In honor of the Book Review’s Top 100 Books of the 21st Century being released, I submit my own list of reading material. To make the list, the books had to meet at least one of two distinct criteria:
I love it and it is one of my favorite books I’ve ever read in my 26 years on this planet.
I think about it so regularly despite it maybe not being the most supreme selection from that author or genre.
It’s up to you to determine which book fits which category. There are several plays, multiple memoirs, classics but new and old, important installments within the vampire canon, a few repeat authors, some booktok cringe and a graphic novel! Like anime, there’s something for everyone. This list is by no means complete and definite, but it is what I’ve compiled at this stage in my life. Your book report is due next Monday, by the way.
The Memoirs:
Down the Drain by Julia Fox | The Chiffon Trenches: A Memoir by Andre Leon Talley | I Am Not Myself These Days by Josh Kilmer-Purcell | In the Dream House by Carmen Maria Machado | Bluets by Maggie Nelson
The Plays:
The Flick by Annie Baker | Macbeth by William Shakespeare | ‘Night Mother by Marsha Norman
The Classics:
Emma by Jane Austen | Carmilla by J. Sheridan Le Fanu | The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald | Breakfast at Tiffany’s by Truman Capote
The New Classics:
The Road by Cormac McCarthy | The Perks of Being a Wallflower by Stephen Chbosky | Lapvona by Ottessa Moshfegh | Never Let Me Go by Kazu Ishiguro | The Secret History by Donna Tartt
Lit Fic:
The Doloriad by Missouri Williams | Brutes by Dizz Tate | Play It As It Lays by Joan Didion | The Employees by Olga Ravn | Tender Is the Flesh by Agustina Bazterrica
Ultimate Nightmare/Ultimate Fantasy:
Sharp Objects by Gillian Flynn | Woman, Eating by Claire Kohda | House of Hollow by Krystal Sutherland | The Cruel Prince by Holly Black | Other People’s Clothes by Calla Henkel
The Contemporary Fiction:
The Guest by Emma Cline | My Year of Rest & Relaxation by Ottessa Moshfegh | Happy Hour by Marlowe Granados | Girl by Blake Nelson
Other— graphic novel, art, poetry, etc.
Violets Bent Backwards Over the Grass by Lana Del Rey | Lunch Poems by Frank O’Hara | The Artist’s Way by Julia Cameron | Paradise Kiss by Ai Yazawa
