10 Best American Books of the 21st Century

If you wanted to be boring, you could decry the 21st century as one where reading started dying out, and kids especially seemed less interested in reading. Maybe some did, and maybe others read less, but young people still had certain sorts of books that resonated. And then beyond a teen-reading level, other authors were willing to challenge what a book could be – or do – as the 2000s gave way to the 2010s, and then the 2020s.

Beyond then, who knows? For now, books still exist in some capacity, and even if people are using eBooks or audiobooks more, that’s still cool; that’s still something. Anyway, to celebrate the idea that the world of books is not dead in the 21st century, here are some of that century’s best releases so far, albeit they’re all books written by American authors, just to keep a bit of focus on that side of the book sphere (fewer books to try and narrow down and then ultimately cut, for what that’s worth).

10

‘No Country for Old Men’ (2005)

Image via Alfred A. Knopf, Inc.

While Cormac McCarthy’s Blood Meridian is more of a Western than No Country for Old Men, and it’s also probably the more iconic book overall, it was published in 1985, which isn’t part of the 21st century and all. So, here’s No Country for Old Men. Also, honorable mention/shout-out to The Road, which came out one year after No Country for Old Men, and it’s also very compelling, but maybe someone is more tired of talking about that one.

This story’s all about failure, and it’s also hugely nihilistic, with things not really going the way you’d expect them to in an ordinary story… though with it being McCarthy, maybe the misery, bloodshed, and anticlimaxes are to be a little more anticipated. Also, it had a great movie adaptation, with that 2007 film being arguably stronger than the source material, but that doesn’t mean the source material ain’t worth checking out too, pardner.

9

‘All the Light We Cannot See’ (2014)

Image via Fourth Estate

While you might want to bail on the title, which sounds a bit pretentious, this is rarely worth doing outright, because about three decades before All the Light We Cannot See, there was The Unbearable Lightness of Being. It was a lofty title for a lofty book, but it was a good kind of lofty. And, honestly, All the Light We Cannot See is a good deal more approachable, but that title feels like a bit of a strain at first.

Uh, beyond the title, though, this is a novel that takes place during World War II, and it has an interesting stylistic approach to telling the story (or stories) of two young people trying to survive the conflict around them in their own ways. All the Light We Cannot See gets inevitably emotional at times, and it’s also a highly intense book, even without necessarily being a thriller or anything, and so it proves pretty easy to get into and then, subsequently, quite a bit harder to put down.

8

‘The Disaster Artist’ (2013)

Image via Simon & Schuster

Sometimes, confounding and not traditionally likable figures make for the best main characters in books (oh hey, Ignatius from A Confederacy of Dunces), and this notion might also explain why The Disaster Artist is such a compelling read. Greg Sestero authored the book with Tom Bissell, though Sestero was the one in the thick of the action, being the right-hand man, so to speak, of Tommy Wiseau in the lead-up to – and production of – The Room.

The Disaster Artist covers almost everything you’d want for a memoir centered largely around one of the century’s strangest films to cover. It’s a very funny read at times, though it balances the comedic side of things with some more intense and even somewhat sad stretches, because the making of The Room is something of a bizarre tragedy. It’s just really well-documented here, and if you want an extra reason why it’s worth considering for this particular ranking, it’s definitely a book about pursuing (though not exactly attaining) the American Dream.

7

‘A Dance with Dragons’ (2011)

Image via Bantam Spectra

George R.R. Martin began his A Song of Ice and Fire series at the end of the 20th century, and the third book came out in 2000, which is either the last year of the 20th century or the first year of the 21st century. Jump down that rabbit hole if you want to. If you’re in the latter camp, though, maybe 2000’s A Storm of Swords should be here, but if not, then the “runner-up,” A Dance with Dragons… well, here it is.

To date, it’s the most recent book in the series, which is always heartbreaking to think about, because you can still only say “A Song of Ice and Fire has been great so far” while living in a world where The Winds of Winter (book #6) and A Dream of Spring (a potential book #7) are yet to be published. As can be expected, there’s compelling, complex, and epic-in-scope fantasy here, albeit it all concludes with some cliffhangers that, 15 years later now, remain unresolved.

6

’11/22/63′ (2011)

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If it’s overkill including 11/22/63 and then another Stephen King book later on, oh well. This is the part where, if the third-person writing could be broken from, the person writing might well say, “Nah-nah, you can’t stop me,” and that would be that. You couldn’t stop him. There are so many American authors who’ve published books in the 21st century who maybe should be represented here, instead of there being two books, but later on, you are going to have the return of the King.

