The Greatest Books Since 2018

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This list represents a comprehensive and trusted collection of the greatest books. Developed through a specialized algorithm, it brings together 759 'best of' book lists to form a definitive guide to the world's most acclaimed books. For those interested in how these books are chosen, additional details can be found on the rankings page.

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  1. 4276. Aresenic And Adobo by Mia P. Manansala

    A warm, food-forward cozy mystery following a Filipino American woman who inherits her grandmother’s bakery and suddenly finds herself at the center of a local poisoning investigation; relying on family recipes, community ties, and her culinary skills, she works to clear her name, unearths small-town secrets, explores identity and grief, and navigates a slow-burning romance while the novel serves up humor, mouthwatering descriptions of Filipino food, and a comforting-but-twisty mystery.

    The 17131st Greatest Book of All Time
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  2. 4277. The Postscript Murders by Elly Griffiths

    A ninety-year-old woman with a heart condition dies and Detective Sergeant Harbinder Kaur initially sees nothing suspicious. Natalka found many crime novels dedicated to Peggy, each bearing a mysterious postscript: PS: for PS. A gunman breaks in to steal a book and an author is found dead soon after. As attacks spread from an Aberdeen literary festival to Edinburgh, Kaur follows leads across Europe and questions how authors devise such realistic crimes.

    The 17131st Greatest Book of All Time
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  3. 4278. The Blacktongue Thief by Christopher Buehlman

    A cunning, penniless thief is drawn into a perilous journey after a botched job leaves him trapped by debt and danger; forced into uneasy alliances, he must navigate a savage, monster-haunted world full of ruthless cultists, strange magics, and ancient, hungry powers. Relying on quick wits, petty schemes, and reluctant loyalties, he fights to survive long enough to seize a chance at freedom, in a darkly comic, brutal fantasy that balances bawdy humor with violent stakes and unexpected tenderness.

    The 17131st Greatest Book of All Time
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  4. 4279. The Lost Love Songs Of Boysie Singh by Ingrid Persaud

    Four women are bound to notorious gangster Boysie Singh. Popo is brilliant and vulnerable, determined to escape past traps; Mana Lala is a devoted mother whose only tie to her man is their little boy. Doris hopes to reshape her husband into a path to climb the social ladder despite awful stories, while Rosie wants only to mind her business, her lover Etty, and her store. They recount the man they believed could love or free them and how some survived to tell the tale.

    The 17131st Greatest Book of All Time
  5. 4280. Not That Bad by Roxane Gay

    Dispatches from Rape Culture

    A powerful anthology of personal essays and reportage that exposes how rape culture permeates everyday life, recounts survivors’ experiences of assault and the often-inadequate personal, legal, and cultural responses, and interrogates the intersections of gender, race, power, and consent while calling for accountability, empathy, and systemic change.

    The 17131st Greatest Book of All Time
    Purchase from Bookshop.org
  6. 4281. A Empregada by Freida McFadden

    Millie limpa a casa de Nina e Andrew Winchester todos os dias e prepara as refeições antes de comer sozinha em seu minúsculo quarto no sótão. Nina começa a sujar os cômodos de propósito, conta mentiras perturbadoras sobre a filha e tortura psicologicamente o marido, que fica cada vez mais fragilizado. Apesar do passado problemático, Millie imagina ter a vida de Nina com roupas, carro e marido perfeitos. Logo os Winchesters descobrirão que não sabem quem Millie é nem do que ela é capaz.

    The 17131st Greatest Book of All Time
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  7. 4282. Hooked by McIntire, Emily

    A Dark, Contemporary Romance

    James wants to destroy his enemy, Peter Michaels. When Peter's daughter Wendy appears in his bar, he plans to seduce her for revenge. As his organization starts to crumble and a traitor emerges, his plan clouds and he begins to see Wendy as more than a pawn. Wendy, raised by a cold wealthy father, falls into an intense, addictive affair and must decide whether she loves James or the monster known as Hook.

    The 17131st Greatest Book of All Time
    Purchase from Bookshop.org
  8. 4283. The Ogress And The Orphans by Kelly Barnhill

    A tender, fable-like tale about a gentle ogress who lives on the edge of a fearful village and quietly cares for a group of orphaned children; when rumors and a mysterious disappearance turn the town against her, the orphans and a few brave residents work to uncover the truth, exposing how gossip, scapegoating, and fear corrode community. The story explores the power of stories, the courage of kindness, and how empathy and honesty can heal and rebuild trust.

    The 17131st Greatest Book of All Time
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  9. 4284. Island Of Whispers by Frances Hardinge

    On the island of Merlank the Dead must not be allowed to linger. The very sight of their ghosts can kill. When Milo is thrust into the role of Ferryman after his father's sudden death he must carry away the Dead. Pursued by a vengeful lord and two malignant magicians, Milo must navigate strange and perilous seas where untold threats whisper in the mist while he struggles to find the courage and imagination to complete his urgent mission.

