--- description: The fiction, nonfiction and poetry that shifted our perspectives, uncovered essential truths and encouraged us forward title: The 100 Must-Read Books of 2021 image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt90efb0766f9a75db/698a1ff909208f8419418970/featured-image.jpg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # The 100 Must-Read Books of 2021 The fiction, nonfiction and poetry that shifted our perspectives, uncovered essential truths and encouraged us forward Annabel Gutterman, Cady Lang, Arianna Rebolini and Lucas Wittmann ## Best Books 2021 *  [1000 Years of Joys and Sorrows](/collections/100-must-read-books-2021/6120654/1000-years-of-joys-and-sorrows/) by Ai Weiwei byTIME Staff *  [Acts of Desperation](/collections/100-must-read-books-2021/6120703/acts-of-desperation/) by Megan Nolan byTIME Staff *  [Afterparties](/collections/100-must-read-books-2021/6120635/afterparties/) by Anthony Veasna So byTIME Staff *  [Aftershocks](/collections/100-must-read-books-2021/6120665/aftershocks/) by Nadia Owusu byTIME Staff *  [All That She Carried](/collections/100-must-read-books-2021/6120582/all-that-she-carried/) by Tiya Miles byTIME Staff *  [All the Frequent Troubles of Our Days](/collections/100-must-read-books-2021/6120512/all-the-frequent-troubles-of-our-days/) by Rebecca Donner byTIME Staff *  [America on Fire](/collections/100-must-read-books-2021/6120693/america-on-fire/) by Elizabeth Hinton byTIME Staff *  [Beautiful World, Where Are You](/collections/100-must-read-books-2021/6120586/beautiful-world-where-are-you/) by Sally Rooney byTIME Staff *  [The Book of Form and Emptiness](/collections/100-must-read-books-2021/6120684/the-book-of-form-and-emptiness/) by Ruth Ozeki byTIME Staff *  [Call Us What We Carry](/collections/100-must-read-books-2021/6120675/call-us-what-we-carry/) by Amanda Gorman byTIME Staff *  [China Room](/collections/100-must-read-books-2021/6120666/china-room/) by Sunjeev Sahota byTIME Staff *  [The Chosen and the Beautiful](/collections/100-must-read-books-2021/6120670/the-chosen-and-the-beautiful/) by Nghi Vo byTIME Staff *  [Chronicles from the Land of the Happiest People on Earth](/collections/100-must-read-books-2021/6120674/chronicles-from-the-land-of-the-happiest-people-on-earth/) by Wole Soyinka byTIME Staff *  [Cloud Cuckoo Land](/collections/100-must-read-books-2021/6120679/cloud-cuckoo-land/) by Anthony Doerr byTIME Staff *  [The Code Breaker](/collections/100-must-read-books-2021/6120511/the-code-breaker/) by Walter Isaacson byTIME Staff *  [The Committed](/collections/100-must-read-books-2021/6120659/the-committed/) by Viet Thanh Nguyen byTIME Staff *  [The Copenhagen Trilogy](/collections/100-must-read-books-2021/6120638/the-copenhagen-trilogy/) by Tove Ditlevsen byTIME Staff *  [Covered with Night](/collections/100-must-read-books-2021/6120508/covered-with-night/) by Nicole Eustace byTIME Staff *  [Crossroads](/collections/100-must-read-books-2021/6120599/crossroads/) by Jonathan Franzen byTIME Staff *  [Crying in H Mart](/collections/100-must-read-books-2021/6120642/crying-in-h-mart/) by Michelle Zauner byTIME Staff *  [Dear Senthuran](/collections/100-must-read-books-2021/6120704/dear-senthuran/) by Akwaeke Emezi byTIME Staff *  [Detransition, Baby](/collections/100-must-read-books-2021/6120660/detransition-baby/) by Torrey Peters byTIME Staff *  [Empire of