The Top 20 books of 2021 as rated by BookBrowse subscribers

Firekeeper's Daughter

by Angeline Boulley

Hardcover: Mar 2021 | Paperback: Apr 2023

Winner of the 2021 BookBrowse Award for Best Young Adult Novel

In Firekeeper's Daughter, debut author Angeline Boulley crafts a groundbreaking YA thriller about a Native teen who must root out the corruption in her community, for readers of Angie ...

The Lincoln Highway

A Novel

by Amor Towles

Hardcover: Oct 2021 | Paperback: Mar 2023

Winner of the 2021 BookBrowse Fiction Award

The bestselling author of A Gentleman in Moscow and Rules of Civility and master of absorbing, sophisticated fiction returns with a stylish and propulsive novel set in 1950s America.

Bewilderment

A Novel

by Richard Powers

Hardcover: Sep 2021 | Paperback: Nov 2022

A heartrending new novel from the Pulitzer Prize–winning and #1 New York Times bestselling author of The Overstory.

Project Hail Mary

by Andy Weir

Hardcover: May 2021 | Paperback: Oct 2022

A lone astronaut must save the earth from disaster in this incredible new science-based thriller from the #1 New York Times bestselling author of The Martian.

The Phone Booth at the Edge of the World

A Novel

by Laura Imai Messina

Hardcover: Mar 2021 | Paperback: Oct 2022

The international bestselling novel sold in 21 countries, about grief, mourning, and the joy of survival, inspired by a real phone booth in Japan with its disconnected "wind" phone, a place of pilgrimage and solace since the 2011 tsunami.

Cloud Cuckoo Land

A Novel

by Anthony Doerr

Hardcover: Sep 2021 | Paperback: Sep 2022

From the Pulitzer Prize-winning author of All the Light We Cannot See, perhaps the most bestselling and beloved literary fiction of our time, comes a triumph of imagination and compassion, a soaring novel about children on the cusp of adulthood in a ...

The Magician

A Novel

by Colm Toibin

Hardcover: Sep 2021 | Paperback: Sep 2022

From one of today's most brilliant and beloved novelists, a dazzling, epic family saga centered on the life of Nobel laureate Thomas Mann, spanning a half-century including World War I, the rise of Hitler, World War II, and the Cold War.

Lightning Strike

Cork O'Connor Mystery Series #18

by William Kent Krueger

Hardcover: Aug 2021 | Paperback: Jul 2022

The author of the instant New York Times bestseller This Tender Land returns with a powerful prequel to his acclaimed Cork O'Connor series - a book about fathers and sons, long-simmering conflicts in a small Minnesota town, and the events that echo ...

A Town Called Solace

by Mary Lawson

Hardcover: Feb 2021 | Paperback: Jun 2022

Mary Lawson is back after almost a decade with a fresh and timely novel that is different in subject but just as emotional and atmospheric as her beloved earlier work.

The Secret Keeper of Jaipur

The Jaipur Trilogy #2

by Alka Joshi

Hardcover: Jun 2021 | Paperback: Jun 2022

In New York Times bestselling author Alka Joshi's intriguing new novel, henna artist Lakshmi arranges for her protégé, Malik, to intern at the Jaipur Palace in this tale rich in character, atmosphere, and lavish storytelling.

Three Girls from Bronzeville

A Uniquely American Memoir of Race, Fate, and Sisterhood

by Dawn Turner

Hardcover: Sep 2021 | Paperback: Jun 2022

A "beautiful, tragic, and inspiring" (Publishers Weekly, starred review) memoir about three Black girls from the storied Bronzeville section of Chicago that offers a penetrating exploration of race, opportunity, friendship, sisterhood, and the ...

The Personal Librarian

by Marie Benedict, Victoria Christopher Murray

Hardcover: Jun 2021 | Paperback: Jun 2022

The remarkable, little-known story of Belle da Costa Greene, J. P. Morgan's personal librarian--who became one of the most powerful women in New York despite the dangerous secret she kept in order to make her dreams come true, from New York Times ...