Year-End Lists

BuzzFeed: The 24 Best Books of the Decade

[see also 2022 • 2021 • 2019 • 2018]

• The Warmth of Other Suns

  The Epic Story of America's Great Migration
  Isabel Wilkerson
• The Round House
  Louise Erdrich
• Building Stories
  Chris Ware
• Tiny Beautiful Things

  Advice on Love and Life from “Dear Sugar”
  Cheryl Strayed
• My Struggle (six volumes)
  Karl Ove Knausgaard
• The Neapolitan Novels
  Elena Ferrante
• Far From the Tree

  Parents, Children, and the Search for Identity
  Andrew Solomon
• Wave
  Sonali Deraniyagala
• The Goldfinch
  Donna Tartt
• Annihilation
  Jeff VanderMeer
• Citizen

  An American Lyric
  Claudia Rankine
• Station Eleven
  Emily St. John Mandel
• Dept. of Speculation
  Jenny Offill
• Tenth of December
  George Saunders
• The Argonauts
  Maggie Nelson
• A Little Life
  Hanya Yanagihara
• Outline Trilogy
  Rachel Cusk
• One of Us

  The Story of Anders Breivik and the Massacre in Norway
  Asne Seierstad
• Less
  Andrew Sean Greer
• Freshwater
  Akwaeke Emezi
• Severance
  Ling Ma
• My Year of Rest and Relaxation
  Ottessa Moshfegh
• Conversations with Friends
  Sally Rooney
• She Said

  Breaking the Sexual Harassment Story That Helped Ignite a Movement
  Jodi Kantor & Megan Twohey

Town & Country: The 17 Best Books of the 2010s

[see also 2023]

1. The Goldfinch
   Donna Tartt
2. The Luminaries
   Eleanor Catton
3. A Little Life
   Hanya Yanagihara
4. Just Kids
   Patti Smith
5. Lincoln in the Bardo
   George Saunders
6. Crazy Rich Asians
   Kevin Kwan
7. My Brilliant Friend
   Elena Ferrante
8. A Visit from the Goon Squad
   Jennifer Egan
9. Americanah
   Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie
10. All the Light We Cannot See
    Anthony Doerr
11. The Underground Railroad
    Colson Whitehead
12. Between the World and Me
    Ta-Nehisi Coates
13. The Flamethrowers
    Rachel Kushner
14. Negroland

    A Memoir
    Margo Jefferson
15. Fates and Furies
    Lauren Groff
16. A Gentleman in Moscow
    Amor Towles
17. French Exit
    Patrick deWitt

Esquire: The Best Books of the 2010s

[see also The 20 Best Books of 2023 • The Best Books of 2022 • The Best Nonfiction Books of 2022 • The 50 Best Books of 2021 • The Best Nonfiction Books of 2019]

1. Between the World and Me
   Ta-Nehisi Coates
2. My Brilliant Friend
   Elena Ferrante
2. The Story of a New Name
   Elena Ferrante
2. Those Who Leave and Those Who Stay
   Elena Ferrante
2. The Story of the Lost Child
   Elena Ferrante
3. Less
   Andrew Sean Greer
4. Lincoln in the Bardo
   George Saunders
5. The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks
   Rebecca Skloot
6. There There
   Tommy Orange
7. These Truths

   A History of the United States
   Jill Lepore
8. Swamplandia!
   Karen Russell
9. Concussion
   Jeanne Marie Laskas
10. The Sympathizer
    Viet Thanh Nguyen
11. Just Kids
    Patti Smith

For Reading Addicts: The 20 Best Books of the Decade 2010-2019

• All the Light We Cannot See
  Anthony Doerr
• Ready Player One
  Ernest Cline
• The Underground Railroad
  Colson Whitehead
• Americanah
  Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie
• My Brilliant Friend
  Elena Ferrante
• Killers of the Flower Moon

  The Osage Murders and the Birth of the FBI
  David Grann
• The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks
  Rebecca Skloot
• The Light Between Oceans
  M.L. Stedman
• A Man Called Ove
  Fredrik Backman
• Citizen

  An American Lyric
  Claudia Rankine
• Between the World and Me
  Ta-Nehisi Coates
• There There
  Tommy Orange
• The Martian
  Andy Weir
• The Overstory
  Richard Powers
• The Nightingale
  Kristin Hannah
• The Invention of Wings
  Sue Monk Kidd
• A Monster Calls
  Patrick Ness
• Vox
  Christina Dalcher
• The Circle
  Dave Eggers
• Salt to the Sea
  Ruta Sepetys

