The 25 best books of the 2010s
The 25 highest-ranked books first published in the 2010s in our ranking of 2,816, scored on how much readers love them, their prize, best-list and bestseller record, and current buzz. We rank 736 books of the 2010s in all. How we rank
- 1
Between the World and Me95.3Must-Read ScoreBetween the World and Me
Written as a letter to his 15-year-old son, this is Ta-Nehisi Coates explaining what it means to live in a Black body in America.
Why it made the listNational Book Award (Nonfiction) winner (2015)#1 New York Times bestseller (4 weeks at #1)107 weeks on the New York Times bestseller lists since 2015Pulitzer Prize (General Nonfiction) finalist (2016) - 2
Evicted: Poverty and Profit in the American City93.3Must-Read ScoreEvicted: Poverty and Profit in the American City
In 2008 and 2009, sociologist Matthew Desmond moved into a trailer park on Milwaukee's south side, and then an inner-city rooming house, to live alongside the people he was studying.
Why it made the listPulitzer Prize (General Nonfiction) winner (2017)NBCC Award (Nonfiction) winner (2016)NYT 100 Best Books of the 21st Century - 3
The Emperor of All Maladies: A Biography of Cancer93.3Must-Read ScoreThe Emperor of All Maladies: A Biography of Cancer
Siddhartha Mukherjee, an oncologist, set out to answer a patient's question: what exactly is she fighting?
Why it made the listPulitzer Prize (General Nonfiction) winner (2011)33 weeks on the New York Times bestseller lists since 2010NBCC Award (Nonfiction) finalist (2010)NYT 100 Best Books of the 21st Century - 4
Educated: A Memoir93.1Must-Read ScoreEducated: A Memoir
Tara Westover grew up on a mountain in Idaho with survivalist parents who didn't believe in schools, doctors or the government.
Why it made the list#1 New York Times bestseller (19 weeks at #1)184 weeks on the New York Times bestseller lists since 2018NBCC Award (Memoir) finalist (2018) - 5
All the Light We Cannot See92.9Must-Read ScoreAll the Light We Cannot See
Marie-Laure, blind since six, lives in Paris with her father, who builds her a miniature of their neighborhood so she can learn its streets by touch.
Why it made the listPulitzer Prize for Fiction winner (2015)#1 New York Times bestseller (3 weeks at #1)One of the ten best-selling books of 2015 and 2016 (Publishers Weekly)National Book Award (Fiction) finalist (2014) - 6
The Body Keeps the Score92.1Must-Read ScoreThe Body Keeps the Score
Psychiatrist Bessel van der Kolk spent more than thirty years working with survivors of war, abuse and disaster, and this is what he learned: trauma isn't only a memory, it reshapes the brain and the body, leaving people stuck in fear long after the danger has passed.
Why it made the list#1 New York Times bestseller (16 weeks at #1)323 weeks on the New York Times bestseller lists since 2019 - 7
Americanah91.9Must-Read ScoreAmericanah
Ifemelu and Obinze fall in love as teenagers in military-ruled Nigeria.
Why it made the listNBCC Award (Fiction) winner (2013)79 weeks on the New York Times bestseller lists since 2013Women's Prize for Fiction finalist (2014)NYT 100 Best Books of the 21st Century - 8
The Fifth Season91.9Must-Read ScoreThe Fifth Season
The Stillness is a supercontinent wracked by earthquakes, and every few centuries a catastrophic Season of ash, darkness and famine nearly ends civilization.
Why it made the listHugo Award winner (2016)Hugo Award winner (2018, for The Stone Sky)Hugo Award winner (2017, for The Obelisk Gate)Nebula Award finalist (2015) - 9
Say Nothing: A True Story of Murder and Memory in Northern Ireland91.9Must-Read ScoreSay Nothing: A True Story of Murder and Memory in Northern Ireland
In 1972, Jean McConville, a widowed mother of ten, was dragged from her Belfast home by masked members of the IRA and never seen again.
Why it made the listNBCC Award (Nonfiction) winner (2019)17 weeks on the New York Times bestseller lists since 2019NYT 100 Best Books of the 21st Century - 10
The Warmth of Other Suns: The Epic Story of America's Great Migration91.5Must-Read ScoreThe Warmth of Other Suns: The Epic Story of America's Great Migration
Between World War I and 1970, about six million Black Americans left the South for the cities of the North and West, one of the largest migrations in American history.
Why it made the listNBCC Award (Nonfiction) winner (2010)39 weeks on the New York Times bestseller lists since 2010NYT 100 Best Books of the 21st Century - 11
When Breath Becomes Air91.4Must-Read ScoreWhen Breath Becomes Air
At thirty-six, Paul Kalanithi was about to finish a decade of training as a neurosurgeon at Stanford when he was diagnosed with stage IV lung cancer.
