Opening the archive
Year archive
Books selected by independent literary juries and editorial teams in 2021, gathered into one transparent, source-linked reading list. The chronology uses the award year for prizes and list year for editorial recommendations.
Showing 1–48 of 388
A Calling for Charlie Barnes: A Novel by Joshua Ferris appears in NPR’s 2021 Books We Love guide. NPR’s editors categorized the recommendation around book club ideas, family matters, funny stuff, placing it within the year’s broader reading conversation.
A Fatal Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum: Murder in Ancient Rome by Emma Southon appears in NPR’s 2021 Books We Love guide. NPR’s editors categorized the recommendation around nonfiction, eye-opening reads, for history lovers, placing it within the year’s broader reading conversation.
A Ghost in the Throat by Doireann Ní Ghríofa appears in NPR’s 2021 Books We Love guide. NPR’s editors categorized the recommendation around biography & memoir, family matters, let’s talk about sex, placing it within the year’s broader reading conversation.
A Little Devil in America: Notes in Praise of Black Performance by Hanif Abdurraqib appears in NPR’s 2021 Books We Love guide. NPR’s editors categorized the recommendation around biography & memoir, eye-opening reads, for music lovers, placing it within the year’s broader reading conversation.
A Lot Like Adiós by Alexis Daria appears in NPR’s 2021 Books We Love guide. NPR’s editors categorized the recommendation around love & romance, identity & culture, let’s talk about sex, placing it within the year’s broader reading conversation.
A Marvellous Light by Freya Marske appears in NPR’s 2021 Books We Love guide. NPR’s editors categorized the recommendation around sci fi, fantasy & speculative fiction, love & romance, historical fiction, placing it within the year’s broader reading conversation.
In an alternate 1912 Cairo transformed by the return of djinn and magic, investigator Fatma el-Sha'arawi examines the murder of a secret brotherhood. A masked figure claiming to be the returned al-Jahiz turns the case into a threat to the city's political and supernatural order.
A Most Remarkable Creature: The Hidden Life and Epic Journey of the World's Smartest Birds of Prey by Jonathan Meiburg appears in NPR’s 2021 Books We Love guide. NPR’s editors categorized the recommendation around eye-opening reads, nonfiction, science!, placing it within the year’s broader reading conversation.
A Passage North: A Novel by Anuk Arudpragasam appears in NPR’s 2021 Books We Love guide. NPR’s editors categorized the recommendation around staff picks, tales from around the world, fiction, placing it within the year’s broader reading conversation.
A Psalm for the Wild-Built: A Monk and Robot Book by Becky Chambers appears in NPR’s 2021 Books We Love guide. NPR’s editors categorized the recommendation around sci fi, fantasy & speculative fiction, rather short, staff picks, placing it within the year’s broader reading conversation.
A Singing Army: Zilphia Horton and the Highlander Folk School by Kim Ruehl appears in NPR’s 2021 Books We Love guide. NPR’s editors categorized the recommendation around nonfiction, biography & memoir, for history lovers, placing it within the year’s broader reading conversation.
A Slow Fire Burning by Paula Hawkins appears in NPR’s 2021 Books We Love guide. NPR’s editors categorized the recommendation around mysteries & thrillers, the dark side, staff picks, placing it within the year’s broader reading conversation.
A Spindle Splintered by Alix E. Harrow appears in NPR’s 2021 Books We Love guide. NPR’s editors categorized the recommendation around sci fi, fantasy & speculative fiction, the dark side, rather short, placing it within the year’s broader reading conversation.
A Swim in a Pond in the Rain: In Which Four Russians Give a Master Class on Writing, Reading, and Life by George Saunders appears in NPR’s 2021 Books We Love guide. NPR’s editors categorized the recommendation around nonfiction, short stories, essays & poetry, seriously great writing, placing it within the year’s broader reading conversation.
A Thousand Ships by Natalie Haynes appears in NPR’s 2021 Books We Love guide. NPR’s editors categorized the recommendation around staff picks, historical fiction, book club ideas, placing it within the year’s broader reading conversation.
