50
Used, New, and Out of Print Books - We Buy and Sell - Powell's Books
Cart |
|  my account  |  wish list  |  help   |  800-878-7323
Hello, | Login
MENU
  • Browse
    • New Arrivals
    • Bestsellers
    • Featured Preorders
    • Award Winners
    • Audio Books
    • See All Subjects
  • Used
  • Staff Picks
    • Staff Picks
    • Picks of the Month
    • Bookseller Displays
    • 50 Books for 50 Years
    • 25 Best 21st Century Sci-Fi & Fantasy
    • 25 PNW Books to Read Before You Die
    • 25 Books From the 21st Century
    • 25 Memoirs to Read Before You Die
    • 25 Global Books to Read Before You Die
    • 25 Women to Read Before You Die
    • 25 Books to Read Before You Die
  • Gifts
    • Gift Cards & eGift Cards
    • Powell's Souvenirs
    • Journals and Notebooks
    • socks
    • Games
  • Sell Books
  • Blog
  • Events
  • Find A Store

PowellsBooks.Blog
Authors, readers, critics, media − and booksellers.

Lists

25 Books to Read Before You Die: 21st Century

by Powell's Staff, August 13, 2018 4:56 PM
25 Books to Read Before You Die: 21st Century

It’s hard for us to believe that it’s been 17 years since we first toasted the new millennium. In January 2001, a gallon of gas cost $1.46. Facebook was three years from launching. 9/11 hadn’t happened. Huge political and cultural shifts were only months away… and some of the best books we’ve ever read were waiting in the wings. This year, for our fifth annual 25 Books to Read Before You Die list, we’ve selected novels, poetry, short stories, and nonfiction that speak to central concerns of 21st-century life: among them, race, heredity, identity, war, and the vanishing wild. From double agents to Hurricane Katrina to intergalactic travel, these 25 vastly different books create a stunning portrait of the dislocation, perseverance, and hope at the heart of life in 21st-century America.

The Blazing World
by Siri Hustvedt

Siri Hustvedt spans two worlds in her writing, with her gorgeous, lyrical, often dreamlike fiction, and her nonfiction writing on science, art, and culture. The Blazing World is a novel, but an unusual one — a tour de force about a larger-than-life female artist ("Harry") whose three great works used "masks" — male artists who claimed the works as their own. Through journal excerpts, interviews, and critical essays from the art world, and remembrances from Harry's children, friends, and lovers, it warmly and thoroughly depicts an intelligent, fierce life well lived, and tackles feminism, creativity, and definitions of identity. It is Hustvedt's most masterful and timely work yet.
— Jill O.

The Book of Strange New Things
by Michel Faber

An emotionally atmospheric achievement, I felt as though the author was holding my hand through the entire book, leading me like a child to an unknown destination. And once it was over, I was amazed to find that the overall message of the book is about love. Not morality, nor doom, nor any other lesson most books leave you with once they’ve pulled you into the fray. Not only do all (ALL) of the characters come across as totally believable, but even more so, there is a hopefulness which, despite how fragile and volatile the situations are, threads its way seamlessly through to the very end.
— Aubrey W.

Cloud Atlas
by David Mitchell

A Russian nesting doll of a novel, each of the six interlocking stories in Cloud Atlas contains oblique references to the ones that directly precede and follow it. Add to that a unique chronological structure that moves forward and then backward in time and Mitchell’s virtuosic handling of an array of narrative styles — including historical fiction, thriller, comedy, and sci-fi — and you have a novel that not only reads brilliantly, but is complex, wild, and wondrous. I’ve read and loved most of Mitchell’s work, but Cloud Atlas is one of those magical books that shimmers in your mind long after reading it; so few books come close to the excitement, mystery, and challenge it offers.
— Rhianna W.

Invisible Man, Got the Whole World Watching
by Mychal Denzel Smith

Confronting patriarchy, homophobia, misogyny, the mental health stigma, and Obama's politics of race, Smith turns an incisive eye to issues that are often overlooked within his own community — calling out movements that seek solidarity while excluding the most defenseless and vulnerable. There's an enviable fervor and zeal to Smith's writing, yet, at times, he seems to vacillate between recognizing the power of his own critical thinking and doubting in his ability to excel in conveying it (which combine to great effect in revealing a very human duality). Invisible Man, Got the Whole World Watching is unabashed and unequivocal, and Mychal Denzel Smith's a keen observer of both himself and the world around him.
— Jeremy G.

