Editors at The New York Times Book Review recently published their consensus choices for the ten best books of 2021, five each in fiction and nonfiction. Four of the five books in both categories are by women.

The fiction selections are:

How Beautiful We Were by Imbolo Mbue (author of Behold the Dreamers)

Intimacies by Katie Kitamura (author of A Separation)

The Love Songs of W. E. B. Du Bois by Honoree Fanonne Jeffers

No One is Talking About This by Patricia Lockwood (author of Priestdaddy)

When We Cease to Understand the World by Benjamin Labatut (translated by Adrian Nathan West).

You can read more about the fiction winners and the nonfiction choices here.

You can support this blog by ordering these books and others through my shop on Bookshop.org. https://bookshop.org/shop/openbook

The Times’ daily book critics (Dwight Garner, Jennifer Szalai, Molly Young and Alexandra Jacobs) published their top books of the year on December 15, noting that they were limited to books they had actually reviewed. The list was dominated by nonfiction (21), with only eight fiction selections and one book of poetry.

The fiction choices are:

Second Place by Rachel Cusk

Intimacies by Katie Kitamura

The Days of Afrikete by Asali Solomon

Wayward by Dana Spiotta

Crossroads by Jonathan Franzen

The War for Gloria by Atticus Lish

Our Country Friends by Gary Shteyngart

The Magician by Colm Toibin

You can read a synopsis of each book and why it was chosen here.