The 100 best books of the 21st century (So Far)
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- čas přidán 24. 09. 2019
- Reacting to the recent Guardian list of their 100 best books of the 21st century. I agree with some and really disagree with others! I also discuss some titles I think should be added. Let me know your thoughts on the list in the commends. Click ‘Show More’ for info.
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Guardian article:
www.theguardian.com/books/201...
The Most Important Books of the 21st Century - So Far! (Vulture article response)
• The Most Important Boo...
100 21st Century Novels to Love (The Times article response)
• 100 21st Century Novel...
My rant video on Days Without End by Sebastian Barry: • Why I'm Really Angry A...
Some of the books I discuss:
Bad Blood by Lorna Sage: www.bookdepository.com/Bad-Bl...
A Little Life by Hanya Yanagihara: www.bookdepository.com/Little...
Tell Me How It Ends by Valeria Luiselli: www.bookdepository.com/Tell-M...
Harvest by Jim Crace: www.bookdepository.com/Harves...
Drive Your Plow Over the Bones of the Dead by Olga Tokarczuk: www.bookdepository.com/Drive-...
Days Without End by Sebastian Barry: www.bookdepository.com/Days-W...
Jimmy Corrigan by Chris Ware: www.bookdepository.com/Jimmy-...
Underland by Robert Macfarlane: www.bookdepository.com/Underl...
Brooklyn by Colm Toibin: www.bookdepository.com/Brookl...
Oryx and Crake by Margaret Atwood: www.bookdepository.com/Oryx-C...
Atonement by Ian McEwan: www.bookdepository.com/Atonem...
The Year of Magical Thinking by Joan Didion: www.bookdepository.com/Year-M...
White Teeth by Zadie Smith: www.bookdepository.com/White-...
Outline by Rachel Cusk: www.bookdepository.com/Outlin...
The Argonauts by Maggie Nelson: www.bookdepository.com/Argona...
The Underground Railroad by Colson Whitehead: www.bookdepository.com/Underg...
Normal People by Sally Rooney: www.bookdepository.com/Normal...
The Road by Cormac McCarthy: www.bookdepository.com/Road-C...
The Plot Against America by Philip Roth: www.bookdepository.com/Plot-A...
Half a Yellow Sun by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie: www.bookdepository.com/Half-Y...
Cloud Atlas by David Mitchell: www.bookdepository.com/Cloud-...
Autumn by Ali Smith: www.bookdepository.com/Autumn...
Wolf Hall by Hilary Mantel: www.bookdepository.com/Wolf-H...
More on the 6 books I would add:
Lovely, Dark, Deep by Joyce Carol Oates
lonesomereader.com/blog/2014/9...
Mrs Engels by Gavin McCrea
lonesomereader.com/blog/2015/4...
What Belongs to You by Garth Greenwell
lonesomereader.com/blog/2015/1...
The Years by Annie Ernaux (translated by Alison L Strayer)
lonesomereader.com/blog/2019/4...
Don’t Call Us Dead by Danez Smith
lonesomereader.com/blog/2018/1...
Ducks, Newburyport by Lucy Ellmann
lonesomereader.com/blog/2019/8...
&
• Ducks, Newburyport by ...
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"Calm down, girl. It's not that serious."
DYING! Dying!
I listened to the Guardian Books podcast and they give a little more context for how and why certain books were chosen. It's a good conversation and would recommend listening!
Thanks for sharing this. I am going to check it out because I am curious about some of the choices.
Oh, thanks so much for letting me know! I missed that. I'll be sure to go listen.
Thanks for the info
You are a creagy girl
So pleased to find this video on your channel, Eric. I was shocked how few of these I’d read when The Guardian first published it (less than 10!) and have been reading my way through the list since (now 72 down). It’s been a great lockdown project. The process has completely reawakened my love of reading and introduced me to many new authors and some new genres. Like you, I question some of the inclusions and exclusions, but I think the list is valuable because of its scope and variety.
It is ALWAYS a pleasure hearing you talk about books. Thank you for your honesty and thoughtful approach to reading.