The Empathy Exams
by Leslie Jamison

Jamison is a remarkable essayist, keen-eyed, observant, and astute. The opening piece centers on her stint as a medical actor and expands into a thoughtful rumination on what exactly empathy is. From prison, to the world’s toughest marathon, heartbreak, and James Agee, these essays are filled with a liveliness and intellectual vigor that make for a mesmerizing read.
— Mary Jo S.

The Lost City of Z
by David Grann

The Lost City of Z is the perfect book to read when you're antsy for some armchair adventuring. This clever tale is both the story of Percy Fawcett, a British explorer who traveled to the Amazon in 1925 and never returned, and Grann, as he retraces Fawcett's steps in an attempt to learn what happened to him. But it's so much more than that — it's also about the Western tradition of exploration and exploitation, the punishing Amazonian environment, the lure of the unknown... and did I mention the punishing environment? Because, really, the most important lesson I learned from this book is that pretty much every living thing in the Amazon is constantly trying to kill you. This book is a fast, lighthearted read, rollicking fun and educational in equal measure. It's like living out an Indiana Jones fantasy, only you get to experience it from the safety of your home. Because, did I mention the punishing environment...?
— Leah C.

Citizen
by Claudia Rankine

Claudia Rankine's Citizen: An American Lyric is a momentous achievement in modern poetry, but also in American culture. To create this portrait of racism and microaggressions in 21st-century life, Rankine employs a prism of subjects, lenses, and perspectives in gorgeous language and innovative poetic style (the book includes visual imagery, prose pieces, and quotes from the media). Citizen is necessary, absorbing, and startling, and it is one of the most important books of poetry in the last decade.
— Jill O.

The Faraway Nearby
by Rebecca Solnit

In The Faraway Nearby, Rebecca Solnit weaves seemingly disparate topics, from Mary Shelley's Frankenstein to the birdman cult on Easter Island, with elements of her own life: her mother's advancing Alzheimer's, the collapse of a long-term relationship, a brush with cancer. The result is a book that is as fluid and boundless as a dream, and just as revealing. Solnit is a master at drawing connections in surprising ways, and in The Faraway Nearby, she marries the personal with the universal to create a fascinating read.
— Renee P.

Just Mercy
by Bryan Stevenson

If I could be Book Czar, I would make this moving memoir required reading for the entire nation. Stevenson recounts his early career as a young attorney working on multiple death row cases, first for the Southern Prisoners Defense Committee and later as founder of the Equal Justice Initiative. From a purely narrative point of view, Just Mercy is impossible to put down. In alternating chapters, Stevenson weaves multiple stories with one extended and tragic one — that of Walter McMillian, an African American man wrongly accused and convicted of killing a white woman, despite clear and compelling evidence to the contrary. The effect is shattering. This is one of the most heartbreaking and inspiring books I have ever read, and an excellent introduction to the problems of racial inequity in our criminal justice system.
— Lori M.

Honored Guest
by Joy Williams

A Pulitzer-nominated author revered among literary circles, Joy Williams is nonetheless often overlooked by readers. Her third story collection, Honored Guest, is a magnificent showcase of her trenchant wit and staggering imagination, tempered by her minimalist sensibility. While the stories pivot around heavy topics — particularly coming to terms with a real or metaphorical death — they're wildly entertaining and unpredictable. The characters are often unruly and erratic and seem to have retreated into their own worlds, just barely connecting with others yet painfully aware of their estrangement. You'll find yourself astonished, disarmed, and, at times, baffled by these tales, but every story resonates, begging to be reread.
— Renee P.

I Loved You More
by Tom Spanbauer

Ben loves Hank, Ben loves Ruth, Hank loves Ruth. But I Loved You More is far more than a multifaceted love triangle. It’s an engaging, often darkly funny, always heartbreaking exploration of the nature of human emotion, told in Tom Spanbauer’s brilliantly particular voice. No one is better than Spanbauer at exposing the hidden pain inside us. In I Loved You More, he reaches even deeper, probing the terror of death, love, AIDS, cancer, propinquity, and the complex business of being a man in the world..
— Gigi L.

The Invented Part
by Rodrigo Fresán

From the 16 epigraphs that open Rodrigo Fresán’s astonishingly ambitious novel through its 550 pages of how-the-hell-could-a-mere-mortal-possibly-compose-something-this-magnificent, The Invented Part spans the scope of our hypertechnical age, sending up and taking down so much of our contemporary world. Fresán masterfully weaves so many pop culture threads (most notably F. Scott Fitzgerald, Pink Floyd, and Kubrick’s 2001: A Space Odyssey) into his metafictional foray that it quite nearly exposes the thin line between reality and fiction to be an engulfing chasm. With its acerbic humor, acrimonious critique, vivacious storytelling, and ridiculously imaginative plot, The Invented Part is a roaring good time.
— Jeremy G.

