''The New York Times Book Review'' (''NYTBR'') is a weekly paper-magazine supplement to the Sunday edition of ''

The New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid ...

'' in which current non-fiction and fiction books are reviewed. It is one of the most influential and widely read

book review __NOTOC__ A book review is a form of literary criticism in which a book is merely described (summary review) or analyzed based on content, style, and merit. A book review may be a primary source, opinion piece, summary review or scholarly revie ...

publications in the industry. The offices are located near

Times Square Times Square is a major commercial intersection, tourist destination, entertainment hub, and neighborhood in Midtown Manhattan, New York City. It is formed by the junction of Broadway, Seventh Avenue, and 42nd Street. Together with adjacent ...

in New York City.

Overview

The ''New York Times'' has published a book review section since October 10, 1896, announcing: "We begin today the publication of a Supplement which contains reviews of new books ... and other interesting matter ... associated with news of the day." In 1911, the review was moved to Sundays, on the theory that it would be more appreciatively received by readers with a bit of time on their hands. The target audience is an intelligent, general-interest adult reader. The ''Times'' publishes two versions each week, one with a cover price sold via subscription, bookstores and newsstands; the other with no cover price included as an insert in each Sunday edition of the ''Times'' (the copies are otherwise identical). Each week the ''NYTBR'' receives 750 to 1000 books from authors and publishers in the mail, of which 20 to 30 are chosen for review. Books are selected by the "preview editors" who read over 1,500 advance galleys a year. The selection process is based on finding books that are important and notable, as well as discovering new authors whose books stand above the crowd.

Self-published books Self-publishing is the publication of media by its author at their own cost, without the involvement of a publisher. The term usually refers to written media, such as books and magazines, either as an ebook or as a physical copy using POD (pr ...

are generally not reviewed as a matter of policy. Books not selected for review are stored in a "discard room" and then sold. ,

Barnes & Noble Barnes & Noble Booksellers is an American bookseller. It is a Fortune 1000 company and the bookseller with the largest number of retail outlets in the United States. As of July 7, 2020, the company operates 614 retail stores across all 50 U. ...

arrived about once a month to purchase the contents of the discard room, and the proceeds are then donated by ''NYTBR'' to charities. Books that are actually reviewed are usually donated to the reviewer. As of 2015, all review critics are freelance; the ''NYTBR'' does not have staff critics. In prior years, the ''NYTBR'' did have in-house critics, or a mix of in-house and freelance. For freelance critics, they are assigned an in-house "preview editor" who works with them in creating the final review. Freelance critics might be employees of ''The New York Times'' whose main duties are in other departments. They also include professional

literary critics Literary criticism (or literary studies) is the study, evaluation, and interpretation of literature. Modern literary criticism is often influenced by literary theory, which is the philosophical discussion of literature's goals and methods. Th ...

, novelists, academics and artists who write reviews for the ''NYTBR'' on a regular basis. Other duties on staff include a number of senior editors and a chief editor; a team of copy editors; a letter pages editor who reads letters to the editor; columnists who write weekly columns, such as the "Paperback Row" column; a production editor; a web and Internet publishing division; and other jobs. In addition to the magazine there is an Internet site that offers additional content, including audio interviews with authors, called the "Book Review Podcast". The book review publishes each week the widely cited and influential ''New York Times'' Best Seller list, which is created by the editors of the ''Times'' "News Surveys" department. In 2021, on the 125th anniversary of the ''Book Review'',

Parul Sehgal Parul Sehgal is an American literary critic based in New York, who publishes primarily in American venues. She is a former senior editor and columnist at ''The New York Times Book Review'', and was one of the team of book critics at ''The New Y ...

a staff critic and former editor at the ''Book Review'', wrote a review of the NYTBR titled "Reviewing the Book Review".

Pamela Paul Pamela Paul (born 1970/1971) is an American columnist, journalist, editor, and author. Since 2022, she has been an op-ed writer for ''The New York Times''. From 2013 to 2022, she was the editor of ''The New York Times Book Review'',Sam Tanenhaus Sam Tanenhaus (born October 31, 1955) is an American historian, biographer, and journalist. He currently is a writer for '' Prospect''. Early years Tanenhaus received his B.A. in English from Grinnell College in 1977 and a M.A. in English Liter ...

, who was editor from 2004 to 2013.

Podcast

"Inside The New York Times Book Review" is the oldest and most popular podcast at The New York Times. The debut episode was released on April 30, 2006 and the show has been recorded weekly ever since.

Best Books of the Year and Notable Books

Each year since 1968, around the beginning of December, a list of notable books and/or editor's choice ("Best Books") is announced. Beginning in 2004, it consists of a "100 Notable Books of the Year" list which contains

fiction Fiction is any creative work, chiefly any narrative work, portraying individuals, events, or places that are imaginary, or in ways that are imaginary. Fictional portrayals are thus inconsistent with history, fact, or plausibility. In a traditi ...

and

non-fiction Nonfiction, or non-fiction, is any document or media content that attempts, in good faith, to provide information (and sometimes opinions) grounded only in facts and real life, rather than in imagination. Nonfiction is often associated with be ...

titles, 50 of each. From the list of 100, 10 books are awarded the "Best Books of the Year" title, five each of fiction and non-fiction. Other year-end lists include the Best Illustrated Children's Books, in which 10 books are chosen by a panel of judges.

1990s

1998 The Notable Books were announced December 6, 1998. The eleven Editor's Choice books were announced December 6, 1998. *

Lorrie Moore Lorrie Moore (born Marie Lorena Moore; January 13, 1957) is an American writer. Biography Marie Lorena Moore was born in Glens Falls, New York, and nicknamed "Lorrie" by her parents. She attended St. Lawrence University. At 19, she won ''Seve ...

, '' Birds of America'' *

Russell Banks Russell Banks (born March 28, 1940) is an American writer of fiction and poetry. As a novelist, Banks is best known for his "detailed accounts of domestic strife and the daily struggles of ordinary often-marginalized characters". His stories usua ...

, ''

Cloudsplitter ''Cloudsplitter'' is a 1998 historical novel by Russell Banks relating the story of abolitionist John Brown. The novel is narrated as a retrospective by John Brown's son, Owen Brown, from his hermitage in the San Gabriel Mountains of Califor ...

'' *

Richard Fortey Richard Alan Fortey FRS FRSL (born 15 February 1946 in London) is a British palaeontologist, natural historian, writer and television presenter, who served as president of the Geological Society of London for its bicentennial year of 2007. Ea ...

, '' Life: A Natural History of the First Four Billion Years of Life on Earth'' *

Alice Munro Alice Ann Munro (; ; born 10 July 1931) is a Canadian short story writer who won the Nobel Prize in Literature in 2013. Munro's work has been described as revolutionizing the architecture of short stories, especially in its tendency to move f ...

, ''

The Love of a Good Woman ''The Love of a Good Woman'' is a collection of short stories by Canadian writer Alice Munro, published by McClelland and Stewart in 1998. The eight stories of this collection (one of which was originally published in '' Saturday Night''; five o ...

'' *

Barbara Kingsolver Barbara Kingsolver (born April 8, 1955) is an American novelist, essayist and poet. She was raised in rural Kentucky and lived briefly in the Congo in her early childhood. Kingsolver earned degrees in biology at DePauw University and the Univers ...

, ''

The Poisonwood Bible ''The Poisonwood Bible'' (1998), by Barbara Kingsolver, is a best-selling novel about a missionary family, the Prices, who in 1959 move from the U.S. state of Georgia to the village of Kilanga in the Belgian Congo, close to the Kwilu River. The ...

'' *

David Gates David Ashworth Gates (December 11, 1940 – January 5, 2023) was a American singer-songwriter, guitarist, musician and producer, frontman and co-lead singer (with Jimmy Griffin) of the group Bread, which reached the top of the musical charts i ...

