The New York Times’ 100 Notable Books of 2021

hello and welcome back to supposedly fun my name is greg i am here today to talk about one of the most exciting year end things for me which is the new york times released its 100 notable books from 2021 this is always sort of a precursor to them announcing their top 10 books of the year which will be happening at the end of this month and usually the 10 books are found somewhere on the notable list so this feels like a good place to search if you are going to be doing something of like predicting what they will be putting in their top 10 for this year i am not going to do that but one year when i worked a holiday season at barnes and noble we did try to do that and we had a contest attached to it which was a lot of fun but i'm not going to try to predict this year but i did go through the 100 notable list and pick out some things that i want to talk about obviously i'm not going to cover all 100 books but i will put a link to the full list in the description box down below if you would like to check it out this is usually a great list for me to discover new books last year there were a couple of discoveries unfortunately i have only gotten to one of them so far but the big one was overground railroad by ken dacey taylor this is where i found out about that book and i listened to it on audio and i loved it so much that i went out and grabbed myself a copy and i love it and i am still waiting to get to the other ones the only one i remember off the top of my head was the book of eels that's something from last year that i picked up off of the notable list and would like to get to it's on my list saved on scribd uh for audios that i would like to get to so let's dive in to this list i've divided it into three categories there are new discoveries unfortunately there are not a whole lot of new discoveries for me this year and there's only really one that i immediately wanted to read in that category i think there are two others that are kind of maybes so i'd like your feedback on those to let me know what you think about them and then another category is books that are already on my tbr but made the list and then we'll cover some familiar friends which are books that have already been popping up in conversation and a lot of different places so maybe it's not too surprising that they made this list and we'll kind of go through those ones a little bit quickly let's start with the new discoveries for me the one that i was immediately interested in is punch me up to the gods by brian broome this is a memoir unfortunately it is not available on audio anywhere so i might have to check my library to see if it is available what they put as a blurb is broom's coming of age memoir explores black manhood and queerness in the rust belt and the pressures that black queer boys face to change broome pairs his own story with a scene he witnessed of a father screaming at his young son i mean sold that's all i needed and i would really like to get to this so this is something that as i said was not available on any of my subscription apps so i'm going to have to check my local library and see if they have it but i'm really interested in that one for sure the next one on that list is it's more of a sure thing than the other one but not as sure of a thing as the brian broombook it's the trees by percival everett and percival everett is an author i was completely unaware of until he became a finalist for this year's pulitzer prize for fiction and i'll put a link to my reaction video in the description box down below and i got a lot of really great feedback about that book that was a finalist for the pulitzer i believe it was called telephone or something like that but the book that is listed on the notable 100 books of the year is the trees by percival ever and what they say about it here is in rural money mississippi two white men are found murdered next to the corpse of a black man whose mutilated face bears an eerie resemblance to emmett tills as more bodies pile up everett's acid satire expands to encompass america's racist past and present with equal parts horror and humor so based off of the really positive feedback i got off of the book that was a finalist for the pulitzer prize and that description of this i'm really interested in that i have not checked to see if any of my subscription apps have this i have not checked to see if my library has it but that is one that i would be interested in reading i would probably get to the brian broome book first but i am interested so it's definitely something new on my radar and given the timing probably for next year but definitely on my radar to get to at some point and then the final one i'm gonna need some feedback from you because i have never read a book by this author but i've always been kind of intrigued and i've heard mixed things about him so if you have feedback i would welcome it because it will help me decide if this is something i want to read or not it's what strange paradise by omar el-akhad ellicott's second novel examines opposing sides of a migrant crisis from the point of view of two children a boy who washes up on an island after a doomed ship passage and the girl who takes him in and tries to get him to safety in a compassionate but nuanced telling the novel effectively effaces assumptions of superiority and inferiority good and bad now that sounds really interesting but as i said the ellicott's previous books have sounded really interesting to me as well but i just heard really mixed things about them so if you are familiar with his work let me know what you thought about him and if you have read this let me know what you thought of it because it's new to me and i just am a little bit hesitant based on some things i've heard about his writing to just dive in so let me know what you thought i'm interested but i'm a little hesitant now let's get to the books that are already on my tbr but which made