I’m not too sure that 100 books in a year represents an essential “must-read” list but seeing the vast number of books published each year, you have to cut-it-off someplace. I also think that too many of these Top 100 lists that come out each year are heavily skewed to the commercial side of publishing … popular books, even horrid poorly written books, sell a lot of copies to the proletariate.
FICTION & POETRY
- ALL OUR NAMES. By Dinaw Mengestu
- ALL THE BIRDS, SINGING. By Evie Wyld
- ALL THE LIGHT WE CANNOT SEE. By Anthony Doerr
- AMERICAN INNOVATIONS. By Rivka Galchen
- THE ASSASSINATION OF MARGARET THATCHER: Stories. By Hilary Mantel
- THE BALLAD OF A SMALL PLAYER. By Lawrence Osborne
- BARK: Stories. By Lorrie Moore.
- THE BLAZING WORLD. By Siri Hustvedt
- THE BONE CLOCKS. By David Mitchell
- THE BOOK OF STRANGE NEW THINGS. By Michel Faber
- THE BOOK OF UNKNOWN AMERICANS. By Cristina Henríquez
- BOY, SNOW, BIRD. By Helen Oyeyemi
- A BRIEF HISTORY OF SEVEN KILLINGS. By Marlon James
- CAN’T AND WON’T. By Lydia Davis
- THE COLD SONG. By Linn Ullmann
- COLORLESS TSUKURU TAZAKI AND HIS YEARS OF PILGRIMAGE. By Haruki Murakami
- DEPT. OF SPECULATION. By Jenny Offill
- THE DOG. By Joseph O’Neill
- EUPHORIA. By Lily King
- EVERYTHING I NEVER TOLD YOU. By Celeste Ng
- F. By Daniel Kehlmann
- FAITHFUL AND VIRTUOUS NIGHT. By Louise Glück
- FAMILY LIFE. By Akhil Sharma
- FOURTH OF JULY CREEK. By Smith Henderson
- A GIRL IS A HALF-FORMED THING. By Eimear McBride
- I PITY THE POOR IMMIGRANT. By Zachary Lazar
- THE LAUGHING MONSTERS. By Denis Johnson
- LENA FINKLE’S MAGIC BARREL. Written and illustrated by Anya Ulinich
- LET ME BE FRANK WITH YOU: A Frank Bascombe Book. By Richard Ford
- LILA. By Marilynne Robinson
- LOVERS AT THE CHAMELEON CLUB, PARIS 1932. By Francine Prose
- THE MAGICIAN’S LAND. By Lev Grossman
- THE MOOR’S ACCOUNT. By Laila Lalami
- MOTHERLAND FATHERLAND HOMELANDSEXUALS. By Patricia Lockwood
- MY STRUGGLE. Book 3: Boyhood. By Karl Ove Knausgaard
- THE NARROW ROAD TO THE DEEP NORTH. By Richard Flanagan
- NORA WEBSTER. By Colm Toibin
- PANIC IN A SUITCASE. By Yelena Akhtiorskaya
- THE PAYING GUESTS. By Sarah Waters
- THE POETRY OF DEREK WALCOTT 1948-2013. Selected by Glyn Maxwell
- REDEPLOYMENT. By Phil Klay
- REMEMBER ME LIKE THIS. By Bret Anthony Johnston
- A REPLACEMENT LIFE. By Boris Fishman
- SONG OF THE SHANK. By Jeffery Renard Allen
- 10:04. By Ben Lerner
- THIRTY GIRLS. By Susan Minot
- THOSE WHO LEAVE AND THOSE WHO STAY: Book 3, The Neapolitan Novels: “Middle Time.” By Elena Ferrante
- THE WALLCREEPER. By Nell Zink
- WE ARE NOT OURSELVES. By Matthew Thomas
- WHEN MYSTICAL CREATURES ATTACK! By Kathleen Founds
NONFICTION
- AMERICAN MIRROR: The Life and Art of Norman Rockwell. By Deborah Solomon
- BEING MORTAL: Medicine and What Matters in the End. By Atul Gawande
- BUILDING A BETTER TEACHER: How Teaching Works (and How to Teach It to Everyone). By Elizabeth Green
- CAN’T WE TALK ABOUT SOMETHING MORE PLEASANT?Written and illustrated by Roz Chast
- CHINA’S SECOND CONTINENT: How a Million Migrants Are Building a New Empire in Africa. By Howard W. French
- CUBED: A Secret History of the Workplace. By Nikil Saval
- DEEP DOWN DARK: The Untold Stories of 33 Men Buried in a Chilean Mine, and the Miracle That Set Them Free. By Héctor Tobar