A Thousand Times You Lose Your Treasure by Hoa Nguyen appears in NPR’s 2021 Books We Love guide. NPR’s editors categorized the recommendation around short stories, essays & poetry, staff picks, family matters, placing it within the year’s broader reading conversation.
A Town Called Solace by Mary Lawson appears in NPR’s 2021 Books We Love guide. NPR’s editors categorized the recommendation around mysteries & thrillers, staff picks, family matters, placing it within the year’s broader reading conversation.
Abundance: A Novel by Jakob Guanzon appears in NPR’s 2021 Books We Love guide. NPR’s editors categorized the recommendation around family matters, staff picks, fiction, placing it within the year’s broader reading conversation.
Accidentally Engaged by Farah Heron appears in NPR’s 2021 Books We Love guide. NPR’s editors categorized the recommendation around love & romance, let’s talk about sex, staff picks, placing it within the year’s broader reading conversation.
Act Your Age, Eve Brown: A Novel by Talia Hibbert appears in NPR’s 2021 Books We Love guide. NPR’s editors categorized the recommendation around let’s talk about sex, love & romance, staff picks, placing it within the year’s broader reading conversation.
Afterparties: Stories by Anthony Veasna So appears in NPR’s 2021 Books We Love guide. NPR’s editors categorized the recommendation around short stories, essays & poetry, identity & culture, fiction, placing it within the year’s broader reading conversation.
Aftershocks: A Memoir by Nadia Owusu appears in NPR’s 2021 Books We Love guide. NPR’s editors categorized the recommendation around nonfiction, book club ideas, eye-opening reads, placing it within the year’s broader reading conversation.
Against Silence: Poems by Frank Bidart appears in NPR’s 2021 Books We Love guide. NPR’s editors categorized the recommendation around family matters, identity & culture, seriously great writing, placing it within the year’s broader reading conversation.
Against White Feminism: Notes on Disruption by Rafia Zakaria appears in NPR’s 2021 Books We Love guide. NPR’s editors categorized the recommendation around eye-opening reads, identity & culture, nonfiction, placing it within the year’s broader reading conversation.
A historian follows an embroidered sack to reconstruct generations of Black women's survival under slavery and beyond.
All the Feels: A Novel by Olivia Dade appears in NPR’s 2021 Books We Love guide. NPR’s editors categorized the recommendation around staff picks, fiction, love & romance, placing it within the year’s broader reading conversation.
Alone in Space: A Collection by Tillie Walden appears in NPR’s 2021 Books We Love guide. NPR’s editors categorized the recommendation around comics & graphic novels, identity & culture, sci fi, fantasy & speculative fiction, placing it within the year’s broader reading conversation.
Amari and the Night Brothers by B.B. Alston appears in NPR’s 2021 Books We Love guide. NPR’s editors categorized the recommendation around sci fi, fantasy & speculative fiction, kids’ books, staff picks, placing it within the year’s broader reading conversation.
America, My Love, America, My Heart by Daria Peoples-Riley appears in NPR’s 2021 Books We Love guide. NPR’s editors categorized the recommendation around identity & culture, the states we’re in, kids’ books, placing it within the year’s broader reading conversation.
American Baby: A Mother, a Child, and the Shadow History of Adoption by Gabrielle Glaser appears in NPR’s 2021 Books We Love guide. NPR’s editors categorized the recommendation around nonfiction, biography & memoir, staff picks, placing it within the year’s broader reading conversation.
American Delirium: A Novel by Betina González, translated by Heather Cleary appears in NPR’s 2021 Books We Love guide. NPR’s editors categorized the recommendation around let’s talk about sex, seriously great writing, the dark side, placing it within the year’s broader reading conversation.
Amoralman: A True Story and Other Lies by Derek DelGaudio appears in NPR’s 2021 Books We Love guide. NPR’s editors categorized the recommendation around nonfiction, eye-opening reads, staff picks, placing it within the year’s broader reading conversation.
