The 10 Best Books Through Time

hello hello how are you now that we are getting to the end of the year the best books of the year lists are coming thick and fast and you know i've been looking at a lot of these different lists and making video reactions to them i think it's just really fun and interesting to see what are being lauded as the best books of the year and it's giving me some suggestions of what i should catch up and read over the christmas holidays and the new york times just published their 10 best books of the year list but they've also done a sort of retrospective looking at some previous years and they basically had the same format since 2004 where they put out 10 of their best books of the year um five fiction and five non-fiction so i thought it'd be sort of interesting in addition to looking at their current years list to then go back year by year and see which of these books on the previous you know best books of the year lists um still stick out in my mind or that i've read or that i've even heard of cause obviously this is an american list and i live in the uk i've lived in england um for the past 20 years so some of these books naturally just i'm not as aware of and i'm only going to look at the fiction books because that's mainly what i read and so i'm not as familiar with the the non-fiction books uh so uh starting off in 2020 um looking at their five best books of fiction uh there's a children's bible by lydia millet and this has been appearing on a lot of different lists and it was uh listed for the national book award this year and i i'm really keen on the story children um who are quite mature um that are taken on a holiday to a um big mansion by a lake and and uh and they feel quite oppressed by the adults who are minding them and so they decide to go off by themselves into an increasingly dystopian type landscape i think and uh yeah and sort of things sort of spiral out from there and uh yeah i just really like the sound of that story and since it's been getting so much praise it's one that i do want to get to uh then there is deacon king khan by james mcbride which again has been on a lot of lists and it was an oprah's book club choice this year um so it's been a very popular uh novel and it's about in uh the the 60s a church deacon walks up and assassinates a drug dealer in a community and it follows the different stories of people surrounding uh this this crime in the shooting and how it affects them and i think it's meant to be quite like a funny novel you know as well as dealing with um some serious social issues and so yeah i really like the the sound of that then there is hamnet by maggie o'farrell which won the women's prize for fiction this year and i've talked about a number of times i think i've i like the the uk cover better than the us cover um i just think it's more classy and beautiful and i know it was published under a different title in canada as well i think um which was quite strange and uh so yeah this is about a boy in chicks elizabethan i was gonna say shakespearean but it wasn't shakespearean times basically involves uh shakespeare's son who gets very ill because of a pandemic going around europe and the worlds during that time and his death and how this perhaps inspired him to name his famous play hamlet and so sort of the origin stories of that but moves away from shakespeare following much more the story of mother agnes and uh the and his uh sisters in the the family and how it affects them and the the grief that they feel and it is such a moving beautifully written novel i mean i didn't love this novel as much as some other people have loved it i've talked about my sort of issues with it but uh but i i do agree it's an absolutely wonderful novel and and uh so yeah it's it's been great to see it getting so much praise and that more people are reading maggie o'farrell's uh previous novels as well there is homeland elegies by ayad akhtar another novel which has been appearing on so many best books of the year lists and uh though i've heard some quite mixed things about it from you know people here on booktube and and speaking to people in real life so it's described as part family drama part social essay and part picaresque adventure and it takes place in uh post-9 11 america where a lot of people's lives have been devastated by debt and the novel takes an interesting form in that it's part autobiographical and part fictional it sort of blends the two together i i've seen some reviews that describe it more as a collection of essays or a memoir rather than a novel so i think it sort of takes a interesting form which i i think is always really intriguing so i am quite keen to read it myself just to see what what i'll make of it and what what i'll think of it um so i hope to get to that before the end of the year then there is the vanishing half by brit bennett and again i think i sort of prefer the the uk cover to the us cover um i like them both but but uh but yeah this is uh this is shiny as well and uh and i absolutely love this novel i'm so glad to see it's been so successful i don't know why it hasn't been up for more awards um it really should have been uh or should have won more awards because yeah it's an incredible story of two sisters of light-skinned