''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 d ...

'' 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 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 analysis, philosophical discussion of literature' ...

, 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 Litera ...

, 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 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 b ...

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 ot ...

'' * Barbara Kingsolver, ''

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 ...

, ''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 hi ...

, '' 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 (1912–19 ...

, ''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 M ...

, '' Headlong'' * Jean Strouse, ''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 a ...

, ''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'' (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, ''

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 fig ...

'' *

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 Jeru ...

, ''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 Awar ...

, '' John Henry Days'' *

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. ...

, '' 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 an ...

'' *

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 ...

'' *

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 county in southeast England. Its area is almost entirely within the wider urbanised area of London and mostly within the ceremonial county of Greater London, with small sections in neighbour ...

'' *

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, '' Drop City'' * Jonathan Lethem, '' 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'' *

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

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 t ...

, ''

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> ...

'' *

, ''

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 ...

, '' The Year of Magical Thinking'' *

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 ...

'' *

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'' * 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 the ...

, ''

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 whe ...

, ''

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, '' 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 ...

, ''

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, ''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, '' 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 fi ...

'' *

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, '' The Rest Is Noise: Listening to the Twentieth Century'' * Michael Thomas, '' 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 '' A ...

, ''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 Afghanis ...

, ''

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, '' 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 File:2008 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: Lehman Brothers went bankrupt following the Subprime mortgage crisis; Cyclone Nargis killed more than 138,000 in Myanmar; A ...

'' * Joseph O'Neill, '' Netherland'' 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 th ...

, ''

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'' * Jonathan Lethem, ''

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 Bel ...

'' *

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 ...

, ''

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'' ...

, ''

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 passageway, another room, or the outdoors, that ...

'' *

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 Preside ...

, ''

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 compan ...

'' *

, '' Freedom'' *

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, ''

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 th ...

, ''Selected Stories'' *

Isabel Wilkerson Isabel Wilkerson (born 1961) is an American journalist and the author of '' The Warmth of Other Suns: The Epic Story of America's Great Migration'' (2010) and '' Caste: The Origins of Our Discontents'' (2020). She is the first woman of African-A ...

, '' 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, ''The Boy in the Moon: A Father's Journey to Understand His Extraordinary Son'' * Amanda Foreman, ''A World on Fire: Britain's Crucial Role in the American Civil War'' *

Chad Harbach Chad Harbach (born 1975) is an American writer. An editor at the journal '' n + 1'', he is the author of the 2011 novel '' The Art of Fielding''. Early life and education Harbach grew up in Racine, Wisconsin. His father was an accountant and his ...

, '' The Art of Fielding'' *

Eleanor Henderson Eleanor () is a feminine given name, originally from an Old French adaptation of the Old Provençal name ''Aliénor''. It is the name of a number of women of royalty and nobility in western Europe during the High Middle Ages. The name was introd ...

, ''Ten Thousand Saints'' *

Christopher Hitchens Christopher Eric Hitchens (13 April 1949 – 15 December 2011) was a British-American author and journalist who wrote or edited over 30 books (including five essay collections) on culture, politics, and literature. Born and educated in England, ...

, '' Arguably: Essays'' * Daniel Kahneman, ''

Thinking, Fast and Slow ''Thinking, Fast and Slow'' is a 2011 book by psychologist Daniel Kahneman. The book's main thesis is a differentiation between two modes of thought: "System 1" is fast, instinctive and emotional; "System 2" is slower, more deliberative, and mo ...

'' * Stephen King, ''

11/22/63 ''11/22/63'' is a novel by Stephen King about a time traveller who attempts to prevent the assassination of United States President John F. Kennedy, which occurred on November 22, 1963 (the novel's titular date). It is the 60th book published b ...

'' *

Manning Marable William Manning Marable (May 13, 1950 – April 1, 2011) was an American professor of public affairs, history and African-American Studies at Columbia University.Grimes, William"Manning Marable, Historian and Social Critic, Dies at 60" ''The Ne ...

, '' Malcolm X: A Life of Reinvention'' *

Téa Obreht Téa Obreht (born Tea Bajraktarević; 30 September 1985) is a Serbian-American novelist. Her debut novel, '' The Tiger's Wife'',Hamilton, Ted (25 March 2009)"Student Artist Spotlight: Tea Bajraktarevic"(interview). ''Cornell Daily Sun''. Archived ...

, ''

The Tiger's Wife ''The Tiger's Wife'' is the debut novel of Serbian-American writer Téa Obreht. It was published in 2011 by Weidenfeld & Nicolson, a British imprint of Orion Books, and by Random House in America. Obreht won the 2011 Orange Prize for Fiction fo ...

'' *

Karen Russell Karen Russell (born July 10, 1981) is an American novelist and short story writer. Her debut novel, ''Swamplandia!'', was a finalist for the 2012 Pulitzer Prize for Fiction. In 2009 the National Book Foundation named Russell a 5 under 35 honore ...

, ''

Swamplandia! ''Swamplandia!'' is a 2011 novel by the American writer Karen Russell. The novel is set in the Ten Thousand Islands, off the southwest coast of Florida, it tells the story of the Bigtree family of alligator wrestlers who live in Swamplandia! a ...

