The Observer: The best books of 2021, chosen by our guest authors

1.
Small Things Like These
Small Things Like These 4.13 avg rating — 350,055 ratings
2.
The Promise
The Promise 3.85 avg rating — 48,155 ratings
3.
Piranesi
Piranesi 4.22 avg rating — 406,400 ratings
4.
Four Thousand Weeks: Time Management for Mortals
Four Thousand Weeks: Time Management for Mortals 4.19 avg rating — 114,969 ratings
5.
Assembly
Assembly 3.82 avg rating — 31,587 ratings
5.
These Precious Days: Essays
These Precious Days: Essays 4.42 avg rating — 44,241 ratings
7.
A Town Called Solace
A Town Called Solace 4.01 avg rating — 27,988 ratings
8.
Sorrow and Bliss
Sorrow and Bliss
by: Meg Mason
4.08 avg rating — 118,014 ratings
9.
Crying in H Mart
Crying in H Mart 4.24 avg rating — 555,527 ratings
10.
Loved and Missed
Loved and Missed 4.28 avg rating — 4,714 ratings
11.
Trans: When Ideology Meets Reality
Trans: When Ideology Meets Reality 4.28 avg rating — 3,126 ratings
12.
No One Is Talking About This
No One Is Talking About This 3.55 avg rating — 53,352 ratings
13.
Everyone Knows Your Mother Is a Witch
Everyone Knows Your Mother Is a Witch 3.39 avg rating — 12,641 ratings
14.
Empireland: How Imperialism has Shaped Modern Britain
Empireland: How Imperialism has Shaped Modern Britain 4.09 avg rating — 8,325 ratings
15.
We Need to Talk About Money
We Need to Talk About Money 4.06 avg rating — 1,333 ratings
16.
Thin Places
Thin Places 3.80 avg rating — 1,514 ratings
17.
Imperial nostalgia: How the British conquered themselves
Imperial nostalgia: How the British conquered themselves 3.97 avg rating — 91 ratings
18.
The Anarchy: The East India Company, Corporate Violence, and the Pillage of an Empire
The Anarchy: The East India Company, Corporate Violence, and the Pillage of an Empire 4.20 avg rating — 17,362 ratings
19.
Nobody's Normal: How Culture Created the Stigma of Mental Illness
Nobody's Normal: How Culture Created the Stigma of Mental Illness 4.02 avg rating — 1,065 ratings
20.
The Dangers of Smoking in Bed
The Dangers of Smoking in Bed 3.80 avg rating — 56,792 ratings
21.
Failures of State: The Inside Story of Britain’s Battle with Coronavirus
Failures of State: The Inside Story of Britain’s Battle with Coronavirus 4.48 avg rating — 906 ratings
22.
Spike: The Virus vs. The People - the Inside Story
Spike: The Virus vs. The People - the Inside Story 4.15 avg rating — 496 ratings
23.
The Premonition: A Pandemic Story
The Premonition: A Pandemic Story 4.33 avg rating — 42,145 ratings
24.
The New Age of Empire: How Racism and Colonialism Still Rule the World
The New Age of Empire: How Racism and Colonialism Still Rule the World 4.28 avg rating — 989 ratings
25.
Green Unpleasant Land: Creative Responses to Rural England's Colonial Connections
Green Unpleasant Land: Creative Responses to Rural England's Colonial Connections 3.82 avg rating — 80 ratings
26.
Burntcoat
Burntcoat 3.71 avg rating — 3,756 ratings
27.
The Island of Missing Trees
The Island of Missing Trees 4.15 avg rating — 147,561 ratings
28.
The Pages
The Pages 3.57 avg rating — 1,007 ratings
29.
Going To My Father's House
Going To My Father's House 4.11 avg rating — 18 ratings
30.
I Wished
I Wished 3.96 avg rating — 1,311 ratings
31.
The Interim
The Interim 3.56 avg rating — 147 ratings
32.
I Belong Here: A Journey Along the Backbone of Britain
I Belong Here: A Journey Along the Backbone of Britain 3.36 avg rating — 687 ratings
33.
Sea State: A Memoir
Sea State: A Memoir 3.22 avg rating — 2,032 ratings
34.
Mrs Caliban
Mrs Caliban 3.74 avg rating — 12,297 ratings
35.
Second Place
Second Place 3.68 avg rating — 26,882 ratings
36.
Transcendent Kingdom
Transcendent Kingdom
by: Yaa Gyasi
4.10 avg rating — 158,635 ratings
37.
Dark Neighbourhood
Dark Neighbourhood 3.35 avg rating — 463 ratings
38.