, ''Preston Falls'' *

Ron Chernow Ronald Chernow (; born March 3, 1949) is an American writer, journalist and biographer. He has written bestselling historical non-fiction biographies. He won the 2011 Pulitzer Prize for Biography and the 2011 American History Book Prize for his ...

, '' Titan: The Life of John D. Rockefeller, Sr.'' *

Richard Holbrooke Richard Charles Albert Holbrooke (April 24, 1941 – December 13, 2010) was an American diplomat and author. He was the only person to have held the position of Assistant Secretary of State for two different regions of the world (Asia from 1977 ...

, ''To End a War'' *

Hilary Spurling Susan Hilary Spurling CBE FRSL ( Forrest; born 25 December 1940) is a British writer, known for her work as a journalist and biographer. Early life and education Born at Stockport, Cheshire, to circuit judge Gilbert Alexander Forrest (1912–197 ...

, ''The Unknown Matisse'' *

Graham Robb Graham Macdonald Robb FRSL (born 2 June 1958, Manchester) is a British author and critic specialising in French literature. Biography Born at Manchester, Robb attended the Royal Grammar School, Worcester, before going up to Exeter College, ...

, ''Victor Hugo: A Biography'' *

Philip Gourevitch Philip Gourevitch (born 1961), an American author and journalist, is a longtime staff writer for ''The New Yorker'' and a former editor of ''The Paris Review''. His most recent book is '' The Ballad of Abu Ghraib'' (2008), an account of Iraq's ...

, '' We Wish to Inform You That Tomorrow We Will be Killed With Our Families: Stories from Rwanda'' 1999 The Notable Books were announced December 5, 1999. The eleven Editor's Choice books were announced December 5, 1999. *

Richard A. Posner Richard Allen Posner (; born January 11, 1939) is an American jurist and legal scholar who served as a federal appellate judge on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit from 1981 to 2017. A senior lecturer at the University of Chicag ...

, ''An Affair of State: The Investigation, Impeachment, and Trial of President Clinton'' *

Annie Proulx Edna Ann Proulx (; born August 22, 1935) is an American novelist, short story writer, and journalist. She has written most frequently as Annie Proulx but has also used the names E. Annie Proulx and E.A. Proulx. She won the PEN/Faulkner Award fo ...

, '' Close Range: Wyoming Stories'' * Richard Holmes, ''Coleridge: Darker Reflections, 1804-1834'' *

J. M. Coetzee John Maxwell Coetzee OMG (born 9 February 1940) is a South African–Australian novelist, essayist, linguist, translator and recipient of the 2003 Nobel Prize in Literature. He is one of the most critically acclaimed and decorated authors in ...

, ''

Disgrace ''Disgrace'' is a novel by J. M. Coetzee, published in 1999. It won the Booker Prize. The writer was also awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature four years after its publication. Plot David Lurie is a white South African professor of English wh ...

'' *

Antonio Damasio Antonio Damasio ( pt, António Damásio) is a Portuguese-American neuroscientist. He is currently the David Dornsife Chair in Neuroscience, as well as Professor of Psychology, Philosophy, and Neurology, at the University of Southern California, ...

, ''The Feeling of What Happens: Body and Emotion in the Making of Consciousness'' *

John Keegan Sir John Desmond Patrick Keegan (15 May 1934 – 2 August 2012) was an English military historian, lecturer, author and journalist. He wrote many published works on the nature of combat between prehistory and the 21st century, covering land, ...

, ''The First World War'' *

Michael Frayn Michael Frayn, FRSL (; born 8 September 1933) is an English playwright and novelist. He is best known as the author of the farce ''Noises Off'' and the dramas ''Copenhagen'' and ''Democracy''. His novels, such as '' Towards the End of the Mo ...

, '' Headlong'' *

Jean Strouse Jean Strouse (born 1945) is an American biographer, cultural administrator, and critic. She is best known for her biographies of diarist Alice James and financier J. Pierpont Morgan. Strouse was an editorial assistant at ''The New York Review of ...

, ''Morgan: American Financier'' *

Inga Clendinnen Inga Clendinnen, (; 17 August 1934 – 8 September 2016) was an Australian author, historian, anthropologist, and academic. Her work focused on social history, and the history of cultural encounters. She was an authority on Aztec civilisation an ...

, ''Reading the Holocaust'' *

Judith Thurman Judith Thurman (b. 1946) is an American writer, biographer, and critic. She is the recipient of the 1983 National Book Award for nonfiction for her biography ''Isak Dinesen: The Life of a Storyteller''. Her book ''Secrets of the Flesh: A Life of ...

, ''Secrets of the Flesh: A Life of Colette'' *

Roddy Doyle Roddy Doyle (born 8 May 1958) is an Irish novelist, dramatist and screenwriter. He is the author of eleven novels for adults, eight books for children, seven plays and screenplays, and dozens of short stories. Several of his books have been ma ...

, ''

A Star Called Henry ''A Star Called Henry'' (1999) is a novel by Irish writer Roddy Doyle. It is Vol. 1 of '' The Last Roundup'' series. The second installment of the series, '' Oh, Play That Thing'', was published in 2004. The third, '' The Dead Republic'', was p ...

2000s

2000 The Notable Books were announced December 3, 2000. The 10 Editor's Choice books were announced December 3, 2000. *

Jim Crace James Crace (born 1 March 1946) is an English novelist, playwright and short story writer. Elected a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature in 1999, Crace was born in Hertfordshire and has lectured at the University of Texas at Austin. His n ...

, ''

Being Dead ''Being Dead'' is a novel by the English writer Jim Crace, published in 1999. Its principal characters are married zoologists Joseph and Celice and their daughter Syl. The story tells of how Joseph and Celice, on a day trip to the dunes where th ...

'' * Unknown, ''

Beowulf ''Beowulf'' (; ang, Bēowulf ) is an Old English epic poem in the tradition of Germanic heroic legend consisting of 3,182 alliterative lines. It is one of the most important and most often translated works of Old English literature. The ...

'' (translation by

Seamus Heaney Seamus Justin Heaney (; 13 April 1939 – 30 August 2013) was an Irish poet, playwright and translator. He received the 1995 Nobel Prize in Literature.

) *

Matt Ridley Matthew White Ridley, 5th Viscount Ridley, (born 7 February 1958), is a British science writer, journalist and businessman. He is known for his writings on science, the environment, and economics and has been a regular contributor to ''Th ...

, '' Genome: The Autobiography of a Species in 23 Chapters'' *

John Updike John Hoyer Updike (March 18, 1932 – January 27, 2009) was an American novelist, poet, short-story writer, art critic, and literary critic. One of only four writers to win the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction more than once (the others being Booth ...

, ''

Gertrude and Claudius ''Gertrude and Claudius'' is a novel by John Updike. It uses the known sources of William Shakespeare's ''Hamlet'' to tell a story that draws on a rather straightforward revenge tale in medieval Denmark, as depicted by Saxo Grammaticus in his tw ...

'' *

Dave Eggers Dave Eggers (born March 12, 1970) is an American writer, editor, and publisher. He wrote the 2000 best-selling memoir ''A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius''. Eggers is also the founder of ''Timothy McSweeney's Quarterly Concern'', a lite ...

, '' A Heartbreaking Work Of Staggering Genius: A Memoir Based on a True Story'' *

Philip Roth Philip Milton Roth (March 19, 1933 – May 22, 2018) was an American novelist and short story writer. Roth's fiction—often set in his birthplace of Newark, New Jersey—is known for its intensely autobiographical character, for philosophicall ...

, ''

The Human Stain ''The Human Stain'' is a novel by Philip Roth, published May 5, 2000. The book is set in Western Massachusetts in the late 1990s. It is narrated by 65-year-old author Nathan Zuckerman, who appears in several earlier Roth novels, and who also figu ...

'' *

Tom Segev Tom Segev ( he, תום שגב; born March 1, 1945) is an Israeli historian, author and journalist. He is associated with Israel's New Historians, a group challenging many of the country's traditional narratives. Biography Segev was born in Jerus ...

