Year-End Lists

Literary Hub: Our 48 Favorite Books of 2021

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

• The Copenhagen Trilogy

  Childhood; Youth; Dependency
  Tove Ditlevsen
• Animal
  Lisa Taddeo
• The Dawn of Everything

  A New History of Humanity
  David Graeber and David Wengrow
• The Life of the Mind
  Christine Smallwood
• A Ghost in the Throat
  Doireann Ní Ghríofa
• When We Cease to Understand the World
  Benjamin Labatut
• Detransition, Baby
  Torrey Peters
• Milk Blood Heat
  Dantiel W. Moniz
• Blow Your House Down

  A Story of Family, Feminism, and Treason
  Gina Frangello
• The Water Statues
  Fleur Jaeggy
• The Dangers of Smoking in Bed
  Mariana Enriquez
• Fight Night
  Miriam Toews
• The Vixen
  Francine Prose
• Where the Deer and the Antelope Play

  The Pastoral Observations of One Ignorant American Who Loves to Walk Outside
  Nick Offerman
• Light Perpetual
  Francis Spufford
• Black Girl, Call Home
  Jasmine Mans
• Empire of Pain

  The Secret History of the Sackler Dynasty
  Patrick Radden Keefe
• A Little Devil in America

  Notes in Praise of Black Performance
  Hanif Abdurraqib
• Heaven
  Mieko Kawakami
• Great Circle
  Maggie Shipstead
• In Memory of Memory
  Maria Stepanova
• No One Is Talking About This
  Patricia Lockwood
• The Scapegoat
  Sara Davis
• Dear Senthuran

  A Black Spirit Memoir
  Akwaeke Emezi
• The Wrong End of the Telescope
  Rabih Alameddine
• In the Eye of the Wild
  Nastassja Martin
• Burnt Sugar
  Avni Doshi
• Crossroads
  Jonathan Franzen
• The Trees
  Percival Everett
• Slipping
  Mohamed Kheir
• Something New Under the Sun
  Alexandra Kleeman
• The Anomaly
  Hervé Le Tellier
• How to Blow Up a Pipeline
  Andreas Malm
• Last Best Hope

  America in Crisis and Renewal
  George Packer
• Fake Accounts
  Lauren Oyler
• The Great Mistake
  Jonathan Lee
• Wings in Time
  Callie Garnett
• Hao
  Ye Chun
• There's No Such Thing as an Easy Job
  Kikuko Tsumura
• Mona
  Pola Oloixarac
• I Love You But I've Chosen Darkness
  Claire Vaye Watkins
• Winter Recipes from the Collective
  Louise Glück
• White Magic
  Elissa Washuta
• The Annotated Mrs. Dalloway
  Virginia Woolf and Merve Emre (notes)
• Festival Days
  Jo Ann Beard
• Galloway

  Life In a Vanishing Landscape
  Patrick Laurie
• Returning the Sword to the Stone
  Mark Leidner
• Mutiny
  Phillip B. Williams

Maureen Corrigan: 2021 Best Books, as aired on NPR’s Fresh Air

[see also 2023 • 2022 • 2020 • 2019 • 2018 • 2017 • 2016 • 2015 • 2011]

• Klara and the Sun
  Kazuo Ishiguro
• Cloud Cuckoo Land
  Anthony Doerr
• Light Perpetual
  Francis Spufford
• Matrix
  Lauren Groff
• Harlem Shuffle
  Colson Whitehead
• Afterparties
  Anthony Veasna So
• My Monticello
  Jocelyn Nicole Johnson
• Skinship
  Yoon Choi
• Oh William!
  Elizabeth Strout
• We Run the Tides
  Vendela Vida

IndieWire: Best Films of 2021, as voted by film critics from around the world

[see also 2023 • 2022 • 2020 • 2019 • 2018 • 2017 • 2016 • 2015 • 2014 • 2013 • 2012 • 2011]

