Best Books – 2011
Best Books of 2011
Other Years: 2001 | 2002 | 2003 | 2004 | 2005 | 2006 | 2007 | 2008 | 2009 | 2010 | 2011 | 2012 | 2013 | 2014 | 2015 | 2016 | 2017 | 2018 | 2019
The following are the best books of 2011, as determined by book review trade magazines, national newspapers, and popular arts and culture publications. The Top 20 listed below was compiled by tallying the number of Best Books of the Year lists and major award shortlists that included each book (we only counted lists of 30 or less titles in order to ensure selectivity). The parentheses following each book indicate the total number of lists on which the book was included.
Top 20
1. The Tiger’s Wife by Tea Obreht (20)
2. The Marriage Plot by Jeffrey Eugenides (19)
3. 1Q84 by Haruki Murakami (15)
4. Bossypants by Tina Fey (13)
5. Open City by Teju Cole (12)
5. State of Wonder by Ann Patchett (12)
7. Malcolm X: A Life of Reinvention by Manning Marable (11)
7. The Sense of an Ending by Julian Barnes (11)
7. Steve Jobs by Walter Isaacson (11)
10. Blood, Bones, & Butter: The Inadvertent Education of a Reluctant Chef by Gabrielle Hamilton (10)
10. The Stranger’s Child by Alan Hollinghurst (10)
12. The Art of Fielding by Chad Harbach (9)
12. The Pale King by David Foster Wallace (9)
12. Pulphead: Essays by John Jeremiah Sullivan (9)
12. Swamplandia! by Karen Russell (9)
16. Blue Nights by Joan Didion (8)
16. In the Garden of Beasts by Erik Larson (8)
16. The Tragedy of Arthur by Arthur Phillips (8)
19. Buddha in the Attic by Julie Otsuka (7)
19. Catherine the Great: Portrait of a Woman by Robert K. Massie (7)
19. The Leftovers by Tom Perrotta (7)
19. Lost in Shangri-La: A True Story of Survival, Adventure, and the Most Incredible Rescue Mission of World War II by Mitchell Zuckoff (7)
19. The Night Circus by Erin Morgenstern (7)
Other books on five or more lists:
The Beauty and the Sorrow: An Intimate History of the First World War by Peter Englund (6), The Cat’s Table by Michael Ondaatje (6), The Family Fang by Kevin Wilson (6), Hemingway’s Boat: Everything He Loved in Life, and Lost by Paul Hendrickson (6), The Information: A History, A Theory, a Flood by James Gleick (6), Ready Player One by Ernest Cline (6), The Submission by Amy Waldman (6), The Swerve: How the World Became Modern by Stephen Greenblatt (6), Binocular Vision by Edith Pearlman (5), Boomerang: Travels in the New Third World by Michael Lewis (5), Lost Memory of Skin by Russell Banks (5), Pym by Mat Johnson (5), Rules of Civility by Amor Towles (5)
