The What List Best Books

At THE WHAT we are best known for our Book Lists. Every year, we read over a hundred current-year fiction titles and recommend our favorites—books to satisfy most readers—a mix of pageturners, historical fiction, mysteries, family dramas, sci-fi, breakthrough debuts, and short stories.

But, what makes it into The What List Best? Books we can’t put down. Books we are excited to cozy back up to if we have to put them down. Some of the books we recommend might at first seem opaque or a struggle to unpack. We call these books Caviar Reads—not for everyone’s palate but for those who appreciate more complexity. Think we’re missing something? Email us at what [at] thewhatlist dot com and we’ll add it to our queue.

THE SURE THING.

Tomorrow and Tomorrow and Tomorrow by Gabrielle Zevin. If you loved the series Halt and Catch Fire or the book Ready Player One, you're going to love Tomorrow. It follows three unlikely video game creators in the 90s from snowy campuses in Boston (Harvard, MIT) to the sunny streets of Los Angeles. It's a story about collaboration, creativity, and building something in a real and animated world that itself is like a video game—three heroes swashbuckling through the twists, turns, and triangles of love, envy, friendship, heartache, and business. BUY IT HERE

FIVE EASY PIECES.

The Anomaly by Herve Le Tellier. Need a good pageturner for your next plane ride? Try The New York Times bestseller and Best Thriller of The Year: The Anomaly by Hervé le Tellier. It's a crime, fantasy, sci-fi heart pounder that centers around a flight between Paris and New York. Similar plot to the show Manifest but better written. BUY IT HERE

The Latecomer by Jean Hanff Korelitz. We read everything written by Jean Hanff Korelitz and The Latecomer is another one of our favorites. We love the plot twists in this family saga that involves a wealthy Jewish New York clan, IVF, generational trauma, religion, and even art. BUY IT HERE

Other Peoples Clothes by Calla Henkel. Two American art students spend a semester in Berlin—one reminiscent of the con socialite Caroline Calloway and the other with a checkered past involving a murder of her high school BFF in Florida. The two sublet a chic apartment from a mysterious mother and daughter. Many artsy parties later, weird shit starts to happen. BUY IT HERE

Constance by Mattew Fitzsimmons. Looking for well-written Sci-Fi? Constance is a clever book about a clone trying to solve the murder of her original. If you liked the movie Ex-Machina or the show Westworld, this book is for you. BUY IT HERE

Mouth to Mouth by Antoine Wilson. This slim page-turner unfolds during a riveting (and absolutely astonishing) confessional of one former college acquaintance to another, who catch up two decades later in a first-class lounge at JFK while waiting for a delayed connection to Berlin. BUY IT HERE

BREAKTHROUGH DEBUTS.

All Day Is A Long Time by David Sanchez. This gritty coming-of-age story follows a young man through his intense, heartbreaking drug-addicted days on the Florida Gulf Coast. Sanchez’s prose is stripped-back and muscular but stippled with sensitivity. To quote author Chris Rush, Sanchez “looks the devil in the eye and returns to tell a death-defying tale of redemption.” BUY IT HERE

Nightcrawling by Leila Mottley. Nightcrawling is the potent and dazzling debut of 20-year-old Oakland resident and author Leila Mottley (also the youngest Booker Prize nominee). Inspired by the true story of police corruption and prostitution, Nightcrawling explores the heartwrenching difficulties faced by good people forced into desperate, soul-sucking situations as the cycles of racism, addiction, poverty, and exploitation continue to churn. BUY IT HERE

The Rabbit Hutch by Tess Gunty. If you are a fan of the filmmaker Wim Wenders, who has a narrative style that juxtaposes his characters’ emotional contours with their physical landscapes, you might like this book. The title refers to a low-income housing project in a moribund rust belt town imploding after the closure of its one-time juggernaut automobile factory. The book floats between the thin walls of the residents of this shoddy building, which include four, aimless newly adult foster kids, an aging couple, a tragic Instagram influencer, a lonely obituary writer, and several others. BUY IT HERE

Vladimir by Julia May Jones (absolutely nothing to do with Putin). It's a Nabokov-style story about a talented, alluring, 58-year old female professor at a small liberal arts college in upstate New York who, in the midst of her husband's #metoo allegations, develops obsessive feelings for her brilliant male colleague who is nearly 20 years her junior. The cover is purposefully Harlequin campy but the writing is superb. Jones nails the struggle of the beautiful aging feminist. On the one hand, we shouldn’t give a damn about our appearance when the mind and soul are what truly matters and yet ... BUY IT HERE

CAVIAR READS.

