The Tribune

By ALICIA WALLACE

DURING the summer, many people decide to at least try to read more. Maybe it is the vacation energy that comes at this time of year, maybe it is a way to model and share good habits with children, maybe it is a great way to pass the time in air conditioned spaces. There is no shortage of excellent literature, or even of books that have been discussed for reasons other than the brilliant language or memorable characters. With so many books being adapted for television shows and movies, even people who do not profess a love for books are curious about what is being published and how these works are entering popular culture.

The New York Times recently shared its list, The 100 Best Books of the 21st Century, which many readers found lackluster, and even discriminatory. To develop the list, it sent a survey to “literary luminaries” including Stephen King, Min Jin Lee, Marlon James, and Roxane Gay. Stephen King, in fact, put one of his own books on his list.

Readers were more dissatisfied with the list than the New York Times could have predicted. People commented on the issues of discrimination in the list, starting with the limitation to books published in the US and in English. Readers were quick to weigh in by naming the books they considered to be overrated. They also identified, of course, the excellent and much-loved books that were not on the list. In a later Instagram post, featuring a list of 100 books that readers wanted to see on the list, New York Times said, “One of the best things about working in books is just this: the passion of our constituency. No way would we deprive readers of the chance to vote for their own list and make their voices heard.”

Here are 11 of the books that made the Readers’ Choice: Best Books of the 21st Century:

1. Pachinko by Min Jin Lee. If you enjoy family sagas, pick up this book about a poor Korean immigrant family in Japan. I read it a few years ago, and it is one of my favourite books that I have read. Author of The Bone Clocks, David Mitchell, called it a “deep, broad, addictive history of a Korean family in Japan enduring and prospering through the 20th century.” Min Jin Lee is also the author of Free Food for Millionaires.

2. Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, and Tomorrow by Gabrielle Zevin. This may be hard to believe, but you do not have to be a gamer, or even know much about video games, to enjoy this book. It is fascinating and fun to dive into this world which is presented through the interesting characters and their relationships rather than the technicalities of game design.

3. The Underground Railroad by Colson Whitehead. This book was on every must-read and highly-recommended list, and it featured prominently in bookstores for a long time. It follows the “adventures” of an enslaved person “as she makes a desperate bid for freedom in the antebellum South”.

4. Homegoing by Yah Gyasi. Two sisters are born in different villages in Ghana, and they do not know of one another. Their lives take them in opposite directions. Ta-Nehisi Coates called it “an inspiration”, Zadie Smith called it “spectacular”, and Roxane Gay said, “I could not put this book down.”

5. The Warmth of Other Suns by Elizabeth Wilkerson. Wilkerson tells the story of the mass migration of Black people from the south in the US. Her deep research included interviews with more than 1,000 people. She used that data while focusing on the stories of three people who left the south in 1937, 1945, and 1953. Toni Morrison said this book is “profound, necessary and an absolute delight to read”.

6. Cutting for Stone by Abraham Verghese. Here is another one for readers who enjoy family sagas. Twin brothers Marion and Shiva, born in Ethiopia, are deeply interested in medicine. Their mother died in childbirth and their father disappeared. Love for the same woman tears them apart, and one of them, eventually, has to depend on the other along with their father, to survive. USA Today called Verghese “something of a magician as a novelist”.

7. Circe by Madeline Miller. I bought this book long after it was all the rage, very uncertain about it. I was convinced before I got very far into reading it. Circe isn’t just for Greek mythology enthusiasts. It is a complex hero, magic, interesting family and power dynamics, and imagery that can make readers long for a movie adaptation, even knowing that it would be unlikely to measure up to the book.

8. The Book Thief by Markus Zusak. Here is a book you can read with the young people in your life. Liesel, living outside of Munich in 1939, steals books and shares them with the people around her. It would be also interesting to read this alongside Anne Frank’s The Diary of a Young Girl.

9. Olive Kitteridge by Elizabeth Strout. If you love an unlikeable character, this one is for you. This book is also written as a series of short stories, so it lends itself to little breaks for the introspection it is likely to inspire. Olive is what we may call “rough”. She is no nonsense and bitingly honest. Her husband and son have a hard time connecting with her and understanding her way of being and doing. Through the stories in this book, it is clear that Olive is more than she is perceived to be and may actually be worthy of being the main character of this book.

10. There There by Tommy Orange. This book, grappling with history and the current reality for indigenous communities, got people’s attention when it swept into bookstores in 2018. Remain, Reclaim, and Return are the first three sections of the novel. You can likely imagine what the author worked to accomplish as he welcomes us to follow 12 characters from Native communities as they make their way to the Big Oakland Powwow. Marlon James said this it “drops on us like a thunderclap; the big, booming, explosive sound of 21st century literature finally announcing itself”.

11. Lessons in Chemistry by Bonnie Garmus. This novel has been widely features in bookstores and best titles lists. Elizabeth Zott works at a research institute that is hostile to women in the workplace and attempts to limit them. Zott unexpectedly becomes the star of a cooking show, and she may be teaching women more than how to make dinner. There is a television series adaptation that makes what seem to be substantial departures from the book. I watched three episodes on a plane and have yet to read the book, but I look forward to diving into it.

Which of these books, if any, pique your interest? Which, if any, have you already read, and what do you think of them?

The state of the world today demands that we read, and that we read widely. Read to be exposed to other worlds. Read to learn history, how it repeats itself, how it shapes people, and how it teaches those of us who are willing to learn and are invested in learning. Read to visit other parts of the world. Read to see beneath the surface of other people’s lives. Read to learn new languages. Read to feel something, or to experience many different emotions. Read to have new conversation starters. Read to get new ideas. Read to learn to write. Read to be immersed in the new, the bold, the strange, the provocative. Read to find your place in the work ahead of us, collectively.

Here are some of the other titles on the Readers’ Choice list that caught my attention:

1. On Earth We’re Briefly Gorgeous by Ocean Vuong.

2. Gone Girl by Gillian Flynn.

3. James by Percival Everett.

4. The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins.

5. Where the Crawdads Sing by Delia Owens.

6. The Sympathizer by Viet Thanh Nguyen.

7. Know My Name by Chanel Miller.

8. Sing, Unburied, Sing by Jesmyn Ward.

9. Crying in H Mart by Michelle Zauner.

10. 1Q84 by Haruki Murakami, translated by Jay Rubin and Philip Gabriel.

11. The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks by Rebecca Skloot.

12. In the Dream House by Carmen Maria Machado.

13. Remarkably Bright Creatures by Shelby Van Pelt.

Look them up. Read the book blurbs and samples. You may want to add a few of them to your To Be Read (TBR) pile, and you may decide to dive into one of them right away.