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 49–96 of 388
Celestia by Manuele Fior, translated by Jamie Richards appears in NPR’s 2021 Books We Love guide. NPR’s editors categorized the recommendation around comics & graphic novels, the dark side, sci fi, fantasy & speculative fiction, placing it within the year’s broader reading conversation.
Certain and Impossible Events by Candace Jane Opper appears in NPR’s 2021 Books We Love guide. NPR’s editors categorized the recommendation around nonfiction, biography & memoir, rather short, placing it within the year’s broader reading conversation.
Chaos on CatNet by Naomi Kritzer appears in NPR’s 2021 Books We Love guide. NPR’s editors categorized the recommendation around young adult, sci fi, fantasy & speculative fiction, identity & culture, placing it within the year’s broader reading conversation.
Chasing Me to My Grave: An Artist's Memoir of the Jim Crow South by Winfred Rembert and Erin I. Kelly appears in NPR’s 2021 Books We Love guide. NPR’s editors categorized the recommendation around nonfiction, biography & memoir, the states we’re in, placing it within the year’s broader reading conversation.
Chetna's 30 Minute Indian: Quick and Easy Everyday Meals by Chetna Makan 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.
Children of the Fox: A Thieves of Shadow Novel by Kevin Sands appears in NPR’s 2021 Books We Love guide. NPR’s editors categorized the recommendation around kids’ books, mysteries & thrillers, sci fi, fantasy & speculative fiction, placing it within the year’s broader reading conversation.
Children Under Fire: An American Crisis by John Woodrow Cox appears in NPR’s 2021 Books We Love guide. NPR’s editors categorized the recommendation around nonfiction, the states we’re in, eye-opening reads, placing it within the year’s broader reading conversation.
China Room: A Novel by Sunjeev Sahota appears in NPR’s 2021 Books We Love guide. NPR’s editors categorized the recommendation around book club ideas, family matters, tales from around the world, placing it within the year’s broader reading conversation.
Cloud Cuckoo Land: A Novel by Anthony Doerr appears in NPR’s 2021 Books We Love guide. NPR’s editors categorized the recommendation around rather long, seriously great writing, sci fi, fantasy & speculative fiction, placing it within the year’s broader reading conversation.
Colorization: One Hundred Years of Black Films in a White World by Wil Haygood appears in NPR’s 2021 Books We Love guide. NPR’s editors categorized the recommendation around staff picks, no biz like show biz, nonfiction, placing it within the year’s broader reading conversation.
Concrete Rose by Angie Thomas appears in NPR’s 2021 Books We Love guide. NPR’s editors categorized the recommendation around fiction, young adult, family matters, placing it within the year’s broader reading conversation.
Cook Real Hawai'i by Sheldon Simeon With Garrett Snyder appears in NPR’s 2021 Books We Love guide. NPR’s editors categorized the recommendation around cookbooks & food, staff picks, the states we’re in, placing it within the year’s broader reading conversation.
Cook This Book: Techniques That Teach & Recipes to Repeat by Molly Baz appears in NPR’s 2021 Books We Love guide. NPR’s editors categorized the recommendation around cookbooks & food, staff picks, placing it within the year’s broader reading conversation.
Craft in the Real World: Rethinking Fiction Writing and Workshopping by Matthew Salesses appears in NPR’s 2021 Books We Love guide. NPR’s editors categorized the recommendation around nonfiction, staff picks, eye-opening reads, placing it within the year’s broader reading conversation.
Creatures of Passage by Morowa Yejidé appears in NPR’s 2021 Books We Love guide. NPR’s editors categorized the recommendation around historical fiction, sci fi, fantasy & speculative fiction, book club ideas, placing it within the year’s broader reading conversation.
Crossroads: A Novel by Jonathan Franzen appears in NPR’s 2021 Books We Love guide. NPR’s editors categorized the recommendation around fiction, staff picks, family matters, placing it within the year’s broader reading conversation.
Crying in H Mart: A Memoir by Michelle Zauner appears in NPR’s 2021 Books We Love guide. NPR’s editors categorized the recommendation around staff picks, nonfiction, biography & memoir, placing it within the year’s broader reading conversation.
Cultish: The Language of Fanaticism by Amanda Montell 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.
Curb by Divya Victor appears in NPR’s 2021 Books We Love guide. NPR’s editors categorized the recommendation around identity & culture, short stories, essays & poetry, biography & memoir, placing it within the year’s broader reading conversation.
Cyclopedia Exotica by Aminder Dhaliwal appears in NPR’s 2021 Books We Love guide. NPR’s editors categorized the recommendation around sci fi, fantasy & speculative fiction, funny stuff, identity & culture, placing it within the year’s broader reading conversation.
Darryl: A Novel by Jackie Ess appears in NPR’s 2021 Books We Love guide. NPR’s editors categorized the recommendation around identity & culture, staff picks, fiction, placing it within the year’s broader reading conversation.
Dear Miss Metropolitan: A Novel by Carolyn Ferrell appears in NPR’s 2021 Books We Love guide. NPR’s editors categorized the recommendation around book club ideas, seriously great writing, fiction, placing it within the year’s broader reading conversation.
Demystifying Disability: What to Know, What to Say, and How to be an Ally by Emily Ladau appears in NPR’s 2021 Books We Love guide. NPR’s editors categorized the recommendation around nonfiction, eye-opening reads, identity & culture, placing it within the year’s broader reading conversation.
Destroy All Monsters: A Reckless Book by Ed Brubaker and Sean Phillips appears in NPR’s 2021 Books We Love guide. NPR’s editors categorized the recommendation around comics & graphic novels, mysteries & thrillers, historical fiction, placing it within the year’s broader reading conversation.
