rites, We Need to Talk About Kevin, True History of the Kelly Gang, The Road, and The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time (and I saw the totally amazing stage adaptation in Sydney last year).  I had forgotten that I loved A Visit from the Goon Squad. And I really, really hated The Life of Pi. Well I loved it until the end, and then I think I literally threw it across the room. 

15 isn't a bad effort for me, but I've shamefully not read any of the works in translation. Several of them are of course waiting for me on my shelves. So much more work to do...

July 2020 16/100

International Dublin Literary Award 2019 Longlist

I haven't been keeping up with booklists and award lists this year (there's a few things I haven't been keeping up with this year it seems), but then Lisa at ANZLitlovers alerted me to the 2019 International Dublin Literary Award Longlist. And I noticed that even I have read a few. Of course many more are on my TBR. I'm putting this Listmania list out there to help push shame me into picking up those books.

The New Animals by Pip Adam
Stay With Me by Ayọ̀bámi Adébáyọ̀
4321 by Paul Auster

Beartown / The Scandal by Fredrik Backman, translated from the Swedish by Neil Smith
Mrs Osmond by John Banville
The Invisible Life of Euridice Gusmao by Martha Batalha, translated from the Portuguese by Eric M. B. Becker
A Line Made by Walking by Sara Baume
The Trick by Emanuel Bergmann
The 7th Function of Language by Laurent Binet, translated from the French by Sam Taylor
The Heart’s Invisible Furies by John Boyne

The Greatest Hits of Wanda Jaynes by Bridget Canning
A Long Way From Home by Peter Carey
Marlborough Man by Alan Carter
Song of the Sun God by Shankari Chandran
Dragon Springs Road by Janie Chang
Brother by David Chariandy
What We Lose by Zinzi Clemmons
Terra Nullius by Claire G. Coleman
The Last Beothuk by Gary Collins
Acts of Allegiance by Peter Cunningham

The Life to Come by Michelle de Kretser
In the Distance by Hernan Diaz
Her by Garry Disher
Smile by Roddy Doyle
A Vineyard in Andalusia /The Vineyard by Maria Dueñas, translated from the Spanish by Nick Caistor & Lorenza García

Special Envoy by Jean Echenoz, translated from the French by Sam Taylor
Manhattan Beach by Jennifer Egan
American War by Omar El Akkad
Compass by Mathias Énard, translated from the French by Charlotte Mandell
Go, Went, Gone by Jenny Erpenbeck, translated from the German by Susan Bernofsky

Decline and Fall on Savage Street byFiona Farrell
First Person by Richard Flanagan
This Is How It Always Is by Laurie Frankel
The Invented Part by Rodrigo Fresán, translated from the Spanish by Will Vanderhyden
History of Wolves by Emily Fridlund

Return to the Dark Valley by Santiago Gamboa, translated from the Spanish by Howard Curtis

Here in Berlin by Cristina Garcia
Dreams Beyond the Shore by Tamika Gibson
There Your Heart Lies by Mary Gordon
Little Sister by Barbara Gowdy
The Road to Shenzhen by Huang Guosheng

How to Stop Time by Matt Haig

Exit West by Mohsin Hamid
A House in Norway by Vigdis Hjorth, translated from the Norwegian by Charlotte Barslund
The Sparsholt Affair by Alan Hollinghurst
Eleanor Oliphant is Completely Fine by  Gail Honeyman (see my review)

Sleeps Standing Moetu by Witi Ithimaera, translated from Maori by Hemi Kelly
Darker by E.L. James
The Stone Sky by N.K. Jemisin
Baby by Annaleese Jochems
First Snow, Last Light by Wayne Johnston
The Music Shop by Rachel Joyce

Spaceman of Bohemia by Jaroslav Kalfař
English Animals by Laura Kaye
You Should Have Left by Daniel Kehlmann, translated from the German by Ross Benjamin
Of Darkness by Josefine Klougart, translated from the Danish by Martin Aitken
The Leavers by Lisa Ko
The Harvest of Chronos by Mojca Kumerdej, translated from the Slovenian by Rawley Grau

Ferocity by Nicola Lagioia, translated from the Italian by Antony Shugaar
The Choke by Sofie Laguna
A Poison Apple by Michel Laub, translated from the Portuguese by Daniel Hahn
The Changeling by Victor LaValle
Pachinko by Jin Min Lee
The Barrowfields by Phillip Lewis
Escape From Sunset Grove by Minna Lindgren, translated from the Finnish by Kristian London
The End of Eddy by Edouard Louis, translated from the French by Michael Lucey
The History of Bees by Maja Lunde, translated from the Norwegian by Diane Oatley