    The 17131st Greatest Book of All Time
    Purchase from Bookshop.org
  10. 4285. Psychology Of Money by Morgan Housel

    Timeless lessons on wealth, greed, and happiness

    A collection of practical essays about how our emotions, biases, and life goals shape financial outcomes more than technical knowledge, arguing that simple habits—patience, saving, avoiding envy, planning for tail events, and embracing long time horizons—outperform clever strategies. It stresses humility about luck and risk, the power of compounding, the value of a margin of safety, and making money decisions that fit your personal definition of success rather than chasing social signals or short-term thrills. The overall message is that behavior, temperament, and perspective determine financial well-being more than formulas or forecasts.

    The 17131st Greatest Book of All Time
    Purchase from Bookshop.org
  11. 4286. Classroom Of The Elite by Syougo Kinugasa

    Year 2 Vol. 1

    In a prestigious high school that ranks students by points earned through exams and engineered competitions, a seemingly ordinary transfer student in the lowest-ranked class hides extraordinary analytical skills and a cold, manipulative intelligence he uses to influence class politics and advance his peers on his own terms. The narrative follows competitive exams, psychological games, shifting alliances and betrayals as students exploit the system to climb the hierarchy, forcing moral compromises and revealing the brutality of a meritocratic environment. Behind the surface of classroom life lie hidden pasts, strategic gambits, and an exploration of power, social engineering, and the gap between appearance and true ability.

    The 17131st Greatest Book of All Time
  12. 4287. Origami Man by Matthew FitzSimmons

    Former Marine and wanted fugitive Gibson Vaughn is off the grid in the Caymans until the assassin Tinsley draws him out. Tinsley, the man who murdered Gibson's father and left him for dead, holds a heavily encrypted thumb drive that may be linked to a plot that could kill half a million people. Gibson and his team form a fraught truce with Tinsley to access the drive and abort a massacre. They race across Europe to find an elusive cyber psycho behind the malware.

    The 17131st Greatest Book of All Time
    Purchase from Bookshop.org
  13. 4288. Beautiful World, Where Are You by Sally Rooney

    Four young friends in contemporary Ireland—two close women and the men in their lives—navigate friendships, romances, and creative work while exchanging candid emails and messages that reveal their doubts, desires, and moral questions. The novel maps intimate conversations about love, loneliness, class, labor and the responsibilities of making art in an anxious, media-saturated world, blending wry humor with melancholy as personal tensions and political unease slowly complicate their relationships.

    The 17131st Greatest Book of All Time
    Purchase from Bookshop.org
  14. 4289. The New Climate War by Michael Mann

    The Fight to Take Back Our Planet

    A clear-eyed analysis of how fossil-fuel interests and allied actors have shifted from outright denial to a subtler campaign of delay and diversion—promoting individual blame, sowing doubt, greenwashing, doomism, and narrow techno-fix narratives—to block meaningful policy; the book exposes these tactics, explains why focusing solely on personal choices is insufficient, and calls for defending climate science, countering misinformation, and pursuing systemic political and economic solutions (strong regulation, public investment in clean energy, and mass civic engagement) to achieve real emissions reductions.

    The 17131st Greatest Book of All Time
    Purchase from Bookshop.org
  15. 4290. Sustainable Nation by Douglas Farr

    Urban Design with Nature

    A practical, pattern-based guide to designing and retrofitting American cities and communities for environmental sustainability; it synthesizes principles and illustrative precedents into clear design patterns that operate at multiple scales—from regional planning and urban form down to neighborhoods, streetscapes, and individual buildings. The book examines land use, transportation, energy, water, materials, and green building strategies, using case studies to demonstrate how compact, mixed-use, transit-oriented, and resource-efficient approaches can reduce carbon emissions and enhance resilience. It also outlines policy tools, metrics, and implementation steps aimed at planners, architects, and policymakers seeking measurable, equitable paths toward healthier, more sustainable communities.

    The 17131st Greatest Book of All Time
    Purchase from Bookshop.org
  16. 4291. Net Zero by Dieter Helm

    How We Stop Causing Climate Change

    A clear-eyed critique of current climate policy that argues we must be realistic about costs, trade-offs and technologies if we are to actually eliminate greenhouse-gas emissions: it calls for honest accounting rather than optimistic promises, market-based mechanisms (not endless subsidies), prioritizing proven low‑carbon options including nuclear and carbon capture where appropriate, caution about overreliance on offsets and unproven solutions, and stronger, more pragmatic government planning to achieve emissions reductions while protecting energy security and consumers.

    The 17131st Greatest Book of All Time
    Purchase from Bookshop.org
  17. 4292. Hurricane Lizards And Plastic Squid by Thor Hanson

    The Frailty and Fortitude of Animals in an Age of Extinctions

    A lively, accessible account of how human technologies—from tracking devices and drones to plastics and large-scale infrastructure—reshape wild animals’ lives, sometimes aiding conservation and sometimes causing new harms; through engaging case studies and clear science writing it highlights unexpected consequences, animal ingenuity, and the need for humility and better-designed solutions.

