The 25 best modern books
The 25 highest-ranked books published from 1990 on 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 1,573 modern books in all. How we rank
- 1
Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone96.8Must-Read ScoreHarry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone
Harry Potter has spent ten years sleeping in the cupboard under the stairs of his cruel aunt and uncle's house when a letter arrives that changes everything: he's a wizard, and he has a place at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry.
Why it made the listHugo Award winner (2001, for Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire)One of the best-selling books ever (about 120 million copies)#1 New York Times bestseller (2 weeks at #1)Hugo Award finalist (2000, for Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban) - 2
A Game of Thrones96.2Must-Read ScoreA Game of Thrones
Lord Eddard Stark rules the cold North and wants nothing to do with the royal court.
Why it made the list150 weeks on the New York Times bestseller lists since 2011Nebula Award finalist (1997)Hugo Award finalist (2012, for A Dance with Dragons)PBS Great American Read - 3
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) - 4
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 - 5
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 - 6
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) - 7
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) - 8
The Book Thief92.3Must-Read ScoreThe Book Thief
Germany, 1939.
Why it made the list281 weeks on the New York Times bestseller lists since 2020PBS Great American Read - 9
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 - 10
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 - 11
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) - 12
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 - 13
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 - 14
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 - 15
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) - 16
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 - 17
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 - 18
American Prometheus: The Triumph and Tragedy of J. Robert Oppenheimer90.1Must-Read ScoreAmerican Prometheus: The Triumph and Tragedy of J. Robert Oppenheimer
The definitive biography of J.
Why it made the listPulitzer Prize (Biography) winner (2006)NBCC Award (Biography) winner (2005)#1 New York Times bestseller (5 weeks at #1) - 19
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) - 20
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 - 21
The Looming Tower: Al Qaeda and the Road to 9/1189.6Must-Read ScoreThe Looming Tower: Al Qaeda and the Road to 9/11
How did 9/11 happen?
Why it made the listPulitzer Prize (General Nonfiction) winner (2007)National Book Award (Nonfiction) finalist (2006)NYT 100 Best Books of the 21st CenturyTIME All-TIME 100 Nonfiction - 22
Nothing to Envy: Ordinary Lives in North Korea89.6Must-Read ScoreNothing to Envy: Ordinary Lives in North Korea
Journalist Barbara Demick spent years interviewing North Koreans who escaped, and here she follows six of them, all from the city of Chongjin, across fifteen years that included the death of Kim Il-sung and a famine that killed perhaps a million people.
Why it made the listBaillie Gifford Prize winner (2010)National Book Award (Nonfiction) finalist (2010)NBCC Award (Nonfiction) finalist (2010)Guardian 100 Best Books of the 21st Century - 23
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 - 24
The Help89.0Must-Read ScoreThe Help
Jackson, Mississippi, 1962.
Why it made the list#1 New York Times bestseller (21 weeks at #1)One of the ten best-selling books of 2009 and 2010 (Publishers Weekly)PBS Great American Read - 25
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