'' 2012 The 100 Notable Books were announced November 27, 2012. The 10 Best Books were announced November 30, 2012. *

Katherine Boo Katherine "Kate" J. Boo (born August 12, 1964) is an American investigative journalist who has documented the lives of people in poverty. She has won the MacArthur "genius" award (2002) and the National Book Award for Nonfiction (2012), and her wo ...

, '' Behind the Beautiful Forevers: Life, Death, and Hope in a Mumbai Undercity'' *

Robert Caro Robert Allan Caro (born October 30, 1935) is an American journalist and author known for his biographies of United States political figures Robert Moses and Lyndon B. Johnson. After working for many years as a reporter, Caro wrote '' The Power ...

, '' The Passage of Power'' *

, ''

A Hologram for the King ''A Hologram for the King'' is a 2012 American novel written by Dave Eggers. In October 2012, the novel was announced as a finalist for the National Book Award. It was adapted as a film of the same name, released in 2016 and starring Tom Hanks ...

'' * Jim Holt, '' Why Does the World Exist?: An Existential Detective Story'' *

Hilary Mantel Dame Hilary Mary Mantel ( ; born Thompson; 6 July 1952 – 22 September 2022) was a British writer whose work includes historical fiction, personal memoirs and short stories. Her first published novel, '' Every Day Is Mother's Day'', was relea ...

, '' Bring Up the Bodies'' * David Nasaw, ''The Patriarch: The Remarkable Life and Turbulent Times of Joseph P. Kennedy'' *

Kevin Powers Kevin Powers (born July 11, 1980) is an American fiction writer, poet, and Iraq War veteran. Biography Powers was born and raised in Richmond, Virginia, the son of a factory worker and a postman, and enlisted in the U.S. Army at the age of seve ...

, ''

The Yellow Birds ''The Yellow Birds'' is the debut novel from American writer, poet, and Iraq War veteran Kevin Powers. It was one of ''The New York Timess 100 Most Notable Books of 2012 and a finalist for the 2012 National Book Award. It was awarded the 2012 The ...

'' *

Andrew Solomon Andrew Solomon (born October 30, 1963) is a writer on politics, culture and psychology, who lives in New York City and London. He has written for ''The New York Times'', ''The New Yorker'', ''Artforum'', '' Travel and Leisure'', and other publica ...

, '' Far From the Tree: Parents, Children and the Search for Identity'' *

, '' NW'' *

Chris Ware Franklin Christenson "Chris" Ware (born December 28, 1967) is an American cartoonist known for his '' Acme Novelty Library'' series (begun 1994) and the graphic novels ''Jimmy Corrigan, the Smartest Kid on Earth'' (2000), ''Building Stories'' (201 ...

, ''

Building Stories ''Building Stories'' is a 2012 graphic novel by American cartoonist Chris Ware. The unconventional work is made up of fourteen printed works—cloth-bound books, newspapers, broadsheets and flip books—packaged in a boxed set. The work took a ...

'' 2013 The 100 Notable Books were announced November 27, 2013. The 10 Best Books were announced December 4, 2013. *

Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie ( ; born 15 September 1977) is a Nigerian writer whose works include novels, short stories and nonfiction. She was described in ''The Times Literary Supplement'' as "the most prominent" of a "procession of criticall ...

, ''

Americanah ''Americanah'' is a 2013 novel by the Nigerian author Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, for which Adichie won the 2013 U.S. National Book Critics Circle Award for fiction. ''Americanah'' tells the story of a young Nigerian woman, Ifemelu, who immigrates t ...

'' * Kate Atkinson, '' Life After Life'' * Peter Baker, ''Days of Fire: Bush and Cheney in the White House'' *

Alan S. Blinder Alan Stuart Blinder (, born October 14, 1945) is an American economics professor at Princeton University and is listed among the most influential economists in the world according to IDEAS/RePEc. He is a leading macroeconomist, politically liber ...

, ''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 Sonali Deraniyagala (born 1964) is a Sri Lankan memoirist and economist. She currently serves as a lecturer in Economics at the SOAS South Asia Institute. She considers Joan Didion and Michael Ondaatje her favourite literary heroes. Personal lif ...

, ''

Wave In physics, mathematics, and related fields, a wave is a propagating dynamic disturbance (change from equilibrium) of one or more quantities. Waves can be periodic, in which case those quantities oscillate repeatedly about an equilibrium (re ...

'' *

Sheri Fink Sheri Fink is an American journalist who writes about health, medicine and science. She received the 2010 Pulitzer Prize for Investigative Reporting "for a story that chronicles the urgent life-and-death decisions made by one hospital’s exhau ...

, '' Five Days at Memorial: Life and Death in a Storm-Ravaged Hospital'' *

Rachel Kushner Rachel Kushner (born 1968) is an American writer, known for her novels '' Telex from Cuba'' (2008), ''The Flamethrowers'' (2013), and '' The Mars Room'' (2018). Early life Kushner was born in Eugene, Oregon, the daughter of two Communist scientist ...

, ''

The Flamethrowers ''The Flamethrowers'' is a 2013 novel by American author Rachel Kushner. The book was released on April 2, 2013 through Scribner. ''The Flamethrowers'' follows a female artist in the 1970s. While writing the book, Kushner drew on personal exper ...

'' *

Donna Tartt Donna Louise Tartt (born December 23, 1963) is an American novelist and essayist. Early life Tartt was born in Greenwood, Mississippi, in the Mississippi Delta, the elder of two daughters. She was raised in the nearby town of Grenada. Her fa ...