    The 17131st Greatest Book of All Time
    Purchase from Bookshop.org
  18. 4293. Melvill by Rodrigo Fresán

    A hypnotic, metafictional meditation in which a narrator becomes consumed by the life and work of a nineteenth-century author of sea tales, using fragments of biography, criticism, dreams and family memory to blur the line between reading and living. The prose drifts between obsession and tenderness as it maps how stories—whales, oceans, shipwrecks and solitary sailors—shape identity, exile and the act of storytelling itself. Playful and elegiac, the book collapses genres to examine how language and literary inheritance haunt and sustain the writer and reader alike.

    The 17131st Greatest Book of All Time
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  19. 4294. A Burning by Megha Majumdar

    Set in contemporary Kolkata, the novel follows three interlinked lives after a deadly incident on a commuter train: an impoverished Muslim gym instructor whose impulsive social-media comment is spun into a terrorism charge; an ambitious young woman from the margins who sacrifices everything for a shot at stardom; and a self-serving political operator who exploits the scandal to advance his career. As courtrooms, news cycles, and rumor take over, the story exposes how hunger, ambition, and rising nationalism warp justice and destroy relationships.

    The 17131st Greatest Book of All Time
    Purchase from Bookshop.org
  20. 4295. Rough Magic by Lara Prior-Palmer

    A fierce, lyrical memoir chronicling a young woman's audacious decision to enter the world’s longest horse race, a thousand-mile Mongolian endurance run, where inadequate preparation, brutal terrain and extreme weather force raw survival and an urgent, intimate bond with the horses she rides. Through wild landscapes, rough encounters with fellow riders and local herders, and episodes of injury, hallucination and reckoning, the journey becomes a crucible that strips away romanticism and reveals depths of resilience, loneliness and fierce self-discovery. The narrative blends humor, brutality and tenderness to probe the limits of risk, the nature of freedom and the strange, sustaining solace of animals.

    The 17131st Greatest Book of All Time
    Purchase from Bookshop.org
  21. 4296. Easy Beauty by Chloé Cooper Jones

    A practical, approachable guide that reframes beauty as simple, low-effort rituals for busy people, offering straightforward skincare, haircare and makeup tips alongside gentle self-care practices; it emphasizes sustainable, time-friendly routines and small habits that boost confidence, calm and everyday wellbeing rather than chasing perfection.

    The 17131st Greatest Book of All Time
    Purchase from Bookshop.org
  22. 4297. The Pink Line by Mark Gevisser

    The World's Queer Frontiers

    A wide-ranging, reportage-driven exploration of contemporary queer life and politics across the globe, blending personal stories of activists and ordinary people with analysis of the legal, religious and cultural forces that shape struggles for recognition and safety; the book traces how globalization, colonial history and local traditions produce divergent trajectories of progress and backlash, showing both the gains of increased visibility and the persistent, sometimes violent, resistance to change, and argues for nuanced, place-specific solidarities rather than a single universal model of LGBTQ rights.

    The 17131st Greatest Book of All Time
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  23. 4298. Daring And The Duke by Sarah MacLean

    The Bareknuckle Bastards Book III

    Grace Condry has spent a lifetime running from her past. Betrayed as a child by her only love and raised on the streets, she now hides in plain sight as queen of London's darkest corners. Ewan, Duke of Marwick, returns after a decade of searching, determined to win her back and make her his duchess. Grace vows revenge and keeps him close, but their reunion threatens the life she has claimed and the heart she swore he would never steal.

    The 17131st Greatest Book of All Time
    Purchase from Bookshop.org
  24. 4299. Syrian Brides by Anna Halabi

    Syrian Brides is a collection of stories about women in Syria who use wit and humor to navigate a patriarchal society. The tales range from a wife who outsmarts her husband with a pinch of salt and theatrics to a beauty who turns a misunderstanding into a triumph. Another story follows a young bride who finds unexpected peace amid a feud. Each piece highlights resilience and resourcefulness, showing small victories achieved through cunning and laughter.

    The 17131st Greatest Book of All Time
    Purchase from Bookshop.org
  25. 4300. Metabolical by Arnost Lustig

    The Lure and the Lies of Processed Food, Nutrition, and Modern Medicine

    This book argues that the modern epidemic of metabolic disease—from obesity and type 2 diabetes to heart disease and many cancers—is largely driven by ultra-processed foods (especially added sugars and refined carbohydrates) and by food-industry and medical-system incentives that obscure root causes and prioritize treatment over prevention. It explains how certain ingredients and food-processing practices disrupt metabolism, hormones, and the microbiome, surveys the science linking diet to chronic illness, and documents how corporate lobbying and flawed regulatory frameworks perpetuate harmful products. The author concludes with practical dietary guidance favoring whole foods and policy recommendations (labeling, taxation, and marketing restrictions) designed to realign incentives toward better public health.

    The 17131st Greatest Book of All Time

Reading Statistics

Click the button below to see how many of these books you've read!

Download

If you're interested in downloading this list as a CSV file for use in a spreadsheet application, you can easily do so by clicking the button below. Please note that to ensure a manageable file size and faster download, the CSV will include details for only the first 500 books.

Download

To download this list as a CSV file, please log in to your account. Once logged in, you'll be able to download the data for use in spreadsheet applications.

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