Why it made the list#1 New York Times bestseller (13 weeks at #1)92 weeks on the New York Times bestseller lists since 2016Pulitzer Prize (Biography) finalist (2017) - 12
Atomic Habits91.0Must-Read ScoreAtomic Habits
James Clear's argument is that if you're struggling to change, the problem isn't you, it's your system.
Why it made the listOne of the ten best-selling books of 2021, 2022, 2023, 2024 and 2025 (Publishers Weekly)416 weeks on the New York Times bestseller lists since 2018 - 13
The Passage of Power90.5Must-Read ScoreThe Passage of Power
The fourth volume of Robert Caro's life of Lyndon Johnson covers 1958 to 1964.
Why it made the listNBCC Award (Biography) winner (2012)#1 New York Times bestseller (2 weeks at #1)National Book Award (Nonfiction) finalist (2012)NYT 100 Best Books of the 21st Century - 14
The Nightingale90.0Must-Read ScoreThe Nightingale
France, 1939.
Why it made the list#1 New York Times bestseller (1 week at #1)One of the ten best-selling books of 2015 (Publishers Weekly) - 15
A Little Life89.9Must-Read ScoreA Little Life
Four friends move to New York after college: Willem, an aspiring actor; JB, a painter; Malcolm, an architect; and Jude, a brilliant, private lawyer whose past is a mystery.
Why it made the list43 weeks on the New York Times bestseller lists since 2016Booker Prize finalist (2015)National Book Award (Fiction) finalist (2015)Guardian 100 Best Books of the 21st Century - 16
Secondhand Time: The Last of the Soviets89.3Must-Read ScoreSecondhand Time: The Last of the Soviets
Nobel laureate Svetlana Alexievich spent years recording ordinary Russians talking about the collapse of the Soviet Union and the chaos that followed: veterans, shopkeepers, former Party members, refugees, grieving mothers, people who mourned communism and people who cheered its fall.
Why it made the listBaillie Gifford Prize finalist (2016)NYT 100 Best Books of the 21st CenturyGuardian 100 Best Books of the 21st Century - 17
Pachinko89.0Must-Read ScorePachinko
In 1910s Korea, under Japanese occupation, a fisherman's daughter named Sunja falls for a wealthy stranger and becomes pregnant, then learns he's married.
Why it made the list49 weeks on the New York Times bestseller lists since 2017National Book Award (Fiction) finalist (2017)NYT 100 Best Books of the 21st Century - 18
Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind88.9Must-Read ScoreSapiens: A Brief History of Humankind
A hundred thousand years ago, at least six species of humans walked the Earth.
Why it made the listOne of the best-selling books ever (about 25 million copies)#1 New York Times bestseller (1 week at #1)Guardian 100 Best Books of the 21st Century - 19
Born a Crime: Stories From a South African Childhood88.9Must-Read ScoreBorn a Crime: Stories From a South African Childhood
Trevor Noah was born in apartheid South Africa to a Black Xhosa mother and a white Swiss father, at a time when their relationship was a crime, so for years he couldn't be seen in public with his father, or sometimes even his mother.
Why it made the list273 weeks on the New York Times bestseller lists since 2016 - 20
Stamped From the Beginning88.4Must-Read ScoreStamped From the Beginning
Ibram X.
Why it made the listNational Book Award (Nonfiction) winner (2016)NBCC Award (Nonfiction) finalist (2016) - 21
Braiding Sweetgrass88.2Must-Read ScoreBraiding Sweetgrass
Robin Wall Kimmerer is a botanist trained in the tools of science and a member of the Citizen Potawatomi Nation, raised on the idea that plants and animals are our oldest teachers.
Why it made the list132 weeks on the New York Times bestseller lists since 2021 - 22
Verity88.1Must-Read ScoreVerity
Struggling writer Lowen Ashleigh is offered the job of a lifetime: finishing the bestselling series of Verity Crawford, a famous author left unable to work after a car accident.
Why it made the list#1 New York Times bestseller (1 week at #1)One of the ten best-selling books of 2022 and 2023 (Publishers Weekly) - 23
The Song of Achilles88.1Must-Read ScoreThe Song of Achilles
Greece in the age of heroes.
Why it made the listWomen's Prize for Fiction winner (2012)104 weeks on the New York Times bestseller lists since 2012 - 24
The Nickel Boys88.1Must-Read ScoreThe Nickel Boys
In early-1960s Tallahassee, Elwood Curtis is a bright, principled Black teenager inspired by the speeches of Martin Luther King Jr.
Why it made the listPulitzer Prize for Fiction winner (2020)25 weeks on the New York Times bestseller lists since 2019NBCC Award (Fiction) finalist (2019) - 25
Becoming87.9Must-Read ScoreBecoming
Michelle Obama's memoir of her life, from growing up in a working-class family on Chicago's South Side, through Princeton, Harvard Law School and a corporate law career, to meeting a summer associate named Barack Obama.
Why it made the list#1 New York Times bestseller (20 weeks at #1)129 weeks on the New York Times bestseller lists since 2018
