Year-End Lists

The Washington Post: The 10 Best Books of 2021

[see also The 10 Best Books of 2023 • 50 Notable Works of Nonfiction in 2023 • 50 Notable Works of Fiction in 2023 • 50 Notable Works of Nonfiction in 2022 • 50 Notable Works of Fiction in 2022 • The 10 Best Books of 2022 • 50 Notable Works of Nonfiction in 2021 • 50 Notable Works of Fiction in 2021 • 10 Best Books of 2020 • 50 Notable Works of Nonfiction in 2020 • 50 Notable Works of Fiction in 2020 • Best Books of 2019 • 10 Best Books of 2018 • 100 Notable Books of 2018 • 10 Best Books of 2017 • The 10 Best Books of 2016 • 10 Best Books of 2015 • The Ten Best Books of 2014 • Top 10 Books of 2013 • The 10 Best Books of 2012]

• The Afghanistan Papers

  A Secret History of the War
  Craig Whitlock
• All That She Carried

  The Journey of Ashley's Sack, a Black Family Keepsake
  Tiya Miles
• Crossroads
  Jonathan Franzen
• Empire of Pain

  The Secret History of the Sackler Dynasty
  Patrick Radden Keefe
• Gold Diggers
  Sanjena Sathian
• Klara and the Sun
  Kazuo Ishiguro
• The Love Songs of W.E.B. Du Bois
  Honorée Fanonne Jeffers
• Matrix
  Lauren Groff
• Somebody's Daughter
  Ashley C. Ford
• Under a White Sky

  The Nature of the Future
  Elizabeth Kolbert

National Book Award: Fiction 2021

[see also Fiction 2023 • Nonfiction 2023 • Fiction 2022 • Nonfiction 2022 • Nonfiction 2021 • Fiction 2020 • Nonfiction 2020 • Fiction 2019 • Nonfiction 2019 • Fiction 2018 • Nonfiction 2018 • Fiction 2017 • Nonfiction 2017 • Fiction 2016 • Nonfiction 2016 • Fiction 2013 • Nonfiction 2013]

Winner

• Hell of a Book
  Jason Mott

Finalists

• Cloud Cuckoo Land
  Anthony Doerr
• Matrix
  Lauren Groff
• Zorrie
  Laird Hunt
• The Prophets
  Robert Jones Jr.

Longlist

• The Love Songs of W.E.B. Du Bois
  Honorée Fanonne Jeffers
• Abundance
  Jakob Guanzon
• Intimacies
  Katie Kitamura
• The Souvenir Museum
  Elizabeth McCracken
• Bewilderment
  Richard Powers

National Book Award: Nonfiction 2021

[see also Fiction 2023 • Nonfiction 2023 • Fiction 2022 • Nonfiction 2022 • Fiction 2021 • Fiction 2020 • Nonfiction 2020 • Fiction 2019 • Nonfiction 2019 • Fiction 2018 • Nonfiction 2018 • Fiction 2017 • Nonfiction 2017 • Fiction 2016 • Nonfiction 2016 • Fiction 2013 • Nonfiction 2013]

Winner

• All That She Carried

  The Journey of Ashley's Sack, a Black Family Keepsake
  Tiya Miles

Finalists

• A Little Devil in America

  Notes in Praise of Black Performance
  Hanif Abdurraqib
• Running Out

  In Search of Water on the High Plains
  Lucas Bessire
• Tastes Like War

  A Memoir
  Grace M. Cho
• Covered with Night

  A Story of Murder and Indigenous Justice in Early America
  Nicole Eustace

Longlist

• The Ground Breaking

  An American City and Its Search for Justice
  Scott Ellsworth
• The Sum of Us

  What Racism Costs Everyone and How We Can Prosper Together
  Heather McGhee
• The Free World

  Art and Thought in the Cold War
  Louis Menand
• How the Word Is Passed

  A Reckoning with the History of Slavery Across America
  Clint Smith
• The Black Civil War Soldier