😊📚
Eric, Its long overdue to tell you how much i appreciate you and the work you put into your channel....and who doesnt love a list!!??
Thanks so much! 🤗📚❤️
What a fabulous (and TBR-expanding) discussion! Ducks, Newberyport may be my end-of-December read this year. And I am eager to read the Wolf Hall books--perhaps starting in the new year so I will be ready for the new one.
What a brilliant video. I saved this for a quiet moment today so I could really concentrate,..wonderful, and well done for doing such a long review so carefully and thoughtfully. I wish Lincoln in the Bardo and Milkman had been on the list..but I thought the list was pretty good for covering a lot of different tastes in reading.
Thanks so much. I agree!
I love a good book list !! This one had lots of surprises ...some of them I wasn't so keen on but heyho that's what happens with lists like these!! Persepolis was just so moving, and was one of the first graphic memoirs that I read that had an impact on me. I love that you added Don't Call Us Dead to your list... totally agree with what you said about it ... I actually picked this up on your recommendation and it's just one of my all time faves❤️
Thanks and I'm SO happy you connected so strongly to Smith's book. It's incredible. 🤗📚
Very interesting analysis of the Guardian’s list and I fully agree that compilers do need to provide some context and justification for their lists.
Very surprised and pleased to find I mostly agreed with you on Books we both have read (only two disagreements). I recommend ‘The Hare with the Amber Eyes’, an extraordinarily moving and beautifully written family memoir set against the history of art and war in the 20th century.
I’ve commented before we share an aversion to the Amises. However, last year I read & loved ‘The Old Devils’ & in my post-reading excitement I purchased Martin’s ‘Experience’, which I haven’t got around to reading. I once went off on a major rant to a friend of a friend about how much I disapproved of Martin Amis, only to discover she had written her thesis on him and had actually interviewed him!
great video as usual! :) in terms of starting with anne carson, i would personally recommend reading autobiography of red, i think that's her best work and also the best place to start! :)
Thanks! I just bought a copy over the weekend so I'm looking forward to it.
Love your videos! Thanks for sharing your viewpoints....😊
Thank you!
I'm impressed by the books on this list and congratulations on 9k!!!
Thanks!
So glad to see you put Ducks, Newburyport on here. I was upset to see it keep missing major awards after being shortlisted. I was kind of surprised not to see Milkman on either of these lists, after it getting so much attention.
Thanks, yeah I wish Ducks had won something. This list was originally published only a couple weeks after Milkman was first published so maybe not a wide enough group of critics had read it yet.
Nothing To Envy is a really interesting look at North Korea. I found it so eye-opening and loved the way the different stories were told. Would definitely recommend having a look at it!
Love a good book list. I am so glad Ali Smith is on the list and Chimamanda Adiche. I think Flights by Olga Tokarczuk (Sp?) should have been on there. It is so unique in style. Also, more magical realism needs to be on the list. Lesley Nneka Arimah's What It Means When A Man Falls From the Sky is a book that can bring many people to love short stories and nods to the resurgence of magical realism. Of course, it's also one of my all time favourite books. Kei Miller's The Cartographer Tries to Map a Way to Zion is a poetry collection that blew me away and inspred me to pick up more poetry, so of course I would add that too. Completely subjective response and wish list of books for the list. :)
Thank you very much for your video.Congratulations!!!!
I was overjoyed to see Ali Smith in the top ten - she is my all-out favourite author, so original and exciting and funny and jaw-droppingly talented with an economy of language that is unique. I think your suggestion of the Joyce Carol Oates book of short stories is on point - it's the only book I've read of hers so far but I was completely blown away by it. I don't think I have ever been so utterly frustrated and annoyed by a novel like 'A Little Life' - what started off very promisingly as a reflection and inspection on friendship became a rambling and increasingly ridiculous and unrealistic story - how it has made the list is unfathomable to me! Can't wait to read 'Ducks Newburyport' - I am terrified of its length but your enthusiasm for it has sold me. Great to see Kate Atkinson high on the list as well, another truly brilliant writer who never fails to engage and inspire. 'Wolf Hall' is the only book I remember ever giving up on - I thought the writing was incredible but I just found its structure and amount of characters too confusing. Perhaps I should give it another go. Loved the TV version. As a lover of lists I look forward to investigating some others from the selection.