Far From the Tree
by Andrew Solomon

Far From the Tree is the kind of book that fundamentally alters the way you see the world and your place within it. Each chapter centers on a different horizontal identity, such as dwarfism, autism, and deafness. Solomon interviewed hundreds of people, assembling a staggering amount of information and narrative, but it is his ability to synthesize and summarize that elevates Far From the Tree into something extraordinary.
— Mary Jo S.

Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norrell
by Susanna Clarke

Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norrell’s mentorship turned rivalry over the use of magic lies at the center of this unparalleled tale, in which the foibles of humans, our relationship to the fantastic, and the lengths and limits of faith and science are told in measured wit. This book is so deserving of the many awards it has received and of its devoted and diverse fan base, for inside Clarke’s intricately constructed world of magical realism is a treasured nucleus crafted of caution, passion, intellect, and madness; Susanna Clarke has written one of the great fantasy literature crossover works of our time.
— Lucinda G.

Lincoln in the Bardo
by George Saunders

George Saunders definitely couldn't let his first novel be ordinary, not run-of-the-mill, not average. In fact, Lincoln in the Bardo is one of the most unusual novels I've ever read: the format, the plot, and the characters are all completely unique. Abraham Lincoln, in the midst of the Civil War, mourns the death of his son Willie, and sneaks away in the night to spend a few more solitary minutes with his boy. In the cemetery, Willie is caught in the "Bardo" — the space between transitions — waiting for whatever comes next. Tapping the myriad other cemetery dwellers as a sort of Greek Chorus, Saunders holds forth on life, death, and everything in between. His quiet take on parental mourning is heartbreaking, and Lincoln's grief is gorgeously depicted. Throughout the novel are excerpts from original source materials — some real, some fiction — the identification of which is part of the fun of this wholly original story.
— Dianah H.

Oryx and Crake
by Margaret Atwood

This book just gets creepier and more prescient by the year. Alternating between a recognizable world of biological manipulation and moral equivalency and a postindustrial landscape, Oryx and Crake is a riveting love triangle and a visionary retelling of the fall of man. This is Atwood at her absolute best: sardonic, scientifically fluent, and terrifyingly feasible. I’ve read it five times, never been bored, and always been astounded by how close it hits to home and how voraciously I tear through it.
— Rhianna W.

March: Book One
by John Lewis, Andrew Aydin, and Nate Powell

This incredible memoir is a masterful example of what the graphic novel format can accomplish. The emotive art and engaging storytelling work hand-in-hand to immerse the reader in Congressman John Lewis’s early life and activism, and the frame narrative of President Obama’s 2009 inauguration pulls the struggles, efforts, and hopes of the civil rights movement into the modern day. March is an essential reminder that this history is far from ancient, and as Lewis himself said, “The responsibility is ours alone to build a better society and a more peaceful world.”
— Madeline S.

A Short History of Nearly Everything
by Bill Bryson

Before writing this book, Bill Bryson was definitely not a science buff. His interest was quashed by the dry textbooks of his youth. Thankfully, as an adult, his famous curiosity took over and he realized that science need not be boring or abstruse. A Short History of Nearly Everything, an insanely ambitious science book written for the layperson by a layperson, is the outcome of this realization, and it's immensely informative and as lively and engaging as Bryson's best travel tales. The book traces the miracle of life as we know it, weaving in everything from chemistry to astronomy to paleontology, and relying on experts for guidance. So much more than a summation of Bryson’s research, A Short History tells a story, and it's as epic and profound as they come. If you've ever wished you could recapture your childhood wonder with the natural and physical world, this book is the ideal starting point.
— Renee P.

The Sympathizer
by Viet Thanh Nguyen

While the Vietnamese “sympathizer” of the story is a communist agent, he is also a man who truly sympathizes, and therefore, a man deeply torn. This makes for a powerful, many-layered work, biting in its criticism of America's involvement in Vietnam without being didactic. It’s also a book that crosses genres and tones: a literary spy story, both suspenseful and intellectual, yet in one memorable sequence, a hilarious satirical set piece. Not an easy book to describe or categorize, but a profound knockout to read. The ending stunned me in a way few books do.
— Lori M.