african-american sisters who grew up in the same sort of southern community um which is largely populated uh by light-skinned african-americans and they go off to lead very different lives and the the story is so moving and gripping and insightful about family life and different forms of identity and and what identity means you know whether we are sort of born um being who we are or if we can uh evolve and and change and and sort of form our own identities i i just thought it was so moving how it describes the many different kinds of of that process so i'm sure you've heard about this novel before but i'd highly highly recommend reading it if you've not read it yet uh so that is the list for 2020. then uh looking back to 2019 uh so fairly recently there is disappearing earth by julia phillips and i did hear about this novel um quite a lot at the the time but um it's just a novel that i don't think it might not have even been published in in england or at least i didn't see it get a get a publication so um so yeah i didn't get a chance to read it when it came out uh there's the topeka school by ben lerner um which is a novel i really meant to read and get to because i remember that appeared on so many different lists as well uh there is lost children archive by valeria luiselli um which i absolutely loved um it's another novel that takes a really interesting structure in in form and it's basically a road trip novel but is is uh but is so insightful like about family but also about larger social conditions in america and again this is another novel that i think i sort of prefer the the uk cover over the us cover uh but that's just sort of my point of view and uh there is also nightboat to tangier by kevin barry um who is a great irish novelist and i really enjoyed this novel but i'm sort of surprised to see it appear on um a list like this and i thought it was an excellently written novel it's sort of like a beckett play almost in in the structure and style of it uh but it's so it like looks at these sort of bigger existential questions of these uh two men two aging men um who are sort of former gangsters and and how one of their daughters has gone missing in their their search for her and so i i thought it was quite poignant and emotional but um yeah i'm just sort of surprised i it it um it didn't stick out you know to me personally as one of my favorite books of last year uh there's also exhalation by ted chain which i have been reading this year on the short stories in it which are almost like philosophical um in their content even though they have a almost sci-fi type structure and um i i keep reminding myself i i want to go back and finish reading the stories in this collection because i i i've been enjoying them so much and and finding them so such like interesting nuggets to sort of chew over um these like thoughtful nuggets to chew over all of the the ideas and the stories next going back to 2018 there is asymmetry by lisa halliday which is a novel i really meant to get to and to read and i still have a copy of it on my shelf so this reminds me i i want to get back to reading that and the same goes for the great believers by rebecca makai as well which is i think a story about um sort of the aids crisis and a number of people uh affected by it um and that's another novel that's been sitting on my shelves and that i want to get to um but just haven't yet uh there's the perfect nanny by leila mini which was actually called lullaby here in the uk and it was a novel i enjoy but it's another novel that i'm sort of surprised to see on their their top list um it it uh you know it's it's basically a thriller in its structure um but it does provide a lot of social commentary as well um about a nanny who uh basically executes the children that she's looking after and it goes back into her story about why she might have done this and the the struggles she was having i did find it really moving and really effective um but yeah i it just personally doesn't stick out in my mind as as one of the best novels from that year there's also there there by tommy orange another novel that's been sitting on my shelf and since then i always go sort of on a book bind spree towards the end of the year of you know when books like this appear on multiple lists and that i want to get to but just um just didn't get around to to actually reading them yet and they're just sort of sitting on my shelves so and then finally there is washington black by essay adujin the novel that i was hoping would win the booker prize that year it was shortlisted for the prize that year and it didn't um i know not everyone loved it but i i did i just thought it was so effective and wonderful and and you know it's basically a slave narrative but also an adventure story and the the way she tells the story and and the way she gets into the psychology of the central character of washington black um i thought was so movingly done i i really connected with it and just yeah i just loved it and um so yeah i'm looking forward to to reading more by essay and i hope she publishes more uh as well uh then looking back to 2017 um first off there's autumn by ali smith the the first novel in her seasonal quartet which of course ended this year with summer a novel i loved