Entertainment Weekly: Top 10 Fiction Books of the 2010s

[see also 2022 • 2021 • 2020 • 2019 • 2018 • 2017 • 2016 • 2015]

1. A Visit from the Goon Squad
   Jennifer Egan
2. Life After Life
   Kate Atkinson
3. Exit West
   Mohsin Hamid
4. The Flamethrowers
   Rachel Kushner
5. Sing, Unburied, Sing
   Jesmyn Ward
6. Commonwealth
   Ann Patchett
7. Station Eleven
   Emily St. John Mandel
8. Fates and Furies
   Lauren Groff
9. A Brief History of Seven Killings
   Marlon James
10. Normal People
    Sally Rooney

The Next 10

• All the Light We Cannot See
  Anthony Doerr
• Americanah
  Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie
• Anything Is Possible
  Elizabeth Strout
• The Goldfinch
  Donna Tartt
• Gone Girl
  Gillian Flynn
• The Interestings
  Meg Wolitzer
• LaRose
  Louise Erdrich
• My Year of Rest and Relaxation
  Ottessa Moshfegh
• The Nickel Boys
  Colson Whitehead
• Tenth of December
  George Saunders

Literary Hub: The 20 Best Novels of the 2010s. In addition to the lists below, check out their large number of honorable mentions.

[see also Our 38 Favorite Books of 2022 • Our 48 Favorite Books of 2021 • Our 65 Favorite Books of 2020 • The 20 Best Works of Nonfiction of the 2010s • Favorite Books of 2018]

The Top Twenty

• A Visit from the Goon Squad
  Jennifer Egan
• The Thousand Autumns of Jacob de Zoet
  David Mitchell
• Train Dreams
  Denis Johnson
• The Buddha in the Attic
  Julie Otsuka
• The Tiger’s Wife
  Téa Obreht
• Salvage The Bones
  Jesmyn Ward
• The Flamethrowers
  Rachel Kushner
• All My Puny Sorrows
  Miriam Toews
• Dept. of Speculation
  Jenny Offill
• The Sellout
  Paul Beatty
• The Sympathizer
  Viet Thanh Nguyen
• A Little Life
  Hanya Yanagihara
• The Fifth Season
  N.K. Jemisin
• Outline
  Rachel Cusk
• The Underground Railroad
  Colson Whitehead
• Imagine Me Gone
  Adam Haslett
• The Overstory
  Richard Powers
• In the Distance
  Hernan Diaz
• Trust Exercise
  Susan Choi
• Milkman
  Anna Burns

Dissenting Opinions

• C
  Tom McCarthy
• The Sisters Brothers
  Patrick deWitt
• The Woman Upstairs
  Claire Messud
• Duplex
  Kathryn Davis
• Americanah
  Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie
• 10:04
  Ben Lerner
• An Unnecessary Woman
  Rabih Alameddine
• Fates and Furies
  Lauren Groff
• News of the World
  Paulette Jiles
• Solar Bones
  Mike McCormack
• Mr. Splitfoot
  Samantha Hunt
• Homegoing
  Yaa Gyasi
• Margaret the First
  Danielle Dutton
• The Idiot
  Elif Batuman
• Sing, Unburied, Sing
  Jesmyn Ward
• My Year of Rest and Relaxation
  Ottessa Moshfegh
• Normal People
  Sally Rooney
• Indian Horse
  Richard Wagamese
• Inland
  Téa Obreht

Time Magazine: The 10 Best Fiction Books of the 2010s

[see also The 10 Best Nonfiction Books of 2020 • The 10 Best Fiction Books of 2020 • The 100 Must-Read Books of 2020 • The 10 Best Nonfiction Books of the 2010s • The 10 Best Nonfiction Books of 2019 • The 10 Best Fiction Books of 2019 • Best Books of 2018 • Top 20 Books of 2017]

• A Visit from the Goon Squad
  Jennifer Egan
• My Brilliant Friend
  Elena Ferrante
• Gone Girl
  Gillian Flynn
• Americanah
  Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie
• Life After Life
  Kate Atkinson
• Tenth of December
  George Saunders
• The Sellout
  Paul Beatty
• Sing, Unburied, Sing
  Jesmyn Ward
• Little Fires Everywhere
  Celeste Ng
• The Nickel Boys
  Colson Whitehead