Really loved underhand- beautifully written
Is the National Geographic Almanac 2019 included?😊
Hi Eric, just wanted to comment and say that I share so many of your sentiments about Martin Amis, however I've read his memoir Experience before (and am currently reading it again) and wanted to encourage you to read it. The pomp, overzealous, uppity, pretentious image Amis garners on stage and in some of his essays has very little in common (in my opinion) with the narrator of Experience, a voice that is both deeply (if unevenly) self-conscious and sensitive to himself and others around him. Although others may disagree, I found the memoir very moving and 100% the best book Amis has ever written (could the bar be any higher?) Take care and if this recommendation still doesn't float your boat then I recommend the much more interesting and inventive Salman Rushdie memoir, Joseph Anton!
This deserves to be in HD or 4k🙂
For Anne Carson I'd highly recommend The Autobiography of Red which is a novel in verse, or her translation of Antigone!
seconded - Autobiography of Red is extraordinary
I was so happy to see Gilead so close to the top of the list. Loved Days Without End & A Little Life, too, although they described it as a "great gay novel" which has also, I feel, undermined its great strength, I'd say, at depicting a story about friendship. With Wolf Hall, I thought...ok...? I read it earlier this year and liked it, but it didn't blow me away.
Also! Yay for 9k!
Yeah, I guess A Little Life is stuck with description "great gay novel" after Garth Greenwell declared it to be that - which does somewhat undermine its core meaning and the larger issues it's about.
And thank you! 😇
Half a Yellow Sun by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie and Cloud Atlas by David Mitchell are two of my favourite books and The Year of Magical Thinking by Joan Didion is brilliant.
My best 21st Century fiction would include, Milkman and The Narrow Road to the Deep North by Richard Flanagan and maybe Lincoln in The Bardo (because it's so unusual and the audiobook was magnificent).
The Swan Book by Alexis Wright and The Luminaries by Eleanor Catton. Both very difficult books but excellent in their own ways. Works of genius.
Your additions are going on my TBR list :D
Yes, I mean really I'd probably add Lincoln in the Bardo and The Luminaries as well. I still need to read The Narrow Road. One of the only recent Booker winners I haven't read. I'm curious - do you think you would have found these additions you'd make without the Booker prize? Just wonder if you regularly read the winners or if they are books you'd have gravitated towards anyway.
Hope you enjoy my suggestions when you get time to read them!
@@EricKarlAnderson Milkman I wouldn't have read without The Booker win, I was reading the shortlist and that one wasn't really on my radar until it won. Richard Flanagan is a favourite author. I had already read and enjoyed Gould's Book of Fish and Wanting so I bought a copy of Narrow Road as soon as it came out in Aus. The Luminaries being a NZ author I think I already had it before the Booker win. There seemed to be a lot of local hype before it was longlisted. But my memory is a bit hazy on that.
@@kimswhims8435 Interesting, thanks!
Glad to see The a Omnivores Dilemma. It was a big time life changer for me. I understand you souring on an author who you personally didn’t like. I had an experience with an artist I FORMERLY admired and can’t bring myself to even look at her work now. Big of you to not hold Ellmann’s slightly uncomfortable interaction against her. Ducks is the only new book I’ve purchased for myself in probably over a decade I even bought it on its US pub date but haven’t opened it yet because I want to devote my time solely to it. I’ve copied down a few of these to my TBR. I DNF more here than I read 😑 Oats! 🍸😂
I think The Warmth of Other Suns by Isabel Wilkerson' should be on the list. It was fantastic and so relevant to our understanding of what shaped United States culture, politics, and economy.
Thanks! I've put it on my list.
Glad to hear you mention Lorna Sage's "Bad Blood." It's the best memoir/biography I've read, a masterpiece. So much wit and intelligence.