Pain](/collections/100-must-read-books-2021/6120658/empire-of-pain/) by Patrick Radden Keefe byTIME Staff *  [Everyone Knows Your Mother Is a Witch](/collections/100-must-read-books-2021/6120682/everyone-knows-your-mother-is-a-witch/) by Rivka Galchen byTIME Staff *  [The Family Roe](/collections/100-must-read-books-2021/6120507/the-family-roe/) by Joshua Prager byTIME Staff *  [The Final Girl Support Group](/collections/100-must-read-books-2021/6120647/the-final-girl-support-group/) by Grady Hendrix byTIME Staff *  [Finding the Mother Tree](/collections/100-must-read-books-2021/6120702/finding-the-mother-tree/) by Suzanne Simard byTIME Staff *  [Four Thousand Weeks](/collections/100-must-read-books-2021/6120695/four-thousand-weeks/) by Oliver Burkeman byTIME Staff *  [The Free World](/collections/100-must-read-books-2021/6120686/the-free-world/) by Louis Menand byTIME Staff *  [Girlhood](/collections/100-must-read-books-2021/6120629/girlhood/) by Melissa Febos byTIME Staff *  [Great Circle](/collections/100-must-read-books-2021/6120633/great-circle/) by Maggie Shipstead byTIME Staff *  [Harlem Shuffle](/collections/100-must-read-books-2021/6120634/harlem-shuffle/) by Colson Whitehead byTIME Staff *  [Heaven](/collections/100-must-read-books-2021/6120631/heaven/) by Mieko Kawakami byTIME Staff *  [Hell of a Book](/collections/100-must-read-books-2021/6120622/hell-of-a-book/) by Jason Mott byTIME Staff *  [How the Word Is Passed](/collections/100-must-read-books-2021/6120667/how-the-word-is-passed/) by Clint Smith byTIME Staff *  [Intimacies](/collections/100-must-read-books-2021/6120587/intimacies/) by Katie Kitamura byTIME Staff *  [Invisible Child](/collections/100-must-read-books-2021/6120669/invisible-child/) by Andrea Elliott byTIME Staff *  [The Kissing Bug](/collections/100-must-read-books-2021/6120692/the-kissing-bug/) by Daisy Hernández byTIME Staff *  [Klara and the Sun](/collections/100-must-read-books-2021/6120594/klara-and-the-sun/) by Kazuo Ishiguro byTIME Staff *  [Libertie](/collections/100-must-read-books-2021/6120653/libertie/) by Kaitlyn Greenidge byTIME Staff *  [The Life of the Mind](/collections/100-must-read-books-2021/6120584/the-life-of-the-mind/) by Christine Smallwood byTIME Staff *  [The Lincoln Highway](/collections/100-must-read-books-2021/6120651/the-lincoln-highway/) by Amor Towles byTIME Staff *  [A Little Devil in America](/collections/100-must-read-books-2021/6120657/a-little-devil-in-america/) by Hanif Abdurraqib byTIME Staff *  [The Loneliest Americans](/collections/100-must-read-books-2021/6120681/the-loneliest-americans/) by Jay Caspian Kang byTIME Staff *  [The Love Songs of W.E.B. Du Bois](/collections/100-must-read-books-2021/6120632/the-love-songs-of-web-du-bois/) by Honorée Fanonne Jeffers byTIME Staff *  [Malibu Rising](/collections/100-must-read-books-2021/6120672/malibu-rising/) by Taylor Jenkins Reid byTIME Staff *  [The Man Who Lived Underground](/collections/100-must-read-books-2021/6120640/the-man-who-lived-underground/) by Richard Wright byTIME Staff *  [Matrix](/collections/100-must-read-books-2021/6120596/matrix/) by Lauren Groff byTIME Staff *  [Mike Nichols: A Life](/collections/100-must-read-books-2021/6120646/mike-nichols-a-life/) by Mark Harris byTIME Staff *  [Milk Blood Heat](/collections/100-must-read-books-2021/6120514/milk-blood-heat/) by Dantiel W. 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