Best Books of 2021: Top 10Like this list

10 items

• Cloud Cuckoo Land

  a Novel

  Doerr, Anthony, 1973-

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  Doerr's first novel since 2014's beloved All the Light We Cannot See is an epic, page-turning suite of stories that span from ancient history into the future. Where Doerr's previous novel had a child protagonist, his latest offers several. Anna is…Read moreRead more of this annotation

• Crying in H Mart

  a Memoir

  Zauner, Michelle,

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  Musician, director, and author Michelle Zauner has taken the literary year by storm and rightfully so. Crying in Hmart opens up with Zauner doing just that- crying in an Hmart food court as she connects with the memories of her mother through the…Read moreRead more of this annotation

• Detransition, Baby

  a Novel

  Peters, Torrey,

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  Peters's spirited comedy of manners, featuring two nuanced trans characters, is brimming with keen insight and compassion. It is a deeply satisfying book that manages to be both extremely ambitious and very entertaining. Reese, a trans woman in her…Read moreRead more of this annotation

• Empire of Pain

  the Secret History of the Sackler Dynasty

  Keefe, Patrick Radden, 1976-

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  In his latest, journalist O'Keefe (Say Nothing) sets out to reveal how much the Sackler family, who owned Purdue Pharma, the company that made OxyContin and aggressively marketed the drug as a safe, nonaddictive pain medication, knew about its…Read moreRead more of this annotation

• The Five Wounds

  a Novel

  Quade, Kirstin Valdez,

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  33-year-old Amadeo is a neglectful father to his pregnant teenage daughter, an inconsiderate son to his loving mother, with whom he lives, and a disappointment to his great uncle, who cast him as Jesus for Holy Week, in spite of his fondness for…Read moreRead more of this annotation

• Harlem Shuffle

  Whitehead, Colson, 1969-

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  Whitehead continues to astonish with his range, delivering yet another excellent novel that's dramatically different from his previous work. Here Ray Carney is a self-made family man in late-50s Harlem with one foot in the straight world as a…Read moreRead more of this annotation

• A Little Devil in America

  Notes in Praise of Black Performance

  Abdurraqib, Hanif, 1983-

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  One of the preeminent music writers of his generation, Abdurraqib focuses on the rich legacy of Black American performance in his latest book which stretches to encompass the work of comedians, dancers, magicians and film and TV performers, though…Read moreRead more of this annotation

• The Love Songs of W.E.B. Du Bois

  a Novel

  Jeffers, Honorée Fanonne, 1967-

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  Honorée Fanonne Jeffers's debut novel explores themes of caste, color, education, love, abuse, betrayal, and hope for a family. This is a very long book, but as you're reading it, you want to tell the protagonists to take their time; to get the…Read moreRead more of this annotation

• Matrix

  Groff, Lauren,

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  Set in 12th-century Europe, Matrix was inspired by Marie de France, the first known female French poet. There is very little known about Marie de France, but Groff has constructed a vivid and sensual novel of what her life may have been. Eleanor of…Read moreRead more of this annotation

• The Sentence

  a Novel

  Erdrich, Louise,

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  Erdrich's The Sentence opens with a macabre scene. Tookie, an Ojibwe woman, is tricked into transporting a dead body and crack cocaine across state lines and sentenced to prison. When she's released, Tookie gets a job at a Minneapolis bookstore –…Read moreRead more of this annotation