, '' The Goldfinch'' *

George Saunders George Saunders (born December 2, 1958) is an American writer of short stories, essays, novellas, children's books, and novels. His writing has appeared in ''The New Yorker'', '' Harper's'', ''McSweeney's'', and '' GQ''. He also contributed a w ...

, '' Tenth of December: Stories'' 2014 The 100 Notable Books were announced. The 10 Best Books were announced December 14, 2014. *

Eula Biss Eula Biss (born 1977) is an American non-fiction writer who is the author of four books. Biss has won the Carl Sandburg Literary Award, the Rona Jaffe Foundation Writers' Award, the Graywolf Press Nonfiction Prize, the Pushcart Prize, and the ...

, '' On Immunity: An Inoculation'' *

Roz Chast Rosalind Chast (born November 26, 1954) is an American cartoonist and a staff cartoonist for ''The New Yorker''. Since 1978, she has published more than 800 cartoons in ''The New Yorker''. She also publishes cartoons in ''Scientific American'' and ...

, '' Can't We Talk about Something More Pleasant?: A Memoir'' *

Anthony Doerr Anthony Doerr (born October 27, 1973) is an American author of novels and short stories. He gained widespread recognition for his 2014 novel ''All the Light We Cannot See'', which won the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction. Early life and education Rais ...

, ''

All the Light We Cannot See ''All the Light We Cannot See'' is a 2014 war novel that was written by American author Anthony Doerr. The novel is set during World War II and centers around the characters Marie-Laure Leblanc, a blind French girl who takes refuge in her uncl ...

'' * Lily King, ''Euphoria'' * Phil Klay, '' Redeployment'' *

Elizabeth Kolbert Elizabeth Kolbert (born 1961) is an American journalist, author, and visiting fellow at Williams College. She is best known for her Pulitzer Prize-winning book '' The Sixth Extinction: An Unnatural History'', and as an observer and commentator ...

, '' The Sixth Extinction: An Unnatural History'' *

Hermione Lee Dame Hermione Lee, (born 29 February 1948) is a British biographer, literary critic and academic. She is a former President of Wolfson College, Oxford, and a former Goldsmiths' Professor of English Literature in the University of Oxford and Pr ...

, ''Penelope Fitzgerald: A Life'' *

Jenny Offill Jenny Offill (born 1968) is an American novelist and editor. Her novel ''Dept. of Speculation'' was named one of "The 10 Best Books of 2014" by ''The New York Times Book Review''. Early life Jenny Offill is the only child of two private-school ...

, ''Dept. of Speculation'' *

Akhil Sharma Akhil Sharma (born July 22, 1971) is an Indian-American author and professor of creative writing. His first published novel '' An Obedient Father'' won the 2001 Hemingway Foundation/PEN Award. His second, ''Family Life'', won the 2015 Folio Priz ...

, ''

Family Life Family (from la, familia) is a group of people related either by consanguinity (by recognized birth) or affinity (by marriage or other relationship). The purpose of the family is to maintain the well-being of its members and of society. Ideal ...

'' *

, ''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'' * Sven Beckert, ''Empire of Cotton: A Global History'' *

Lucia Berlin Lucia Brown Berlin (November 12, 1936 – November 12, 2004) was an American short story writer. She had a small, devoted following, but did not reach a mass audience during her lifetime. She rose to sudden literary fame in 2015, eleven years aft ...

, ''A Manual for Cleaning Women: Selected Stories'' *

Ta-Nehisi Coates Ta-Nehisi Paul Coates ( ; born September 30, 1975) is an American author and journalist. He gained a wide readership during his time as national correspondent at ''The Atlantic'', where he wrote about cultural, social, and political issues, parti ...

, ''

Between the World and Me ''Between the World and Me'' is a 2015 nonfiction book written by American author Ta-Nehisi Coates and published by Spiegel & Grau. It is written as a letter to the author's teenage son about the feelings, symbolism, and realities associated wi ...

'' *

Rachel Cusk Rachel Cusk (born 8 February 1967) is a British novelist and writer. Childhood and education Cusk was born in Saskatoon to British parents in 1967, the second of four children with an older sister and two younger brothers, and spent much of h ...

, '' Outline'' *

Elena Ferrante Elena Ferrante () is a pseudonymous Italian novelist. Ferrante's books, originally published in Italian, have been translated into many languages. Her four-book series of ''Neapolitan Novels'' are her most widely known works. ''Time'' magazine ...

, '' The Story of the Lost Child: Book 4, The Neapolitan Novels: “Maturity, Old Age”'' * Helen Macdonald, ''

H Is for Hawk ''H is for Hawk'' is a 2014 memoir by British author Helen Macdonald. It won the Samuel Johnson Prize and Costa Book of the Year award, among other honours. Content ''H is for Hawk'' tells Macdonald's story of the year she spent training a n ...

'' *

Åsne Seierstad Åsne Seierstad (born 10 February 1970) is a Norwegian freelance journalist and writer, best known for her accounts of everyday life in war zones – most notably Kabul after 2001, Baghdad in 2002 and the ruined Grozny in 2006. (in Norwegian) Pe ...