Pilgrim Bell: Poems
Pilgrim Bell: Poems 4.22 avg rating — 2,022 ratings
39.
Our Lady of the Nile
Our Lady of the Nile 3.77 avg rating — 3,384 ratings
40.
My Phantoms
My Phantoms 3.79 avg rating — 5,054 ratings
41.
Batlava Lake
Batlava Lake 3.20 avg rating — 274 ratings
42.
Had I Known
Had I Known 3.76 avg rating — 778 ratings
43.
The Dawn of Everything: A New History of Humanity
The Dawn of Everything: A New History of Humanity 4.19 avg rating — 24,317 ratings
44.
Zorrie
Zorrie 3.84 avg rating — 8,826 ratings
45.
Miss Austen
Miss Austen 3.79 avg rating — 10,238 ratings
46.
Maybe I Don't Belong Here: A Memoir of Race, Identity, Breakdown and Recovery
Maybe I Don't Belong Here: A Memoir of Race, Identity, Breakdown and Recovery 4.37 avg rating — 1,446 ratings
47.
Living While Black: The Essential Guide to Overcoming Racial Trauma
Living While Black: The Essential Guide to Overcoming Racial Trauma 4.59 avg rating — 138 ratings
48.
Until I Am Free: Fannie Lou Hamer's Enduring Message to America
Until I Am Free: Fannie Lou Hamer's Enduring Message to America 4.21 avg rating — 634 ratings
49.
Double Blind
Double Blind 3.22 avg rating — 2,444 ratings
50.
Intimacies
Intimacies 3.64 avg rating — 38,876 ratings
51.
Still Life
Still Life 4.16 avg rating — 86,754 ratings
52.
Fortune
Fortune 4.03 avg rating — 193 ratings
53.
English Pastoral: An Inheritance
English Pastoral: An Inheritance 4.42 avg rating — 7,458 ratings
54.
White City
White City 3.66 avg rating — 772 ratings
55.
Keeping the House
Keeping the House
by: Tice Cin
3.40 avg rating — 487 ratings
56.
Three Rooms
Three Rooms
by: Jo Hamya
3.07 avg rating — 1,774 ratings
57.
The Book of Form and Emptiness
The Book of Form and Emptiness 4.01 avg rating — 37,069 ratings
58.
Her Name Is Knight (Nena Knight, #1)
Her Name Is Knight (Nena Knight, #1) 4.32 avg rating — 13,226 ratings
59.
Arsenic and Adobo (Tita Rosie's Kitchen Mystery, #1)
Arsenic and Adobo (Tita Rosie's Kitchen Mystery, #1) 3.54 avg rating — 74,949 ratings
60.
The Heathens (Quinn Colson, #11)
The Heathens (Quinn Colson, #11) 4.05 avg rating — 2,377 ratings
61.
Beautiful World, Where Are You
Beautiful World, Where Are You 3.53 avg rating — 470,384 ratings
62.
The Lyrics
The Lyrics 4.58 avg rating — 2,959 ratings
63.
Howdie-Skelp: Poems
Howdie-Skelp: Poems 3.49 avg rating — 63 ratings
64.
Address Book
Address Book 3.91 avg rating — 187 ratings
65.
New and Selected Poems
New and Selected Poems
by: Ian Duhig
4.07 avg rating — 14 ratings
66.
4 Brown Girls Who Write
4 Brown Girls Who Write 4.46 avg rating — 67 ratings
67.
Let the Record Show: A Political History of ACT UP New York, 1987-1993
Let the Record Show: A Political History of ACT UP New York, 1987-1993 4.53 avg rating — 1,496 ratings
68.
Paul
Paul 3.47 avg rating — 2,925 ratings
69.
Festival Days
Festival Days 4.02 avg rating — 1,097 ratings
70.
Wayward
Wayward 3.27 avg rating — 6,489 ratings
71.
Glorious Frazzled Beings
Glorious Frazzled Beings 3.14 avg rating — 415 ratings
72.
Fight Night
Fight Night 4.03 avg rating — 21,201 ratings
73.
A Dream of a Woman
A Dream of a Woman 4.28 avg rating — 1,711 ratings
74.
Magpie
Magpie 3.62 avg rating — 53,087 ratings
75.
The Right to Sex: Feminism in the Twenty-First Century
The Right to Sex: Feminism in the Twenty-First Century 4.24 avg rating — 12,042 ratings
76.
A Calling for Charlie Barnes
A Calling for Charlie Barnes 3.75 avg rating — 3,850 ratings
77.
Mothering Sunday
Mothering Sunday 3.69 avg rating — 17,912 ratings