so much and i love the entire quartet it's i think it's such a monumental achievement and a wonderful retrospective looking back on these four crucial years of of history and um but as well like wonderful storytelling such a fascinating range of characters which sort of connect with each other over the course of the the four novels or have connections with each other in various and interesting ways and um yeah the way she builds various stories within stories and and i you know i'm a huge fan of her work and so just loved this and then it's interesting to see there's exit west by mohsin hamid which was a very controversial novel i know a lot of people really didn't like it i remember it this sort of like taking me back you know to different literary conversations from earlier years and and this was a year when i was really getting involved with talking about books online with other people and just seen so much controversy about this novel personally i thought it was quite like interesting it's one of those novels that works more as like an interesting idea i think than a sort of satisfying story um so i did enjoy it um but i know yeah a lot of people didn't then there's pachinko by min jin li um which is another novel that i sort of bought at the time because everyone was talking about it and there was a lot of praise for it and it's just been sitting on my shelves still i i need to get to it uh there's the power by naomi alderman which won the women's prize for fiction that year and which i did personally love and i thought was excellent um really really great um but it's another novel i know was slightly controversial not everyone loved it as as much as i did and their sin unburied scene by jasmine ward which was also shortlisted for the women's prize for fiction that year a lot of people's personal top books of the year but i i didn't love it as much as other people did i thought there were some very moving scenes in it um but my resounding feeling from it was that um that it was good but just not great um although i did i i did sort of warm to it more when i heard i went to the women's prize shortlist readings that year and heard jasmine ward read from it and it gave me a really different perspective and insight into the story just like the the tone of her voice as she read it i thought was so effective and moving and really drew me into it so um i'd love to i don't know if she narrated the audiobook of it but i would love to re-read the book by listening to the audiobook so i think that might give me a slightly different perspective on on that novel uh then going back to 2016 there is the association of small bombs by koran mahjong which is another i know a lot of people talked about at the time about a bomb that went off on a terrorist attack and killed two brothers and and sort of follows the story of their friend as well as some other characters and it's a novel that i meant to to read at the time but just didn't um get around to uh there's the north water by ian mcguire which i'm so happy to see on this list because i thought this was a tremendous novel it's another novel that's basically a thriller but is also really psychologically insightful and and looking at sort of different kinds of forms of masculinity it's a very like masculine story it's about a seafaring ship going into the arctic and and then there's various skirmishes between people on board and following their different stories and and it's so thrilling and really evocative and atmospheric and wonderful i just loved it and he has a he had a new novel out this year which i've still not read and i keep meaning to to get to you um so i'm i am hoping to to read that soon there's also the underground railroad by coulson whitehead which i think won the pulitzer prize for fiction that year was the national book award or maybe it was both but yeah it was a much larger novel and rightfully so i think it's a brilliant concept for a novel but it's a you know almost like exit west where there's such a strong concept to the novel but this i felt like it really delivered emotionally as well i was so drawn into the story and really gripped by i know some people had some slight issues with because there's um a female protagonist of the story and and people sort of felt that was slightly artificial how he did that but personally i didn't feel that way i thought it was so effective um there's also the vegetarian by han kan on the list um which was so it was so wonderful that year to see this breakout novel from korea that was a very like personal very intimate story um that became so popular and so well-read i and i thought it was an incredible novel too i thought it was so moving how it was done a sort of portrait of a woman's life from various different perspectives but you don't get her own perspective sort of crucially and and i thought it was so moving how it did that uh there's also warren turpentine um which i've not really heard of i don't remember that being talked about much at the time and i don't really know anything about that novel so if you've read that and would recommend that um let me know in the comments below uh then going back to 2015 uh there is the door by magda zabo um which is novel i've been wanting to read you know particularly