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New York Times Best Books of the 21st Century

Claire Keegan

Light Hardcover (1 lb or less)

Florida

Destined to be a modern classic from "an original and a canonical presence in Irish fiction" (Colm Tóibín), Small Things Like These is Claire Keegan's landmark new novel, the tale of one man's courage -- and a remarkable portrait of love and family It is 1985 in a small Irish town. During the weeks leading up to Christmas, Bill Furlong, a coal merchant and family man, who is father to five girls, faces into his busiest season. Early one morning, while delivering an order to the local convent, Bill makes a discovery which forces him to confront both his past and the complicit silences of a town controlled by the church. Already a bestseller in France and certain to be read worldwide for generations to come, Small Things Like These is a deeply affecting and inspiring story of hope, quiet heroism, and empathy from one of our most critically celebrated and iconic writers.

Small Things Like These

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Elena Ferrante

Ann Goldstein

Paperback (1 to 2 lbs)

Washington

"Mi briljante venninne" er ei historie fortalt av Elena, som har oppdaga at den beste venninna hennar gjennom eit langt liv er sporlaust forsvunnen. Lila har tatt med seg alt ho eig og klipt vekk ansiktet sitt frå samtlege familiefotografi. Historia om dei to begynner i eit fattig, men pulserande nabolag i utkanten av Napoli. Dei to kløktige jentene lærer å stole på kvarandre - og ingen andre - i dei røffe gatene som er kontrollert av mafiaen. Romanen er eit portrett av to sterke kvinner, men òg historia om eit nabolag, ein by og eit land som gjennomgår store endringar frå 50-åra og fram til vår tid.

My Brilliant Friend

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Isabel Wilkerson

Heavy Paperback (2 to 4 lbs)

New Jersey

The Epic Story of America's Great Migration

Presents an epic history that covers the period from the end of World War I through the 1970s, chronicling the decades-long migration of African Americans from the South to the North and West through the stories of three individuals and their families.

The Warmth of Other Suns

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Hilary Mantel

Book shows some signs of wear. All pages are intact and binding is fine. Reach out with any questions. P 56JNVQ.

Massachusetts

Winner of the Man Booker Prize 2009



'Lock Cromwell in a deep dungeon in the morning,' says Thomas More, 'and when you come back that night he'll be sitting on a plush cushion eating larks' tongues, and all the gaolers will owe him money.'

England, the 1520s. Henry VIII is on the throne, but has no heir. Cardinal Wolsey is his chief advisor, charged with securing the divorce the pope refuses to grant. Into this atmosphere of distrust and need comes Thomas Cromwell, first as Wolsey's clerk, and later his successor.



Cromwell is a wholly original man: the son of a brutal blacksmith, a political genius, a briber, a charmer, a bully, a man with a delicate and deadly expertise in manipulating people and events. Ruthless in pursuit of his own interests, he is as ambitious in his wider politics as he is for himself. His reforming agenda is carried out in the grip of a self-interested parliament and a king who fluctuates between romantic passions and murderous rages.



From one of our finest living writers, Wolf Hall is that very rare thing: a truly great English novel, one that explores the intersection of individual psychology and wider politics. With a vast array of characters, and richly overflowing with incident, it peels back history to show us Tudor England as a half-made society, moulding itself with great passion and suffering and courage.

Wolf Hall

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A Novel

Assuming the power recently lost by the disgraced Cardinal Wolsey, Thomas Cromwell counsels a mercurial Henry VIII on the latter's efforts to marry Anne Boleyn against the wishes of Rome and many of his people, a successful endeavor that comes with a dangerous price. By the Hawthornden Prize-winning author of Eight Months on Ghazzah Street. 40,000 first printing.

