I’ve been doing Top Ten Tuesday for so long! I love it. I track my reading so that makes it easy to participate. This week the topic is one I suggested so even more fun. You’d think I’d be well prepared, right? Wrong! I had to go back into my lists to make my top ten!
Here are a few lists:
Guardian’s 100 Best Books of the 21st Century
Sorry Guardian but Normal People is not a future classic. It was disgusting. Other lists mention Wild by Cheryl Strayed–God help us. Heroin is amazing? No. It’s not. It kills.
25 Books to Read Before You Die: 21st Century by Powell’s Books
Fiction
The Underground Railroad by Colson Whitehead (2016)
Where the Crawdads Sing by Delia Owens
Train Dreams: A Novella by Denis Johnson
This Tender Land: A Novel by William Kent Krueger
The Poet X by Elizabeth Acevedo
Nonfiction
The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks by Rebecca Skloot (2010) nonfiction
Five Days at Memorial by Sheri Fink
The Glass Caste by Jeannette Walls
I read this when it came out–before blogging.
American Prison by Shane Bauer. Currently on sale for $5.99 for Kindle
In the Garden of Beasts by Erik Larson
I’ve probably forgotten a ton of others that should be on this list. Nickeled and Dimed is another I’d like to include. So many others.
Check out the rules at That Artsy Reader Girl and join in next week!
Hopewell's Public Library of Life 
Your list is a reminder to me to read Poet X and Train Dreams. And I’m delighted that you included some nonfiction.
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The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks was a wonderful read. Have you seen the film, too?
My post: https://lydiaschoch.com/top-ten-tuesday-21st-century-books-i-think-will-become-classics/
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I think this is a great topic, thanks for submitting it. I also included a few nonfiction on my list. I will go and look at the links you shared. I have The Glass Castle and Where the Crawdads Sing on my physical bookshelves to read this year…I need to bump them up 🙂 My post: https://cindysbookcorner.blogspot.com/2022/03/top-ten-tuesday-books-i-think-could-be.html
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“Best books” lists are always problematic because there is no way to be completely objective about it. Everyone’s tastes are so different that we’re NEVER all going to agree (and that’s okay)! From your list, I’ve only read FIVE DAYS AT MEMORIAL, which was excellent. Disturbing, but super compelling and eye-opening. I’m a Larson fan, so I definitely need to read IN THE GARDEN OF BEASTS one of these days.
Happy TTT!
Susan
http://www.blogginboutbooks.com
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Nice topic! 🙂 Railroad and Poet both seem like excellent choices… I think those are both quite highly regarded.
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Thank you!
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Congrats on coming up with the topic! And your book choices are great too — I only recently read This Tender Land and Crawdads, but both are excellent!
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I’d say Henrietta Lacks is already a modern classic non-fiction book.
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I agree, but need another! lol
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I have The Poet X on my TBR shelf right now. Hopefully I’ll get to it this year. I also sometimes get confused by newspapers’ lists of future classics or “books everybody must read.” I would not put Normal People or Wild on a classics list.
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Happily, I have read several of the books on your list. And I agree that Normal People was awful. I actually finished it but wonder how I managed to do that.
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Great list, Lisa. I have read a few of these, but will try to get to a couple more. I still need to read Henrietta Lacks.
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