, '' One of Us: The Story of Anders Breivik and the Massacre in Norway'' *

Magda Szabó Magda Szabó (October 5, 1917 – November 19, 2007) was a Hungarian novelist. Doctor of philology, she also wrote dramas, essays, studies, memoirs, poetry and children's literature. She was a founding member of the , an online digital repos ...

, '' The Door'' *

Andrea Wulf Andrea Wulf (born 1972) is a German-British historian and writer who has written books, newspaper articles and book reviews. Biography Wulf was born in New Delhi, India, a child of German developmental aid workers, and spent the first five yea ...

, '' 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 Café: Freedom, Being, and Apricot Cocktails'' *

Matthew Desmond Matthew Desmond is a sociologist and the Maurice P. During Professor of Sociology at Princeton University, where he is also the principal investigator of the Eviction Lab. Desmond was elected to the American Philosophical Society in 2022. Educ ...

, '' Evicted: Poverty and Profit in the American City'' * Susan Faludi, ''

In the Darkroom ''In the Darkroom'' is a memoir by Susan Faludi that was first published on June 14, 2016. The memoir centers on the life of Faludi's father, who came out as transgender and underwent sex reassignment surgery at the age of 76. It won the 2016 ...

'' * Stefan Hertmans, ''

War and Turpentine ''War and Turpentine'' (original title in Dutch: ''Oorlog en Terpentijn'') is a 2013 novel by Belgian author Stefan Hertmans, originally published by De Bezige Bij. It is a novel about his grandfather, the artist Urbain Martien, during World War ...

'' *

Han Kang Han Kang (; born November 27, 1970) is a South Korean writer. She won the Man Booker International Prize for fiction in 2016 for ''The Vegetarian'', a novel about a woman's descent into mental illness and neglect from her family. The novel is ...

, ''

The Vegetarian ''The Vegetarian'' () is a South Korean three-part novel written by Han Kang and first published in 2007. Based on Han's 1997 short story "The Fruit of My Woman", ''The Vegetarian'' is set in modern-day Seoul and tells the story of Yeong-hye, a ...

'' *

Karan Mahajan Karan Mahajan (born April 24, 1984) is an Indian-American novelist, essayist, and critic. His second novel, ''The Association of Small Bombs,'' was a finalist for the 2016 National Book Award for Fiction. He has contributed writing to '' The Bel ...

, ''

The Association of Small Bombs ''The Association of Small Bombs'' is a 2016 novel by Indian-American author and novelist Karan Mahajan. The novel is Mahajan's second, after 2012's ''Family Planning'', and was first published in 2016 by Viking Press. The novel was named a final ...

'' *

Hisham Matar Hisham Matar ( ar, هشام مطر) (born 1970) is an American born British-Libyan writer. His memoir of the search for his father, '' The Return'', won the 2017 Pulitzer Prize for Biography or Autobiography and the 2017 PEN America Jean Stein Bo ...

, '' The Return: Fathers, Sons and the Land in Between'' *

, '' Dark Money: The Hidden History of the Billionaires Behind the Rise of the Radical Right'' *

Ian McGuire Ian McGuire (born 1964) is an English author and academic. In 1996 he joined the University of Manchester as a lecturer in American Literature and later lectured in Creative Writing. He was co-director of the Centre for New Writing and is current ...

, '' The North Water'' *

, '' The Underground Railroad'' 2017 The 100 Notable Books were announced November 22, 2017. The 10 Best Books were announced November 30, 2017. *

Naomi Alderman Naomi Alderman (born 1974) is an English novelist and game writer. She is best known for her speculative science fiction novel '' The Power'', which won the Women's Prize for Fiction in 2017. Biography Alderman was born in London, the daught ...

, '' The Power'' *

, ''

Grant Grant or Grants may refer to: Places *Grant County (disambiguation) Australia * Grant, Queensland, a locality in the Barcaldine Region, Queensland, Australia United Kingdom * Castle Grant United States * Grant, Alabama * Grant, Inyo County, ...

'' * James Forman Jr., '' Locking Up Our Own: Crime and Punishment in Black America'' *

Caroline Fraser Caroline Fraser is an American writer. She won the 2018 Pulitzer Prize for Biography or Autobiography, and the 2017 National Book Critics Circle Award in Biography, for '' Prairie Fires: The American Dreams of Laura Ingalls Wilder'', a biograph ...

, '' Prairie Fires: The American Dreams of Laura Ingalls Wilder'' *

Mohsin Hamid Mohsin Hamid ( ur, محسن حامد; born 23 July 1971) is a British Pakistani novelist, writer and brand consultant. His novels are '' Moth Smoke'' (2000), '' The Reluctant Fundamentalist'' (2007), ''How to Get Filthy Rich in Rising Asia'' (2 ...

, ''

Exit West ''Exit West'' is a 2017 novel by Pakistani author Mohsin Hamid. It is Hamid's fourth novel. The main themes of the novel are emigration and refugee problems. The novel, which can be considered fantasy or speculative fiction, is about a young co ...

'' *

Min Jin Lee Min Jin Lee (born November 11, 1968) is a Korean American author and journalist based in Harlem, New York City. Her work frequently deals with Korean and Korean American topics. She is the author of the novels ''Free Food for Millionaires'' (2 ...

, ''

Pachinko is a mechanical game originating in Japan that is used as an arcade game, and much more frequently for gambling. Pachinko fills a niche in Japanese gambling comparable to that of the slot machine in the West as a form of low-stakes, low-st ...