So so happy to see Never Let Me Go by Ishiguro because I've the book for it's consoling peace of letting go and actually living with the memories of our loved ones that we lived to make.
Great! Nice to hear how it resonated with you so strongly.
Love Ishiguro!
I think I’ve read 28 books from this list, but some of them I read a long time ago. Yesterday, I listened to the Guardian Book podcast, and they talked about how this list was put together and how by “best” they mean “most significant”. If you haven’t listened to it yet, I think it’s worth it.
I haven't so will listen to that. Thanks!
#90 Visitation by Jenny Erpenbeck is a masterpiece. I cannot recommend it enough and I was so excited to see it included.
I loved Erpenbeck's novel "Go, Went, Gone" and have meant to read more by her!
Two "novels" I would put on this list: Knausgaard's My Struggle 1-5 and Edouard Louis' History of Violence. To me they both changed how to write autobiography. Also I notice there aren't many non-fiction books and I will offer one: Leonardo DaVinci by Isaacson, a totally accessible biography. So many good books on the list and so many not on the list but who cares what I think! Thanks for your effort!
I care what you think. Great additions! I read part of the first book in My Struggle but got distracted and meant to go back. And I still have to read History of Violence. It's sitting on my shelf.
Have noted down at that DaVinci bio. Thanks!
Ooh Édouard Louis is a good choice. I think my vote would be for The End of Eddie
My favorite is their favorite so no complaints! But I do wish Lionel Shriver and Meg Wolitzer and Haruki Murakami had been included. (Oh, and yes to JCO!) (and really you must read Stephen King's On Writing --- it's superb!) (one more thing - huge Franzen fan here! Love Freedom and The Corrections so much!)
Thank you so much for this video👏👏👏👏👏
Glad you enjoyed it. I still really need to read Wolitzer.
I agree about Martin Amis but I did read and was moved by Time’s Arrow but I’m not sure when it was published. My favourite Tobin novel is also The Master but I suppose Brooklyn was about a time and place(S) in history. I adore ( no exaggeration ) Hilary Mantel’s writing - she has an extensive list with all types of fiction and memoir - and Wolf Hall + Bring Up the Bodies are wonderful controlled and informed writing. I love most of what Kate Atkinson writes and I’m glad she is on the list. I also think that Elizabeth Strout is an important novelist especially her book Olive Kitteridge and I’m looking forward to the new novel around this subject. Great video.
I think Time's Arrow was from the 90s. I would like to read his earlier fiction.
And yes, I'm a big fan of Mantel as well! I should have mentioned I love her memoir Giving Up the Ghost and Beyond Black.
And I totally agree about Strout! One of my favourite writers.
Eric Karl Anderson At last! Someone who loved Beyond Black. I thought I was alone....
A mere 19 for me and with only another 2 I haven't read being of much appeal. To your point about the current shift of novels towards autofic, I have trouble with this concept as a writer and reader. To me, all novels are autofic, but the better ones to my mind wreak the greatest transformation on the personal material to make it more universal and less subjective. So the trend for the more personal experience being presented in novel writing leaves us I think with less moving on of the novel form, except within a narrower framework of the personal.
I think we roughly feel the same way (which is why I have an issue with Cusk's writing and that novel First Love). I can understand why writers take issue with writing stories outside their experiences, but I think to limit yourself in that way is to lose a lot of the creativity and joy of novels.
The Last Samurai came out in 2000 and it would be my favorite book of the last 20 years.
I love these lists to build my own TBR... and to bytche. I chuckled at the old English Channel divide striking again. A list of 100 books over 20 years... and only 1 French language graphic novel, from an Iranian. How to broom a whole culture under the proverbial carpet. I'm French Canadian so I don't have a dog in this century-old fight but it's a hoot to watch the glancing blows from this side of the Atlantic ;) ;) ;)
And only one Spanish author 😂
No JCO! What were they thinking! 😉
I so wish The Unconsoled was appreciated more instead of the tedious NLMG but I think my biggest surprise is how few Booker winners there are - how do you begin to justify excluding Lincoln in the Bardo? (I did finish Tenth December but like too many collections there was some good and some not so good - this does not apply to Alice Munro of course!).
