The Must-Read 50
The 50 best books to read right now, new and classic. We analyzed 8,632 books from more than a century of prizes, critics' lists, bestseller lists and reader data; 2,819 made the ranking, and these are the top 50. How we rank
- 1
James99.0Must-Read ScoreJames
Everett takes one of the most famous books in American literature and turns it inside out.
- 2
Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone96.8Must-Read ScoreHarry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone
It's the book that turned a generation into readers, and it's still pure magic: funny, warm, inventive and with a mystery that keeps you turning pages.
- 3
Demon Copperhead96.3Must-Read ScoreDemon Copperhead
Demon is one of the great narrators of recent fiction: funny, furious and impossible not to root for.
- 4A Game of Thrones96.2Must-Read Score
A Game of Thrones
It's the book that remade modern fantasy: grown-up politics, characters you love who aren't safe, and a world that feels as solid as history.
- 5
Between the World and Me95.3Must-Read ScoreBetween the World and Me
It's short enough to read in an evening and stays with you for years.
- 6
Project Hail Mary95.2Must-Read ScoreProject Hail Mary
It's the rare science-fiction novel that's pure joy to read: funny, tense, packed with clever problem-solving, and built on one of the most lovable friendships in recent fiction.
- 7
The Correspondent94.9Must-Read ScoreThe Correspondent
It's a quiet, wise, funny book that sneaks up on you.
- 8
Gone with the Wind94.6Must-Read ScoreGone with the Wind
Few novels are this addictive at this length.
- 9
To Kill a Mockingbird94.3Must-Read ScoreTo Kill a Mockingbird
It's one of the most beloved novels in American history, voted America's favorite in PBS's Great American Read, because it's both a warm, funny childhood story and a clear-eyed look at injustice.
- 10Ender's Game94.2Must-Read Score
Ender's Game
It won both the Hugo and the Nebula, science fiction's two biggest awards, and it's one of the most widely read science fiction novels ever written.
- 11
Fourth Wing93.8Must-Read ScoreFourth Wing
It's the book that turned millions of people into romantasy readers: relentlessly fast, with high stakes, real danger, dragons with personality and a slow-burning enemies-to-lovers romance.
- 12
Evicted: Poverty and Profit in the American City93.3Must-Read ScoreEvicted: Poverty and Profit in the American City
It reads like a novel, with people you'll think about long after, and it's backed by years of research.
- 13
The Emperor of All Maladies: A Biography of Cancer93.3Must-Read ScoreThe Emperor of All Maladies: A Biography of Cancer
It turns a frightening subject into a thrilling story of brilliant, stubborn people, and it explains the science so clearly that you'll actually understand how cancer works.
- 14
Educated: A Memoir93.1Must-Read ScoreEducated: A Memoir
It's an astonishing true story, but what makes it great is Tara's honesty about what it cost her: every step toward an education was a step away from the family she loved.
- 15
All the Light We Cannot See92.8Must-Read ScoreAll the Light We Cannot See
It's a beautifully written, deeply humane story about two children trying to stay good in a war, and it won the Pulitzer Prize while also becoming a huge bestseller.
- 16
The Book Thief92.3Must-Read ScoreThe Book Thief
It's a story about the power of words in a time when words were being used to destroy, and it's told with such warmth and strangeness that it stays with readers for life.
- 17
The Body Keeps the Score92.1Must-Read ScoreThe Body Keeps the Score
It changed how a whole generation understands trauma, and readers often say it helped them make sense of themselves or someone they love.
- 18
Americanah91.9Must-Read ScoreAmericanah
It's a love story, a social satire and one of the smartest novels ever written about race, immigration and identity, and it's often very funny.
- 19
The Fifth Season91.9Must-Read ScoreThe Fifth Season
It's one of the most inventive fantasies of the century, and its trilogy is the only one to win the Hugo Award for Best Novel three years running.
- 20
Say Nothing: A True Story of Murder and Memory in Northern Ireland91.9Must-Read ScoreSay Nothing: A True Story of Murder and Memory in Northern Ireland
It's history that reads like a gripping true-crime thriller, and it's also a profound book about the cost of political violence and the silence that follows it.
- 21
Dungeon Crawler Carl91.8Must-Read ScoreDungeon Crawler Carl
It's absurd, violent, very funny and surprisingly moving, and Carl's quiet rage against the people running the show gives it real heart.
- 22
The Warmth of Other Suns: The Epic Story of America's Great Migration91.5Must-Read ScoreThe Warmth of Other Suns: The Epic Story of America's Great Migration
It reads like a great novel but is built on years of interviews and research, and it explains how the America we live in now was shaped.
- 23
The Women91.4Must-Read ScoreThe Women
Kristin Hannah gives voice to a group history almost forgot, the women who served in Vietnam, and the result is deeply emotional storytelling that has made readers everywhere cry.
- 24
When Breath Becomes Air91.4Must-Read ScoreWhen Breath Becomes Air
It's a short, luminous book about mortality that somehow leaves readers feeling more alive.
- 25
I'm Glad My Mom Died91.3Must-Read ScoreI'm Glad My Mom Died
The title is shocking, but the book is the opposite of cheap: it's funny, brutally honest and full of hard-won wisdom about family, control and recovery.