, ''One Palestine, Complete: Jews and Arabs Under the British Mandate'' *

, ''Rimbaud: A Biography'' * Frances FitzGerald, ''Way Out There In the Blue: Reagan, Star Wars and the End of the Cold War'' 2001 The Notable Books were announced December 2, 2001. The 9 Editor's Choice books were announced December 2, 2001. *

W.G. Sebald Winfried Georg Sebald (18 May 1944 – 14 December 2001), known as W. G. Sebald or (as he preferred) Max Sebald, was a German writer and academic. At the time of his death at the age of 57, he was being cited by literary critics as one of the g ...

, ''

Austerlitz Austerlitz may refer to: History * Battle of Austerlitz, an 1805 victory by the French Grand Army of Napoleon Bonaparte Places * Austerlitz, German name for Slavkov u Brna in the Czech Republic, which gave its name to the Battle of Austerlitz a ...

'' *

Paula Fox Paula Fox (April 22, 1923 – March 1, 2017) was an American author of novels for adults and children and of two memoirs. For her contributions as a children's writer she won the biennial, international Hans Christian Andersen Award in 1978, the ...

, ''Borrowed Finery: A Memoir'' *

Jonathan Franzen Jonathan Earl Franzen (born August 17, 1959) is an American novelist and essayist. His 2001 novel ''The Corrections'', a sprawling, satirical family drama, drew widespread critical acclaim, earned Franzen a National Book Award, was a Pulitzer Pr ...

, ''

The Corrections ''The Corrections'' is a 2001 novel by American author Jonathan Franzen. It revolves around the troubles of an elderly Midwestern couple and their three adult children, tracing their lives from the mid-20th century to "one last Christmas" togeth ...

'' *

, ''

Hateship, Friendship, Courtship, Loveship, Marriage ''Hateship, Friendship, Courtship, Loveship, Marriage'' is a book of short stories by Alice Munro, published by McClelland and Stewart in 2001. In 2006, the story "The Bear Came over the Mountain" was adapted into a film, ''Away from Her'', dir ...

'' *

Colson Whitehead Arch Colson Chipp Whitehead (born November 6, 1969) is an American novelist. He is the author of eight novels, including his 1999 debut work '' The Intuitionist''; '' The Underground Railroad'' (2016), for which he won the 2016 National Book Awa ...

, ''

John Henry Days ''John Henry Days'' is a 2001 novel by American author Colson Whitehead. This is his second full-length work. Plot summary Building the railways that made America, John Henry died with a hammer in his hand moments after competing against a stea ...

'' *

Louis Menand Louis Menand (; born January 21, 1952) is an American critic, essayist, and professor, best known for his Pulitzer-winning book ''The Metaphysical Club'' (2001), an intellectual and cultural history of late 19th and early 20th century America. L ...

, '' The Metaphysical Club: A Story of Ideas in America'' * Peter Carey, ''

True History of the Kelly Gang ''True History of the Kelly Gang'' is a novel by Australian writer Peter Carey, based loosely on the history of the Kelly Gang. It was first published in Brisbane by the University of Queensland Press in 2000. It won the 2001 Booker Prize and ...

'' *

Oliver Sacks Oliver Wolf Sacks, (9 July 1933 – 30 August 2015) was a British neurologist, naturalist, historian of science, and writer. Born in Britain, Sacks received his medical degree in 1958 from The Queen's College, Oxford, before moving to the Uni ...

, '' Uncle Tungsten: Memories of a Chemical Boyhood'' 2002 The Notable Books were announced December 8, 2002. The 7 Editor's Choice books were announced December 8, 2002. *

Miranda Carter Miranda Carter (born 1965) is an English historian, writer and biographer who also publishes fiction under the name MJ Carter.Jake Kerridge ''The Telegraph'', 23 April 2015. Education Carter was educated at St Paul's Girls School and Exeter Col ...

, ''Anthony Blunt: His Lives'' *

Ian McEwan Ian Russell McEwan, (born 21 June 1948) is an English novelist and screenwriter. In 2008, ''The Times'' featured him on its list of "The 50 greatest British writers since 1945" and ''The Daily Telegraph'' ranked him number 19 in its list of th ...

, ''

Atonement Atonement (also atoning, to atone) is the concept of a person taking action to correct previous wrongdoing on their part, either through direct action to undo the consequences of that act, equivalent action to do good for others, or some other ex ...

'' *

Lorna Sage Lorna Sage (13 January 1943 – 11 January 2001) was an English academic, literary critic and author, remembered especially for contributing to consideration of women's writing and for a memoir of her early life, '' Bad Blood'' (2000).ODNB entry ...

, '' Bad Blood'' *

Jeffrey Eugenides Jeffrey Kent Eugenides (born March 8, 1960) is an American novelist and short story writer. He has written numerous short stories and essays, as well as three novels: ''The Virgin Suicides'' (1993), ''Middlesex'' (2002), and'' The Marriage Plot'' ...

, ''

Middlesex Middlesex (; abbreviation: Middx) is a Historic counties of England, historic county in South East England, southeast England. Its area is almost entirely within the wider urbanised area of London and mostly within the Ceremonial counties of ...

'' *

Margaret MacMillan Margaret Olwen MacMillan, (born 1943) is a Canadian historian and professor at the University of Oxford. She is former provost of Trinity College, Toronto, and professor of history at the University of Toronto and previously at Ryerson Univer ...

, '' Paris 1919: Six Months That Changed the World'' * William Kennedy, '' Roscoe'' *

Timothy Ferris Timothy Ferris (born August 29, 1944) is an American science writer and the best-selling author of twelve books, including ''The Science of Liberty'' (2010) and ''Coming of Age in the Milky Way'' (1988), for which he was awarded the American ...

, ''Seeing in the Dark: How Backyard Stargazers Are Probing Deep Space and Guarding Earth from Interplanetary Peril'' 2003 The Notable Books were announced December 7, 2003. The 9 Editor's Choice books were announced December 7, 2003. *

Caroline Alexander Caroline Sarah J. Alexander (born 3 March 1968) is a cross-country mountain biker and road cyclist born in Barrow-in-Furness. She was a swimmer as a child and did not cycle until she was 20. She first rode a bike in competition in a triathlon: ...

, ''The Bounty: The True Story of the Mutiny on the Bounty'' *

Monica Ali Monica Ali FRSL (born 20 October 1967) is a British writer of Bangladeshi and English heritage. In 2003, she was selected as one of the "Best of Young British Novelists" by ''Granta'' magazine based on her unpublished manuscript; her debut nove ...

, ''Brick Lane'' *

T. Coraghessan Boyle Thomas Coraghessan Boyle, also known as T. C. Boyle and T. Coraghessan Boyle (born December 2, 1948), is an American novelist and short story writer. Since the mid-1970s, he has published sixteen novels and more than 100 short stories. He won the ...

, ''

Drop City Drop City was a counterculture artists' community that formed near the town of Trinidad in southern Colorado in 1960. Abandoned by 1979, Drop City became known as the first rural "hippie commune". Establishment In 1960, the four original foun ...

'' *

Jonathan Lethem Jonathan Allen Lethem (; born February 19, 1964) is an American novelist, essayist, and short story writer. His first novel, ''Gun, with Occasional Music'', a genre work that mixed elements of science fiction and detective fiction, was publishe ...

, '' The Fortress of Solitude'' *

William Taubman William Chase Taubman (born November 13, 1941 in New York City) is an American political scientist. His biography of Nikita Khrushchev won the Pulitzer Prize for Biography in 2004 and the National Book Critics Circle Award for Biography in ...

, '' Khrushchev: The Man and His Era'' *

Edward P. Jones Edward Paul Jones (born October 5, 1950) is an American novelist and short story writer. His 2003 novel '' The Known World'' received the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction and the International Dublin Literary Award. Biography Edward Paul Jones was born ...