Salvage the Bones
by Jesmyn Ward

Jesmyn Ward could probably write the marketing copy for Windex and it would read as a lyrical, historically rich paean to the dignity of window cleanser in the face of persistently aggressive grime. Her talent is that vast, her writing that empathetic and attuned to its subjects, its roots equally in the present day and the tropes of Greek mythology. Salvage the Bones takes place in the savage days before and after Hurricane Katrina, and tells the story of Esch, a pregnant teen, and her brothers. If Salvage simply related the terror and aftermath of Katrina, it would be enough; if the novel dove into the intelligence and hopelessness of an impoverished, spurned girl, it would be enough. But it does both, with Ward’s keen eye for the realities of life and history in the Deep South and her limitless capacity to elevate the ordinary into poetry.
— Rhianna W.

War Is a Force That Gives Us Meaning
by Chris Hedges

Chris Hedges is one of our most incisive, trenchant thinkers and writers. In his now-classic first book, War Is a Force That Gives Us Meaning, the former war correspondent (and Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist) offers an unflinching portrait of armed conflict’s seductive — and ultimately destructive — allure to soldier and society alike. Blending history, reportage, philosophy, personal accounts, and literary allusions, Hedges makes a compelling case for the narcotic-like rush (and subsequent addiction) war offers nations and their citizenries. War Is a Force That Gives Us Meaning convincingly debunks the many myths that enable and celebrate war, painting a sobering picture of its pernicious and pervasive consequences.
— Jeremy G.

Wolf Hall
by Hilary Mantel

In this masterpiece (and its equally excellent sequel, Bring Up the Bodies), Hilary Mantel accomplishes the unthinkable: she breathes new life into the story of Henry VIII. I understand your skepticism — I didn't think it was possible either! — but somehow, magically, she has done just that. Everything about Wolf Hall is meticulous, from the research to the language to the characterization, and while this level of detail can often feel forced or overly structured, to me the writing felt natural and even a bit wild in its audacity and confidence. This isn't a casual reading experience — the book is long and you feel compelled to take it seriously, drawing it out in order to pay attention to and savor every word — but you will come away from it moved and profoundly changed.
— Leah C.

The Omnivore's Dilemma
by Michael Pollan

Michael Pollan’s earnest examination of modern eating habits made waves upon its release in 2006 and is largely responsible for pushing the local food movement into the mainstream. The Omnivore’s Dilemma uses the seemingly straightforward question of “What should we have for dinner?” as an impetus to explore how ridiculously complex our food system has become. What Pollan reveals through his adventures, as he explores three food chains from start to finish, is eye-opening. Pollan is a skilled writer, and he pulls you in with his candid storytelling and dedication to the challenge he set for himself in the book. It’s not an overstatement to say that The Omnivore’s Dilemma will change the way you view food; it may also change the way you eat.
— Renee P.

The Yiddish Policemen's Union
by Michael Chabon

Leave it to Michael Chabon to take the Jews directly from WWII and plunk them into what could best be described as Yiddish noir — set in Alaska. In this wacky tale, Jews were temporarily relocated to Sitka, Alaska, where they created a new world for themselves following the 1948 collapse of Israel. Now, 60 years later, their enclave is about to revert to Alaskan control. Into this setup, which is equal parts absurd and poignant, Chabon introduces a broken-down cop, a murder mystery, a chess playing junkie, and a criminal gang of Hasidim. All combined, The Yiddish Policemen’s Union is fiercely imaginative, roaringly entertaining, and surprisingly profound.
— Gigi L.

The Echo Maker
by Richard Powers

Richard Powers is a national treasure. All of his books are astounding; he writes, in dazzling, poetic language, about subjects ranging from virtual reality to classical music, corporate capitalism to the genetic code. His novels explore sweeping, global concerns, but their essential questions often come down to what it means to be human, to live in concert with each other in our larger world. The Echo Maker has a fascinating setup (a man wakes up after a mysterious accident with Capgras syndrome, which makes him believe his loved ones have been replaced by actors) which delivers completely, weaving an engrossing, enlightening, and tender mystery out of strands of ecology, neurology, and the very nature of identity. If you haven't yet read this extraordinary author, The Echo Maker is the ideal place to begin.
— Jill O.