'' *

Patricia Lockwood Patricia Lockwood (born 27 April 1982) is an United States poetry, American poet, novelist, and essayist. Her 2021 debut novel, ''No One Is Talking About This,'' won the Dylan Thomas Prize. Her 2017 memoir ''Priestdaddy'' won the Thurber Prize f ...

, '' Priestdaddy: A Memoir'' *

Richard Prum Richard O. Prum (born 1961) is William Robertson Coe Professor of ornithology, and head curator of vertebrate zoology at the Peabody Museum of Natural History at Yale University. Life and work Prum describes himself as "an evolutionary ornithol ...

, '' The Evolution of Beauty: How Darwin’s Forgotten Theory of Mate Choice Shapes the Animal World — and Us'' *

Ali Smith Ali Smith CBE FRSL (born 24 August 1962) is a Scottish author, playwright, academic and journalist. Sebastian Barry described her in 2016 as "Scotland's Nobel laureate-in-waiting". Early life and education Smith was born in Inverness on 24 ...

, '' Autumn'' *

Jesmyn Ward Jesmyn Ward (born April 1, 1977) is an American novelist and a Professor of English at Tulane University, where she holds the Andrew W. Mellon Professorship in the Humanities. She won the 2011 National Book Award for Fiction for her second novel ...

, ''

Sing, Unburied, Sing ''Sing, Unburied, Sing'' is the third novel by the American author Jesmyn Ward and published by Scribner in 2017. It focuses on a family in the fictional town of Bois Sauvage, Mississippi. The novel received overwhelmingly positive reviews, and ...

'' 2018 The 100 Notable Books were announced November 18, 2018. The 10 Best Books were announced November 29, 2018. *

Shane Bauer Shane Bauer is an American journalist, best known for his undercover reporting for ''Mother Jones'' magazine. He has won several awards including the Harvard's Goldsmith Prize for Investigative Reporting and the National Magazine Award for Best ...

, '' American Prison: A Reporter's Undercover Journey into the Business of Punishment'' *

Lisa Brennan-Jobs Lisa Nicole Brennan-Jobs ( Brennan; born May 17, 1978) is an American writer. She is the daughter of Apple co-founder Steve Jobs and Chrisann Brennan. Jobs initially denied paternity for several years, which led to a legal case and various media ...

, '' Small Fry'' *

David W. Blight David William Blight (born 1949) is the Sterling Professor of History, of African American Studies, and of American Studies and Director of the Gilder Lehrman Center for the Study of Slavery, Resistance, and Abolition at Yale University. Previousl ...

, '' Frederick Douglass: Prophet of Freedom'' *

Esi Edugyan Esi Edugyan (born 1978) is a Canadian novelist.Donna Bailey Nurse"Writing the blues" ''Quill & Quire'', July 2011. She has twice won the Giller Prize, for her novels '' Half-Blood Blues'' and '' Washington Black''. Biography Esi Edugyan was born ...

, ''

Washington Black ''Washington Black'' is the third novel by Canadian author Esi Edugyan. The novel was published in 2018 by HarperCollins in Canada and by Knopf Publishers internationally. A bildungsroman, the story follows the early life of George Washington "Wa ...

'' *

Lisa Halliday Lisa Halliday (born July 12, 1976) is an American author and novelist. She is most known for her novel '' Asymmetry'', for which she received a Whiting Award in 2017. Life Halliday was born and grew up in Medfield, Massachusetts, in a worki ...

, '' Asymmetry'' * Rebecca Makkai, ''

The Great Believers ''The Great Believers'' is a historical fiction novel by Rebecca Makkai, published June 4, 2018 by Penguin Books. The book is a Carnegie Medal winner, National Book Award finalist, Stonewall Book Award winner, and Pulitzer Prize finalist. ...

'' *

Tommy Orange Tommy may refer to: People * Tommy (given name) * Tommy Atkins, or just Tommy, a slang term for a common soldier in the British Army Arts and entertainment Film and television * ''Tommy'' (1931 film), a Soviet drama film * ''Tommy'' (1975 fi ...

, '' There There'' *

, '' How to Change Your Mind: What the New Science of Psychedelics Teaches Us About Consciousness, Dying, Addiction, Depression, and Transcendence'' * Leïla Slimani, ''

Lullaby A lullaby (), or cradle song, is a soothing song or piece of music that is usually played for (or sung to) children (for adults see music and sleep). The purposes of lullabies vary. In some societies they are used to pass down cultural knowledg ...

'' *

Tara Westover Tara Jane Westover (born September 27, 1986) is an American memoirist, essayist and historian. Her memoir '' Educated'' (2018) debuted at No. 1 on ''The New York Times'' bestseller list and was a finalist for a number of national awards, includin ...

, ''

Educated Education is a purposeful activity directed at achieving certain aims, such as transmitting knowledge or fostering skills and character traits. These aims may include the development of understanding, rationality, kindness, and honesty. Va ...

'' 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 Kevin Gerard Barry (20 January 1902 – 1 November 1920) was an Irish Republican Army (IRA) soldier who was executed by the British Government during the Irish War of Independence. He was sentenced to death for his part in an attack upon a Brit ...