, ''

The Known World ''The Known World'' is a 2003 historical novel by Edward P. Jones. Set in Virginia during the antebellum era, it examines the issues regarding the ownership of Black slaves by both white and Black Americans. The book was published to acclaim, wh ...

'' *

Gabriel García Márquez Gabriel José de la Concordia García Márquez (; 6 March 1927 – 17 April 2014) was a Colombian novelist, short-story writer, screenwriter, and journalist, known affectionately as Gabo () or Gabito () throughout Latin America. Considered one ...

, ''

Living to Tell the Tale ''Living to Tell the Tale'' (original Spanish language title: ''Vivir para contarla'') is the first volume of the autobiography of Gabriel García Márquez. The book was originally published in Spanish in 2002, with an English translation by Edit ...

'' *

Adrian Nicole LeBlanc Adrian Nicole LeBlanc is an American journalist whose works focus on the marginalized members of society: adolescents living in poverty, prostitutes, women in prison, etc. She is best known for her 2003 non-fiction book '' Random Family''. She wa ...

, ''Random Family: Love, Drugs, Trouble, and Coming of Age in the Bronx'' 2004 The 100 Notable Books were announced December 5, 2004. The 10 Best Books were announced December 12, 2004. *

, ''

Alexander Hamilton Alexander Hamilton (January 11, 1755 or 1757July 12, 1804) was an American military officer, statesman, and Founding Father who served as the first United States secretary of the treasury from 1789 to 1795. Born out of wedlock in Charlest ...

'' *

Bob Dylan Bob Dylan (legally Robert Dylan, born Robert Allen Zimmerman, May 24, 1941) is an American singer-songwriter. Often regarded as one of the greatest songwriters of all time, Dylan has been a major figure in popular culture during a career sp ...

, '' Chronicles: Volume One'' *

David Hackett Fischer David Hackett Fischer (born December 2, 1935) is University Professor of History Emeritus at Brandeis University. Fischer's major works have covered topics ranging from large macroeconomic and cultural trends (''Albion's Seed,'' ''The Great Wave ( ...

, ''

Washington's Crossing Washington's Crossing is the location of George Washington's crossing of the Delaware River on the night of December 25–26, 1776 in the American Revolutionary War. This daring maneuver led to victory in the Battle of Trenton and altered the cou ...

'' *

Stephen Greenblatt Stephen Jay Greenblatt (born November 7, 1943) is an American Shakespearean, literary historian, and author. He has served as the John Cogan University Professor of the Humanities at Harvard University since 2000. Greenblatt is the general edit ...

, '' Will in the World: How Shakespeare Became Shakespeare'' *

Ha Jin Jin Xuefei (; born February 21, 1956) is a Chinese-American poet and novelist using the pen name Ha Jin (). ''Ha'' comes from his favorite city, Harbin. His poetry is associated with the Misty Poetry movement. Early life Ha Jin was born in L ...

, ''

War Trash ''War Trash'' is a novel by the Chinese author Ha Jin, who has long lived in the United States and who writes in English. It takes the form of a memoir written by the fictional character Yu Yuan, a man who eventually becomes a soldier in the C ...

'' *

, '' Runaway'' *

Orhan Pamuk Ferit Orhan Pamuk (born 7 June 1952) is a Turkish novelist, screenwriter, academic, and recipient of the 2006 Nobel Prize in Literature. One of Turkey's most prominent novelists, his work has sold over thirteen million books in sixty-three lan ...

, ''

Snow Snow comprises individual ice crystals that grow while suspended in the atmosphere—usually within clouds—and then fall, accumulating on the ground where they undergo further changes. It consists of frozen crystalline water throughout ...

'' *

Marilynne Robinson Marilynne Summers Robinson (born November 26, 1943) is an American novelist and essayist. Across her writing career, Robinson has received numerous awards, including the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction in 2005, National Humanities Medal in 2012, and ...

, ''

Gilead Gilead or Gilad (; he, גִּלְעָד ''Gīləʿāḏ'', ar, جلعاد, Ǧalʻād, Jalaad) is the ancient, historic, biblical name of the mountainous northern part of the region of Transjordan.''Easton's Bible Dictionary'Galeed''/ref> Th ...

'' *

, ''

The Plot Against America ''The Plot Against America'' is a novel by Philip Roth published in 2004. It is an alternative history in which Franklin D. Roosevelt is defeated in the presidential election of 1940 by Charles Lindbergh. The novel follows the fortunes of the R ...

'' *

Colm Tóibín Colm Tóibín (, approximately ; born 30 May 1955) is an Irish novelist, short story writer, essayist, journalist, critic, playwright and poet. His first novel, '' The South'', was published in 1990. '' The Blackwater Lightship'' was shortlis ...

, '' The Master'' 2005 The 100 Notable Books were announced December 4, 2005. The 10 Best Books were announced December 11, 2005. *

Joan Didion Joan Didion (; December 5, 1934 – December 23, 2021) was an American writer. Along with Tom Wolfe, Hunter S. Thompson and Gay Talese, she is considered one of the pioneers of New Journalism. Didion's career began in the 1950s after she won an ...

, ''

The Year of Magical Thinking ''The Year of Magical Thinking'' (2005), by Joan Didion (1934–2021), is an account of the year following the death of the author's husband John Gregory Dunne (1932–2003). Published by Knopf in October 2005, ''The Year of Magical Thinking'' wa ...

'' *

Mary Gaitskill Mary Gaitskill (born November 11, 1954) is an American novelist, essayist, and short story writer. Her work has appeared in ''The New Yorker'', ''Harper's Magazine'', ''Esquire'', ''The Best American Short Stories'' (1993, 2006, 2012, 2020), and ...

, ''Veronica'' *

Jonathan Harr Jonathan Harr is an American writer, best known for the nonfiction work'' A Civil Action''. Early life and education Jonathan Ensor Harr was born 13 September 1948, in Beloit, Wisconsin, the son of John Ensor Harr (1 August 1926 - 14 November 2004 ...

, ''The Lost Painting: The Quest for a Caravaggio Masterpiece'' *

Tony Judt Tony Robert Judt ( ; 2 January 1948 – 6 August 2010) was a British-American historian, essayist and university professor who specialized in European history. Judt moved to New York and served as the Erich Maria Remarque Professor in European ...

, '' Postwar: A History of Europe Since 1945'' *

, ''

Saturday Saturday is the day of the week between Friday and Sunday. No later than the 2nd century, the Romans named Saturday ("Saturn's Day") for the planet Saturn, which controlled the first hour of that day, according to Vettius Valens. The day's na ...

'' *

Haruki Murakami is a Japanese writer. His novels, essays, and short stories have been bestsellers in Japan and internationally, with his work translated into 50 languages and having sold millions of copies outside Japan. He has received numerous awards for his ...

, ''

Kafka on the Shore is a 2002 novel by Japanese author Haruki Murakami. Its 2005 English translation was among "The 10 Best Books of 2005" from ''The New York Times'' and received the World Fantasy Award for 2006. The book tells the stories of the young Kafka Tamur ...

'' *

George Packer George Packer (born August 13, 1960) is a US journalist, novelist, and playwright. He is best known for his writings for ''The New Yorker'' and ''The Atlantic'' about U.S. foreign policy and for his book '' The Assassins' Gate: America in Iraq''. ...

, '' The Assassins' Gate: America in Iraq'' *

Curtis Sittenfeld Elizabeth Curtis Sittenfeld (born 1975) is an American writer. She is the author of a collection of short stories, ''You Think it, I’ll Say It'' (2018), as well as six novels: ''Prep'' (2005), the story of students at a Massachusetts prep sch ...

, ''Prep'' *

Zadie Smith Zadie Smith FRSL (born Sadie; 25 October 1975) is an English novelist, essayist, and short-story writer. Her debut novel, ''White Teeth'' (2000), immediately became a best-seller and won a number of awards. She has been a tenured professor ...

