It’s that time of the year for Best Of Lists–er, okay so maybe it’s not because it’s only October and this is way early. Usually this would feel a lot like “Well I guess they wanted to be first so every year the Best Of Lists will just release earlier and earlier and soon they’ll be in summer.” But this year I’m giving it a huge pass because there are some massive delays in publishing and shipping going on right now and so many hot off the press releases have already sold out and gone into reprint but there is no reprint date yet because everything is backed up (hello, pandemic we still hate you). So, it’s a wait and wait and wait situation for a bunch of physical books. That is why I’m going to assume that this list is early so that holiday shoppers can get their hands on the books with enough time.
And that’s enough about the state of things let’s get to the books Barnes & Noble’s selected as their Top 10 Books of 2021–it’s really 11, they couldn’t stop at just 10. “’It proved impossible to limit our Best Books of 2021 to ten titles this year without a little bit of bloodshed. Every one of these books has passionate advocates and, for the sake of peace, this year we have eleven titles on the list.‘ said Shannon DeVito, Director of Books, Barnes & Noble.“
The list is quiet varied for the top 10 (11) although not all genres made it, but they then have their best lists by subject which includes for fiction romance, manga, mystery & thrillers, and sci-fi & fantasy.
As for the pinnacle top 10 (11) list we have some popular authors back again with new releases this year that fans should be thrilled to see on this list–including Pulitzer Prize winning authors. All the Light We Cannot See author Anthony Doerr has taken a spot with his new release Cloud Cuckoo Land; The Night Watchman author Louise Erdrich has landed a spot with The Sentence; TJ Klune, whose previous novel The House in the Cerulean Sea is beloved, has grabbed a spot for his recent novel Under the Whispering Door; The Underground Railroad and The Nickel Boys author Colson Whitehead feels like at this point if he publishes a new book it will be on the Best Of Lists which he is with Harlem Shuffle.
A few nonfiction titles that rightfully have been already making noise this year also sit very pretty on the list, including a poet we look forward to hearing for decades to come: Amanda Gorman’s poetry collection Call Us What We Carry; Michelle Zauner’s beautiful memoir Crying in H Mart; Nikole Hannah-Jones’ impactful The 1619 Project: A New Origin Story.
If you want to play which books haven’t been on my radar and how many will I add to my TBR check out the rest of Barnes & Noble’s 10 Best Books of 2021 (really 11). Want to see if your favorite genre books made the top? Check out romance, mysteries & thrillers, sci-fi & fantasy, cookbooks, and more!