Midwinter Break by Bernard MacLaverty (see my review)
The Temptation to be Happy by Lorenzo Marone, translated from the Italian by Shaun Whiteside
All Our Wrong Todays by Elan Mastai
The Ninth Hour by Alice McDermott
Reservoir 13 by Jon McGregor
The Blood Miracles by Lisa McInerney
Ithaca by Alan McMonagle
Gather the Daughters by Jennie Melamed
The Forensic Records Society by Magnus Mills
Elmet by Fiona Mozley
Like a Fading Shadow by Antonio Muñoz Molina, translated from the Spanish by Camilo A. Ramirez
The Sixteen Trees of the Somme by Lars Mytting, translated from the Norwegian by Paul Russell Garrett

Little Fires Everywhere by Celeste Ng
Mirror, Shoulder, Signal by Dorthe Nors, translated from the Danish by Misha Hoekstra

A Book of American Martyrs by Joyce Carol Oates
The Dead House by Billy O’Callaghan
Mama’s Maze by Agnes Ong
Incredible Floridas by Stephen Orr

Heretics by Leonardo Padura, translated from the Spanish by Anna Kushner
Uncertain Weights and Measures by Jocelyn Parr
Next Year, For Sure by Zoey Leigh Peterson
Reincarnation Blues by Michael Poore
No One is Coming to Save Us by Stephanie Powell Watts
The Bedlam Stacks by Natasha Pulley

The Death of the Perfect Sentence by Rein Raud, translated from the Estonian by Matthew Hyde
Through the Lonesome Dark by Paddy Richardson
White Bodies by Jane Robins
Son of a Trickster by Eden Robinson
Conversations With Friends by Sally Rooney
To Die in Spring by Ralf Rothmann, translated from the German by Shaun Whiteside
The Ministry of Utmost Happiness by Arundhati Roy
Breathe by Beni Rusani
The Golden House by Salman Rushdie
Idaho by Emily Ruskovich
The Bridge Troll Murders by Sheldon Russell

No One Can Pronounce My Name by Rakesh Satyal
Lincoln in the Bardo by George Saunders
Adua by Igiaba Scego, translated from the Italian by Jamie Richards
Tench by Inge Schilperoord, translated from the Dutch by David Colmer (currently stalled halfway, it's really short, maybe I should pick it up again)
See What I Have Done by Sarah Schmidt
Fever Dream by Samantha Schweblin, translated from the Spanish by Megan McDowell
Taboo by Kim Scott
The Tea Girl of Hummingbird Lane by Lisa See
A Boy in Winter by Rachel Seiffert
Kruso by Lutz Seiler, translated from the German by Tess Lewis
Home Fire by Kamila Shamsie
The Woman in the Castle by Jessica Shattuck
House of Spies by Daniel Silva
To the Back of Beyond by Peter Stamm, translated from the German by Michael Hofmann
My Cat Yugoslavia by Pajtim Statovci, translated from the Finnish by David Hackston
The Necessary Angel by C.K. Stead
The Rise and Fall of D.O.D.O.  by Neal Stephenson & Nicole Galland
Anything is Possible by Elizabeth Strout

My Absolute Darling by Gabriel Tallent
Monte Carlo by Peter Terrin, translated from the Dutch by David Doherty
The Hate U Give by Angie Thomas (see my review)
Naondel ; the Red Abbey Chronicles by Maria Turtschaninoff, translated from the Swedish by A. A. Prime

Temporary People by Deepak Unnikrishnan
They Know Not What They Do by Jussi Valtonen, translated from the Finnish by Kristian London
Borne by Jeff VanderMeer
And Fire Came Down by Emma Viskic
Radiant Terminus by Antoine Volodine, translated from the French by Jeffrey Zuckerman

Sing, Unburied, Sing by Jesmyn Ward
Clear to the Horizon by Dave Warner
Girlcott by Florenz Webb Maxwell
The Consequences by Niña Weijers, translated from the Dutch by Hester Velmans
When the English Fall by David Williams
Tin Man by Sarah Winman
Lost in September by Kathleen Winter

The Resurrection of Joan Ashby by Cherise Wolas
The Impossible Fairytale by Han Yujoo, translated from the Korean by Janet Hong
The Book of Joan by  Lidia Yuknavitch
The Image Interpreter by Zoran Živković, translated from the Serbian by Randall A. Major

7/141