, ''

On Beauty ''On Beauty'' is a 2005 novel by British author Zadie Smith, loosely based on ''Howards End'' by E. M. Forster. The story follows the lives of a mixed-race British/American family living in the United States, addresses ethnic and cultural dif ...

'' * Mark Stevens and

Annalyn Swan Annalyn Swan (born ca. 1951 in Biloxi, Mississippi) is an American writer and biographer who has written extensively about the arts. With her husband, art critic Mark Stevens, she is the author of '' de Kooning: An American Master'' (2004), a b ...

, '' de Kooning: An American Master'' 2006 The 100 Notable Books were announced December 3, 2006. The 10 Best Books were announced December 10, 2006. *

Richard Ford Richard Ford (born February 16, 1944) is an American novelist and short story writer. His best-known works are the novel '' The Sportswriter'' and its sequels, '' Independence Day'', ''The Lay of the Land'' and ''Let Me Be Frank With You'', and t ...

, ''

The Lay of the Land ''The Lay of the Land'' is a 2006 novel by American author Richard Ford. The novel is the third in what is now a four-part series, preceded by the novels '' The Sportswriter'' (1986) and '' Independence Day'' (1995); and followed by ''Let Me Be ...

'' *

Amy Hempel Amy Hempel (born December 14, 1951) is an American short story writer and journalist. She teaches creative writing at the Michener Center for Writers. Life Hempel was born in Chicago, Illinois. She moved to California at age 16, which is wher ...

, ''

The Collected Stories of Amy Hempel ''The Collected Stories of Amy Hempel'' is a compilation of all Hempel's short stories published between 1985 and 2005. The collection was published by Scribner in 2006 with an introduction by Rick Moody. The book was a finalist for the 2006 P ...

'' *

Claire Messud Claire Messud (born 1966) is an American novelist and literature and creative writing professor. She is best known as the author of the novel '' The Emperor's Children'' (2006). Early life Born in Greenwich, Connecticut,van Gelder, Lawrence. "Foo ...

, ''The Emperor's Children'' *

Marisha Pessl Marisha Pessl (born October 26, 1977) is an American writer known for her novels '' Special Topics in Calamity Physics'', '' Night Film'', and ''Neverworld Wake''. Early life Pessl was born in Clarkston, Michigan, to Klaus, an Austrian engineer ...

, ''

Special Topics in Calamity Physics ''Special Topics in Calamity Physics'' (2006) is the debut novel by American writer Marisha Pessl. Background Pessl wrote three drafts of the book, telling Kenyon Review that "each draft took about a year. It wasn’t so much that I was rev ...

'' *

Nathaniel Philbrick Nathaniel Philbrick (born June 11, 1956) is an American author of history, winner of the National Book Award, and finalist for the Pulitzer Prize. His maritime history, '' In the Heart of the Sea: The Tragedy of the Whaleship Essex,'' which tells ...

, '' Mayflower: A Story of Courage, Community, and War'' *

Michael Pollan Michael Kevin Pollan (; born February 6, 1955) is an American author and journalist, who is currently Professor of the Practice Non-Fiction and the first Lewis K. Chan Arts Lecturer at Harvard University. Concurrently, he is the Knight Professo ...

, '' The Omnivore's Dilemma: A Natural History of Four Meals'' *

Gary Shteyngart Gary Shteyngart (; born July 5, 1972) is a Soviet-born American writer. He is the author of five novels (including ''Absurdistan'' and ''Super Sad True Love Story'') and a memoir. Much of his work is satirical. Early life Born Igor Semyonovich ...

, '' Absurdistan'' *

Rory Stewart Roderick James Nugent Stewart (born 3 January 1973) is a British academic, diplomat, author, broadcaster, former soldier and former politician. He is the president of GiveDirectly, a visiting fellow at Yale University's Jackson Institute for G ...

, ''

The Places In Between ''The Places in Between'' is a travel narrative by Rory Stewart, a British writer and former diplomat, and future member of Parliament, detailing his solo walk across north-central Afghanistan in 2002. Synopsis Stewart arrives in Afghanistan ...

'' *

Danielle Trussoni Danielle Anne Trussoni is a ''New York Times'', ''USA Today'', and '' Sunday Times'' Top 10 bestselling novelist. She has been a Pulitzer Prize in Fiction jurist, and writes the "Dark Matters" column for the '' New York Times Book Review''. She ...

, ''Falling Through the Earth: A Memoir'' *

Lawrence Wright Lawrence Wright (born August 2, 1947) is an American writer and journalist, who is a staff writer for ''The New Yorker'' magazine, and fellow at the Center for Law and Security at the New York University School of Law. Wright is best known as th ...

, '' The Looming Tower: Al-Qaeda and the Road to 9/11'' 2007 The 100 Notable Books were announced December 2, 2007. The 10 Best Books were announced December 9, 2007. *

Roberto Bolaño Roberto Bolaño Ávalos (; 28 April 1953 – 15 July 2003) was a Chilean novelist, short-story writer, poet and essayist. In 1999, Bolaño won the Rómulo Gallegos Prize for his novel ''Los detectives salvajes'' (''The Savage Detectives' ...

, ''

The Savage Detectives ''The Savage Detectives'' (Spanish: ''Los Detectives Salvajes'') is a novel by the Chilean author Roberto Bolaño published in 1998. Natasha Wimmer's English translation was published by Farrar, Straus and Giroux in 2007. The novel tells the st ...

'' *

Rajiv Chandrasekaran Rajiv Chandrasekaran is an American journalist. He is a senior correspondent and associate editor at ''The Washington Post'', where he has worked since 1994. Life He grew up mostly in the San Francisco Bay area. He attended Stanford University, w ...

, '' Imperial Life in the Emerald City: Inside Iraq's Green Zone'' *

Linda Colley Dame Linda Jane Colley, (born 13 September 1949 in Chester, England) is an expert on British, imperial and global history from 1700. She is Shelby M. C. Davis 1958 Professor of History at Princeton University and a long-term fellow in history at ...

, ''The Ordeal of Elizabeth Marsh: A Woman in World History'' *

Joshua Ferris Joshua Ferris (born 1974) is an American author best known for his debut 2007 novel ''Then We Came to the End''. The book is a comedy about the American workplace, told in the first-person plural. It takes place in a fictitious Chicago ad agency ...

, ''

Then We Came to the End ''Then We Came to the End'' is the first novel by Joshua Ferris. It was released by Little, Brown and Company on March 1, 2007. A satire of the American workplace, it is similar in tone to Don DeLillo's ''Americana,'' even borrowing DeLillo's fir ...

'' *

Denis Johnson Denis Hale Johnson (July 1, 1949 – May 24, 2017) was an American novelist, short-story writer, and poet. He is perhaps best known for his debut short story collection, '' Jesus' Son'' (1992). His most successful novel, ''Tree of Smoke'' (2007) ...

, '' Tree of Smoke: A Novel'' *

Mildred Armstrong Kalish Mildred may refer to: People * Mildred (name), a given name (including a list of people and characters with the name) * Saint Mildrith, 8th-century Abbess of Minster-in-Thanet * Milred Milred (died 774) (also recorded as Mildred and Hildred) w ...

, ''Little Heathens'' *

Per Petterson Per Petterson (born 18 July 1952 in Oslo) is a Norwegian novelist. His debut book was ''Aske i munnen, sand i skoa'' (1987), a collection of short stories. He has since published a number of novels to good reviews. ''To Siberia'' (1996), set in ...

, '' Out Stealing Horses'' *

Alex Ross Nelson Alexander Ross (born January 22, 1970) is an American comic book writer and artist known primarily for his painted interiors, covers, and design work. He first became known with the 1994 miniseries ''Marvels'', on which he collaborated wi ...