the list and the first one is after parties this is a short story collection by anthony villas no so who unfortunately died before this book was actually published i do believe he has another book that will be coming out because he had mostly finished it by the time he died what they say is the nine stories in this deeply personal frankly funny and illuminating debut published eight months after the author's death at age 28 are all set in california's central valley and follow the legacies of the cambodian genocide among the diaspora who resettled there i mean that sounds really interesting right and i've heard a lot of people say that they think it's very unfortunate that uh anthony bieznesso is an author who we have lost i've heard great things in particular about the first story in the collection which is called three women of chuck's donuts so i'm looking forward to getting to this again based on timing with the end of the year rapidly approaching i'm likely not to get to this until 2022 but just the fact that they included it on this list makes me even more interested in getting to it at some point the next one is something i was already aware of and not gonna immediately put on my tbr uh i want to read the author's other book first the book is how beautiful we were by umbalo umbue what they say is umbue's quietly devastating second novel about a fictional african village with high mortality due to an american oil company's pollution charts the ways oppression be it at the hands of a government or a corporation or a society can turn the most basic needs into radical acts i heard really great things about mbui's previous novel which is behold the dreamers i have a copy on this shelf down lower i'm not going to pull it out right now but i think i would like to get to that one before i think about cramming this one in so i need to catch up on his previous novel before i think about this one but i am also interested in feedback from you because i've heard really good things about how beautiful we were and i'm just kind of thinking i still want to get to behold the dreamers first but let me know what you thought if you have read it the next one was one of my most anticipated books of 2021 and i will put a link to that video in the description box down below as well it's liberty by caitlin green edge i was a little surprised that this one made the list because it is a ya book and you don't typically see why a ending up on best of lists for the end of the year i guess with the 100 notable books there's a little bit more leeway to experiment or expand horizons with something like that frankly i think there's a lot of really great ya out there so it's not too surprising that one is ending up on this list what they say is based on the lives of susan smith mckinney steward the first black female doctor in new york state and her daughter greenage's second novel centers its post-civil war new york story on an enduring quest for freedom a feat of monumental thematic imagination and again i mean sold sold very much and i believe it's about that daughter uh growing up and coming to terms and trying to find her own agency in the world especially as a woman and as a colored woman in particular at that point in time and of course unfortunately it is still relevant to our time right now so looking forward to this as well i believe the audio of this is actually on scribd so that is probably how i will be getting to it i would like to try to get to this one before the end of the year but i don't know if i'm going to manage to pull it off the next one is a recent release it's the lincoln highway by amor tolls i have never read one of amor tools books but i've heard really great things rules of civility is supposed to be very good a gentleman from moscow is supposed to be really good i have a copy of a gentleman from moscow but i haven't gotten around to reading it so part of me feels like sort of like the unbalance situation i should get to one of those before i think about this one but i have this one because it was a book of the month selection so i don't know we'll see and it is a little more timely we'll see what happens they say set in the 1950s tulsa's exhilarating novel follows four boys on a trip across america from rural nebraska to the skyscrapers of new york all of them seek a better future but have very different ideas about how to get there over the course of 10 days this multi-perspective story offers an abundance of surprising detours and run-ins and it sounds really interesting it is a very big brick of a book so this one is definitely not going to be happening until 2022 but hopefully it will be happening at some point the next one that is already on my tbr is going to come as no surprise to you it was on the washington post's top 10 books of 2021 which i will also link in the description box down below it was long listed for the national book award and i'll put my reaction to that in the description box down below as well you have a lot of viewing down there let's just leave it at that it's the love songs of w e b du bois by honorary fanon jeffers honorary finnon jeffers also did a really great interview with the new york times book review podcast if you listen to that if you don't maybe check out that episode i thought you was just fascinating to listen to so what they say about this is this triumphant debut novel follows a young black woman figuring out how to live with joy in the modern american south the novel switches between the past and the present alternating the heroine story with those of her ancestors i would not at all be surprised if this one ends up on the new york times top 10 books of the year we'll see how that pans out but i feel like it has a lot of momentum going into the end of the year and a lot of people are still talking about it and i've heard mostly good feedback about it so we'll see if that translates to anything more the next one is something that was i did another