, ''

Night Boat to Tangier ''Night Boat to Tangier'' is a 2019 novel by Kevin Barry. It is his third novel and was published on 20 June 2019 by the Edinburgh-based publisher Canongate Books. It was longlisted for the 2019 Booker Prize. Plot The novel is set over a 24-h ...

'' *

Sarah M. Broom Sarah Monique Broom (born December 31, 1979) is an American writer. Her first book, '' The Yellow House'' (2019), received the National Book Award for Nonfiction. Early life and education Broom was born on December 31, 1979 and raised in New Orle ...

, ''

The Yellow House ''The Yellow House'' ( nl, Het gele huis), alternatively named ''The Street'' ( nl, De straat), is an 1888 oil painting by the 19th-century Dutch Post-Impressionist painter Vincent van Gogh. The house was the right wing of 2 Place Lamartine, A ...

'' * Leo Damrosch, ''The Club: Johnson, Boswell, and the Friends Who Shaped an Age'' *

Ted Chiang Ted Chiang (born 1967) is an American science fiction writer. His work has won four Nebula awards, four Hugo awards, the John W. Campbell Award for Best New Writer, and six Locus awards. His short story "Story of Your Life" was the basis of the ...

, '' Exhalation: Stories'' *

Adam Higginbotham Adam Higginbotham (born 1968 in Somerset) is a British journalist who is the former U.S. correspondent for The Sunday Telegraph Magazine and former editor-in-chief of '' The Face''. He has also served as a contributing writer for'' The New Yorke ...

, '' Midnight in Chernobyl: The Untold Story of the World's Greatest Nuclear Disaster'' *

Patrick Radden Keefe Patrick Radden Keefe (born 1976) is an American writer and investigative journalist. He is the author of five books—''Chatter,'' ''The Snakehead,'' '' Say Nothing,'' '' Empire of Pain,'' and ''Rogues''—and has written extensively for many pub ...

, '' Say Nothing: A True Story of Murder and Memory in Northern Ireland'' *

Ben Lerner Benjamin S. Lerner (born February 4, 1979) is an American poet, novelist, essayist, and critic. He has been a Fulbright Scholar, a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction, a finalist for the National Book Award, a finalist for the National Bo ...

, ''

The Topeka School ''The Topeka School'' is a 2019 novel by the American novelist and poet Ben Lerner about a high school debate champion from Topeka, Kansas in the 1990s. The book is considered both a ''bildungsroman'' and a work of autofiction, as the narrative ...

'' *

Valeria Luiselli Valeria Luiselli (born August 16, 1983) is a Mexican author living in the United States. She is the author of the book of essays ''Sidewalks'' and the novel '' Faces in the Crowd'', which won the Los Angeles Times Art Seidenbaum Award for First F ...

, '' Lost Children Archive'' *

Julia Phillips Julia Phillips (née Miller; April 7, 1944 – January 1, 2002) was an American film producer and author. She co-produced with her husband Michael (and others) three prominent films of the 1970s — ''The Sting'', ''Taxi Driver'', and ''Close E ...

, ''

Disappearing Earth ''Disappearing Earth'' is the 2019 debut novel by Julia Phillips. Plot In an isolated town in Far Eastern part of Russia two young girls go missing. Critical reception The literary review aggregator Book Marks reported that 75% of critics gave ...

'' *

Rachel Louise Snyder Rachel Louise Snyder is an American journalist, writer, and professor. She covers domestic violence and previously worked as a foreign correspondent for the public radio program ''Marketplace'', and also contributed to ''All Things Considered'' a ...

, ''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 Lydia Millet (born December 5, 1968) is an American novelist. Her 2020 novel '' A Children's Bible'', was a finalist for the National Book Award for Fiction and named one of the ten best books of the year by the ''New York Times Book Review''. S ...

, ''

A Children's Bible ''A Children's Bible'' is a climate fiction novel by Lydia Millet that documents the experience of a group of children in the face of climate change as their parents fail to respond to a climate-charged hurricane. It was her 13th novel. Plot Co ...

'' * James McBride, ''

Deacon King Kong James McBride (born September 11, 1957) is an American writer and musician. He is the recipient of the 2013 National Book Award for fiction for his novel '' The Good Lord Bird''. Early life McBride's father, Rev. Andrew D. McBride (August 8, 191 ...

'' *

Maggie O'Farrell Maggie O'Farrell, RSL (born 27 May 1972), is a novelist from Northern Ireland. Her acclaimed first novel, '' After You'd Gone'', won the Betty Trask Award, and a later one, '' The Hand That First Held Mine'', the 2010 Costa Novel Award. She ha ...

, '' Hamnet'' *

Ayad Akhtar Ayad Akhtar (born October 28, 1970) is an American playwright, novelist, and screenwriter of Pakistani heritage, awarded the 2013 Pulitzer Prize for Drama. His work has received two Tony Award nominations for Best Play, an Award in Literature fr ...

, ''

Homeland Elegies ''Homeland Elegies'' is a novel by author Ayad Akhtar. Writing and background The book is fiction, though written to resemble a memoir. It includes some autobiographical elements; the protagonist shares the name, background, and career of the aut ...

'' *

Brit Bennett Brit Bennett is an American writer based in Los Angeles. Her debut novel ''The Mothers (novel), The Mothers'' (2016) was a ''The New York Times, New York Times'' best-seller. Her second novel, ''The Vanishing Half'' (2020), was also a ''New York ...