Mother's Milk is *CHEF'S KISS*
I'm glad it was there. I honestly didn't think it would make the list.
Ah, I must get back to reading those series of novels.
Have you read Julia Phillip's 'Disappearing Earth' ?
It's beautiful!
I haven't. Thanks for the recommendation.
I love Autobiography of Red from Anne Carson!
Noted. thank you!
Happy to see Jim Crace's novel Harvest on this list. It is one of the most successful religious allegories that I've read and I think it would have won the Booker in 2013 if not for Catton's The Luminaries, which oddly isn't on this list. Hmmm. And I wonder why they chose Olga's newest book instead of her Booker Int'l winning novel Flight.
Yeah, I feel like it must have come very close to being put on it. Maybe they were nervous about having too many Booker winners included!
Number 99...i haven't read. But i did read Black Moses aka Little Pepper by him. I really liked it. Highly recommend trying Mabanckou
The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay is really, really good. Easily one of my favourite novels.
I've been meaning to read that for so long!
I enjoyed The Dragon Tattoo series. I also have read all of Leon Uris. One can learn history that has been revised from him. But your list is really new to me. Joyce Carol Oats, wise woman. Immigrant experience, Willa Cather. Beautiful sentences. Read My Antonia if you haven’t.
Ive been binging on lists today and I wonder how much list makers lie. Love the idea of lists. I have my own that were formative and enjoyable. Have difficulty with modern novels.
Review the new Salman Rushdie book and take his interview in the channel , he will definitely be Game for it.
What about Siri hustved? I think she's very underrated
Currently reading Brooklyn by Colm Toibin and really enjoying it!
That's great! His novel Nora Webster is a kind-of sequel to Brooklyn and also excellent!
Eric Karl Anderson I had no idea. I’ll look it up :) thanks!
I think you are right to point out the lack of foreign-language fiction, it can't legitimately be called a list of the "best" when it overlooks so much. Two translated novels that come to my mind are Ralf Rothmann's To Die In Spring and Robert Seethaler's A Whole Life.
bravo, Eric! bravo!
Thank you!
The Overstory should be there, it is brilliant!
I had mixed feelings about it, but it's an impressive novel, with some very moving sections and so topical!
And, what is a graphic novel?
I'm a grumpy old man and I feel kind of called out! Which is probably a good thing. This video made me want to read all of these. Thanks for that.
A nice mix of books. My biggest disagreement is over Wolf Hall. I love that time period, but it was impossible to follow die to the ambiguity of who was speaking when.
Agree. But good to have penetrating peak at behind the scenes.
Mauler by english writer Shawn Williamson indicated by historian, writer and cinema diretor Andrew Sinclair. And Questus his new novel is Very cool.
You've talked very less about the non-fiction books here, such as The Tipping Point by Gladwell or esp about the The Noonday Demon by Solomon.
That's because I primarily read novels rather than nonfiction and if I stopped to talk about all the titles I think sound interesting this video would be hours long. I'd be especially keen to read The Noonday Demon since I have read Solomon's Far From The Tree which is brilliant.
What do you think of the two books you mentioned?
@@EricKarlAnderson well I've read the Noonday Demon and have reviewed it as well. And we are friends on GoodReads as well, actually we talked a little too. I'm Ejaz from Pakistan if you remember. And The Tipping Point, or Blink both by Gladwell are great books. I don't think you'd like these two as much as you'd like the Noonday Demon. So yeah, read it, you'll love it. It serves all the depressives well, as it served me.
Eric, I like your videos but if I may give a suggestion: Shorten your intros a bit. You tend to talk for 4-6 minutes at the beginning of each videos before getting to the point and that is way too long. A lot of people will probably get a little bored by that.
OMG we both bailed on Tenth of December‼️I tried it twice.
Haha, I will be going back for another try at some point!
