The 25 best books of the 2020s
The 25 highest-ranked books first published in the 2020s 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 555 books of the 2020s in all. How we rank
- 1
James99.0Must-Read ScoreJames
Huckleberry Finn, retold by the man on the raft.
Why it made the listPulitzer Prize for Fiction winner (2025)National Book Award (Fiction) winner (2024)#1 New York Times bestseller (4 weeks at #1)52 weeks on the New York Times bestseller lists since 2024 - 2
Demon Copperhead96.3Must-Read ScoreDemon Copperhead
Dickens's David Copperfield, moved to the mountains of Lee County, Virginia, in the 1990s and 2000s.
Why it made the listPulitzer Prize for Fiction winner (2023)Women's Prize for Fiction winner (2023)81 weeks on the New York Times bestseller lists since 2022Goodreads Choice (fiction) finalist (2022) - 3
Project Hail Mary95.2Must-Read ScoreProject Hail Mary
A man wakes up alone on a spaceship with no memory of who he is or why he's there, and two dead crewmates beside him.
Why it made the listGoodreads Choice (science fiction) winner (2021)#1 New York Times bestseller (2 weeks at #1)157 weeks on the New York Times bestseller lists since 2021Hugo Award finalist (2022) - 4
The Correspondent94.9Must-Read ScoreThe Correspondent
Sybil Van Antwerp is a sharp, private woman in her seventies who has written letters nearly every day of her life: to her brother, to old friends, to her children, to authors she admires and to people who have annoyed her.
Why it made the listWomen's Prize for Fiction winner (2026)#1 New York Times bestseller (1 week at #1)50 weeks on the New York Times bestseller lists since 2025Goodreads Choice (fiction) finalist (2025) - 5
Fourth Wing93.8Must-Read ScoreFourth Wing
Violet Sorrengail was meant for the quiet life of a scribe, until her mother, the commanding general, orders her into Basgiath War College to train as a dragon rider.
Why it made the listGoodreads Choice (romantasy) winner (2025, for Onyx Storm)#1 New York Times bestseller (14 weeks at #1)One of the ten best-selling books of 2023, 2024 and 2025 (Publishers Weekly) - 6
Dungeon Crawler Carl91.8Must-Read ScoreDungeon Crawler Carl
One night, aliens destroy every building on Earth and turn the survivors into contestants on an intergalactic game show: a vast, deadly dungeon where every fight is broadcast to the galaxy.
Why it made the list72 weeks on the New York Times bestseller lists since 2025 - 7
I'm Glad My Mom Died91.3Must-Read ScoreI'm Glad My Mom Died
Jennette McCurdy was six when her mother put her in her first audition, and she spent the next decade as a child actor, eventually starring on Nickelodeon's iCarly, all to make her mother happy.
Why it made the listGoodreads Choice (memoir autobiography) winner (2022)#1 New York Times bestseller (8 weeks at #1)151 weeks on the New York Times bestseller lists since 2022 - 8
The Women91.0Must-Read ScoreThe Women
In 1965, Frankie McGrath is a sheltered twenty-year-old nursing student in Southern California when she hears that women can be heroes too.
Why it made the listGoodreads Choice (historical fiction) winner (2024)#1 New York Times bestseller (10 weeks at #1)One of the ten best-selling books of 2024 (Publishers Weekly) - 9
One Day, Everyone Will Have Always Been Against This90.6Must-Read ScoreOne Day, Everyone Will Have Always Been Against This
In October 2023, a few weeks into the bombardment of Gaza, novelist Omar El Akkad posted a single line that went viral and became this book's title.
Why it made the listNational Book Award (Nonfiction) winner (2025)Goodreads Choice (nonfiction) finalist (2025) - 10
King: A Life90.2Must-Read ScoreKing: A Life
The first major biography of Martin Luther King Jr.
Why it made the listPulitzer Prize (Biography) winner (2024)NBCC Award (Biography) finalist (2023)Goodreads Choice (history biography) finalist (2023) - 11
The Housemaid89.3Must-Read ScoreThe Housemaid
Millie is out of prison, out of options and living in her car when she's offered a live-in job as a housemaid for the wealthy Winchester family.
Why it made the list#1 New York Times bestseller (3 weeks at #1)One of the ten best-selling books of 2024 and 2025 (Publishers Weekly)Goodreads Choice (mystery thriller) finalist (2022) - 12
Empire of Pain: The Secret History of the Sackler Dynasty89.2Must-Read ScoreEmpire of Pain: The Secret History of the Sackler Dynasty
The Sackler family's name was once on museum wings and university buildings around the world.
Why it made the listBaillie Gifford Prize winner (2021)Goodreads Choice (history biography) winner (2021)40 weeks on the New York Times bestseller lists since 2021NBCC Award (Nonfiction) finalist (2021) - 13
Shuggie Bain88.4Must-Read ScoreShuggie Bain
Glasgow in the 1980s, as Thatcher's policies close the mines and factories and the city sinks into poverty.