Edward P. Jones

Hardcover (1 to 2 lbs)

Pennsylvania

Henry Townsend, a black farmer, bootmaker, and former slave, has a fondness for Paradise Lost and an unusual mentor -- William Robbins, perhaps the most powerful man in antebellum Virginia's Manchester County. Under Robbins's tutelage, Henry becomes proprietor of his own plantation -- as well as of his own slaves. When he dies, his widow, Caldonia, succumbs to profound grief, and things begin to fall apart at their plantation: slaves take to escaping under the cover of night, and families who had once found love beneath the weight of slavery begin to betray one another. Beyond the Townsend estate, the known world also unravels: low-paid white patrollers stand watch as slave "speculators" sell free black people into slavery, and rumors of slave rebellions set white families against slaves who have served them for years. An ambitious, luminously written novel that ranges seamlessly between the past and future and back again to the present, The Known World weaves together the lives of freed and enslaved blacks, whites, and Indians -- and allows all of us a deeper understanding of the enduring multidimensional world created by the institution of slavery.

The Known World

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When a plantation proprietor and former slave--now possessing slaves of his own--dies, his household falls apart in the wake of a slave rebellion and corrupt underpaid patrollers who enable free black people to be sold into slavery. Reader's Guide available. Reprint. 100,000 first printing.

Jonathan Franzen

Colorado

Enid Lambert begins to worry about her husband when he begins to withdraw and lose himself in negativity and depression as he faces Parkinson's disease.

The Corrections

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Colson Whitehead

Light Paperback (1 lb or less)

Delaware

Cora is a slave on a cotton plantation in Georgia. When Caesar, a recent arrival from Virginia, tells her about the Underground Railroad, they decide to take a terrifying risk and escape. Though they manage to find a station and head north, they are being hunted. Their first stop is South Carolina, in a city that initially seems like a haven. But the city's placid surface masks an insidious scheme designed for its black denizens. And even worse: Ridgeway, the relentless slave catcher, is close on their heels.

The Underground Railroad (Television Tie-In)

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The Underground Railroad 

W. G. Sebald; James Wood (Introduction by)

W. G. Sebald

Anthea Bell

"A remarkable writer--a sort of Teutonic Borges domiciled in England." 

New York

A Los Angeles Times, New York Magazine and Entertainment Weekly Best Book of 2001, Austerlitz--now in paperback--is the last and greatest work of fiction from one of the masters of world literature. Photos throughout.

Austerlitz

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This tenth anniversary edition of W. G. Sebald’s celebrated masterpiece includes a new Introduction by acclaimed critic James Wood. Austerlitz is the story of a man’s search for the answer to his life’s central riddle. A small child when he comes to England on a Kindertransport in the summer of 1939, Jacques Austerlitz is told nothing of his real family by the Welsh Methodist minister and his wife who raise him. When he is a much older man, fleeting memories return to him, and obeying an instinct he only dimly understands, Austerlitz follows their trail back to the world he left behind a half century before. There, faced with the void at the heart of twentieth-century Europe, he struggles to rescue his heritage from oblivion.

Kazuo Ishiguro

PangoBooks readers have mixed opinions about this book. Some found it slow and lacking in plot, with dull characters and too much irrelevant description. Despite these criticisms, others appreciated the intriguing, albeit slower-paced narrative and its lasting emotional impact. A few readers highlighted the author's ability to convey characters' feelings beautifully, while some were captivated enough to consider it their favorite book. Overall, while it has an interesting concept and some memorable qualities, it seems to struggle with pacing and character engagement.

A reunion with two childhood friends draws Kathy and her companions on a nostalgic odyssey into their lives at Hailsham, an isolated private school in the English countryside, and a confrontation with the truth about their childhoods.

Never Let Me Go

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Marilynne Robinson

This is one of the RNL books that comes with personalized comments and an invitation to a conversation. 

Illinois

Gilead

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As the Reverend John Ames approaches the hour of his own death, he writes a letter to his son chronicling three previous generations of his family, a story that stretches back to the Civil War and reveals uncomfortable secrets about the family of preachers.