Also by Powell's Staff

• 25 Books to Read Before You Die
• 25 Women to Read Before You Die
• 25 Books to Read Before You Die: World Edition
• 25 Memoirs to Read Before You Die



Books mentioned in this post

The Lost City of Z: A Tale of Deadly Obsession in the Amazon

David Grann

Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norrell

Susanna Clarke

The Yiddish Policemen's Union

Michael Chabon

Wolf Hall

Hilary Mantel

March: Book One

John Lewis and Andrew Aydin and Nate Powell

Salvage the Bones

Jesmyn Ward

War Is a Force That Gives Us Meaning

Chris Hedges

I Loved You More

Spanbauer, Tom

The Blazing World

Siri Hustvedt

A Short History of Nearly Everything

Bill Bryson

The Omnivore's Dilemma: A Natural History of Four Meals

Michael Pollan

The Empathy Exams: Essays

Leslie Jamison

The Book of Strange New Things

Michel Faber

Honored Guest

Joy Williams

Oryx and Crake (Maddaddam Trilogy #1)

Margaret Atwood

Citizen: An American Lyric

Claudia Rankine

The Faraway Nearby

Rebecca Solnit

Just Mercy: A Story of Justice and Redemption

Bryan Stevenson

Far from the Tree: Parents, Children and the Search for Identity

Andrew Solomon

Echo Maker

Richard Powers

Cloud Atlas

David Mitchell

Sympathizer

Viet Thanh Nguyen

The Invented Part

Rodrigo Fresan, Will Vanderhyden

Invisible Man, Got the Whole World Watching: A Young Black Man's Education

Mychal Denzel Smith

Lincoln in the Bardo: A Novel

George Saunders
{1}
##LOC[OK]##
{1}
##LOC[OK]## ##LOC[Cancel]##
{1}
##LOC[OK]## ##LOC[Cancel]##

Most Read

  1. Best Books of 2022: Fiction by Powell's Staff
  2. The Big List of Backlist: Books That Got Us Through 2022 by Powell's Staff
  3. 25 Books to Read Before You Die: 21st Century by Powell's Staff
  4. Powell's 2023 Book Preview: The First Quarter by Powell's Staff
  5. 7 Essential Authors Recommend Their 7 Essential Sci-Fi and Fantasy Books by Powell's Staff

Blog Categories

  • Interviews
  • Original Essays
  • Lists
  • Q&As
  • Playlists
  • Portrait of a Bookseller
  • City of Readers
  • Required Reading
  • Powell's Picks Spotlight

11 Responses to "25 Books to Read Before You Die: 21st Century"

Diana Robey January 29, 2022 at 05:39 PM
I love writers who write passionately about social and ethical injustice, so it’s no surprise that I so strongly believe that the authors Steinbeck, Dickens, and Conrad are some of the best writers who have ever lived.

Jon Talbot September 15, 2020 at 10:22 AM
No Nobel prize winner appears here. Have they got it so wrong? Or have you?

Wayne Shaw March 11, 2020 at 01:18 PM
As a Bookseller myself with 3 Stores in Winnipeg Manitoba, Regina & Saskatoon Saskatchewan I;d like to Recommend C. S. Lewis's "Surprised By Joy" "Mere Christianity" & any of his titles which all helped me get back my Christian Faith and books by Lewis's good Friend J R R Tolkien. For Canadian Authors I like to recommend Pierre Berton , Peter C. Newman. Margaret Atwood, Margaret Lawrence Robertson Davies. For World & British History war & Politics Winston Churchill, Positive Thinking Dale Carnegie & Norman Vincent Peale . Westerns Zane Gray. W.O. Mitchell Will & Ariel Durant. Nellie McClung Authors name won;t come to me now who wrote a Lot of Great books On the Klondike

Kevin February 19, 2020 at 10:54 PM
Helen DeWitt’s “The Last Samurai” is the best 21st Century novel I’ve read.

Perry Albrigo February 7, 2019 at 06:37 PM
Great list — Suzanna Clark’s Jonathon Strange & Mr. Notell should be on everyone’s list of great books I first heard of Clark im Neil Gaiman’s Virwnfrom the Cheap Seats. Thank you Powell’s!

Rishabh Puri November 9, 2018 at 03:34 AM
To kill a mocking bird is my favorite of all time. The message it conveys is brilliant and the situations described are real.

Result(s) 1-6 of 11
1
2
next »

Post a comment:

*Required Fields
Name*
Email*
  1. Please note:
  2. All comments require moderation by Powells.com staff.
  3. Comments submitted on weekends might take until Monday to appear.
  • Twitter
  • Facebook
  • Pinterest
  • Instagram

  • Help
  • Guarantee
  • My Account
  • Careers
  • About Us
  • Security
  • Wish List
  • Partners
  • Contact Us
  • Shipping
  • Transparency ACT MRF
  • Sitemap
  • © 2023 POWELLS.COM Terms