Appleseed: A Novel by Matt Bell appears in NPR’s 2021 Books We Love guide. NPR’s editors categorized the recommendation around sci fi, fantasy & speculative fiction, the dark side, rather long, placing it within the year’s broader reading conversation.
Alfa Ndiaye, a Senegalese soldier fighting for France in World War I, is traumatized by the death of his closest friend in the trenches. His nightly acts of revenge alarm his comrades and draw the narration deeper into memory, guilt, and psychic disintegration.
Baking with Dorie: Sweet, Salty & Simple by Dorie Greenspan appears in NPR’s 2021 Books We Love guide. NPR’s editors categorized the recommendation around cookbooks & food, placing it within the year’s broader reading conversation.
Barefoot Dreams of Petra Luna by Alda P. Dobbs appears in NPR’s 2021 Books We Love guide. NPR’s editors categorized the recommendation around kids’ books, family matters, historical fiction, placing it within the year’s broader reading conversation.
Beautiful Country: A Memoir by Qian Julie Wang appears in NPR’s 2021 Books We Love guide. NPR’s editors categorized the recommendation around biography & memoir, identity & culture, nonfiction, placing it within the year’s broader reading conversation.
Beautiful World, Where Are You: A Novel by Sally Rooney appears in NPR’s 2021 Books We Love guide. NPR’s editors categorized the recommendation around fiction, let’s talk about sex, love & romance, placing it within the year’s broader reading conversation.
Better, Not Bitter: Living on Purpose in the Pursuit of Racial Justice by Yusef Salaam appears in NPR’s 2021 Books We Love guide. NPR’s editors categorized the recommendation around nonfiction, book club ideas, biography & memoir, placing it within the year’s broader reading conversation.
Bewilderment: A Novel by Richard Powers appears in NPR’s 2021 Books We Love guide. NPR’s editors categorized the recommendation around sci fi, fantasy & speculative fiction, seriously great writing, family matters, placing it within the year’s broader reading conversation.
Black Food: Stories, Art, and Recipes from Across the African Diaspora by Bryant Terry appears in NPR’s 2021 Books We Love guide. NPR’s editors categorized the recommendation around cookbooks & food, identity & culture, tales from around the world, placing it within the year’s broader reading conversation.
Boogie Boogie, Y'all by C.G. Esperanza appears in NPR’s 2021 Books We Love guide. NPR’s editors categorized the recommendation around kids’ books, for art lovers, identity & culture, placing it within the year’s broader reading conversation.
Book of the Other: Small in Comparison by Truong Tran appears in NPR’s 2021 Books We Love guide. NPR’s editors categorized the recommendation around short stories, essays & poetry, identity & culture, nonfiction, placing it within the year’s broader reading conversation.
Borders by Thomas King, illustrated by Natasha Donovan appears in NPR’s 2021 Books We Love guide. NPR’s editors categorized the recommendation around kids’ books, comics & graphic novels, identity & culture, placing it within the year’s broader reading conversation.
Bright Star by Yuyi Morales appears in NPR’s 2021 Books We Love guide. NPR’s editors categorized the recommendation around identity & culture, the states we’re in, kids’ books, placing it within the year’s broader reading conversation.
Broken Horses: A Memoir by Brandi Carlile appears in NPR’s 2021 Books We Love guide. NPR’s editors categorized the recommendation around nonfiction, biography & memoir, for music lovers, placing it within the year’s broader reading conversation.
Build Your House Around My Body: A Novel by Violet Kupersmith appears in NPR’s 2021 Books We Love guide. NPR’s editors categorized the recommendation around sci fi, fantasy & speculative fiction, mysteries & thrillers, book club ideas, placing it within the year’s broader reading conversation.
Castaway Mountain: Love and Loss Among the Wastepickers of Mumbai by Saumya Roy appears in NPR’s 2021 Books We Love guide. NPR’s editors categorized the recommendation around nonfiction, tales from around the world, eye-opening reads, placing it within the year’s broader reading conversation.