Time Magazine: The 10 Best Nonfiction Books of the 2010s

[see also The 10 Best Nonfiction Books of 2020 • The 10 Best Fiction Books of 2020 • The 100 Must-Read Books of 2020 • The 10 Best Fiction Books of the 2010s • The 10 Best Nonfiction Books of 2019 • The 10 Best Fiction Books of 2019 • Best Books of 2018 • Top 20 Books of 2017]

• The Warmth of Other Suns

  The Epic Story of America's Great Migration
  Isabel Wilkerson
• The Emperor of All Maladies

  A Biography of Cancer
  Siddhartha Mukherjee
• Behind the Beautiful Forevers

  Life, Death, and Hope in a Mumbai Undercity
  Katherine Boo
• Wild

  From Lost to Found on the Pacific Crest Trail
  Cheryl Strayed
• Wave
  Sonali Deraniyagala
• Between the World and Me
  Ta-Nehisi Coates
• Evicted

  Poverty and Profit in the American City
  Matthew Desmond
• The Order of Time
  Carlo Rovelli
• Bad Blood

  Secrets and Lies in a Silicon Valley Startup
  John Carreyrou
• These Truths

  A History of the United States
  Jill Lepore

Literary Hub: The 20 Best Works of Nonfiction of the 2010s

[see also Our 38 Favorite Books of 2022 • Our 48 Favorite Books of 2021 • Our 65 Favorite Books of 2020 • The 20 Best Novels of the 2010s • Favorite Books of 2018]

The Top Twenty

• The New Jim Crow

  Mass Incarceration in the Age of Colorblindness
  Michelle Alexander
• The Emperor of All Maladies

  A Biography of Cancer
  Siddhartha Mukherjee
• The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks
  Rebecca Skloot
• Bloodlands

  Europe Between Hitler and Stalin
  Timothy Snyder
• The Warmth of Other Suns

  The Epic Story of America's Great Migration
  Isabel Wilkerson
• The Passage of Power

  The Years of Lyndon Johnson
  Robert A. Caro
• The Black Count

  Glory, Revolution, Betrayal, And The Real Count Of Monte Cristo
  Tom Reiss
• The Sixth Extinction

  An Unnatural History
  Elizabeth Kolbert
• Between the World and Me
  Ta-Nehisi Coates
• The Invention of Nature

  Alexander von Humboldt’s New World
  Andrea Wulf
• The Witches

  Suspicion, Betrayal, and Hysteria in 1692 Salem
  Stacy Schiff
• Secondhand Time

  The Last of the Soviets
  Svetlana Alexievich
• Dark Money

  The Hidden History of the Billionaires Behind the Rise of the Radical Right
  Jane Mayer
• How to Survive a Plague: The Inside Story of How Citizens and Science Tamed AIDS
  David France
• The Other Slavery

  The Uncovered Story of Indian Enslavement in America
  Andrés Reséndez
• All the Single Ladies

  Unmarried Women and the Rise of an Independent Nation
  Rebecca Traister
• Prairie Fires

  The American Dreams of Laura Ingalls Wilder
  Caroline Fraser
• Frederick Douglass

  Prophet of Freedom
  David W. Blight
• Underland

  A Deep Time Journey
  Robert Macfarlane
• Say Nothing

  A True Story of Murder and Memory in Northern Ireland
  Patrick Radden Keefe

Dissenting Opinions

• The Art of Cruelty

  A Reckoning
  Maggie Nelson
• The Beast

  Riding the Rails and Dodging Narcos on the Migrant Trail
  Oscar Martinez
• Evicted

  Poverty and Profit in the American City
  Matthew Desmond
• The House of Government

  A Saga of the Russian Revolution
  Yuri Slezkine
• Ghosts of the Tsunami

  Death and Life in Japan's Disaster Zone
  Richard Lloyd Parry
• How to Do Nothing

  Resisting the Attention Economy
  Jenny Odell

Honorable Mentions

• Country Driving

  A Chinese Road Trip
  Peter Hessler
• Washington

  A Life
  Ron Chernow
• Nothing to Envy

  Ordinary Lives in North Korea
  Barbara Demick
• Stranger Magic

  Charmed States and the Arabian Nights
  Marina Warner
• Thomas Jefferson

  The Art Of Power
  Jon Meacham
• Behind the Beautiful Forevers

  Life, Death, and Hope in a Mumbai Undercity
  Katherine Boo
• Madness, Rack, and Honey
  Mary Ruefle
• The Sports Gene

  Inside the Science of Extraordinary Athletic Performance
  David Epstein
• Five Days at Memorial

