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Esquire Best Books of the Year 2018

Esquire Best Books of the Year 2018 names 50 books. 15 of them also won or were shortlisted for an award.

  1. A Ladder to the Sky by John Boynesource (opens in a new tab)
  2. A Long Way from Home by Peter Careysource (opens in a new tab)
  3. A Terrible Country by Keith Gessensource (opens in a new tab)
  4. All the Lives We Never Lived by Anuradha Roysource (opens in a new tab)
  5. American Like Me: Reflections on Life Between Cultures by America Ferrerasource (opens in a new tab)
  6. An American Marriage by Tayari Jonessource (opens in a new tab)
  7. Back Talk: Stories by Danielle Lazarinsource (opens in a new tab)
  8. Bad Blood: Secrets and Lies in a Silicon Valley Startup by John Carreyrousource (opens in a new tab)
  9. Becoming by Michelle Obamasource (opens in a new tab)
  10. Brother by David Chariandysource (opens in a new tab)
  11. Census by Jesse Ballsource (opens in a new tab)
  12. Cherry by Nico Walkersource (opens in a new tab)
  13. Creative Quest by Questlovesource (opens in a new tab)
  14. Crudo by Olivia Laingsource (opens in a new tab)
  15. Enlightenment Now: The Case for Reason, Science, Humanism, and Progress by Steven Pinkersource (opens in a new tab)
  16. Everything's Trash, But It's Okay by Phoebe Robinsonsource (opens in a new tab)
  17. Fashion Climbing: A Memoir with Photographs by Bill Cunninghamsource (opens in a new tab)
  18. Feel Free: Essays by Zadie Smithsource (opens in a new tab)
  19. French Exit by Patrick deWittsource (opens in a new tab)
  20. Futureface: A Family Mystery, an Epic Quest, and the Secret to Belonging by Alex Wagnersource (opens in a new tab)
  21. Good and Mad: The Revolutionary Power of Women's Anger by Rebecca Traistersource (opens in a new tab)
  22. How Are You Going to Save Yourself by J.M. Holmessource (opens in a new tab)
  23. How to Be Famous by Caitlin Moransource (opens in a new tab)
  24. In Extremis: The Life and Death of the War Correspondent Marie Colvin by Lindsey Hilsumsource (opens in a new tab)
  25. Katerina by James Freysource (opens in a new tab)
  26. Lake Success by Gary Shteyngartsource (opens in a new tab)
  27. Laura & Emma by Kate Greatheadsource (opens in a new tab)
  28. Like Brothers by Mark Duplass and Jay Duplasssource (opens in a new tab)
  29. Look Alive Out There: Essays by Sloane Crosleysource (opens in a new tab)
  30. Mad, Bad, Dangerous to Know: The Fathers of Wilde, Yeats and Joyce by Colm Tóibínsource (opens in a new tab)
  31. Maeve in America: Essays by a Girl from Somewhere Else by Maeve Higginssource (opens in a new tab)
  32. Miss Ex-Yugoslavia: A Memoir by Sofija Stefanovicsource (opens in a new tab)
  33. Raw: My Journey into the Wu-Tang by Lamont "U-God" Hawkinssource (opens in a new tab)
  34. Sexographies by Gabriela Wienersource (opens in a new tab)
  35. Silicon States: The Power and Politics of Big Tech and What It Means for Our Future by Lucie Greenesource (opens in a new tab)
  36. Small Country by Gaël Fayesource (opens in a new tab)
  37. The Art of Gathering: How We Meet and Why It Matters by Priya Parkersource (opens in a new tab)
  38. The Gunners by Rebecca Kauffmansource (opens in a new tab)
  39. The Mars Room by Rachel Kushnersource (opens in a new tab)
  40. The Messy Middle: Finding Your Way Through the Hardest and Most Crucial Part of Any Bold Venture by Scott Belskysource (opens in a new tab)
  41. The Opposite of Hate: A Field Guide to Repairing Our Humanity by Sally Kohnsource (opens in a new tab)
  42. The Pisces by Melissa Brodersource (opens in a new tab)
  43. The Sadness of Beautiful Things: Stories by Simon Van Booysource (opens in a new tab)
  44. The Wisdom of Wolves: Lessons From the Sawtooth Pack by Jim Dutcher and Jamie Dutchersource (opens in a new tab)
  45. There There by Tommy Orangesource (opens in a new tab)
  46. Those Who Knew by Idra Noveysource (opens in a new tab)
  47. Warlight by Michael Ondaatjesource (opens in a new tab)
  48. Winners Take All: The Elite Charade of Changing the World by Anand Giridharadassource (opens in a new tab)
  49. Yes We (Still) Can: Politics in the Age of Obama, Twitter, and Trump by Dan Pfeiffersource (opens in a new tab)
  50. You're on an Airplane: A Self-Mythologizing Memoir by Parker Poseysource (opens in a new tab)

About the Esquire Best Books of the Year

Esquire's own year-end best-books list for each year, one combined list per year. Esquire's terms of use bar scraping its content for AI use, so nothing was read from esquire.com directly; every list comes from a Wayback Machine copy (robots.txt was checked: it allows the book pages). 2017-2025 are Esquire's running 'Best Books of <year>' galleries in their final archived form; only the 2016 list (25 to 1) is ranked. 2011 is the December 2011 issue's 10 best books and 2012 is the 8-book 'Best Books of 2012' feature. 2014 is 'The 5 Most Important Books of 2014', kept because it is Esquire's only year-end book list that year. No year-end list was found for 2006-2010, 2013, or 2015. Archived copies of the 2025 gallery hold only its first 20 of 35 books; books 21-35 come from yearendlists.com's copy of the list, which matches Esquire on books 1-20. The 2019 gallery repeats two books, so it counts 49 unique books from 51 slides. The 2018 gallery names titles only; its authors come from Library of Congress catalog records for the ISBN in each slide's shop link (or the title, for Kindle-only links), and from the slide text where the LoC record has no author. Obvious author misspellings on the page are corrected (e.g. Jia Tolentino, Téa Obreht). Left out: mid-year 'best so far' lists, seasonal and monthly reading lists, genre lists, and Esquire UK.

Organization: Esquire. Official site (opens in a new tab)

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