- DEMON CAMP: A Soldier’s Exorcism. By Jennifer Percy
- DUTY: Memoirs of a Secretary at War. By Robert M. Gates
- DYING EVERY DAY: Seneca at the Court of Nero. By James Romm
- EICHMANN BEFORE JERUSALEM: The Unexamined Life of a Mass Murderer. By Bettina Stangneth
- ELEPHANT COMPANY: The Inspiring Story of an Unlikely Hero and the Animals Who Helped Him Save Lives in World War II. By Vicki Constantine Croke
- EMBATTLED REBEL: Jefferson Davis as Commander in Chief. By James M. McPherson
- THE EMPATHY EXAMS: Essays. By Leslie Jamison
- FACTORY MAN: How One Furniture Maker Battled Offshoring, Stayed Local — and Helped Save an American Town. By Beth Macy
- THE FAME LUNCHES: On Wounded Icons, Money, Sex, the Brontës, and the Importance of Handbags. By Daphne Merkin
- FIRE SHUT UP IN MY BONES: A Memoir. By Charles M. Blow
- FORCING THE SPRING: Inside the Fight for Marriage Equality.By Jo Becker
- GANDHI BEFORE INDIA. By Ramachandra Guha
- GEEK SUBLIME: The Beauty of Code, the Code of Beauty. By Vikram Chandra
- HOTEL FLORIDA: Truth, Love, and Death in the Spanish Civil War. By Amanda Vaill
- THE HUMAN AGE: The World Shaped by Us. By Diane Ackerman
- THE INVISIBLE BRIDGE: The Fall of Nixon and the Rise of Reagan. By Rick Perlstein
- THE INVISIBLE FRONT: Love and Loss in an Era of Endless War.By Yochi Dreazen
- THE INVISIBLE HISTORY OF THE HUMAN RACE: How DNA and History Shape Our Identities and Our Futures. By Christine Kenneally
- JUST MERCY: A Story of Justice and Redemption. By Bryan Stevenson
- LIMONOV. By Emmanuel Carrère. Translated by John Lambert. (Farrar, Straus & Giroux, $30.) Carrère applies his affinity for the big questions to his biography of an uncategorizable Russian writer.
- LITTLE FAILURE: A Memoir. By Gary Shteyngar
- THE MADWOMAN IN THE VOLVO: My Year of Raging Hormones. By Sandra Tsing Loh
- NAPOLEON: A Life. By Andrew Roberts
- NO GOOD MEN AMONG THE LIVING: America, the Taliban, and the War Through Afghan Eyes. By Anand Gopal
- NOT I: Memoirs of a German Childhood. By Joachim Fest
- ON IMMUNITY: An Inoculation. By Eula Biss
- ON THE RUN: Fugitive Life in an American City. By Alice Goffman
- 100 ESSAYS I DON’T HAVE TIME TO WRITE: On Umbrellas and Sword Fights, Parades and Dogs, Fire Alarms, Children, and Theater. By Sarah Ruhl
- THE PARTHENON ENIGMA. By Joan Breton Connelly
- PAY ANY PRICE: Greed, Power, and Endless War. By James Risen
- PENELOPE FITZGERALD: A Life. By Hermione Lee
- PRO: Reclaiming Abortion Rights. By Katha Pollitt
- THE SHORT AND TRAGIC LIFE OF ROBERT PEACE: A Brilliant Young Man Who Left Newark for the Ivy League. By Jeff Hobbs
- THE SIXTH EXTINCTION: An Unnatural History. By Elizabeth Kolbert
- A SPY AMONG FRIENDS: Kim Philby and the Great Betrayal. By Ben Macintyre
- STUFF MATTERS: Exploring the Marvelous Materials That Shape Our Man-Made World. By Mark Miodownik
- THE TEACHER WARS: A History of America’s Most Embattled Profession. By Dana Goldstein
- THIRTEEN DAYS IN SEPTEMBER: Carter, Begin, and Sadat at Camp David. By Lawrence Wright
- THIS CHANGES EVERYTHING: Capitalism vs. the Climate. By Naomi Klein
- THROWN. By Kerry Howley
- THE TRIP TO ECHO SPRING: On Writers and Drinking. By Olivia Laing
- THE TRUE AMERICAN: Murder and Mercy in Texas. By Anand Giridharadas
- WORLD ORDER. By Henry Kissinger
A Celebration of Reading 