, ''

The Vanishing Half ''The Vanishing Half'' is a historical fiction novel by American author Brit Bennett. It is her second novel and was published by Riverhead Books in 2020. The novel debuted at number one on The New York Times Best Seller list, ''The New York Time ...

'' *

Victoria Chang Victoria Chang is an American poet, writer, editor, and critic. Life Victoria Chang was born in Detroit, Michigan, and raised in the suburb of West Bloomfield. Her parents were immigrants from Taiwan. She graduated from the University of Michigan ...

, " Obit" Nonfiction *

Robert Kolker Robert Kolker is an American journalist who worked as a contributing editor at ''New York Magazine'' and a former projects and investigations reporter for Bloomberg News and ''Bloomberg Businessweek''. He is the author of ''Lost Girls'', a ''Ne ...

, ''

Hidden Valley Road ''Hidden Valley Road: Inside the Mind of an American Family'' is a 2020 non-fiction book by Robert Kolker. The book is an account of the Galvin family of Colorado Springs, Colorado, a midcentury American family with twelve children (10 boys and 2 ...

'' *

Barack Obama Barack Hussein Obama II ( ; born August 4, 1961) is an American politician who served as the 44th president of the United States from 2009 to 2017. A member of the Democratic Party, Obama was the first African-American president of the ...

, ''

A Promised Land ''A Promised Land'' is a memoir by Barack Obama, the 44th president of the United States from 2009 to 2017. Published on November 17, 2020, it is the first of a planned two-volume series. Remaining focused on his political career, the preside ...

'' * James Shapiro, ''Shakespeare in a Divided America'' *

Anna Wiener Anna Wiener is an American writer, best known for her 2020 memoir ''Uncanny Valley''. Wiener currently writes for ''The New Yorker'' as a tech correspondent. Life Wiener grew up in Brooklyn and attended Wesleyan University in Middletown, CT. She ...

, ''

Uncanny Valley In aesthetics, the uncanny valley ( ja, 不気味の谷 ''bukimi no tani'') is a hypothesized relation between an object's degree of resemblance to a human being and the emotional response to the object. The concept suggests that humanoid object ...

'' *

, ''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 Imbolo Mbue (born 1981) is a Cameroonian-American novelist and short-story writer based in New York City. She is known for her debut novel '' Behold the Dreamers'' (2016), which has garnered her the PEN/Faulkner Award for Fiction and the Blue M ...

, ''How Beautiful We Were'' *

Katie Kitamura Katie Kitamura is an American novelist, journalist, and art critic. She is currently an Honorary Research Fellow at the London Consortium. Early life and education Katie Kitamura was born in Sacramento, California in 1979 to a family of Japanese ...

, ''

Intimacies ''Intimacies'' is the fourth novel by Katie Kitamura, published on July 20, 2021. Plot An unnamed woman leaves New York City, where her father recently died, and moves to The Hague, Netherlands to work as an interpreter at the International ...

'' *

Honorée Fanonne Jeffers Honorée Fanonne Jeffers (born 1967) is an American poet and novelist, and a professor of English at the University of Oklahoma. She has published five collections of poetry and a novel. Her 2020 collection ''The Age of Phillis'' reexamines the l ...

, ''

The Love Songs of W.E.B. Du Bois ''The Love Songs of W.E.B. Du Bois'' is the 2021 debut novel by American poet Honorée Fanonne Jeffers. It explores the history of an African-American family in the American South, from the time before the American civil war and slavery, through ...

'' *

, ''

No One Is Talking About This ''No One Is Talking About This'' is the debut novel by American poet Patricia Lockwood, published in 2021. It was a finalist for the 2021 Booker Prize, was one of the ''New York Times 10 best books of 2021, and won the 2022 Dylan Thomas Prize. T ...

'' *

Benjamín Labatut Benjamín Labatut (born 1980) is a Chilean writer. Early life Labatut was born in Rotterdam, Netherlands. He spent his childhood in The Hague, Buenos Aires, and Lima. He moved to Santiago, at the age of 14. Writing Labatut's first book of st ...

, ''When We Cease to Understand the World'' Nonfiction *

Tove Ditlevsen Tove Irma Margit Ditlevsen (14 December 1917 – 7 March 1976) was a Danish poet and author. With published works in a variety of genres, she was one of Denmark's best-known authors by the time of her death. Life Tove Ditlevsen was born ...

, ''

The Copenhagen Trilogy ''The Copenhagen Trilogy'' is a series of memoirs by Danish author Tove Ditlevsen. The books were first released in Denmark between 1967 and 1971 under the titles ''Childhood'' ( da, Barndom), ''Youth'' ( da, Ungdom) and ''Dependency'' ( da, Gift ...

'' *

Clint Smith Clinton James "Snuffy" Smith (December 12, 1913 – May 19, 2009) was a Canadian professional ice hockey centre and head coach best known for his time spent in the National Hockey League (NHL) as a player with the New York Rangers and the Chic ...

, ''How the Word is Passed'' *

Andrea Elliott Andrea Elliott is an American journalist and a staff writer for ''The New York Times''. She is the first woman to win a Pulitzer Prize in both Journalism (2007) and Letters (2022). She received the 2007 Pulitzer Prize for Feature Writing for a ser ...