Run and Hide by Pankaj Mishra. “Run and Hide is Pankaj Mishra's powerful story of achieving material progress at great moral and emotional cost. It is also the story of a changing country and global order, and the inequities of class and gender that map onto our most intimate relationships.” BUY IT HERE

Either/Or by Elif Batumen. "From the acclaimed and bestselling author of The Idiot, the continuation of beloved protagonist Selin's quest for self-knowledge, as she travels abroad and tests the limits of her newfound adulthood. Unfolding with the propulsive logic and intensity of youth, Either/Or is a landmark novel by one of our most brilliant writers. Hilarious, revelatory, and unforgettable, its gripping narrative will confront you with searching questions that persist long after the last page." BUY IT HERE

The Colony by Audrey Magee. "An expertly woven portrait of character and place, a stirring investigation into yearning to find one's way, and an unflinchingly political critique of the long, seething cost of imperialism, Audrey Magee's The Colony is a novel that transports, that celebrates beauty and connection, and that reckons with the inevitable ruptures of independence." BUY IT HERE

Trust by Hernan Diaz. Initially starts out in a detached narrative style—more tell than show, which began to feel taxing after a while until I discovered it’s several books in one rewriting the same story. It’s a book about money, power, sexism, and racism at the turn of the 20th century but told in an Edith Wharton/Theodore Dreiser way. Very thought-provoking about the nature of capitalism. BUY IT HERE

HISTORICAL FICTION.

The Lincoln Highway by Amor Towles. "The bestselling author of A Gentleman in Moscow and Rules of Civility and master of absorbing, sophisticated fiction returns with a stylish and propulsive novel set in 1950s America. Spanning just ten days and told from multiple points of view, Towles's third novel will satisfy fans of his multi-layered literary styling while providing them an array of new and richly imagined settings, characters, and themes." BUY IT HERE

Young Mungo by Douglas Stuart. “A story of queer love and working-class families, Young Mungo is the brilliant second novel from the Booker Prize-winning author of Shuggie Bain. Douglas Stuart's first novel Shuggie Bain, winner of the 2020 Booker Prize, is one of the most successful literary debuts of the century so far. Published or forthcoming in forty territories, it has sold more than one million copies worldwide. Now Stuart returns with Young Mungo, his extraordinary second novel. Both a page-turner and literary tour de force, it is a vivid portrayal of working-class life and a deeply moving and highly suspenseful story of the dangerous first love of two young men.." BUY IT HERE

Forbidden City by Vanessa Hua. "Forbidden City is an epic yet intimate portrayal of one of the world's most powerful and least understood leaders during this extraordinarily turbulent period in modern Chinese history. Mei's harrowing journey toward truth and disillusionment raises questions about power, manipulation, and belief, as seen through the eyes of a passionate teenage girl." BUY IT HERE

SHORT STORIES.

The Angel of Rome by Jess Walter. "From the #1 New York Times bestselling author of Beautiful Ruins and The Cold Millions comes a stunning collection about those moments when everything changes—for the better, for the worse, for the outrageous—as a diverse cast of characters bounces from Italy to Idaho, questioning their roles in life and finding inspiration in the unlikeliest places." BUY IT HERE

Nobody Gets Out Alive by Leigh Newman. “Set in Newman’s home state of Alaska, Nobody Gets Out Alive is an exhilarating collection about women struggling to survive not just grizzly bears and charging moose, but the raw legacy of their marriages and families. Newman delves into remote wilderness of the 1970s and 80s, bringing to life young girls and single moms in search of a wilder, freer, more adventurous America. The final story takes place in a railroad camp in 1915, where an outspoken heiress stages an elaborate theatrical production in order to seduce the wife of her husband’s employer.” BUY IT HERE

-Gina Pell, The What Content Chief

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