Here it is, the definitive list of the best books of 2021! How do I know? Because I compiled the Best of lists from 20 sources - trade publications such as Publisher's Weekly and Library Journal; popular newspapers and magazines such as The New York Times, Entertainment Weekly, and The Wall Street Journal; and blogs and websites like Buzzfeed, GoodReads and ShelfAwareness - and scored each title based on how many lists it appeared on. I then put the list in order by score to find the most agreed upon titles. Drumroll please....
The top fiction book of 2021 was No One Is Talking About This by Patricia Lockwood, with a score of 10! The top nonfiction is a tie between Crying in H Mart by Michelle Zauner and Empire of Pain by Patrick Radden Keefe, each with a score of 11. Congratulations to all of the authors! See the lists below for the top 5 in fiction and nonfiction. For the full list complete with scores and descriptions, click View Full List. For each title, we have multiple formats available, such as ebooks, audiobook, eaudio, and large print.
These are the top fiction books of 2021, according to outlets such as Publisher's Weekly, GoodReads, The New York Times, and more. They are ranked according to the total number of "Best of" lists they appeared on (i.e., their "score"). This list includes all books with a score of 6 or higher.
These are the top nonfiction books of 2021, according to outlets such as Publisher's Weekly, GoodReads, The New York Times, and more. They are ranked according to the total number of "Best of" lists they appeared on (i.e., their "score"). The books in this list are ones that made it onto at least 4 lists.