Why it made the listBooker Prize winner (2020)National Book Award (Fiction) finalist (2020) - 14
Things in Nature Merely Grow88.0Must-Read ScoreThings in Nature Merely Grow
Novelist Yiyun Li and her husband had two sons and lost them both to suicide: Vincent in 2017, at sixteen, and James in 2024, at nineteen.
Why it made the listPulitzer Prize (Memoir) winner (2026)National Book Award (Nonfiction) finalist (2025)Goodreads Choice (memoir autobiography) finalist (2025) - 15
Caste: The Origins of Our Discontents87.8Must-Read ScoreCaste: The Origins of Our Discontents
Isabel Wilkerson argues that America's racial hierarchy is best understood as a caste system, an artificial ranking of human worth like the ones in India and Nazi Germany.
Why it made the list#1 New York Times bestseller (1 week at #1)73 weeks on the New York Times bestseller lists since 2020NBCC Award (Nonfiction) finalist (2020) - 16
House of Earth and Blood87.6Must-Read ScoreHouse of Earth and Blood
Bryce Quinlan, half human and half Fae, works by day at an antiquities shop and parties by night in Crescent City, a modern metropolis of angels, shifters, witches and mortals.
Why it made the listGoodreads Choice (romantasy) winner (2024, for House of Flame and Shadow)Goodreads Choice (fantasy) winner (2022, for House of Sky and Breath)#1 New York Times bestseller (1 week at #1)33 weeks on the New York Times bestseller lists since 2020 - 17
Remarkably Bright Creatures87.4Must-Read ScoreRemarkably Bright Creatures
Since her husband died, seventy-year-old Tova Sullivan has worked the night shift cleaning the Sowell Bay Aquarium, and she's been grieving for much longer: her eighteen-year-old son vanished on a boat in Puget Sound more than thirty years ago.
Why it made the list133 weeks on the New York Times bestseller lists since 2022Goodreads Choice (fiction) finalist (2022) - 18
The Anxious Generation87.3Must-Read ScoreThe Anxious Generation
Around 2012, rates of depression, anxiety and self-harm among teenagers began rising sharply in many countries at once.
Why it made the listGoodreads Choice (nonfiction) winner (2024)#1 New York Times bestseller (6 weeks at #1)131 weeks on the New York Times bestseller lists since 2024 - 19
There Is No Place for Us: Working and Homeless in America87.2Must-Read ScoreThere Is No Place for Us: Working and Homeless in America
In America, hard work is supposed to keep a roof over your head.
Why it made the listPulitzer Prize (General Nonfiction) winner (2026) - 20
Quicksilver87.1Must-Read ScoreQuicksilver
Saeris Fane is a thief and secret-keeper in a desert city ruled by an undying queen, where water is precious and powers like hers are dangerous.
Why it made the list#1 New York Times bestseller (1 week at #1)56 weeks on the New York Times bestseller lists since 2024Goodreads Choice (romantasy) finalist (2024) - 21
Greenlights86.8Must-Read ScoreGreenlights
Matthew McConaughey has kept diaries for 35 years, full of notes on success and failure, joy and sorrow, and the things that made him laugh out loud.
Why it made the list#1 New York Times bestseller (2 weeks at #1)306 weeks on the New York Times bestseller lists since 2020 - 22
Nobody's Girl: A Memoir of Surviving Abuse and Fighting for Justice86.7Must-Read ScoreNobody's Girl: A Memoir of Surviving Abuse and Fighting for Justice
Virginia Roberts Giuffre was a teenager when she was recruited into Jeffrey Epstein and Ghislaine Maxwell's network of abuse, and she became the most outspoken of their victims, the woman whose decision to speak publicly helped send both to prison.
Why it made the list#1 New York Times bestseller (5 weeks at #1)31 weeks on the New York Times bestseller lists since 2025Goodreads Choice (memoir autobiography) finalist (2025) - 23
How the Word Is Passed86.6Must-Read ScoreHow the Word Is Passed
Poet and historian Clint Smith travels to places across America where the history of slavery is remembered, or misremembered: Thomas Jefferson's Monticello, a Louisiana plantation turned museum, Angola prison built on a former plantation, a Confederate cemetery, Galveston where Juneteenth began, New York City and Senegal's Gorée Island.
Why it made the listNBCC Award (Nonfiction) winner (2021)#1 New York Times bestseller (1 week at #1)Goodreads Choice (history biography) finalist (2021) - 24
The Dead Are Arising: The Life of Malcolm X86.5Must-Read ScoreThe Dead Are Arising: The Life of Malcolm X
In 1990, Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Les Payne set out to interview everyone he could find who had actually known Malcolm X: his siblings, classmates, street friends, cellmates, Nation of Islam figures, FBI informants and political leaders around the world.
Why it made the listPulitzer Prize (Biography) winner (2021)National Book Award (Nonfiction) winner (2020)NBCC Award (Biography) finalist (2020) - 25
The Tainted Cup86.2Must-Read ScoreThe Tainted Cup
In an empire walled off from monstrous sea leviathans, a high officer is found dead with a tree erupting from his body.
Why it made the listHugo Award winner (2025)Edgar Award finalist (2025)Goodreads Choice (fantasy) finalist (2024)