Detransition Baby: A Novel by Torrey Peters appears in NPR’s 2021 Books We Love guide. NPR’s editors categorized the recommendation around staff picks, book club ideas, eye-opening reads, placing it within the year’s broader reading conversation.
Dial A for Aunties by Jesse Q. Sutanto appears in NPR’s 2021 Books We Love guide. NPR’s editors categorized the recommendation around staff picks, mysteries & thrillers, family matters, placing it within the year’s broader reading conversation.
Nine-year-old Jai draws on television detective shows when a child disappears from his crowded Indian neighborhood. With friends Pari and Faiz, he investigates as further disappearances expose danger, religious tension, and official indifference.
Dream Girl: A Novel by Laura Lippman appears in NPR’s 2021 Books We Love guide. NPR’s editors categorized the recommendation around mysteries & thrillers, staff picks, the dark side, placing it within the year’s broader reading conversation.
Driving While Brown: Sheriff Joe Arpaio Versus the Latino Resistance by Terry Greene Sterling and Jude Joffe-Block 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.
E.X.O.: The Legend of Wale Williams, Volume One by Roye Okupe, illustrated by Sunkanmi Akinboye and Raphael Kazeem appears in NPR’s 2021 Books We Love guide. NPR’s editors categorized the recommendation around comics & graphic novels, sci fi, fantasy & speculative fiction, tales from around the world, placing it within the year’s broader reading conversation.
Eat, Habibi, Eat!: Fresh Recipes for Modern Egyptian Cooking by Shahir Massoud 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.
Edge Case: A Novel by YZ Chin appears in NPR’s 2021 Books We Love guide. NPR’s editors categorized the recommendation around identity & culture, fiction, the states we’re in, placing it within the year’s broader reading conversation.
Elegy for Mary Turner: An Illustrated Account of a Lynching by Rachel Marie-Crane Williams appears in NPR’s 2021 Books We Love guide. NPR’s editors categorized the recommendation around comics & graphic novels, for history lovers, rather short, placing it within the year’s broader reading conversation.
Empire of Pain: The Secret History of the Sackler Dynasty by Patrick Radden Keefe appears in NPR’s 2021 Books We Love guide. NPR’s editors categorized the recommendation around nonfiction, eye-opening reads, the dark side, placing it within the year’s broader reading conversation.
Eyes that Kiss in the Corners by Joanna Ho, illustrated by Dung Ho appears in NPR’s 2021 Books We Love guide. NPR’s editors categorized the recommendation around identity & culture, family matters, kids’ books, placing it within the year’s broader reading conversation.
Facing the Mountain: A True Story of Japanese American Heroes in World War II by Daniel James Brown appears in NPR’s 2021 Books We Love guide. NPR’s editors categorized the recommendation around biography & memoir, eye-opening reads, for history lovers, placing it within the year’s broader reading conversation.
Fat Chance, Charlie Vega by Crystal Maldonado appears in NPR’s 2021 Books We Love guide. NPR’s editors categorized the recommendation around fiction, young adult, book club ideas, placing it within the year’s broader reading conversation.
Fight Night: A Novel by Miriam Toews appears in NPR’s 2021 Books We Love guide. NPR’s editors categorized the recommendation around fiction, book club ideas, family matters, placing it within the year’s broader reading conversation.
Filthy Animals by Brandon Taylor appears in NPR’s 2021 Books We Love guide. NPR’s editors categorized the recommendation around fiction, seriously great writing, short stories, essays & poetry, placing it within the year’s broader reading conversation.
Finding Junie Kim by Ellen Oh appears in NPR’s 2021 Books We Love guide. NPR’s editors categorized the recommendation around historical fiction, fiction, kids’ books, placing it within the year’s broader reading conversation.
Firebreak by Nicole Kornher-Stace appears in NPR’s 2021 Books We Love guide. NPR’s editors categorized the recommendation around young adult, sci fi, fantasy & speculative fiction, identity & culture, placing it within the year’s broader reading conversation.
Firekeeper's Daughter by Angeline Boulley appears in NPR’s 2021 Books We Love guide. NPR’s editors categorized the recommendation around mysteries & thrillers, young adult, identity & culture, placing it within the year’s broader reading conversation.
First Comes Like: A Novel by Alisha Rai appears in NPR’s 2021 Books We Love guide. NPR’s editors categorized the recommendation around family matters, identity & culture, love & romance, placing it within the year’s broader reading conversation.
Five Tuesdays in Winter: Stories by Lily King appears in NPR’s 2021 Books We Love guide. NPR’s editors categorized the recommendation around fiction, short stories, essays & poetry, book club ideas, placing it within the year’s broader reading conversation.
Flight of the Diamond Smugglers: A Tale of Pigeons, Obsession, and Greed Along Coastal South Africa by Matthew Gavin Frank appears in NPR’s 2021 Books We Love guide. NPR’s editors categorized the recommendation around nonfiction, for history lovers, tales from around the world, placing it within the year’s broader reading conversation.
Narrative poems honor migrants, workers, family, and resistance while confronting racism and public indifference.
Floaters: Poems by Martín Espada appears in NPR’s 2021 Books We Love guide. NPR’s editors categorized the recommendation around short stories, essays & poetry, identity & culture, the states we’re in, placing it within the year’s broader reading conversation.
Flying Blind: The 737 Max Tragedy and the Fall of Boeing by Peter Robison appears in NPR’s 2021 Books We Love guide. NPR’s editors categorized the recommendation around nonfiction, staff picks, it’s all geek to me, placing it within the year’s broader reading conversation.