11/22/63 involves a certain sort of time travel, but it’s limited, because the main character can only go back to 1958. He lives there, waiting until the titular date rolls around, and then he attempts to prevent the assassination of John F. Kennedy. A lot more happens, but that’s the main premise, and it’s executed so well. It is also an incredibly American book, revolving around an obviously key event in U.S. history, so that’s another reason it feels worth including here.

5

‘Born to Run’ (2016)

Image via Simon & Schuster

If you don’t agree that Bruce Springsteen is the greatest American musician of his era, then you may be on board with him being a contender? Like, as far as very American musicians go, and very American musicians who were also popular. Much of that popularity was admittedly within the 20th century, but Springsteen has stuck around into the 2000s and beyond, even putting out at least a few good albums in that time (like, The Rising and Letter to You are both quite good).

Springsteen also waited quite a while into the new century before properly tackling his memoir, and it was the right call, because he writes with a kind of wisdom one imagines is only really attainable about 60-ish (or more) years on this Earth. Things feel bittersweet as well, with all the time passing and things being lost along the way, but just as he does with his music, he balances the sad parts alongside more inspiring and emotionally exciting chapters. Born to Run is the name of his memoir, and the name of his great anthem, but they both do prove successful at directly hitting similar emotional highs and lows throughout.

4

‘The Hunger Games’ (2008)

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If it counts as a coming-of-age story, then The Hunger Games might well be one of the heaviest out there, especially if you’re looking at stories that some (albeit not all) young readers might be able to tackle. There’s a dystopian setting here where the rich get the poor – who are divided into districts – to take part in a battle to the death every year, with only one of the young fighters in each competition standing victorious/alive at the end.

There’s something to be said for comparable stories like Battle Royale and The Long Walk pushing things even further, but The Hunger Games is still plenty dark, violent, and appropriately miserable. It also does a lot to comment on the popularity of reality TV in the 2000s, pushing that sort of entertainment to its absolute limits and satirizing it in a way that makes The Hunger Games feel like a slightly more digestible Paul Verhoeven project (okay, assuming he was still making the sorts of projects he did in the 1980s and 1990s into the 2000s and beyond).

3

‘Against the Day’ (2006)

Image via Penguin Press

While Gravity’s Rainbow, The Crying of Lot 49, and V tend to get the most attention, as far as works by Thomas Pynchon are concerned, Against the Day feels almost just as worthy of praise. It’s not as confusing as at least Gravity’s Rainbow or V are, but it makes up for that by being so huge an epic, with 1000+ pages all up and a narrative that begins in 1893, with the Chicago World’s Fair, and then keeps progressing forward in time until it concludes a little after the end of World War I.

Alongside all the years covered, there are also an overwhelming number of characters, including rival families, some sky-faring (if that’s a thing) pirates called the Chums of Chance, and a dog that said Chums can communicate with. That any of this ends up being genuinely entertaining and even moving at times is impressive, but Against the Day is a special kind of book, and one of the most wonderfully weird epics of definitely the 21st century, and maybe even of all time, too.

2

‘The Dark Tower VII: The Dark Tower’ (2004)

Stephen King is back, as warned, with his most impressive book of the 21st century (admittedly so far, since he’s still active as of 2026), The Dark Tower VII: The Dark Tower. It’s a very long novel, but thankfully, not a challenging one to get through the way some lengthy Stephen King books are, because so much happens here, with the final stages of Roland’s journey toward the titular Dark Tower being covered.

That’s really all that can be said about the plot, since this seventh and final (at least in the main series) book is incredibly eventful and easy to spoil, while even laying out the basics would involve ruining things that happen in the preceding six books. King’s just in control here, is the main thing, and he concludes what still stands as his longest and most ambitious series in a far stronger way than some The Dark Tower VII naysayers might have you believe.

1

‘Empire of Pain: The Secret History of the Sackler Dynasty’ (2021)

Image via Doubleday

For now, it feels like the most impactful health-related crisis in America, at least of the past few decades, is the opioid crisis. People were dying from accidental overdoses earlier in time, but the whole crisis really took off in the 2000s, with more people being prescribed dangerous dosages, and more deaths happening at a rate that seems to be increasing. Empire of Pain is partly about the overwhelming numbers connected to this crisis.

At the same time, it’s a book that wants to unpack how America got there, and it mostly does that by giving a comprehensive history of the Sackler family, pinpointing decisions some members of said family made that led to opioids being made dangerously common and available. There’s a lot that’s upsetting here on different fronts, and at different points in (what’s still) relatively recent history, but Empire of Pain is very impressive and worth reading, even if difficult. Patrick Radden Keefe seemed to research beyond extensively here, and then proceeded to argue certain things so succinctly. In the end, you’re left feeling that works of nonfiction really don’t often get a whole lot better.