With the announcement of NPR's Books We Love I realized it's that time of year. The lists of best books are pouring in and I know that not only are we interested in them as readers ourselves, they also give us great ideas for books to gift to the other readers in our lives. So for those of you searching for your next read or even more desperately searching for that perfect gift, here is a by-no-means-comprehensive best lists to give you a start.
NPR's Books We Love - This list curated by NPR and formerly known as the Book Concierge is one of my favorites, not only for the breadth of titles they suggest but for the fun ways that I can mix and match to find great reads. Choose "Family Matters" and "For History Lovers" and there's The Three Mothers by Anna Malaika Tubbs. Select "Comics & Graphic Novels" and "Ladies First" and I find Wake: The Hidden History of Women-Led Slave Revolts by Rebecca Hall. And when I look for "Book Club Ideas" that might be "Funny Stuff" I get The Guncle by Steven Rowley. As I said, so much goodness.
New York Public Library's Best Books of 2021 - A close second to NPR's is the NYPL's site. Here you can explore by age group, genre and even find a list of best kids books in spanish. They include downloadable check lists and will give you abbreviated lists of their top ten titles in the categories if the full lists is too much.
Best Sci-fi and Fantasy Books - Vulture did a list in July so it's a "so far" kind of list, but truly some great picks on this one if you're a reader of fantastical bent.
28 Best Cookbooks of 2021 - Food52 blog has a great list for the foodies in your life that have been picked by pro chefs, home cooks, food writers, and more.
Best Audiobooks of 2021 - For the listeners among you and the giftees in your life, check out Marie Claire's best list of audiobooks (so far). They review not only for the book for the quality of the narration and the choices they make are great. P. S. They also link to a best list of podcasts which made me doubly happy.
100 Notable Books of 2021 - Of course you can't go wrong with the venerable NY Times list of bests (or notables) which covers fiction, memoir, nonfiction, poetry and stories.
This is just a sampling of lists - if you want more, they are certainly out there. You can hit Google and just add the subgenre you might be looking for "best memoirs 2021" or "best historical fiction 2021" as a couple of examples.