Just as Christmas lights seem to go up earlier every year, so does the appearance of annual best books lists. This year they started showing up even before Halloween.
B&N Best of the Year: Crime Fiction Edition
From Barnes & Noble, via Novel Suspects.
Best Books 2021
This page is the portal into Publishers Weekly’s 150 best books of 2021: “ we have longlists in all the categories we regularly review in, as well as 50 memorable works for children and teens.”
Best Mystery Books of 2021: Recommended by Bestselling Authors
PBS offers “new mystery novel recommendations from some of the best mystery writers out there.” All recommended books were published in 2021.
My Top Twenty Books of 2021
From writer Emma Straub.
Best Books of the Year
Not just a list: contributors to BookForum write actual paragraphs about the books they enjoyed and why.
The Best Books of 2021
This is the starting page for BookPage’s separate listings in the following categories: fiction, nonfiction, mystery & suspense, romance, science fiction & fantasy, young adult, middle grade & chapter books, and picture books.
Best Books of the Year
This is Amazon’s starting page for its choices in the following categories: #1 book of 2021, top 20 books of the year, editors’ top 100, celebrity picks; biographies & memoirs; business & leadership; children’s books; cookbooks, food, & wine; history; literary fiction; mysteries, thrillers & suspense; nonfiction; romance; science; science fiction & fantasy; teen & young adult.
The 10 Best Books of 2021
By the editors and book reviewers of the Washington Post. This is also the landing page for their lists in the following categories: romance novels, audiobooks, graphic novels, nonfiction, fiction, thrillers & mysteries, book covers, science fiction & fantasy & horror, feel-good books, children’s books.
100 Notable Books of 2021
“The year’s notable fiction, poetry and nonfiction, selected by the editors of the New York Times Book Review.”
NPR books: Books We Love
This site allows you to apply filters “to explore more than 2,800 recommendations from NPR staff and trusted critics.” In addition to 2021, this tool features annual lists back to 2013.
The Best Novels of 2021
Recommended by Cal Flyn, deputy editor of Five Books.
AudioFile’s Best Audiobooks of 2021
View the giant list, or filter by category.
The Best Crime Novels of 2021
List compiled by the editors at CrimeReads.
The 36 Best (Old) Books We Read in 2021
Most Best Books of the Year lists comprise books published during that calendar year. Here, in a refreshing twist, the Lit Hub staff celebrates “some non-2021 books that we discovered (or re-discovered) this year.”
LitReactor Staff Picks: The Best Books of 2021 – Part I
From Lit Reactor. Although there are a few of the big, buzzy titles included here, most of these choices are books I haven’t seen on other lists or even heard of otherwise.
© 2021 by Mary Daniels Brown
