Best Books of the Year
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Esquire Best Books of the Year 2021

Esquire Best Books of the Year 2021 names 50 books. 25 of them also won or were shortlisted for an award.

  1. A Calling for Charlie Barnes by Joshua Ferrissource (opens in a new tab)
  2. A Little Devil in America: Notes in Praise of Black Performance by Hanif Abdurraqibsource (opens in a new tab)
  3. A Swim in a Pond in the Rain by George Saunderssource (opens in a new tab)
  4. Aftershocks by Nadia Owususource (opens in a new tab)
  5. An Ordinary Age by Rainesford Stauffersource (opens in a new tab)
  6. Appleseed by Matt Bellsource (opens in a new tab)
  7. Beautiful World, Where Are You by Sally Rooneysource (opens in a new tab)
  8. Billy Summers by Stephen Kingsource (opens in a new tab)
  9. Concrete Rose by Angie Thomassource (opens in a new tab)
  10. Craft in the Real World: Rethinking Fiction Writing and Workshopping by Matthew Salessessource (opens in a new tab)
  11. Detransition, Baby by Torrey Peterssource (opens in a new tab)
  12. Dog Flowers by Danielle Gellersource (opens in a new tab)
  13. Early Morning Riser by Katherine Heinysource (opens in a new tab)
  14. Everything and Less: The Novel in the Age of Amazon by Mark McGurlsource (opens in a new tab)
  15. Fake Accounts by Lauren Oylersource (opens in a new tab)
  16. Falling by T.J. Newmansource (opens in a new tab)
  17. Great Circle by Maggie Shipsteadsource (opens in a new tab)
  18. Harlem Shuffle by Colson Whiteheadsource (opens in a new tab)
  19. Harrow by Joy Williamssource (opens in a new tab)
  20. How Beautiful We Were by Imbolo Mbuesource (opens in a new tab)
  21. How the Word Is Passed by Clint Smithsource (opens in a new tab)
  22. I Love You but I've Chosen Darkness by Claire Vaye Watkinssource (opens in a new tab)
  23. Infinite Country by Patricia Engelsource (opens in a new tab)
  24. Klara and the Sun by Kazuo Ishigurosource (opens in a new tab)
  25. Land of Big Numbers by Te-Ping Chensource (opens in a new tab)
  26. Last Call by Elon Greensource (opens in a new tab)
  27. Let Me Tell You What I Mean by Joan Didionsource (opens in a new tab)
  28. Libertie by Kaitlyn Greenidgesource (opens in a new tab)
  29. Love Is an Ex-Country by Randa Jarrarsource (opens in a new tab)
  30. Matrix by Lauren Groffsource (opens in a new tab)
  31. Milk Fed by Melissa Brodersource (opens in a new tab)
  32. Mona by Pola Oloixaracsource (opens in a new tab)
  33. My Body by Emily Ratajkowskisource (opens in a new tab)
  34. Nightbitch by Rachel Yodersource (opens in a new tab)
  35. No One Is Talking About This by Patricia Lockwoodsource (opens in a new tab)
  36. Palmares by Gayl Jonessource (opens in a new tab)
  37. Reprieve by James Han Mattsonsource (opens in a new tab)
  38. Somebody's Daughter by Ashley C. Fordsource (opens in a new tab)
  39. Surviving the White Gaze by Rebecca Carrollsource (opens in a new tab)
  40. The 1619 Project: A New Origin Story by Nikole Hannah-Jonessource (opens in a new tab)
  41. The Atmospherians by Alex McElroysource (opens in a new tab)
  42. The Committed by Viet Thanh Nguyensource (opens in a new tab)
  43. The Final Revival of Opal & Nev by Dawnie Waltonsource (opens in a new tab)
  44. The Man Who Lived Underground by Richard Wrightsource (opens in a new tab)
  45. The Other Black Girl by Zakiya Dalila Harrissource (opens in a new tab)
  46. Third Eye Rising by Murzban F. Shroffsource (opens in a new tab)
  47. Under a White Sky: The Nature of the Future by Elizabeth Kolbertsource (opens in a new tab)
  48. Virtue by Hermione Hobysource (opens in a new tab)
  49. We Had a Little Real Estate Problem: The Unheralded Story of Native Americans & Comedy by Kliph Nesteroffsource (opens in a new tab)
  50. What's Mine and Yours by Naima Costersource (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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