  A Visual History of Conflict and Citizenship
  Deborah Willis

Publishers Weekly: 10 Best Books of 2021

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

• Assembly
  Natasha Brown
• Second Place
  Rachel Cusk
• A Shock
  Keith Ridgway
• The War for Gloria
  Atticus Lish
• Wayward
  Dana Spiotta
• All That She Carried

  The Journey of Ashley's Sack, a Black Family Keepsake
  Tiya Miles
• All the Frequent Troubles of Our Days

  The True Story of the American Woman at the Heart of the German Resistance to Hitler
  Rebecca Donner
• Dirty Work

  Essential Jobs and the Hidden Toll of Inequality in America
  Eyal Press
• A Little Devil in America

  Notes in Praise of Black Performance
  Hanif Abdurraqib
• Somebody's Daughter
  Ashley C. Ford

Oprah Daily: 20 Favorite Books of 2021

[see also 2023 • 2022]

1. Cloud Cuckoo Land
   Anthony Doerr
2. The Man Who Lived Underground
   Richard Wright
3. The Love Songs of W.E.B. Du Bois
   Honorée Fanonne Jeffers
4. On Freedom

   Four Songs of Care and Constraint
   Maggie Nelson
5. Great Circle
   Maggie Shipstead
6. Putting It Together

   How Stephen Sondheim and I Created "Sunday in the Park with George"
   James Lapine
7. The Sweetness of Water
   Nathan Harris
8. The Lincoln Highway
   Amor Towles
9. New York, My Village
   Uwem Akpan
10. Infinite Country
    Patricia Engel
11. Crossroads
    Jonathan Franzen
12. Bewilderment
    Richard Powers
13. Harlem Shuffle
    Colson Whitehead
14. The Dangers of Smoking in Bed
    Mariana Enriquez
15. Mrs. March
    Virginia Feito
16. Intimacies
    Katie Kitamura
17. These Precious Days
    Ann Patchett
18. The Sentence
    Louise Erdrich
19. Major Labels

    A History of Popular Music in Seven Genres
    Kelefa Sanneh
20. On Juneteenth
    Annette Gordon-Reed

Powell's Books: The 14 Best Nonfiction Books of 2021

[see also Best Nonfiction of 2023 • Best Fiction of 2023 • Best Nonfiction of 2022 • Best Fiction of 2022 • The 18 Best Novels of 2021 • Best Fiction of 2020 • Best Nonfiction of 2020 • Best Fiction of 2019 • Best Nonfiction of 2019 • Best Fiction of 2018 • Best Nonfiction of 2018 • Best Nonfiction of 2017 • Best Fiction of 2017 • Best Fiction of 2016 • Best Nonfiction of 2016 • Best Nonfiction Books of 2015 • Best Fiction Books of 2015 • Best Fiction of 2014 • Best Nonfiction of 2014]

• How to Resist Amazon and Why
  Danny Caine
• Crying in H Mart
  Michelle Zauner
• Poet Warrior
  Joy Harjo
• Work Won't Love You Back

  How Devotion to Our Jobs Keeps Us Exploited, Exhausted, and Alone
  Sarah Jaffe
• On Time and Water
  Andri Snær Magnason
• The Sum of Us

  What Racism Costs Everyone and How We Can Prosper Together
  Heather McGhee
• Hip-Hop (And Other Things)
  Shea Serrano
• Empire of Pain

  The Secret History of the Sackler Dynasty
  Patrick Radden Keefe
• Icebound

  Shipwrecked at the Edge of the World
  Andrea Pitzer
• Islands of Abandonment

  Nature Rebounding in the Post-Human Landscape
  Cal Flyn
• The Secret to Superhuman Strength
  Alison Bechdel
• A Little Devil in America

  Notes in Praise of Black Performance
  Hanif Abdurraqib
• No Planet B

  The Teen Vogue Guide to the Climate Crisis
  Lucy Diavolo (editor)
• The 1619 Project

  A New Origin Story
  Nikole Hannah-Jones (creator)