Too bad. It's brilliant.
I am in the process of reading Thinking Fast and Slow and The God Delusion. Great books that didn't make this list include the Revenant, Origin by Dan Brown, KiteRunner, Life of Pi and Ready Player One.
Revenant was the story of a company of fur traders and it took place in and around Yellowstone National Park back in 1823. It consisted of bears, Indians and the US Army. Themes addressed include man vs nature, revenge, and race relations. There is a movie adaptation of the book as well with Hugh Glass played by Lenoardo Di Caprio. It was one of the few cases where I enjoyed the book more as a lot of stuff was left out from the movie.
All I remember from Kite Runner was an adolescent being forced by other kids to stick his dick into the ground. This, they refered to as rape. I remember enjoying reading the book, so there's that.
Ready Player One was a great nostalgic trip back to the 80s and the culture of that era. It was also about the future of virtual reality, so the book was huge amongst the gaming subreddit. I listened to the unabridged audiobook by Will Wheaton while reading it.
Life of Pi was about the voyages of a kid trapped in a lifeboat with a bunch of animals. Here's the twist: His mind could have been deranged from being out at sea for so long that they could have been people and in an effort to deal with a traumatic situation his brain regarded them as animals. Whether they were people or animals on that lifeboat, we'll never know.
I completely agree with you on “Never let me go”, I think “the remains of the day “ is a much stronger novel in my opinion.
No Gilead by Marilynne Robinson.
President Obama interviewed the author.
The book won the Pulitzer prize.
A lot better choice than a Bob Dylan book.
It's on the list- number 2..
Wow, I've only read 15 books on the list....depressing, since I read all the time!
nice video.
Dear Guardian, you missed "The Hearts Invisible Furies".
If the year is right, I think Harry Potter and others from year 2000 wouldn't be listed as they belong 20th century
Indeed, the Goblet of Fire is the first Harry Potter book from the 21st century (2000, to be exact), but I think it's also the best book in the saga (the Order of the Phoenix being a close second.)
@@basketca2 my favourite is The Order of Phenix too :) but my point here is that HP and the goblet of fire and other books on this list that were also published in 2000 (for instance, On the writing, by S King) shouldn't be listed as they belong to 20th century (21st century started on 01/01/2001).
The cost of living didn't really make it for me. It has a similar text style to many Latin American authors but it doesn't deliver enough content for my taste. I can't believe its number 84
I totally disagree with; On Writing, by Stephen King.
The book just offers basic tips about writing and refers to Elements of Style as the book to go to.
Little bit of Stephen King telling about his life but everyone has heard about him.
Gone Girl is the book in which every single book that has come out has to have the word 'girl' in the title
Mad Addam trilogy was amazing
This is a good video.
I saw the rant video of days without end.........
On the same day
Just looked up the list, number 17. is. the. Road. THE. ROAD.
Bro just skipped right over Secondhand Time like that? All of Alexievich is great but I think that one is the best, most interesting.
I agree about Days Without End. The US cover is even worse because they even removed the rainbow!
👏👏👏📕📹👍👍👍☺☺
These lists are nonsense. When I try to count books I have read and liked, it’s always a low number. I don’t think autobiography and fiction should be on the same list. I can only count 17 that I’ve read. I don’t agree with poetry and non fiction being judged alongside fiction.
So basically most Booker winners are not in the list hahaha
Not to sound like one of the aforementioned grumpy old men, but ... The God Delusion? The Corrections? Oh no, ghurl. No, no, no.
Haha!
The Corrections is a great book just for the writing alone. The characters are a bit jarring but that's his way. I think it has to be in a top 100 list
@@DuaneJasper lol
Well I kinda agree but dont
115/116//117
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On Writing by Stephen King is one of the worst books ever published.
A little life 🤮🤮🤮🤮
Never Let Me Go is the most overrated book I've ever read. The endless praise for it makes exactly zero sense.
As a paid subscriber, I can testify the Guardian is incapable of providing anything objective. All there efforts are channel in a political agenda outline.