  Life and Death in a Storm-Ravaged Hospital
  Sheri Fink
• Thank You for Your Service
  David Finkel
• The Unwinding

  An Inner History of the New America
  George Packer
• This Changes Everything

  Capitalism vs. The Climate
  Naomi Klein
• An Indigenous Peoples' History of the United States
  Roxanne Dunbar-Ortiz
• 100 Essays I Don't Have Time to Write

  On Umbrellas and Sword Fights, Parades and Dogs, Fire Alarms, Children, and Theater
  Sarah Ruhl
• The Trip to Echo Spring

  On Writers and Drinking
  Olivia Laing
• Penelope Fitzgerald

  A Life
  Hermione Lee
• SPQR

  A History of Ancient Rome
  Mary Beard
• Dreamland

  The True Tale of America’s Opiate Epidemic
  Sam Quinones
• Stamped from the Beginning

  The Definitive History of Racist Ideas in America
  Ibram X. Kendi
• Shirley Jackson

  A Rather Haunted Life
  Ruth Franklin
• Strangers in Their Own Land

  Anger and Mourning on the American Right
  Arlie Russell Hochschild
• Hidden Figures

  The American Dream and the Untold Story of the Black Women Mathematicians Who Helped Win the Space Race
  Margot Lee Shetterly
• Henry David Thoreau

  A Life
  Laura Dassow Walls
• Killers of the Flower Moon

  The Osage Murders and the Birth of the FBI
  David Grann
• Red at Heart

  How Chinese Communists Fell in Love with the Russian Revolution
  Elizabeth McGuire
• The Evangelicals

  The Struggle to Shape America
  Frances FitzGerald
• The Road to Jonestown

  Jim Jones and Peoples Temple
  Jeff Guinn
• Krazy

  George Herriman, a Life in Black and White
  Michael Tisserand
• Chester B. Himes

  A Biography
  Lawrence P. Jackson
• Barracoon

  The Story of the Last “Black Cargo”
  Zora Neale Hurston
• Dopesick

  Dealers, Doctors, and the Drug Company That Addicted America
  Beth Macy
• American Prison

  A Reporter’s Undercover Journey Into the Business of Punishment
  Shane Bauer
• Amity and Prosperity

  One Family and the Fracturing of America
  Eliza Griswold
• The Tangled Tree

  A Radical New History of Life
  David Quammen

Paste Magazine: The 40 Best Novels of the 2010s

[see also 2023 • 2022 • 2018 • 2017]

1. The Underground Railroad
   Colson Whitehead
2. Circe
   Madeline Miller
3. Homegoing
   Yaa Gyasi
4. Fates and Furies
   Lauren Groff
5. Lincoln in the Bardo
   George Saunders
6. Swamplandia!
   Karen Russell
7. The Fifth Season
   N.K. Jemisin
8. The Leavers
   Lisa Ko
9. Station Eleven
   Emily St. John Mandel
10. Sing, Unburied, Sing
    Jesmyn Ward
11. The Way of Kings
    Brandon Sanderson
12. Wolf in White Van
    John Darnielle
13. Little Fires Everywhere
    Celeste Ng
14. The Water Dancer
    Ta-Nehisi Coates
15. The Goldfinch
    Donna Tartt
16. The Night Circus
    Erin Morgenstern
17. Family Life
    Akhil Sharma
18. Swing Time
    Zadie Smith
19. The Wise Man's Fear
    Patrick Rothfuss
20. Life After Life
    Kate Atkinson
21. The Destroyers
    Christopher Bollen
22. Boy, Snow, Bird
    Helen Oyeyemi
23. The Lesser Bohemians
    Eimear McBride
24. Red at the Bone
    Jacqueline Woodson
25. The Sympathizer
    Viet Thanh Nguyen
26. Eileen
    Ottessa Moshfegh
27. The Poppy War
    R.F. Kuang
28. Americanah
    Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie
29. The Incendiaries
    R.O. Kwon
30. Bowlaway
    Elizabeth McCracken
31. An Absolutely Remarkable Thing
    Hank Green
32. The Twelve Lives of Samuel Hawley
    Hannah Tinti
33. What Belongs to You
    Garth Greenwell
34. Who Fears Death
    Nnedi Okorafor
35. An Untamed State
    Roxane Gay
36. The Martian
    Andy Weir
37. Exit West
    Mohsin Hamid
38. The Ocean at the End of the Lane
    Neil Gaiman
39. Sudden Death
    Álvaro Enrigue. Translated by Natasha Wimmer
40. Flight Behavior
    Barbara Kingsolver