Junot Díaz

Winner of: The Pulitzer Prize The National Book Critics Circle Award The Anisfield-Wolf Book Award The Jon Sargent, Sr. First Novel Prize A Time Magazine #1 Fiction Book of the Year One of the best books of 2007 according to: The New York Times, San Francisco Chronicle, New York Magazine, Entertainment Weekly, The Boston Globe, Los Angeles Times, The Washington Post, People, The Village Voice, Time Out New York, Salon, Baltimore City Paper, The Christian Science Monitor, Booklist, Library Journal, Publishers Weekly, New York Public Library, and many more... Nominated as one of America’s best-loved novels by PBS’s The Great American Read Oscar is a sweet but disastrously overweight, lovesick Dominican ghetto nerd. From his home in New Jersey, where he lives with his old-world mother and rebellious sister, Oscar dreams of becoming the Dominican J. R. R. Tolkien and, most of all, of finding love. But he may never get what he wants, thanks to the Fukú—the curse that has haunted Oscar's family for generations, dooming them to prison, torture, tragic accidents, and, above all, ill-starred love. Oscar, still waiting for his first kiss, is just its most recent victim. Díaz immerses us in the tumultuous life of Oscar and the history of the family at large, rendering with genuine warmth and dazzling energy, humor, and insight the Dominican-American experience, and, ultimately, the endless human capacity to persevere in the face of heartbreak and loss. A true literary triumph, The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao confirms Junot Díaz as one of the best and most exciting voices of our time.

The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao

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Winner of: The Pulitzer Prize The National Book Critics Circle Award The Anisfield-Wolf Book Award The Jon Sargent, Sr. First Novel Prize A Time Magazine #1 Fiction Book of the Year One of the best books of 2007 according to: The New York Times, San Francisco Chronicle, New York Magazine, Entertainment Weekly, The Boston Globe, Los Angeles Times, The Washington Post, People, The Village Voice, Time Out New York, Salon, Baltimore City Paper, The Christian Science Monitor, Booklist, Library Journal, Publishers Weekly, New York Public Library, and many more... Nominated as one of America’s best-loved novels by PBS’s The Great American Read Oscar is a sweet but disastrously overweight ghetto nerd who—from the New Jersey home he shares with his old world mother and rebellious sister—dreams of becoming the Dominican J.R.R. Tolkien and, most of all, finding love. But Oscar may never get what he wants. Blame the fukú—a curse that has haunted Oscar’s family for generations, following them on their epic journey from Santo Domingo to the USA. Encapsulating Dominican-American history, The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao opens our eyes to an astonishing vision of the contemporary American experience and explores the endless human capacity to persevere—and risk it all—in the name of love.

Joan Didion

Book is in very nice condition except for a torn front cover corner (see photo).

Alaska

An autobiographical portrait of marriage and motherhood by the acclaimed author details her struggle to come to terms with life and death, illness, sanity, personal upheaval, and grief.

New York Times Best Books of the 21st Century

shopping this list sustainably and affordably >>>

estherfungreads

Claire Keegan

Small Things Like These

Elena Ferrante

My Brilliant Friend

Isabel Wilkerson

The Warmth of Other Suns

Hilary Mantel

Wolf Hall

Edward P. Jones

The Known World

Jonathan Franzen

The Corrections

Colson Whitehead

The Underground Railroad

W. G. Sebald; James Wood (Introduction by)

Austerlitz

Kazuo Ishiguro

Never Let Me Go

Marilynne Robinson

Gilead

Junot Díaz

The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao

Joan Didion

The Year of Magical Thinking

Browse by categories

New York Times Best Books of the 21st Century

shopping this list sustainably and affordably >>>

estherfungreads

Claire Keegan

Small Things Like These

Elena Ferrante

My Brilliant Friend

Isabel Wilkerson

The Warmth of Other Suns

Hilary Mantel

Wolf Hall

Edward P. Jones

The Known World

Jonathan Franzen

The Corrections

Colson Whitehead

The Underground Railroad

W. G. Sebald; James Wood (Introduction by)

Austerlitz

Kazuo Ishiguro

Never Let Me Go

Marilynne Robinson

Gilead

Junot Díaz

The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao

Joan Didion

The Year of Magical Thinking