most anticipated releases video for the second half of the year i'll put that in the description box down below and the magician by colin tobin was on it i have not read any of his books part of me is again thinking that maybe this is a situation where i should read some of his older books somebody was just telling me about the black water light ship i have a copy of um i'm blanking on what it's called but the one set in argentina hold on a second i'll tell you what it is it's the story of the night so have a copy of that i'm probably going to read the story of the night first at this point since i'm not going to be getting the magician in by the end of the year at this point again it's a big brick of a book but i do really want to read this he's an author i really feel like i need to read because i've just heard so much really great feedback about him and i have to get to it they say in this novel of huge imaginative sympathy to being delves into the rich interiority of the german novelist thomas mann from childhood to early success to exile abroad we follow man through personal challenges and political turmoil as he turns the complexities of life into art and that sounds really interesting i've heard good feedback about it so far i haven't heard really much negative but also there haven't been a whole lot of people who have read it yet so i hear more about his older books than about this one which is why i'm thinking um the story of the night is very likely going to be on my june tbr when i prioritize pride month reading so i might try to get to that one before i get to this one but i'm glad i have a copy of it in the meantime especially since uh joel actually won this on instagram so thank you to joel the next one comes as no surprise to anyone who follows the booker prize it's the promise by damon gallagher this novel follows a white south african family from the final years of apartheid to the present a long deferred vow to their black housekeeper becomes a stand-in for the nation's moral bankruptcy i heard a lot of criticism when this book made the long list for the book of prize and then when it seemed like damon gallagher was a shoe-in to win which ultimately turned out to be true because he is a south african writer but he is also white however i think the fact that the book is really grappling with that sense of whiteness in south africa i mean i haven't read it so i can't really say but hopefully that will at least balance that out a little bit i've heard some good things about it i've heard a little bit of negative things about it uh britta bowler dnfed it i know pretty early because there was something i i don't remember the line that made her put it down but it was a doozy and i i do want to give it a try the audio is available on scribd so i'm maybe i'll get to it before the end of the year maybe i won't but i do want to read it and try it for myself and we will see how that goes the next one is razer blade tears by s.a crosby this sprawling gopher baroque pulp thriller is about two dads one black one white both ex-cons who decide to avenge the murders of their sons cosby writes in a spirit of generous abundance and gleeful abandon and unlike a lot of noir writers he does not shy away from operatic emotion uh he also gave a really great interview on the new york times book review podcast basically if you don't listen to that maybe think about giving it a subscribe i tend to pick and choose which episodes i listen to because they're all over an hour so based on who's going to be in them i might skip an episode or not it's you know it's my right to do so but he gave a really interesting interview so what that doesn't mention and what really interested me in this book in the first place is that those sons are gay and part of why these fathers are seeking to avenge their son's death is that they feel like they weren't there for their sons they weren't as accepting of their sons in life so they need to make up for it now in death and they sort of go on a journey of acceptance and questioning how they reacted to their sons being gay in the first place along with all of the typical noir trappings or modern noir if you like however you want to say but that has me really interested in this book and actually i just noticed that the audio of this is also on scribd now so even though i have a physical copy i'm probably going to be seeking it out that way maybe before the end of the year maybe not audios i feel like will be a little bit easier to try to cram in before the end of the year but we'll see how that goes there's not that much time left the next one is also not that much of a surprise because it's the sentence by louise erdrich and louise erdrich won the pulitzer prize for fiction this year for her book which was released last year the night watchman i was only okay on that book i thought it there were parts of it that i liked parts of it that i didn't like i had a much more successful read of love medicine which was her very first book this year and i i feel like that is a book she should have won the pulitzer prize for but that's my hot date plague of doves is also one that she probably should have won a pulitzer prize for with apologies to olive kitterage by elizabeth strout anyway they say erdrich's playful wit and casual style belie a seriousness of purpose which in the case of this winning novel entails tackling the pandemic the death of george floyd the trials of doing time in prison and not least the power of books to change lives i believe there's also there's a cameo by the raven bookstore in lawrence kansas who i follow on social media because they are a really cool bookstore if you don't follow them please check them out so that's kind of exciting i'm not as excited about this because i've been very up and down with a lot of erdrick's recent books i feel like maybe i should go back to the beginning and explore more of those but i do still want to give this one a try and