1. The Power of the Dog
   Jane Campion
2. Drive My Car
   Ryûsuke Hamaguchi
3. Licorice Pizza
   Paul Thomas Anderson
4. The Worst Person in the World
   Joachim Trier
5. Memoria
   Apichatpong Weerasethakul
6. The French Dispatch
   Wes Anderson
7. Flee
   Jonas Poher Rasmussen
8. Petite Maman
   Céline Sciamma
9. Passing
   Rebecca Hall
10. C'mon C'mon
    Mike Mills
11. The Souvenir Part II
    Joanna Hogg
12. The Green Knight
    David Lowery
13. Dune
    Denis Villeneuve
14. Pig
    Michael Sarnoski
15. Summer of Soul (...Or, When the Revolution Could Not Be Televised)
    Questlove
16. The Lost Daughter
    Maggie Gyllenhaal
17. Wheel of Fortune and Fantasy
    Ryûsuke Hamaguchi
18. West Side Story
    Steven Spielberg
19. The Tragedy of Macbeth
    Joel Coen
20. Days
    Tsai Ming-liang
21. Belfast
    Kenneth Branagh
22. Bergman Island
    Mia Hansen-Løve
23. A Hero
    Asghar Farhadi
24. Bad Luck Banging or Loony Porn
    Radu Jude
25. Benedetta
    Paul Verhoeven
26. The Disciple
    Chaitanya Tamhane
27. CODA
    Sian Heder
28. What Do We See When We Look at the Sky?
    Aleksandre Koberidze
29. Titane
    Julia Ducournau
30. Annette
    Leos Carax
31. The Velvet Underground
    Todd Haynes
32. Red Rocket
    Sean Baker
33. El Planeta
    Amalia Ulman
34. In the Same Breath
    Nanfu Wang
35. Preparations to be Together for an Unknown Period of Time
    Lili Horvát
36. Zola
    Janicza Bravo
37. Spencer
    Pablo Larraín
38. The Card Counter
    Paul Schrader
39. Nine Days
    Edson Oda
40. Jockey
    Clint Bentley
41. Test Pattern
    Shatara Michelle Ford
42. Belle
    Mamoru Hosoda
43. Beginning
    Déa Kulumbegashvili
44. Cyrano
    Joe Wright
45. Parallel Mothers
    Pedro Almodóvar
46. Nightmare Alley
    Guillermo del Toro
47. Identifying Features
    Fernanda Valadez
48. Mass
    Fran Kranz
49. King Richard
    Reinaldo Marcus Green
50. Undine
    Christian Petzold

Best Documentary

1. Flee
   Jonas Poher Rasmussen
2. Summer of Soul (...Or, When the Revolution Could Not Be Televised)
   Questlove
3. Procession
   Robert Greene
4. The Velvet Underground
   Todd Haynes
5. The Rescue
   Elizabeth Chai Vasarhelyi and Jimmy Chin
6. The Beatles: Get Back
   Peter Jackson
7. Her Socialist Smile
   John Gianvito
8. All Light, Everywhere
   Theo Anthony
9. The Sparks Brothers
   Edgar Wright
10. Val
    Aaron Fradkin
10. Attica
    Stanley Nelson and Traci Curry

Spin: The 30 Best Albums Of 2021

[see also 2020 • 2010s • 2019 • 2018 • 2017 • 2016 • 2015 • 2012 • 2011]

1. Glow On
   Turnstile
2. Jubilee
   Japanese Breakfast
3. Sound Ancestors
   Madlib
4. Sour
   Olivia Rodrigo
5. Home Video
   Lucy Dacus
6. Call Me If You Get Lost
   Tyler, The Creator
7. New Long Leg
   Dry Cleaning
8. In These Silent Days
   Brandi Carlile
9. 333
   Tinashe
10. Valentine
    Snail Mail
11. The Plugs I Met 2
    Benny the Butcher & Harry Fraud
12. Hushed and Grim
    Mastodon
13. I Don’t Live Here Anymore
    The War on Drugs
14. Ignorance
    The Weather Station
15. Bright Green Field
    Squid
16. Haram
    Armand Hammer & The Alchemist
17. Collapsed in Sunbeams
    Arlo Parks
18. Yol
    Altın Gün
19. By the Time I Get to Phoenix
    Injury Reserve
20. Any Shape You Take
    Indigo De Souza
21. Daddy's Home
    St. Vincent
22. Entertainment, Death
    The Spirit Of The Beehive
23. When Smoke Rises
    Mustafa
24. Butterfly 3000
    King Gizzard & The Lizard Wizard
25. Chemtrails over the Country Club
    Lana Del Rey
26. A Martyr’s Reward
    Ka
27. Tide Turns Eternal
    Dream Unending
28. Una Rosa
    Xenia Rubinos
29. Tha YOD Fahim
    Your Old Droog, Tha God Fahim
30. An Evening with Silk Sonic
    Silk Sonic