this year because there was a a new reprint of the novel in this sort of small pocket size edition a really beautiful reprint of it and um and i know a lot of the people when i did a haul of this book um we're really recommending it strongly so yeah it's one i i do definitely want to read but and i hope won't just languish on my shelves for for ages like a lot of other books have uh there's also a manual for cleaning uh women by uh lucia berlin which i know got a lot of press at the time and a lot of people were talking about it i've read some of the stories and meant to go back and finish reading them but you know with like a lot of collections of short stories it's quite easy to i think read a few of them and then just um yeah not go back to them and finish them but i would like to to do that uh there's also outlined by rachel cusk a novel a lot of people were talking about at the the time and and which i um i enjoyed and appreciated but yeah it's another one of those books where i appreciated the concept more than the uh the story itself i i felt like you know she intentionally emotionally distances you from the protagonist that you're sort of seeing the story through and just seeing everyone react to her and i know people sort of feel that that this sort of made it more emotional in a way because you just get other people's perspective on her and their assumptions about her in the way that they talk to her and react to her you know rather than you getting her own thoughts and her own reactions to things but um but yeah i it just didn't really work for me like on in an emotional way i it um yeah so i appreciated it but but also felt it was it was uh too tightly controlled in in a way uh then there's the sellout by paul beatty um which won the the booker prize that year and and which i enjoyed and appreciated but um but yeah really hasn't stuck with me and and i thought probably wasn't the right winner that that year um personally i i felt uh and there's the story of the lost child uh by elena ferrante um which is book four in that that series of uh novels um and i've not read any of them yet and quite guilty and so yeah i know i need to go back and read that i i just want to have like a a good block of time when i can just sort of plunge into all of the the novels and and enjoy uh uh eleanor ferrante's novel so um hoping to get some time to do that then going back to 2014 there's all the light we cannot see by anthony dorr which the novel i know a lot of people loved and were talking about at the time and i just didn't get to um i i um yeah just never got around to reading it myself there's department of speculation by jenny awful um which i loved so much i thought was such an inventive way of looking at the breakdown of a marriage and a relationship and and and an individual's life really um the in sort of different snippets and and yeah how she structured that i thought was so effective and and moving uh there's euphoria by lily king um a novel i didn't get around to reading though i heard about it at the time i think she had another novel out this year and also of course jenny awful published weather this year which has been appearing on a number of different lists and which i loved so much was one of my favorite books of the the year and uh there's family life by akil sharma which recently i've been hearing reference to this this novel and and um one that i haven't read but that i i want to get to reading there's also redeployment by phil clay i'm a novel i've not really heard of before so i um yeah i don't really know anything about and so it's it's um it's making me very nostalgic now looking back on this year and 2014 was the year i started blogging and and you know yeah getting into more online discussions about books and so yeah it's really interesting to see how i was definitely aware of a lot more of these books even if i didn't read all of them it's interesting you know sort of joining into online bookish discussions how you just become so much more aware of the books that everyone is talking about and that are being lauded um a lot more whereas previously like i hadn't been so much you know even though i was always a really big reader so yeah so it's interesting looking back on 2013 and there's a novel like american now which i read when it came out and absolutely loved so brilliant it's such a great novel and and uh yeah it's she's such a tremendous writer and it's and it's also slightly sad to look back and see this was the last full-length novel that she published um oh there's a siren going on outside um but yeah um why hasn't she published another novel since then i know she's been doing a lot of activist work she's published a couple of short books um regarding feminism since then which are really important that's really wonderful all the work she's been doing but i want another novel by uh adichie it's just it's been too long you know uh then there is the flame flower throwers by rachel kushner um which i i haven't read but i i did read the mars room which she's published subsequently which i had really mixed feelings about so i'm not quite so keen to go back and um if if you feel like the flamethrowers is a better novel um let me know uh because yeah i'd be interested to know people's