we shall see how that goes the next one is a book that i have a hold of it on libby and i let it go to get back on the list it's crying in hmart a memoir by michelle's the real the reason i didn't want to get to it was it became available when i was at the height of my reading slump and sort of just anxiety about things that i wasn't getting a lot of reading done so it seemed like the wrong book to read at that time but i would like to get to it in the musician's gutting account of coming to terms with her mother's death and coming into her own as a korean american food is the lifeline and that idea of food being the lifeline and the sort of connection to her cultural past really appeals to me a lot so we'll see when if this becomes available before the end of the year i might try to get to it as well we shall see and the next one is also not a surprise because it was on the washington post top 10 books of the year it has been popping up in a lot of different places it's empire of pain the secret history of the sackler dynasty by patrick radenkief i think this one is probably also a showing for the top 10 books of the year but again we'll see i'm not trying to do predictions but i do think the love songs of w e b du bois and empire of pain have a really good shot at that especially since patrick robin keefe is coming off of say nothing which i believe was also a top 10 book of the year from the new york times so we shall see what happens with that they say tenacious reporting and deft storytelling by keith the prize-winning author of saying nothing about ireland's troubles gives this expose of the family widely blamed for igniting the opioid crisis the moral heft of greek tragedy yielding a mesmerizing portrait of appalling greed and indifference i've resisted the idea of reading this book for a really long time because it feels like something that would just make me angry and because the news has been so fraught since 2016 maybe that felt like something to stay away with but the more i hear about this book the more i feel like it would be something good to get to probably not until 2022 but i am interested in it and the final one in this category is let the record show a political history of act up new york 1987-1993 by sarah shulman this is a big big big big big book so i'm gonna either wait until paperback or for it to become available on audio because it's just a really big book but i'm very interested in this topic i definitely want to read it they say based on the author's own involvement in the movement as well as on 17 years of interviews conducted with 188 members of the group this book is a weighty masterpiece part sociology part oral history part memoir and part call to arms and that sounds fascinating to me so now let's get to the final category which is familiar friends and these were just going to go through really quickly because i don't think it's going to surprise anybody that some of certain of these books are on the list for example beautiful world where are you by sally rooney i am not going to be diving into this book anytime soon i read conversations with friends and i had a love hate relationship with it i thought the mechanics of sally rooney's writing were really interesting but the novel itself didn't do anything for me and then i was going to read normal people immediately after that and i had to put it down because i needed a sally rooney break and i haven't gotten back to it so if i do another salary rooney book i probably do normal people first i'm pointing at my copy of the book which is over there but i don't feel like i'm in any rush i'm not particularly enamored of her books sorry that's just the way it is and the same pretty much goes for bewilderment by richard powers being honest not a lot of what people have said about this has really convinced me that this is a book i should try given that i didn't make it through the overstory which was the book of his that won the pulitzer prize for fiction this was shortlisted for the book of prize a lot of people are fans that's fine i just i think richard powers is a really great writer his writing is beautiful i don't know that he's for me and that's all and the next one is something of a surprise because it was making the rounds last year it was a finalist for the booker prize in 2020 burnt sugar by avnidoshi i'm wondering if and i can't remember when this was released in the united states because i ordered my copy from the uk so i'm wondering if there's some weird eligibility thing that means it wasn't released in the us until after they did their 100 notable books last year which would make it qualify for this one either way it feels like a bit of a throwback but i read this book and i loved it it is poison in a beautiful way it could also be full of trigger warnings so don't dive into this without making sure that all of that would be okay with you as a reader actually my sister was just asking me if she should read this and i steered her to a different book instead because i feel like it would be too much of a trigger for her but uh so look into it make sure it would be for you before you do it but it's a great book and i'm just kind of a little surprised that a year later it's making the 100 notable books for the new york times then we have cloud cuckoo land by anthony door this was a finalist for the national book award this is probably also likely to end up on the new york times 10 best books of the year we'll see i am on i've just discovered that the audio is available on scribd so i think i'm going to release my library hold and probably do the audio instead and go that route i am not too excited but all the light we couldn't see which is the book that he won the pulitzer prize for did surprise me so i'm willing to be open to the idea that anthony doerr could surprise me again and we'll see how that goes the next one is crossroads by jonathan franzen which was also on the washington post's 10 best books