Hyperallergic: Our Top 10 Films of 2021

[see also 2020 • 2010s • 2019]

1. Memoria
   Apichatpong Weerasethakul
2. Drive My Car
   Ryûsuke Hamaguchi
2. Wheel of Fortune and Fantasy
   Ryûsuke Hamaguchi
3. Annette
   Leos Carax
4. Days
   Tsai Ming-liang
5. Procession
   Robert Greene
6. All Light, Everywhere
   Theo Anthony
7. Bergman Island
   Mia Hansen-Løve
8. Licorice Pizza
   Paul Thomas Anderson
9. Faya Dayi
   Jessica Beshir
10. Summer of Soul (...Or, When the Revolution Could Not Be Televised)
    Questlove

Honorable Mentions

• Titane
  Julia Ducournau
• Bad Luck Banging or Loony Porn
  Radu Jude
• What Do We See When We Look at the Sky?
  Aleksandre Koberidze
• The Power of the Dog
  Jane Campion
• About Endlessness
  Roy Andersson
• The Worst Person in the World
  Joachim Trier
• Petite Maman
  Céline Sciamma
• C'mon C'mon
  Mike Mills

Vinyl Me, Please: The Best Albums of 2021

[see also 2022 • 2020 • 2019 • 2018 • 2017]

• Vulture Prince
  Arooj Aftab
• Black Metal 2
  Dean Blunt
• There’s A Nightclub Inside My Head
  Boston Bun
• gelato
  boylife
• Inside (The Songs)
  Bo Burnham
• Downtiming
  Camp Trash
• Wink
  Chai
• Cosmic Transitions
  Isaiah Collier & The Chosen Few
• Sensational
  Erika de Casier
• Any Shape You Take
  Indigo De Souza
• Absolutely
  Dijon
• Vincent Neil Emerson
  Vincent Neil Emerson
• Promises
  Floating Points / Pharoah Sanders / London Symphony Orchestra
• Music for Living Spaces
  Green-House
• Shade
  Grouper
• Remember Her Name
  Mickey Guyton
• Haram
  Armand Hammer & The Alchemist
• Far In
  Helado Negro
• Mood Valiant
  Hiatus Kaiyote
• Jubilee
  Japanese Breakfast
• Don't Go Tellin' Your Momma
  Topaz Jones
• Cool Dry Place
  Katy Kirby
• Butterfly 3000
  King Gizzard & The Lizard Wizard
• A Color of the Sky
  Lightning Bug
• Montero
  Lil Nas X
• Sometimes I Might Be Introvert
  Little Simz
• Fatigue
  L'Rain
• Mercurial World
  Magdalena Bay
• Disco!
  MIKE
• Rare Pleasure
  Mndsgn
• Star-Crossed
  Kacey Musgraves
• When Smoke Rises
  Mustafa
• Notes With Attachments
  Blake Mills and Pino Palladino
• GUMBO'!
  Pink Siifu
• All Day Gentle Hold !
  Porches
• Sour
  Olivia Rodrigo
• Surrender
  Rüfüs Du Sol
• Deacon
  serpentwithfeet
• The Ballad of Dood & Juanita
  Sturgill Simpson
• Space 1.8
  Nala Sinephro
• Mother
  Cleo Sol
• Entertainment, Death
  The Spirit Of The Beehive
• Heaux Tales
  Jazmine Sullivan
• Call Me If You Get Lost
  Tyler, The Creator
• Ookii Gekkou
  Vanishing Twin
• With Opened Eyes
  Vindata
• Public Storage
  Hana Vu
• See You Next Time
  Joshua Ray Walker
• Twin Plagues
  Wednesday
• Urban Driftwood
  Yasmin Williams

Sarah Larson: The Best Podcasts of 2021, as published by The New Yorker

[see also 2023 • 2022 • 2020 • 2019 • 2018]