, '' The Rest Is Noise: Listening to the Twentieth Century'' *

Michael Thomas Michael or Mike Thomas may refer to: Entertainment * Michael M. Thomas (born 1936), American novelist of financial thrillers * Michael Tilson Thomas (born 1944), American conductor, pianist, and composer * Michael Thomas (actor) (1952–2019), Bri ...

, '' Man Gone Down: A Novel'' *

Jeffrey Toobin Jeffrey Ross Toobin (; born May 21, 1960) is an American lawyer, author, blogger, and longtime legal analyst for CNN. He left CNN on September 4, 2022. During the Iran–Contra affair, Toobin served as an associate counsel on this investigation ...

, '' The Nine: Inside the Secret World of the Supreme Court'' 2008 The 100 Notable Books were announced November 26, 2008. The 10 Best Books were announced December 14, 2008. *

Julian Barnes Julian Patrick Barnes (born 19 January 1946) is an English writer. He won the Man Booker Prize in 2011 with ''The Sense of an Ending'', having been shortlisted three times previously with '' Flaubert's Parrot'', ''England, England'', and '' Art ...

, ''Nothing to Be Frightened Of'' *

, ''2666'' *

Drew Gilpin Faust Catharine Drew Gilpin Faust (born September 18, 1947) is an American historian and was the 28th president of Harvard University, the first woman to serve in that role. She was Harvard's first president since 1672 without an undergraduate or gradu ...

, ''This Republic of Suffering: Death and the American Civil War'' *

Dexter Filkins Dexter Price Filkins (born May 24, 1961) is an American journalist known primarily for his coverage of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan for ''The New York Times''. He was a finalist for a Pulitzer Prize in 2002 for his dispatches from Afghanista ...

, ''

The Forever War ''The Forever War'' (1974) is a military science fiction novel by American author Joe Haldeman, telling the contemplative story about human soldiers fighting an interstellar war against an alien civilization known as the Taurans. It won the Nebu ...

'' *

Patrick French Patrick French (born 1966) is a British writer, historian and academician. He was educated at the University of Edinburgh where he studied English and American literature, and received a PhD in South Asian Studies. He was appointed as the inau ...

, '' The World Is What It Is: The Authorized Biography of V. S. Naipaul'' *

Jhumpa Lahiri Nilanjana Sudeshna "Jhumpa" LahiriMinzesheimer, Bob ''USA Today'', August 19, 2003. Retrieved on 2008-04-13. (born July 11, 1967) is an American author known for her short stories, novels and essays in English, and, more recently, in Italia ...

, ''

Unaccustomed Earth ''Unaccustomed Earth'' is a collection of short stories from American author Jhumpa Lahiri. It is her second collection of stories, following '' Interpreter of Maladies'' (which won the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction). As with much of Lahiri's work, ...

'' *

Jane Mayer Jane Meredith Mayer (born 1955) is an American investigative journalist who has been a staff writer for ''The New Yorker'' since 1995. She has written for the publication about money in politics; government prosecution of whistleblowers; the Uni ...

, '' The Dark Side: The Inside Story of How The War on Terror Turned into a War on American Ideals'' *

Steven Millhauser Steven Millhauser (born August 3, 1943) is an American novelist and short story writer. He won the 1997 Pulitzer Prize for Fiction for his novel '' Martin Dressler''. Life and career Millhauser was born in New York City, grew up in Connecticut, ...

, ''Dangerous Laughter: Thirteen Stories'' *

Toni Morrison Chloe Anthony Wofford Morrison (born Chloe Ardelia Wofford; February 18, 1931 – August 5, 2019), known as Toni Morrison, was an American novelist. Her first novel, ''The Bluest Eye'', was published in 1970. The critically acclaimed '' So ...

, ''

A Mercy ''A Mercy'' is Toni Morrison's ninth novel. It was published in 2008. Set in colonial America in the late 17th century, it is the story of a European farmer, his purchased wife, and his growing household of indentured or enslaved white, Native Am ...

'' * Joseph O'Neill, ''

Netherland ) , anthem = ( en, "William of Nassau") , image_map = , map_caption = , subdivision_type = Sovereign state , subdivision_name = Kingdom of the Netherlands , established_title = Before independence , established_date = Spanish Netherl ...

'' 2009 The 100 Notable Books were announced December 6, 2009. The 10 Best Books were announced December 13, 2009. *

Liaquat Ahamed Liaquat Ahamed (born 14 November 1952 in Kenya) is an American author. Life and work Liaquat Ahamed was born in Kenya, where his grandfather had emigrated to from Gujarat by way of Zanzibar in the late 19th century.Lords of Finance: The Bankers Who Broke the World'' *

David Finkel David Louis Finkel (born October 28, 1955) is an American journalist. He won a Pulitzer Prize in 2006 as a staff writer at ''The Washington Post''. As of January 2017, he was national enterprise editor at the ''Post''. He has also worked for the ...

, ''

The Good Soldiers ''The Good Soldiers'' (2009) is a non-fiction Nonfiction, or non-fiction, is any document or media content that attempts, in good faith, to provide information (and sometimes opinions) grounded only in facts and real life, rather than in im ...

'' * Richard Holmes, '' The Age of Wonder: How the Romantic Generation Discovered the Beauty and Terror of Science'' *

Mary Karr Mary Karr (born January 16, 1955) is an American poet, essayist and memoirist from East Texas. She is widely noted for her 1995 bestselling memoir '' The Liars' Club''. Karr is the Jesse Truesdell Peck Professor of English Literature at Syracus ...

, ''Lit: A Memoir'' *

, ''

Chronic City ''Chronic City'' (2009) is a novel by American author Jonathan Lethem. Summary Lethem began work on ''Chronic City'' in early 2007, and has said that the novel is "set on the Upper East Side of Manhattan, it’s strongly influenced by Saul Bell ...

'' *

Maile Meloy Maile Meloy (born January 1, 1972) is an American fiction writer. Early life and education Born and raised in Helena, Montana, Meloy received a bachelor's degree from Harvard College in 1994 and an MFA from the University of California, Irvi ...

, ''Both Ways Is the Only Way I Want It'' *

, ''

A Gate at the Stairs ''A Gate at the Stairs'' is a novel by American fiction writer Lorrie Moore. It was published by Random House in 2009. The novel won Amazon.com's "best of the month" designation and was a finalist for the PEN/Faulkner Award and the Orange Prize f ...

'' *

Carol Sklenicka Carol Sklenicka is an American biographer, literary scholar, and essayist best known as the author of ''Raymond Carver: A Writer's Life'', which was named one of the 10 Best Books of 2009 by the N ew York Times Book Review in 2009. It remains the o ...

, ''Raymond Carver: A Writer's Life'' *

Kate Walbert Kate Walbert (born August 13, 1961) is an American novelist and short story writer who lives in New York City. Her novel, ''Our Kind'', was a finalist for the National Book Award in fiction. Her novel ''A Short History of Women'', a ''New York Ti ...

, ''A Short History of Women'' *

Jeannette Walls Jeannette Walls (born April 21, 1960) is an American author and journalist widely known as former gossip columnist for MSNBC.com and author of ''The Glass Castle'', a memoir of the nomadic family life of her childhood. Published in 2005, it had b ...

, ''

Half Broke Horses ''Half Broke Horses'' is a 2009 novel by the American writer Jeannette Walls detailing the life of her grandmother, Lily Casey Smith. The book was published by Simon and Schuster. Summary ''Half Broke Horses'' is the story of Lily Casey Smith's ...

2010s

2010 The 100 Notable Books were announced November 24, 2010. The 10 Best Books were announced December 1, 2010. *

Ann Beattie Ann Beattie (born September 8, 1947) is an American novelist and short story writer. She has received an award for excellence from the American Academy and Institute of Arts and Letters and the PEN/Malamud Award for excellence in the short story f ...

, ''The New Yorker Stories'' *

Emma Donoghue Emma Donoghue (born 24 October 1969) is an Irish-Canadian playwright, literary historian, novelist, and screenwriter. Her 2010 novel ''Room'' was a finalist for the Booker Prize and an international best-seller. Donoghue's 1995 novel ''Hood'' w ...