thoughts about that this was also the year of the goldfinch by donna tartt which i uh i i've read this i think over the course of a few days it's quite a thick lawn novel but i just was so gripped by it and and completely enthralled and and yen so i know there's a lot of love out there for donna tartt and i think it's deserved and and also it's interesting to look back this was her last novel um that that she's written so i think it usually takes about a decade to get a new donna tart novel so we're almost there i think we're almost due for another novel by donna hopefully we'll see another one there's also life after life by kate atkinson which i haven't read the only kate atkinson novel i've read is the garden ruins which was sort of a sequel to this novel where it follows some of the same characters and i loved that so much and i want to go back and reread this and read more of k atkinson's work because i think she's a tremendous writer there's also the 10th of decembers by george saunders which was a was a book of short stories i i was aware at the time a lot of people were talking about and lauded and i tried to read i just couldn't get into them but uh but i have read and absolutely loved uh lincoln in the bardo since then and and so i do want to go back and read some of his short fiction because i think i'll sort of now that i sort of get his style more i think i'll appreciate his short fiction a lot more now if i go back and read it then going to 2012 there's bring up the bodies by hilary mantel and of course we had the conclusion to that thomas cromwell trilogy this year with the mirror and the light and um which obviously i didn't read at the time because i haven't hadn't read wolf hall because i tried a couple times and just couldn't get along with it or couldn't get into the historical aspect of it um i felt too sort of lost at sea and um and so this year finally i i've read the entire trilogy and was tremendous it was i really took the time and concentrated on it and and but finally got into it and and thought it was so extraordinary i i just loved it and so so yeah i i sort of i'm like kicking my earlier self for not you know taking the time to really get into it but um but you know you get to books when you get to them i i think i i think if i tried to force myself at the time when it wasn't didn't feel right for me um i probably would have yeah just wouldn't have enjoyed it as much and so i think it's important to you know leave books to to enjoy when you know you get to them uh there's also building stories by chris ware a graphic novel um which i really have wanted to to read because i read his novel jimmy corrigan which i thought was extraordinary and very moving and uh so yeah i would really like to to read this and get a copy of it i need to get a copy of it so then there is a hologram for the king by david eggers i've never i've i think i've read one novel by him and uh was it the circle did he write the circle yes he did i had to look it up just to make sure i didn't want to sound stupid and uh yeah he did write the circle which i did read and enjoy but i didn't think was that like extraordinary uh so yeah i don't know um then there's nw by zadie smith which i think is the only novel by zadie smith that i haven't read uh i know some people have said i think this like her most structurally interesting novel um i would be really keen to go back and read it and then um there's the yellow birds by kevin powers a novel i've not read but i've been slightly hesitant about reading it because i think some people called it sort of pretentious at the time i don't know if it actually is um let me know uh if you have any thoughts about it in the comments below uh then looking back to 2011 uh starting with the art of fielding by chad harbach um which i loved so much and i thought it was an incredible novel very moving uh very gripping um really wonderfully done i don't know if he's written anything since then um if if he has let me know uh because yeah i think he's a wonderful rider there's also 11 22 63 by stephen king which i've not read and i'm just not really that drawn to reading any stephen king fiction anymore i read him a lot when i was younger but yeah not so much um recently i know this sort of a different kind of like novel obviously embedded uh in history a historical novel but um but yeah i i am yeah i i haven't read him recently uh then there's swamplandia by karen russell a novel i've been really meaning to read um though i don't have a copy of it it's another novel i need to get a copy of um because yeah it's enough i remember hearing about at the time even though it was so long ago it was almost 10 years ago um but one that yeah i've been wanting to to get to uh there's 10 000 saints by eleanor henderson um novel i haven't heard of don't really recall um any mention of that and there's the tiger's wife by taya obrecht a novel which won the women's prize for fiction that year and which i enjoyed and appreciated but hasn't really stuck out in my mind so much i think going back to 2010 there is freedom by jonathan franzen um i remember most about this um is that when it was announced as an oprah's book club choice um controversially since uh you know there was all the hoopla about her choosing