- 26
The Power Broker: Robert Moses and the Fall of New York91.2Must-Read ScoreThe Power Broker: Robert Moses and the Fall of New York
It won the Pulitzer Prize and is on the Modern Library's list of the best nonfiction ever written.
- 27
The Making of the Atomic Bomb91.1Must-Read ScoreThe Making of the Atomic Bomb
It's widely considered one of the greatest works of narrative history ever written, winning the Pulitzer Prize, the National Book Award and the NBCC Award.
- 28Atomic Habits91.0Must-Read Score
Atomic Habits
It's the defining self-help book of the decade: one of the ten best-selling books in America five years running, and more than 400 weeks on the New York Times bestseller lists.
- 29
Dune90.9Must-Read ScoreDune
It's the best-selling science-fiction novel of all time, and it earns it: a vast, intricate world of politics, religion, ecology and power, with a hero story that slowly turns into a warning about heroes.
- 30
The Color Purple90.9Must-Read ScoreThe Color Purple
It starts in pain and ends in joy, and the journey between is one of the most moving in American fiction.
- 31
198490.6Must-Read Score1984
It's one of the most influential novels ever written, and its ideas (Big Brother, doublethink, Newspeak, the memory hole) have become part of how we talk about power and truth.
- 32The Passage of Power90.5Must-Read Score
The Passage of Power
It won the National Book Critics Circle Award, was a National Book Award finalist, reached #1 on the New York Times bestseller list, and is on the New York Times' list of the 100 best books of the 21st century.
- 33
King: A Life90.2Must-Read ScoreKing: A Life
It brings King down from the monument and back to life as a real person: funny, doubting, exhausted, flawed and extraordinarily brave.
- 34
American Prometheus: The Triumph and Tragedy of J. Robert Oppenheimer90.1Must-Read ScoreAmerican Prometheus: The Triumph and Tragedy of J. Robert Oppenheimer
It's a gripping portrait of a genius haunted by what he made, and of how America turned on him.
- 35The Nightingale90.0Must-Read Score
The Nightingale
It's one of the most loved novels of the past decade: a #1 New York Times bestseller and one of the ten best-selling books of 2015.
- 36
The Lord of the Rings89.9Must-Read ScoreThe Lord of the Rings
It's the book that made modern fantasy, and it still has no equal for depth of world, sense of history, and a friendship you'll feel at the end.
- 37
A Little Life89.8Must-Read ScoreA Little Life
It's one of the most emotionally overwhelming novels of the century, a book readers call devastating, unforgettable and sometimes unbearable, and it was a Booker and National Book Award finalist.
- 38
How to Win Friends and Influence People89.7Must-Read ScoreHow to Win Friends and Influence People
It's one of the best-selling books of all time because its advice still works, nearly a century later, in jobs, marriages and friendships.
- 39
A Brief History of Time89.6Must-Read ScoreA Brief History of Time
It's one of the best-selling science books ever because Hawking makes mind-expanding ideas feel within reach, with wit and wonder.
- 40
Lonesome Dove89.6Must-Read ScoreLonesome Dove
It's the great American Western, and much more: a sweeping, funny, heartbreaking novel about friendship, love and the end of the frontier.
- 41Maus89.6Must-Read Score
Maus
It's the only graphic novel to win a Pulitzer Prize (a special citation in 1992), and it's on TIME's list of the 100 best nonfiction books.
- 42
The Looming Tower: Al Qaeda and the Road to 9/1189.6Must-Read ScoreThe Looming Tower: Al Qaeda and the Road to 9/11
It reads like a thriller, but it's careful, humane history that won the Pulitzer Prize.
- 43
The Housemaid89.3Must-Read ScoreThe Housemaid
It's the definition of a page-turner: short chapters, a twisty plot and a payoff that made millions of people pass it on to friends.
- 44
Empire of Pain: The Secret History of the Sackler Dynasty89.2Must-Read ScoreEmpire of Pain: The Secret History of the Sackler Dynasty
It's a gripping, meticulously reported story of greed and consequence that reads like a novel and makes you furious.
- 45
The Help89.0Must-Read ScoreThe Help
It's a hugely popular, emotional and often funny story about courage and friendship across the color line, with three distinct narrators readers love.
- 46
Pachinko88.9Must-Read ScorePachinko
It's a sweeping, deeply humane family epic about identity, endurance and belonging, opening with one of fiction's great first lines: "History has failed us, but no matter." It was a National Book Award finalist and is beloved by readers everywhere.
- 47
The Handmaid’s Tale88.6Must-Read ScoreThe Handmaid’s Tale
It was a Booker finalist and is one of the most influential dystopian novels ever written, picked for both the BBC's Big Read and the PBS Great American Read.
- 48
Shuggie Bain88.4Must-Read ScoreShuggie Bain
It's devastating and full of love, a portrait of addiction and loyalty written with extraordinary tenderness, and it won the Booker Prize as a debut.
- 49
Pride and Prejudice88.4Must-Read ScorePride and Prejudice
It's the original enemies-to-lovers romance and still one of the funniest, smartest novels ever written.
- 50
Verity88.1Must-Read ScoreVerity
It's a dark, twisty, can't-put-it-down thriller that became a word-of-mouth sensation, and its ending has divided readers into passionate camps.