and is probably a shoe-in for the new york times as well i'm rolling my eyes because i have failed at reading two jonathan franson books uh the corrections and freedom and i don't think i'm going to be diving into another one certainly not anytime soon if he does end up winning the pulitzer i i would give it a try but that is what it would take to get me to try another one of his books a lot there's been a lot of really great feedback from people some people were surprised some people but most people kind of agree with me that they're just not into friends and at all then there's d transition baby by tori peters this is a book that i feel like i should immediately want to read but if from reactions to it and the premise of it i'm just not sure so if you've read the transition baby let me know what you thought of it in the description box or in the comment section down below i'm not sure and initial feedback based on it made me hesitate even more and then we get to another probably not surprising edition harlem shuffle by coulson whitehead he won the pulitzer prize for his two previous books but i don't i don't think he's going to be in line for a third maybe he'll surprise but yeah not very surprising that he showed up on the notable list at the very least don't know if he'll make the top ten but i'm not surprised he is on the notable list then there's intimacies by katie caramara that was on the long list for the national book award as well you can check out the video where i react to it down below and then uh i'm gonna be disappointed if this makes the top 10 of the year but i won't be surprised it's clara in the sun because what we should guru i was really looking forward to this book didn't actually like it all that much i already talked about this a couple of times including in the washington post top 10 reaction so i'm not going to spend a lot of time on it now if you want to see that check out the link down below but uh yeah it was not for me and then there is the light perpetual by francis bufford that made the long list for the booker prize and i'll put again a reaction to that down below did not make the short list and i heard very kind of mixed things about it some people thought it was very manipulative some people thought it was very insightful and beautiful uh i have not read it and don't feel too compelled to pick it up so i can't say from myself and then there is no one is talking about this by patricia lockwood and unfortunately i feel like this one is a lock to get into the top down and i say unfortunately because i didn't finish it and have no interest in finishing it but on an episode of the new york times book review one of their critics spent a lot of time talking about this book so i know for a fact that at least one person from the new york times is a huge fan of this book and it was a shortlist title for the booker prize this year i feel like it's just gonna happen and i'm gonna have to deal with it and that's what it is then there is oh william by elizabeth strout i apologize again for saying that a plague of doves should have won the pulitzer prize instead of olive kitterage but a big title this year i have i've only read two books by elizabeth strout and i thought olive kidridge was fine and i did not like the burgess boys so i haven't really explored her writing any further and then there is the prophets by robert jones jr i read this in january or february and was convinced that it was going to be my favorite book of the year and it's just been a really strong reading year so it keeps getting pushed down my top ten but i'm really glad to see it here i would love to see it in the top 10 i don't think that's going to happen but i'd be thrilled if it did then there's let me tell you what i mean by joan didion and i read that back in january or february and it was fine but if you're going to read joan didion definitely start with other books and if you have already read joan didion it's going to be interesting but it's not really revelatory for me so it is what it is and then there's red comment the short life and blazing art of sylvia plath by heather clark i feel like this is also very likely to be in their top 10 books of the year heard a lot of really good things about it it's a very big book but i i don't think i'm going to be picking it up anytime soon but i have heard a lot of really good things about it and then there's the secret to superhuman strength by alison bechdel which i thought was fine it was better than are you my mother which i kind of had problems with it but it's a good book it's a diverting book it's not a book i will be thinking about for a long time let's put it that way and then the final one is somebody's daughter a memoir by ashley c ford this is something that was on the washington post's top ten don't know if it will make the new york times one but it is something that i'm interested in reading so we will be checking that out and those are all the ones i would like to talk about if you take a look at the list and anything jumps out at you that you would either recommend or want to talk about please let me know in the comment section down below let me know what you think of this list let me know if you have predictions for what we'll be making the top 10 books of the year which again should be getting announced at the end of the month i think november 30th is when they're doing an event for people who um if you're a subscriber you can purchase early access i am not going to be doing that but we should be getting their list at the end of this month or at the beginning of december and i'm really looking forward to that so if you have predictions let me know and let me know what you think of this list as always i really appreciate your time i will be back until next time happy reading you

Channel: Supposedly Fun

Views: 5,628

Keywords: Books, BookTube, Reading

Id: P8_m1ast2I0

Length: 27min 52sec (1672 seconds)

Published: Wed Nov 24 2021