the corrections for that choice and his um sort of snobbish reaction to that and her announcing it as as the choice and she announced freedom on her her show um which was hilarious and uh and uh yeah i really enjoyed this story and uh and uh yeah and another novel i just sort of sunk in sort of like with donna tartt i just sort of raced through the story and read it all even though it's quite a long novel uh there's the new yorker stories by anne beauty and i've not read these i have read a lot of anne beauty's short fiction before and really enjoy it i think she's a wonderful writer room by emma donoghue which was absolutely gripping and terrifying and wonderful um it's it's great i'm in the middle of reading her new novel the pull of the stars at the moment i think she's a wonderful writer and it was a really great film as well uh the the film of room uh there's also selected stories by william trevor um i think i have read maybe i did read these stories i just don't remember them all that strongly i know i have read some of his um fiction before but yeah and there's a visit from the goon squad by jennifer egan novel i've been really meaning to go back and read because i've not read it um though i've really enjoyed her novel manhattan beach which she published subsequently and um yeah and i just heard such great things about this novel and it's a novel that i meant to read with a physical book club that i formed at the end of last year and we were due to me again this year but then because of the pandemic we haven't um been able to meet again and um yeah so i i tried to form a physical book club again and then it just sort of fell apart when the worlds fell apart as it did this year and we were going to read a visit from the goon squad so yeah i'm regretful that that didn't happen but i still want to read it then going back to 2009 um both ways is the only way i wanted by mel malloy i've read another novel by hers but i haven't read this one and really enjoyed her her fiction so um so yeah i would i would like to read this um there's chronic city by jonathan lethem another great writer which i've read some other of his fiction but i've not read this and the same goes for laurie moore uh gaiden at the stairs um i've read some of her her other fiction but not read this one i think this might have won the women's prize for fiction that year is that right but yeah but yeah i i haven't read it yet so yeah i do need to go back and correct that and and read that novel uh there's half broke horses a true life novel by jeanette walls um i've not really heard of that and the same goes with the short history of women by kate walbert um yeah i i don't remember hearing about that novel so those might have been novels that have sort of made more of a splash in the us than they did here in the uk going back to 2008 there's dangerous laughter 13 stories by steven milhouser um i i haven't read those uh a mercy by tony morrison um one of her final novels and yeah one i i didn't get around to reading uh netherlands by joseph o'neill i've not read that um 2666 by roberto bellano uh novel i know was talked about so much at the time and but is quite a thick intimidating novel and i think that's probably why i didn't get around to reading it myself though i would really like to uh there's unaccustomed earth by jhumpa lahiri which i haven't read but i've read other novels by her and really enjoy her fiction i think she's such a powerful writer and she has a new novel next year so that is quite exciting um because i think it's been quite a while since she's she's published a novel herself i think she's been involved with translating and um yeah writing books in italy um um for for a while but then going back to 2007 there is man gone down by michael thomas um not read that out stealing horses by per peterson um i've not read that either uh the savage detectives another book by roberto bellano i love rolling my r's so i'm sorry that's very silly um so uh yeah i've not read the savage detectives either then we came to the end by joshua ferris my partner absolutely loved this novel but i i haven't read it um i've read another novel by him which i really enjoyed and i always get mixed up with the two novels for some reason um but but yeah i haven't read then we came to the end yet a novel about sort of office life and i think that's such an interesting perspective to take so i i would like to go back and read this novel um then there's also tree of smoke by dennis johnson and i've not read that either so yeah i think this is sort of showing that there was a period of years where i was reading but not so much current fiction i was reading a lot of yeah older fiction and um yeah so not keeping up with the time so yeah it's interesting how getting involved with talking about books online i just naturally read a lot more newer so um yeah and so going back to 2006 there's absurdist done by gary schartzengart which i've not read and that i hadn't really heard of um there's the collected stories by amy hempel um which i did i do have a copy of this and i did read a number of the stories and remember really enjoying them but they haven't really stuck in my mind um so much there's the emperor's children by claire massoud which i've not read