There’s a reason I clarify “the best” books of this century as “my favorite books.” I have only read 8 of the books on The New York Times list of the best 100 books of the century so far, a list that includes both fiction and nonfiction. I’m not even sure I’ve read 100 books that have been published since 2000 at all. 2017 was the first year I really started reading — before 2017 I was a consistently casual reader, steadily flipping through 10-12 books a year — and most of what I’ve read since then has been translated into English, an area sorely underrepresented on the NYT list.
Nevertheless, I won’t pass up on an opportunity to write a new post here, especially when it’s been a few months since the last one. So I present to you the Best 25 Books of the 21st Century (that I’ve read). I don’t necessarily argue that these are all Great pieces of literature, though some definitely are, or Important Works. I struggled with Thomas Piketty’s Capital in the 21st Century, which is not on my list, for this very reason. It’s an important book and surprisingly very readable, but I’m not sure I’d read it again, whereas all the books on my list I plan to re-read if I haven’t re-read them already.
My criteria: I read the book in entirety; I can only include one book from the same writer; and the majority of the work within the book had to first be published this century, which eliminates “best of” collections of great 20th century writers that were made into books that came out in the last 25 years (like The Abundance by Annie Dillard). Other than that, I simply chose the books that have stuck with me the most after reading them.
Although I hate the idea of ranking art (especially across genres), part of the allure of lists as an editorial construct is their built-in debatability, so in that spirit I will rank them. Just know the exact order — and even much of the list itself — would likely look different if you asked me tomorrow. (Publication years for translated work represent the year it was published in English.)
The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao by Junot Diaz (2007)
I’ll Be Right There by Kyung-sook Shin, translated by Sora Kim-Russell (2010)
Any Human Heart by William Boyd (2002)
Familiar Things by Hwang Sok-yong, translated by Sora Kim-Russell (2017)
People From My Neighborhood by Hiromi Kawakami, translated by Ted Goossen (2020)
Tenth of December by George Saunders (2013)
The Empathy Exams by Leslie Jamison (2014)
Beauty Is A Wound by Eka Kurniawan, translated by Annie Tucker (2002)
Seek You by Kristen Radtke (2021)
A Brief History of Seven Killings by Marlon James (2014)
The System by Ryan Gattis (2020)
This Is Paradise by Kristiana Kahakauwila (2013)
The Emperor of All Maladies by Siddartha Mukherjee (2010)
Cursed Bunny by Bora Chung, translated by Anton Hur (2017)
Big Happiness by Mark Panek (2011)
Life of Pi by Yann Martel (2001)
Ask The Brindled by Noʻu Revilla (2022)
I Hear Your Voice by Kim Young-ha, translated by Krys Lee (2017)
Never Let Me Go by Kazuo Ishiguro (2005)
Nothing To Envy by Barbara Demick (2009)
The Bittersweet Science anthology, edited by Carlo Rotella and Michael Ezra (2017)
When We Cease to Understand the World by Benjamin Labutut, translated by Adrian Nathan West (2021)
The White Book by Han Kang, translated by Deborah Smith (2016)
Kafka On The Shore by Haruki Murakami, translated by Philip Gabriel (2005)
I Wrote This Book Because I Love You by Tim Kreider (2018)
Recent Writing
Whaddayaknow, I do actually write things sometimes. I wrote about chicken fighting for Civil Beat, and about the Hawaiʻi Sports Museum for FLUX Hawaiʻi.
I also had an essay accepted for publication at Sport Literate, a really cool independent press that publishes literary sports writing. The issue I’ll be published in comes out in the Fall, but in the meantime I highly recommend checking them out and subscribing.
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