• Radiolab: Mixtape
• The Paris Review
• Stay Away from Matthew MaGill
• Forever is a Long Time
• Southlake
• 9/12
• Suspect
• Cocaine & Rhinestones
• La Brega
• Resistance

BuzzFeed: The Best Books Of 2021

[see also 2022 • 2010s • 2019 • 2018]

Fiction

• Afterparties
  Anthony Veasna So
• Beautiful World, Where Are You
  Sally Rooney
• The Archer
  Shruti Swamy
• What Strange Paradise
  Omar El Akkad
• The Prophets
  Robert Jones Jr.
• No One Is Talking About This
  Patricia Lockwood
• Somebody Loves You
  Mona Arshi
• Detransition, Baby
  Torrey Peters
• The Lost Apothecary
  Sarah Penner
• The Sentence
  Louise Erdrich
• The Committed
  Viet Thanh Nguyen
• The Wrong End of the Telescope
  Rabih Alameddine
• Fight Night
  Miriam Toews

Nonfiction

• Things I Have Withheld
  Kei Miller
• Crying in H Mart
  Michelle Zauner
• Empire of Pain

  The Secret History of the Sackler Dynasty
  Patrick Radden Keefe
• What Doesn't Kill You

  A Life with Chronic Illness - Lessons from a Body in Revolt
  Tessa Miller
• A Little Devil in America

  Notes in Praise of Black Performance
  Hanif Abdurraqib
• Seek You

  A Journey Through American Loneliness
  Kristen Radtke
• One Friday in April

  A Story of Suicide and Survival
  Donald Antrim
• Three Girls from Bronzeville

  A Uniquely American Memoir of Race, Fate, and Sisterhood
  Dawn Turner
• Concepcion

  An Immigrant Family's Fortunes
  Albert Samaha

St. Louis Post-Dispatch: 20 Favorite New Books of 2021

[see also 2015]

• Afterparties
  Anthony Veasna So
• All That She Carried

  The Journey of Ashley's Sack, a Black Family Keepsake
  Tiya Miles
• Art Along the Rivers

  A Bicentennial Celebration
  Amy Torbert and Melissa Wolfe (editors)
• Bewilderment
  Richard Powers
• Blue Song

  St. Louis in the Life and Work of Tennessee Williams
  Henry I. Schvey
• Cloud Cuckoo Land
  Anthony Doerr
• Crossroads
  Jonathan Franzen
• Harlem Shuffle
  Colson Whitehead
• Island Infernos

  The US Army's Pacific War Odyssey, 1944
  John C. McManus
• Klara and the Sun
  Kazuo Ishiguro
• The Lincoln Highway
  Amor Towles
• The Lost Apothecary
  Sarah Penner
• Matrix
  Lauren Groff
• The Opposite of Chance
  Margaret Hermes
• Poorly Understood

  What America Gets Wrong About Poverty
  Mark Robert Rank, Lawrence M. Eppard, Heather E. Bullock
• The Push
  Ashley Audrain
• The Sum of Us

  What Racism Costs Everyone and How We Can Prosper Together
  Heather McGhee
• Trains and Trolleys

  Railroads and Streetcars in St. Louis
  Molly Butterworth
• The Trees
  Percival Everett
• What's Done in Darkness
  Laura McHugh

The Skinny: Films of 2021

[see also 2022]

1. Petite Maman
   Céline Sciamma
2. Limbo
   Ben Sharrock
3. First Cow
   Kelly Reichardt
4. Titane
   Julia Ducournau
5. The Green Knight
   David Lowery
6. Drive My Car
   Ryûsuke Hamaguchi
7. Minari
   Lee Isaac Chung
8. Summer of Soul (...Or, When the Revolution Could Not Be Televised)
   Questlove
9. The French Dispatch
   Wes Anderson
10. Shiva Baby
    Emma Seligman
11. The Power of the Dog
    Jane Campion
12. Dune
    Denis Villeneuve
13. Pig
    Michael Sarnoski
14. Nomadland
    Chloé Zhao
15. Spencer
    Pablo Larraín
16. The Lost Daughter
    Maggie Gyllenhaal
17. Undine
    Christian Petzold
18. Annette
    Leos Carax
19. Promising Young Woman
    Emerald Fennell
20. Sound of Metal
    Darius Marder