the lay of the land by richard ford which i haven't read i've read a number of his fiction and have enjoyed his fiction before i love his novel canada but um but yeah i've not read this uh there's special topics in calamity physics by marisha passel uh which you have not read that either then going back to 2005 there is kafka on the shore by haruki murakami i've not read that and yeah i've wanted to go back and read murakami again i know i know he's sort of problematic and yeah a lot of people have issues with them but his fiction is so enjoyable i i think i'd i really enjoy going back and reading his fiction um there's on beauty by zadie smith which i really enjoyed and appreciated but didn't absolutely love um as some of her other fiction uh like swintime or white teeth uh though i did definitely enjoy this more than the autograph man um i yeah just from really not enjoying the autographed man all that much but uh but yeah i thought on beauty was was really good uh there's prep by curtis sittenfeld i've not read that uh saturday by ian mcewen this is a novel i think other people look back on it or if they read it now might feel it's slightly more problematic than it was at the time sort of following this man in his day of his life i remember the way it ends especially towards the end the way a pregnant woman is treated is yeah it was quite dodgy i think i think that's the right novel isn't that in saturday yeah it i i thought that was kind of gross how how it ended uh then there's veronica by mary gatskill um i've not read that but i did read a short book by mary gatskill um last year which i really enjoyed and yeah i've been wanting to read more of her fiction then finally going back to 2004 long time ago there's gilead by marilyn robinson which i did read at the time or or or in the a few years after that and i sort of appreciate it i thought was interesting but i didn't love it and um so yeah i've been wanting to go back and reread that since the fourth book in that series came out this year and then there is the master um by khan toybin and i love this novel so much i made a video a little while ago talking about my favorite fiction and this is the novel that really does stand out for me and i think is so extraordinary the way henry james life in in that novel and just yeah brought it to life and gave a whole new depth to this historical man and who we know his fiction so well but not the man himself because he was so private and the way he did that i thought was so beautifully done uh there's the plot against america by philip roth which i thought was a wonderful extraordinary novel um i really enjoyed i i i don't love philip ross fiction quite so much but but uh but but this historical novel sort of looking at a sort of alternate history i thought was so well done uh there's runaway by alice monroe which i think i did read at the time i get sort of confused with her short fiction of which books and which stories i've read and not read um i think i did read some of these stories um at least some of them um and yeah i think she's an extraordinary writer and a writer that you know i really want to go back and reread because i think that'll be really beneficial uh there's snow by organ pamook which i've not read and then there is war trash by hajin um which you have not read either um yeah so interestingly they picked six books that year for their top fiction choices so um so yeah they they've i think the new york times for yeah quite a long time they've been published publishing their best books of the year but it's um only starting that year were they publishing their their top ten so yeah it's it's really interesting looking back on these lists and seeing what stands out and sort of stands the test of time in which books have sort of faded into the background and aren't read as much these days um so yeah that's another reason why i think these lists are so interesting because you know it's sort of a document that you can look back on and and see how these books have stood up or not over over time and so yeah that that was sort of fun and interesting to look at but i'll put a link to the article below um so you can have a look through it but also look at some of the non-fiction choices which are really interesting but yeah personally i'm just not as familiar with them so i'll leave you here um thank you for watching uh let me know if you have any thoughts about any of these books in the comments below um ones that i haven't read if you'd recommend that i read them or ones that are your favorites as well and you think really stand out and you know stand the test of time and if you agree with their top five um fiction choices for this year as as well let me know in the comments we can have a discussion i'll talk to you again soon bye-bye

Channel: Eric Karl Anderson

Views: 9,806

Keywords: booktube, best books of 2020, best fiction 2020, top fiction 2020, best novels 2020, New York Times 10 best books, A Children's Bible by Lydia Millet, Deacon King Kong by James McBride, Hamnet by Maggie O'Farrell, Homeland Elegies by Ayad Akhtar, The Vanishing Half by Brit Bennett, best book lists, best book list 2020, NY Times best books 2020

Id: LcJLG1ur7E0

Length: 38min 14sec (2294 seconds)

Published: Thu Dec 17 2020