These Are the Best Books of 2021 (2024)

One fateful night, 15-year-old Libby's harried singlemom orders her sisterEllen, 12, to get out and walk home after their bickering gets to be too much. What follows not only shatters the girls' innocence, but sets off a chain of events that reveals the darkness in their sleepy town. This novel drives home how one moment can change everything.

Joan Didion needs no introduction, and neither does this incisive collection of works, mostly drawn from early in her career. Topics include Martha Stewart, a Gamblers Anonymous meeting, writing itself and her own doubts about it all. Didion fans shouldn't sleep this one, and neither should anyone else.

The plotmight feel familiar in this feminist twist on a classic gothic romance. Broke dog walker Jane has her sights on the wealthy Eddie Rochester. Eddie's got a past, but then again, so does she. Read to find out whether either of them can ever escape their secrets, or if their forbidden tryst is doomed to failure.

Acreeping aura of disquiet pervades this quietly unsettlingnovel set in a cluster of cottages in ruralScotland. Lacking cell service, the families spend their days watching each other's movementsthrough the blinds, learning perhaps a little too much about the others. It's a slow burn, but the payoff at the end will leave you breathless.

In a series of vivid, immersive short stories, we meet characters living in ever-so-slightly fanciful realitiesand others navigating deeply human experiences that could be ripped from our own lives. Whether you enjoy sci-fi, realistic fiction or bite-sized escapes from the real world, you'll find something to love here.

The Echota family is never the same after their son Ray-Ray is killed in a police shooting. His motherMaria struggles with her husbandEdgar'sworsening dementia, while their daughter Sonja leads a solitary life and her brother Edgarbattles drug addiction. As the anniversary of Ray-Ray's passing approaches, Maria and Edgar take in a foster son whose arrival just might be the change the family needs.

After Lexescapes from an abusive childhood, she does her best to put it all behind her. But when her mother dies in prison and leaves their family hometo her and her siblings, the woman formerly known as "Girl A" has to reconnect with the only people who really know what happened to them. This gripping story about family dynamics and the nature of human psychology will hold you tight all the way through.

This wildly original novel carries us across the world as Tiller, a mediocre college kid, gets tied up with Pong, an international businessman who takes him on the trip of a lifetime.We bounce between those adventures andthe life Tiller finds afterward withVal, a single mom in witness protection, as he tries to figure out what it all means. It'sby turns dark, humorous and almost sneakily insightful.

We all carry our past with us, and that's never clearer than in this powerful story about two strangers who come together when they both need someone the most. Recently divorced therapistTallie Clark pulls over when she sees Emmett about to jump from a bridge. She coaxes him to safety, and over the course of the emotional weekend that follows, we learn that Emmett's not the only one who needed saving.

You'll feel like you stepped back in time with this historical fiction set in WWII Britain. Four women from very different walks of life compete in a cooking competition to become a presenter on the BBC,and learn a lot about themselves — and each other — along the way. It's uplifting, a little scandalous and even includes recipes so you can cook along with them.

This fragmented, genre-bending story about a woman who earns social media fame and wonders about what "the portal" is doing to society, her brain and the people who use it,feels both strange and intimately familiar. It's bizarre, oddly funny, at times piercing and absolutely a must-read for all of us social media users.

When scandal strikes a prestigious New England Prep School, all of the students handle the fallout a bit differently. This striking debut follows nine young women as they navigate their own coming-of-age in the shadow of a controversy that feels all too familiar.

The hotly-anticipatedlatest novel from Nobel Prize in Literature-winner Kazuo Ishiguro deals with themes both personal and universal, familiar and futuristic. The 2017 Nobel committee described Ishiguro's books as "novels of great emotional force" that "uncovered the abyss beneath our illusory sense of connection with the world."Read this one and you'll understand why.

If you've ever wanted to really get back at someone, have we got a book for you. In 18th century England, a secret apothecary sells disguised poison to the victims of oppressive men.That is, until a client makes ahorrible mistake. Meanwhile, in modern-day England, an aspiring historian stumbles onto the storywith potentially devastating results.

Growing up in Brooklyn during the Reconstruction, Libertie knows her physician mother wants Libertie to follow a similar path. But instead,Libertie accepts the proposal of a Haitian man to pursue a new life,only to discover she's still not his equal on the island. Inspired by the story of one ofthe first Black female physicians in the U.S., this is a gorgeousmeditation on what freedom means.

In a gorgeous memoir that talks about how she put her life back together after a massive medical event, actress and humanitarian SharonStone lets us all in to her world. Whether you've followed her work or not, this slice of life makes a great read.

The Harlem Melancons are powerful and prosperous, thanks to their magical caul that has healing properties. When neighbor Leila turns to them to save her baby and the deal falls through, it sets off a chain of events that will reverberate through the Melancon clan and Harlem itself. This engrossing story is rich with mystery, page-turning tension and the powerful ways family can hold us even in toxic circ*mstances.