The Kammerzelt List

 The New York Times recently released a list of the 100 best books of the 20th Century. That list is  . . . fine. I like some of the books, haven't read many of them, and am only outraged by a few omissions. 

But I like lists. And their exercise prompted me to create my own "Best of," which is only 30 entries. Here is the authoritative, Dan Kammerzelt, list:

The Best Books of the 21st Century

30. A Time for Everything -Karl Ove Knausgaard

29. War & Turpentine -Stefan Hertmans

28. Shadowlands: Fear and Freedom at the Oregon Standoff -Anthony McCann

27. Political Fictions -Joan Didion

26. Ducks -Kate Beaton

25. Like You'd Understand, Anyway -Jim Shepard

24. The Quick and the Dead -Joy Williams

23. A Book of American Martyrs -Joyce Carol Oates

22. Battleborn -Claire Vaye Watkins

21. The Morning Star -Karl Ove Knausgaard

20. The Son -Philip Meyer

19. NW -Zadie Smith

18. The Road -Cormac McCarthy

17. The Human Stain -Philip Roth

16. We Don't Know Ourselves: A Personal History of Modern Ireland -Fintan O'Toole

15. Whereas -Layli Long Soldier

14. The Marriage Plot -Jeffrey Eugenides

13. Shadow Country -Peter Matthiessen

12. Between the World and Me -Ta-Nehisi Coates

11. The Year of Magical Thinking -Joan Didion

10. The Netanyahus -Joshua Cohen

9. Wolf Hall (trilogy) -Hillary Mantel (Unlike the Times, I grouped collected works. In this case, the last book--The Mirror and the Light--is the best of the three.)

8. Swing Time -Zadie Smith

7. The Argonauts -Maggie Nelson

6. A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius -Dave Eggers

5. Gilead -Marylinne Robinson

4. The Books of Jacob -Olga Tokarczuk

3. Stay True - Hua Hsu

2. My Struggle (1-6) -Karl Ove Knausgaard

1. Outline (trilogy) -Rachel Cusk

Honorable Mention: Lavinia by Ursula K. Le Guin, The Copenhagen Trilogy by Tove Ditlevsen, Just Kids by Patti Smith, Crying in H Mart by Michelle Zauner, The Best of It by Kay Ryan, Sour Heart by Jenny Zhang