Powell's Books: The 18 Best Novels of 2021

[see also Best Nonfiction of 2023 • Best Fiction of 2023 • Best Nonfiction of 2022 • Best Fiction of 2022 • The 14 Best Nonfiction Books of 2021 • Best Fiction of 2020 • Best Nonfiction of 2020 • Best Fiction of 2019 • Best Nonfiction of 2019 • Best Fiction of 2018 • Best Nonfiction of 2018 • Best Nonfiction of 2017 • Best Fiction of 2017 • Best Fiction of 2016 • Best Nonfiction of 2016 • Best Nonfiction Books of 2015 • Best Fiction Books of 2015 • Best Fiction of 2014 • Best Nonfiction of 2014]

• Afterparties
  Anthony Veasna So
• Beautiful World, Where Are You
  Sally Rooney
• Caul Baby
  Morgan Jerkins
• Damnation Spring
  Ash Davidson
• The Dangers of Smoking in Bed
  Mariana Enriquez
• Detransition, Baby
  Torrey Peters
• Everyone Knows Your Mother Is a Witch
  Rivka Galchen
• The Final Revival of Opal & Nev
  Dawnie Walton
• A Ghost in the Throat
  Doireann Ní Ghríofa
• Loop
  Brenda Lozano
• Milk Fed
  Melissa Broder
• Morningside Heights
  Joshua Henkin
• No One Is Talking About This
  Patricia Lockwood
• Peaces
  Helen Oyeyemi
• Several People Are Typing
  Calvin Kasulke
• The Shimmering State
  Meredith Westgate
• Sorrowland
  Rivers Solomon
• What Strange Paradise
  Omar El Akkad

The Booker Prize: Best Fiction of 2021

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

Winner

• The Promise
  Damon Galgut

Shortlist

• A Passage North
  Anuk Arudpragasam
• No One Is Talking About This
  Patricia Lockwood
• The Fortune Men
  Nadifa Mohamed
• Bewilderment
  Richard Powers
• Great Circle
  Maggie Shipstead

Longlist

• Second Place
  Rachel Cusk
• The Sweetness of Water
  Nathan Harris
• Klara and the Sun
  Kazuo Ishiguro
• An Island
  Karen Jennings
• A Town Called Solace
  Mary Lawson
• China Room
  Sunjeev Sahota
• Light Perpetual
  Francis Spufford

Kirkus Prize: Nonfiction 2021, awarded by Kirkus Reviews

[see also Fiction 2023 • Nonfiction 2023 • Nonfiction 2022 • Fiction 2022 • Fiction 2021 • Nonfiction 2020 • Fiction 2020 • Nonfiction 2019 • Fiction 2019 • Nonfiction 2018 • Fiction 2018 • Nonfiction 2017 • Fiction 2017 • Nonfiction 2016 • Fiction 2016 • Nonfiction 2015 • Fiction 2015 • Nonfiction 2014 • Fiction 2014]

Winner

• Punch Me Up to the Gods
  Brian Broome

Finalists

• People Love Dead Jews

  Reports from a Haunted Present
  Dara Horn
• All That She Carried

  The Journey of Ashley's Sack, a Black Family Keepsake
  Tiya Miles
• Seek You

  A Journey Through American Loneliness
  Kristen Radtke
• Lightning Flowers

  My Journey to Uncover the Cost of Saving a Life
  Katherine E. Standefer
• Horizontal Vertigo

  A City Called Mexico
  Juan Villoro

Kirkus Prize: Fiction 2021, awarded by Kirkus Reviews

[see also Fiction 2023 • Nonfiction 2023 • Nonfiction 2022 • Fiction 2022 • Nonfiction 2021 • Nonfiction 2020 • Fiction 2020 • Nonfiction 2019 • Fiction 2019 • Nonfiction 2018 • Fiction 2018 • Nonfiction 2017 • Fiction 2017 • Nonfiction 2016 • Fiction 2016 • Nonfiction 2015 • Fiction 2015 • Nonfiction 2014 • Fiction 2014]

Winner

• Harrow
  Joy Williams

Finalists

• The Dangers of Smoking in Bed
  Mariana Enriquez
• The Love Songs of W.E.B. Du Bois
  Honorée Fanonne Jeffers
• My Monticello
  Jocelyn Nicole Johnson
• Bolla
  Pajtim Statovci
• Harlem Shuffle
  Colson Whitehead