, ''

Room In a building or large vehicle, like a ship, a room is any enclosed space within a number of walls to which entry is possible only via a door or other dividing structure that connects it to either a passage (architecture), passageway, another roo ...

'' *

Jennifer Egan Jennifer Egan is an American novelist and short-story writer. Egan's novel ''A Visit from the Goon Squad'' won the 2011 Pulitzer Prize for Fiction and National Book Critics Circle Award for fiction. As of February 28, 2018, she is the Presiden ...

, ''

A Visit from the Goon Squad ''A Visit from the Goon Squad'' is a 2011 Pulitzer Prize-winning work of fiction by American author Jennifer Egan. The book is a set of thirteen interrelated stories with a large set of characters all connected to Bennie Salazar, a record company ...

'' *

, ''

Freedom Freedom is understood as either having the ability to act or change without constraint or to possess the power and resources to fulfill one's purposes unhindered. Freedom is often associated with liberty and autonomy in the sense of "giving on ...

'' *

Jennifer Homans Jennifer A. Homans (born 1960) is an American historian, author, and dance critic. Her book ''Apollo's Angels: A History of Ballet'' was a finalist for the National Book Critics Circle Award in 2010. Early life and education Homans was raised in ...

, ''Apollo's Angels: A History of Ballet'' *

Siddhartha Mukherjee Siddhartha Mukherjee (born 21 July 1970) is an Indian-American physician, biologist, and author. He is best known for his 2010 book, '' The Emperor of All Maladies: A Biography of Cancer'', that won notable literary prizes including the 2011 Pu ...

, '' The Emperor of All Maladies: A Biography of Cancer'' * Stacy Schiff, ''Cleopatra: A Life'' *

Stephen Sondheim Stephen Joshua Sondheim (; March 22, 1930November 26, 2021) was an American composer and lyricist. One of the most important figures in twentieth-century musical theater, Sondheim is credited for having "reinvented the American musical" with sho ...

, ''

Finishing the Hat ''Finishing the Hat: Collected Lyrics (1954–1981) with Attendant Comments, Principles, Heresies, Grudges, Whines, and Anecdotes'' is a memoir by American musical theatre composer and lyricist Stephen Sondheim. It was published on October 29, 201 ...

'' *

William Trevor William Trevor Cox (24 May 1928 – 20 November 2016), known by his pen name William Trevor, was an Irish novelist, playwright, and short story writer. One of the elder statesmen of the Irish literary world, he is widely regarded as one of the ...

, ''Selected Stories'' * Isabel Wilkerson, ''The Warmth of Other Suns, The Warmth of Other Suns: The Epic Story of America's Great Migration'' 2011 The 100 Notable Books were announced November 21, 2011. The 10 Best Books were announced November 30, 2011. * Ian Brown (journalist), Ian Brown, ''The Boy in the Moon: A Father's Journey to Understand His Extraordinary Son'' * Amanda Foreman (historian), Amanda Foreman, ''A World on Fire: Britain's Crucial Role in the American Civil War'' * Chad Harbach, ''The Art of Fielding'' * Eleanor Henderson, ''Ten Thousand Saints'' * Christopher Hitchens, ''Arguably, Arguably: Essays'' * Daniel Kahneman, ''Thinking, Fast and Slow'' * Stephen King, ''11/22/63'' * Manning Marable, ''Malcolm X: A Life of Reinvention'' * Téa Obreht, ''The Tiger's Wife'' * Karen Russell, ''Swamplandia!'' 2012 The 100 Notable Books were announced November 27, 2012. The 10 Best Books were announced November 30, 2012. * Katherine Boo, ''Behind the Beautiful Forevers, Behind the Beautiful Forevers: Life, Death, and Hope in a Mumbai Undercity'' * Robert Caro, ''The Passage of Power'' *

, ''A Hologram for the King'' * Jim Holt (philosopher), Jim Holt, ''Why Does the World Exist?, Why Does the World Exist?: An Existential Detective Story'' * Hilary Mantel, ''Bring Up the Bodies'' * David Nasaw, ''The Patriarch: The Remarkable Life and Turbulent Times of Joseph P. Kennedy'' * Kevin Powers, ''The Yellow Birds'' * Andrew Solomon, ''Far from the Tree, Far From the Tree: Parents, Children and the Search for Identity'' *

, ''NW (novel), NW'' * Chris Ware, ''Building Stories'' 2013 The 100 Notable Books were announced November 27, 2013. The 10 Best Books were announced December 4, 2013. * Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, ''Americanah'' * Kate Atkinson (writer), Kate Atkinson, ''Life After Life (novel), Life After Life'' * Peter Baker (journalist), Peter Baker, ''Days of Fire: Bush and Cheney in the White House'' * Alan S. Blinder, ''After the Music Stopped: The Financial Crisis, the Response, and the Work Ahead'' * Christopher Clark, ''The Sleepwalkers: How Europe Went to War in 1914'' * Sonali Deraniyagala, ''Wave (Deraniyagala book), Wave'' * Sheri Fink, ''Five Days at Memorial, Five Days at Memorial: Life and Death in a Storm-Ravaged Hospital'' * Rachel Kushner, ''The Flamethrowers'' * Donna Tartt, ''The Goldfinch (novel), The Goldfinch'' * George Saunders, ''Tenth of December: Stories'' 2014 The 100 Notable Books were announced. The 10 Best Books were announced December 14, 2014. * Eula Biss, ''On Immunity: An Inoculation'' * Roz Chast, ''Can't We Talk About Something More Pleasant?, Can't We Talk about Something More Pleasant?: A Memoir'' * Anthony Doerr, ''All the Light We Cannot See'' * Lily King, ''Euphoria'' * Phil Klay, ''Redeployment (short story collection), Redeployment'' * Elizabeth Kolbert, ''The Sixth Extinction: An Unnatural History'' * Hermione Lee, ''Penelope Fitzgerald: A Life'' * Jenny Offill, ''Dept. of Speculation'' * Akhil Sharma, ''Family Life (novel), Family Life'' *

, ''Thirteen Days in September: Carter, Begin, and Sadat at Camp'' 2015 The 100 Notable Books were announced November 27, 2015. The 10 Best Books were announced December 3, 2015. * Paul Beatty, ''The Sellout (novel), The Sellout'' * Sven Beckert, ''Empire of Cotton: A Global History'' * Lucia Berlin, ''A Manual for Cleaning Women: Selected Stories'' * Ta-Nehisi Coates, ''Between the World and Me'' * Rachel Cusk, ''Outline (novel), Outline'' * Elena Ferrante, ''Neapolitan Novels#The Story of the Lost Child, The Story of the Lost Child: Book 4, The Neapolitan Novels: “Maturity, Old Age”'' * Helen Macdonald (writer), Helen Macdonald, ''H Is for Hawk'' * Åsne Seierstad, ''One of Us (book), One of Us: The Story of Anders Breivik and the Massacre in Norway'' * Magda Szabó, ''The Door (novel), The Door'' * Andrea Wulf, ''The Invention of Nature, The Invention of Nature: Alexander von Humboldt's New World'' 2016 The 100 Notable Books were announced November 23, 2016. The 10 Best Books were announced December 1, 2016. * Sarah Bakewell, ''At the Existentialist Cafe, At the Existentialist Café: Freedom, Being, and Apricot Cocktails'' * Matthew Desmond, ''Evicted: Poverty and Profit in the American City'' * Susan Faludi, ''In the Darkroom'' * Stefan Hertmans, ''War and Turpentine'' * Han Kang, ''The Vegetarian'' * Karan Mahajan, ''The Association of Small Bombs'' * Hisham Matar, ''The Return (memoir), The Return: Fathers, Sons and the Land in Between'' *

