Evaluating The New York Times’ best books of the 21st century

The New York Times recently compiled a list of the top 100 books published in the 21st century so far, and it’s surprising what’s on it and not on it.

Lists of great books have proliferated over the years, especially online, but they don’t carry the prestige of The New York Times.

To create the list, The New York Times Book Review polled more than 500 authors, critics and other book lovers on their top 10 books published since Jan. 1, 2000. It then ranked those choices.

I’ve found that top authors’ book recommendations are often esoteric and dense and don’t reflect popular taste. Not included on the list are books like “The Da Vinci Code,” Stephenie Meyer’s “Twilight” series, Colleen Hoover’s mega-sellers or any of J.K. Rowling’s four “Harry Potter” books published in the 2000s. Only one poetry book made the list.

The list was compiled without regard to a book’s popularity measured by volume of sales, which, due to barcode technology, has become quite accurate.

The National Book Awards, which is one measure of outstanding books, along with the Pulitzer and Booker prizes, underlines how little sales matter. For instance, in 2004, the five finalists for the National Book Award had abysmal sales. According to a New York Times article, only one of the nominees sold 2,500 copies, three sold between 700 and 900 copies, and one sold a measly 150 copies. The winner was Lily Tuck’s “The News from Paraguay.”

The last book on The New York Times’ list is Denis Johnson’s “Tree of Smoke,” an offbeat thriller that won the National Book Award for fiction in 2007 for its insightful look at the quagmire of the Vietnam War.  Another of Johnson’s books, “Train Dreams,” is No. 52 on the list.

The first book on the list is Elena Ferrante’s “My Brilliant Friend,” which flew under the radar upon its release in 2012.

Well, it’s not alone. There are a lot of books on this list you’ve probably never heard of but are certainly worth reading.

I’ve read or interviewed the authors of a number of books on the list, including University of Michigan graduate Jesmyn Ward, who earned three spots, as well as Ann Patchett, Jeffrey Eugenides and Emily St. John Mandel.

Some of my favorites on the list include Ward’s “Salvage the Bones”; Mandel’s “Station Eleven,” which is partially set in Michigan and was selected as the Great Michigan Read for 2015-‘16; Cormac McCarthy’s “The Road”; Viet Thanh Nguyen’s “The Sympathizer”; Robert Caro’s “The Passage of Power: The Years of Lyndon Johnson”; Jennifer Egan’s “A Visit from the Goon Squad”; cartoonist Alison Bechdel’s graphic memoir “Fun Home: A Family Tragicomic”; Richard Powers’ “The Overstory”; and Katherine Boo’s “Behind the Beautiful Forevers: Life, Death, and Hope in a Mumbai Undercity.”

Boo’s book was one of the selections of Michigan State University and the city of East Lansing’s One Book, One Community program when it was still running. Word in the Lansing-area book world is that a meeting will soon be held to reinstate a version of the program, which brought in the likes of Dave Eggers, James McBride and the late U.S. Rep. John Lewis for presentations.

Another New York Times pick I would also include on my personal list is Isabel Wilkerson’s “The Warmth of Other Suns.”  The book, which landed in the No. 2 spot, brings to life the Great Migration, when millions of African Americans moved north in search of a better life and an escape from Jim Crow laws. You can watch a video detailing one Lansing family’s Great Migration experience at youtube.com/watch?v=vJeea_eVMkQ.

One last observation about The New York Times’ list is that there is an amazing number of books that showcase how much the literary scene has changed in the United States. Fifty years ago, you would have seen only a smattering of books classified as “immigrant fiction” or “diasporic fiction.” This list is populated with those types of books.

Other book news:

It’s been a long time coming, but Lansing has finally pulled together to sponsor a literary festival. Called Lansing Lit, the festival is set for Sept. 20 through 22 at bookstores across the city. It aims to promote what organizers are calling “an exceptional literary scene.”

The three-day event will feature author events, a bookstore crawl and more. Booksellers will also take over Middle Village’s space in the Atrium Building downtown.

Bookstores involved in the festival include A Novel Concept, Schuler Books, Everybody Reads, Deadtime Stories, the Robin Books, Socialight Society, Hooked, Wayfaring Booksellers and Summit Comics & Games. The festival is supported by an array of Lansing-area organizations, including the city of Lansing itself, Lansing Community College, the Arts Council of Greater Lansing, REACH Studio Art Center, Dowtown Lansing Inc. and the Poetry Room.