LibGuides: Best Books of 2021: Best Book Lists

New York Times 10 Best

Fiction

How Beautiful We Were. Imbolo Mbue

Intimacies. Katie Kitamura

The Love Songs of W.E.B. DuBois. Honore Fanonne Jeffers

No One Is Talking About This. Patricia Lockwood

When We Cease to Understand the World. Benjamin Labatut

Nonfiction

The Copenhagen Trilogy: Childhood – Youth - Dependency by Tove Ditlevsen

How the Word is Passed: A Reckoning with the History of Slavery across America by Clint Smith

Invisible Child: Poverty, Survival & Hope in an American City by Andrea Elliott

On Juneteenth by Annette Gordon-Reed

Red Comet: The Short Life and Blazing Art of Sylvia Plath by Heather Clark

Source: nyt.com

Award Winners

Booker Prize
The leading literary award in the English-speaking world, which has brought recognition, reward and readership to outstanding fiction for over 50 years. Awarded annually to the best novel of the year written in English and published in the UK or Ireland.
National Book Awards
The mission of the National Book Foundation is to celebrate the best literature in Amercan, expand its audience, and ensure that books have a prominent place in American culture.
National Book Critics Circle Award
Each year, the National Book Critics Circle presents awards for the finest books published in English in six categories: Fiction, Nonfiction, Biography, Autobiography, Poetry, and Criticism.
Nobel Prize in Literature
Awarded to the novelist Abdulrazak Gurnah, born in Zanzibar and active in England, “for his uncompromising and compassionate penetration of the effects of colonialism and the fate of the refugee in the gulf between cultures and continents.”
Pulitzer Prizes

Lit Hub's Ultimate Best Books

Emily Temple of Lit Hub collates all the best book lists she can find, tallies their recommendations, and figures out which books were most often included. Here's the list for 2021!

Other Best Book Lists

Book Riot
Book Riot is the largest independent editorial book site in North America, designed around diverse readers and across all genres.
The Guardian
For a Canadian perspective. Guardian critics pick the year’s best fiction, politics, science, children’s books and more.
Goodreads Choice Awards The only major book awards decided by readers.
Library Journal
144 titles across 15 categories offer reads of solace and community, insight and joy.
NPR
Use NPR's Book Concierge to mix and match filters and years to explore 2500 recommendations from NPR staff and trusted critics.
Shelf Awareness
Shelf Awareness for Readers helps readers discover the 25 best books of the week, as chosen by booksellers, librarians and other industry experts, plus has news about books and authors, author interviews, and more.
Smithsonian Scholars
Every year, Smithsonian magazine invites dozens of Smithsonian Institution professionals to share what they found most enticing of the year’s best books.

Best Books of 2021: Best Book Lists

We Love Year-End Best Book Lists!

New York Times 10 Best

Award Winners

Lit Hub's Ultimate Best Books

Other Best Book Lists