, ''Dark Money (book), Dark Money: The Hidden History of the Billionaires Behind the Rise of the Radical Right'' * Ian McGuire, ''The North Water (novel), The North Water'' *

, ''The Underground Railroad (novel), The Underground Railroad'' 2017 The 100 Notable Books were announced November 22, 2017. The 10 Best Books were announced November 30, 2017. * Naomi Alderman, ''The Power (Alderman novel), The Power'' *

, ''Grant (book), Grant'' * James Forman Jr., ''Locking Up Our Own: Crime and Punishment in Black America'' * Caroline Fraser, ''Prairie Fires: The American Dreams of Laura Ingalls Wilder'' * Mohsin Hamid, ''Exit West'' * Min Jin Lee, ''Pachinko (novel), Pachinko'' * Patricia Lockwood, ''Priestdaddy, Priestdaddy: A Memoir'' * Richard Prum, ''The Evolution of Beauty, The Evolution of Beauty: How Darwin’s Forgotten Theory of Mate Choice Shapes the Animal World — and Us'' * Ali Smith, ''Autumn (Smith novel), Autumn'' * Jesmyn Ward, ''Sing, Unburied, Sing'' 2018 The 100 Notable Books were announced November 18, 2018. The 10 Best Books were announced November 29, 2018. * Shane Bauer, ''American Prison, American Prison: A Reporter's Undercover Journey into the Business of Punishment'' * Lisa Brennan-Jobs, ''Small Fry (book), Small Fry'' * David W. Blight, ''Frederick Douglass: Prophet of Freedom'' * Esi Edugyan, ''Washington Black'' * Lisa Halliday, ''Asymmetry (novel), Asymmetry'' * Rebecca Makkai, ''The Great Believers'' * Tommy Orange, ''There There (novel), There There'' *

, ''How to Change Your Mind, How to Change Your Mind: What the New Science of Psychedelics Teaches Us About Consciousness, Dying, Addiction, Depression, and Transcendence'' * Leïla Slimani, ''Lullaby (Slimani novel), Lullaby'' * Tara Westover, ''Educated (book), Educated'' 2019 The 100 Notable Books were announced November 25, 2019. The 10 Best Books were announced November 22, 2019. In 2019 for the first time, the 10 Best Books were announced prior to the 100 Notable Books. * Kevin Barry (author), Kevin Barry, ''Night Boat to Tangier'' * Sarah M. Broom, ''The Yellow House (book), The Yellow House'' * Leo Damrosch, ''The Club: Johnson, Boswell, and the Friends Who Shaped an Age'' * Ted Chiang, ''Exhalation: Stories'' * Adam Higginbotham, ''Midnight in Chernobyl, Midnight in Chernobyl: The Untold Story of the World's Greatest Nuclear Disaster'' * Patrick Radden Keefe, ''Say Nothing (book), Say Nothing: A True Story of Murder and Memory in Northern Ireland'' * Ben Lerner, ''The Topeka School'' * Valeria Luiselli, ''Lost Children Archive'' * Julia Phillips (author), Julia Phillips, ''Disappearing Earth'' * Rachel Louise Snyder, ''No Visible Bruises: What We Don’t Know About Domestic Violence Can Kill Us''

2020s

2020 The 100 Notable Books were announced November 20, 2020. The 10 Best Books were announced November 23, 2020. Fiction * Lydia Millet, ''A Children's Bible'' * James McBride (writer), James McBride, ''Deacon King Kong'' * Maggie O'Farrell, ''Hamnet (novel), Hamnet'' * Ayad Akhtar, ''Homeland Elegies'' * Brit Bennett, ''The Vanishing Half'' * Victoria Chang, "Obit (book), Obit" Nonfiction * Robert Kolker, ''Hidden Valley Road'' * Barack Obama, ''A Promised Land'' * James S. Shapiro, James Shapiro, ''Shakespeare in a Divided America'' * Anna Wiener, ''Uncanny Valley (memoir), Uncanny Valley'' *

, ''War: How Conflict Shaped Us'' 2021 The 100 Notable Books were announced November 22, 2021. The 10 Best Books were announced November 30, 2021. Fiction * Imbolo Mbue, ''How Beautiful We Were'' * Katie Kitamura, ''Intimacies'' * Honorée Fanonne Jeffers, ''The Love Songs of W.E.B. Du Bois'' * Patricia Lockwood, ''No One Is Talking About This'' * Benjamín Labatut, ''When We Cease to Understand the World'' Nonfiction * Tove Ditlevsen, ''The Copenhagen Trilogy'' * Clint Smith (writer), Clint Smith, ''How the Word is Passed'' * Andrea Elliott, ''Invisible Child: Poverty, Survival and Hope in an American City'' * Annette Gordon-Reed, ''On Juneteenth'' * Heather Clark, ''Red Comet, Red Comet: The Short Life and Blazing Art of Sylvia Plath'' 2022 The 100 Notable Books were announced November 22, 2022. The 10 Best Books were announced November 29, 2022. Fiction *

, ''The Candy House (novel), The Candy House'' * Claire-Louise Bennett, ''Checkout 19'' *

, ''Demon Copperhead'' * Namwali Serpell, ''The Furrows'' * Hernan Diaz (writer), Hernan Diaz, ''Trust'' Nonfiction * Ed Yong, ''An Immense World, An Immense World: How Animal Senses Reveal the Hidden Realms Around Us'' * Hua Hsu, ''Stay True: A Memoir'' * Rachel Aviv, ''Strangers to Ourselves: Unsettled Minds and the Stories That Make Us'' * Linda Villarosa, ''Under the Skin: The Hidden Toll of Racism on American Lives and on the Health of Our Nation'' * Fintan O'Toole, ''We Don't Know Ourselves, We Don't Know Ourselves: a Personal History of Modern Ireland''

Studies

In 2010, Stanford professors Alan Sorenson and Jonah Berger published a study examining the effect on book sales from positive or negative reviews in the ''New York Times Book Review''.Alan Sorenson, Jonah Berger
"Positive Effects of Negative Publicity: When Negative Reviews Increase Sales"
''Marketing Science (journal), Marketing Science'', Vol. 29, No. 5, September–October 2010, pp. 815–827. They found all books benefited from positive reviews, while popular or well-known authors were negatively impacted by negative reviews. Lesser-known authors benefited from negative reviews; in other words, bad publicity actually boosted book sales.Jenny Thai
"Bad publicity may boost book sales"
the ''Stanford Daily'', February 23, 2011. A study published in 2012, by university professor and author Roxane Gay, found that 90 percent of the ''New York Times'' book reviews published in 2011 were of books by white authors. Gay said, "The numbers reflect the overall trend in publishing where the majority of books published are written by white writers." At the time of the report, the racial makeup of the United States was 72 percent white, according to the 2010 census (it includes Hispanic and Latino Americans who identify as white).

References

External links

*, home page.
''The New York Times''
October 10, 1896. Inaugural book review issue (announced on page 4, column 1) *Interviews with senior editors and writers at the ''NYTBR'', by Michael Orbach, ''The Knight News'', Issue date: 2/8/07 Section: Knight Life
The Man Behind the Criticism: Sam Tanenhaus
(via Wayback Machine)
Question and Answer: Dwight Garner
(via Wayback Machine)
Question and Answer: Liesl Schillinger
(via Wayback Machine)
Question and Answer: Rachel Donadio
(via Wayback Machine)
"Are ''The New York Times'' Book Reviews Fair?"
''Tell Me More'', National Public Radio, August 20, 2010
"Secret Workings Of ''Times'' Book Review Exposed!"
Choir, February 24, 2007
10 Things You Didn’t Know About How the ''NY Times'' Book Review Works
{{DEFAULTSORT:New York Times Book Review Weekly magazines published in the United States Book review magazines Magazines established in 1896 Magazines published in New York City The New York Times Newspaper supplements

Overview

Podcast

Best Books of the Year and Notable Books

1990s

2000s

2010s

2020s

Studies

See also

References

External links