, ''Invisible Child: Poverty, Survival and Hope in an American City'' *

Annette Gordon-Reed Annette Gordon-Reed (born November 19, 1958) is an American historian and law professor. She is currently the Carl M. Loeb University Professor at Harvard University and a professor of history in the university's Faculty of Arts & Sciences. She ...

, ''On Juneteenth'' * Heather Clark, '' 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'' *

Claire-Louise Bennett Claire-Louise Bennett is a British writer, living in Galway in Ireland. She has written ''Pond'' (2015), which was shortlisted for the Dylan Thomas Prize; and ''Checkout 19'' (2021), which was shortlisted for the Goldsmiths Prize. Biography Benn ...

, ''

Checkout 19 ''Checkout 19'' is the debut novel of the British writer Claire-Louise Bennett. It was selected for ''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 ...

'' * Barbara Kingsolver, '' Demon Copperhead'' *

Namwali Serpell Carla Namwali Serpell (born 1980) is an American and Zambian writer who teaches in the United States. In April 2014, she was named on Hay Festival's Africa39 list of 39 Sub-Saharan African writers aged under 40 with the potential and talent to de ...

, ''The Furrows'' * Hernan Diaz, ''Trust'' Nonfiction *

Ed Yong Edmund Soon-Weng Yong (born 17 December 1981) is a British-American science journalist. He is a staff member at '' The Atlantic'', which he joined in 2015. In 2021 he received a Pulitzer Prize for Explanatory Reporting for a series on the COVI ...

, '' An Immense World: How Animal Senses Reveal the Hidden Realms Around Us'' *

Hua Hsu Hua Hsu (born 1977) is an American writer and academic, based in New York City. He is a professor of English at Bard College and a staff writer at ''The New Yorker''. His work includes investigations of immigrant culture in the United States, as ...

, ''Stay True: A Memoir'' *

Rachel Aviv Rachel Aviv is a staff writer at ''The New Yorker'' who wrote the book ''Strangers to Ourselves: Unsettled Minds and the Stories That Make Us'' in 2022. She frequently writes about psychiatry and ''Tablet'' called her "Janet Malcolm’s successo ...

, ''Strangers to Ourselves: Unsettled Minds and the Stories That Make Us'' *

Linda Villarosa Linda Villarosa (born January 9, 1959) is an American author and journalist who is a former executive editor of ''Essence'' magazine. She has worked on health coverage for ''Science Times''. She is also author of several books, and her first novel ...

, ''Under the Skin: The Hidden Toll of Racism on American Lives and on the Health of Our Nation'' *

Fintan O'Toole Fintan O'Toole (born 16 February 1958) is a polemicist, literary editor, journalist and drama critic for ''The Irish Times'', for which he has written since 1988. O'Toole was drama critic for the '' New York Daily News'' from 1997 to 2001 and ...

, '' We Don't Know Ourselves: a Personal History of Modern Ireland''

Studies

In 2010, Stanford professors Alan Sorenson and

Jonah Berger Jonah or Jonas, ''Yōnā'', "dove"; gr, Ἰωνᾶς ''Iōnâs''; ar, يونس ' or '; Latin: ''Ionas'' son of Amittai, is a prophet in the Hebrew Bible and the Quran, from Gath-hepher of the northern kingdom of Israel in about the 8th cent ...

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'', 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 Roxane Gay (born October 15, 1974) is an American writer, professor, editor, and social commentator. Gay is the author of ''The New York Times'' best-selling essay collection '' Bad Feminist'' (2014), as well as the short story collection ''Ayit ...

, 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 The term ''Hispanic'' ( es, hispano) refers to people, cultures, or countries related to Spain, the Spanish language, or Hispanidad. The term commonly applies to countries with a cultural and historical link to Spain and to viceroyalties forme ...

and

Latino Americans Hispanic and Latino Americans ( es, Estadounidenses hispanos y latinos; pt, Estadunidenses hispânicos e latinos) are Americans of Spanish and/or Latin American ancestry. More broadly, these demographics include all Americans who identify as ...

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 Michael may refer to: People * Michael (given name), a given name * Michael (surname), including a list of people with the surname Michael Given name "Michael" * Michael (archangel), ''first'' of God's archangels in the Jewish, Christian an ...

, ''

The Knight News ''The'' () is a grammatical article in English, denoting persons or things already mentioned, under discussion, implied or otherwise presumed familiar to listeners, readers, or speakers. It is the definite article in English. ''The'' is the ...

'', Issue date: 2/8/07 Section: Knight Life
The Man Behind the Criticism: Sam Tanenhaus
(via

Wayback Machine The Wayback Machine is a digital archive of the World Wide Web founded by the Internet Archive, a nonprofit based in San Francisco, California. Created in 1996 and launched to the public in 2001, it allows the user to go "back in time" and see ...

)
Question and Answer: Dwight Garner
(via

)
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 ''Tell Me More'' was a National Public Radio interview show that was hosted by journalist Michel Martin. ''Tell Me More'' was first introduced online in December 2006 through an "open piloting" program called "Rough Cuts." Martin and the show's ...

'',

National Public Radio National Public Radio (NPR, stylized in all lowercase) is an American privately and state funded nonprofit media organization headquartered in Washington, D.C., with its NPR West headquarters in Culver City, California. It differs from other ...

, 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