222 Best Books of All Time That Deserve a Spot on Your Bookshelf, With Picks from Bestselling Authors and Indie Booksellers

This is one of the 759 lists we use to generate our main The Greatest Books list.

About this list

Parade, 222 Books

This list is a collection of 222 notable fiction books curated to provide a diverse and inclusive representation of the best books across various genres, including picture books, romances, fantasies, westerns, young adult novels, mysteries, and classics. The selection criteria emphasized diversity in types, ensuring representation of works that are both timeless and contemporary. The list was curated by soliciting recommendations from thirty-three acclaimed and best-selling authors, as well as input from indie bookstore staff members across the country. Additionally, insights from popular reader sites like Goodreads were considered to gauge public interest and preferences. The methodology highlights a collaborative approach, valuing both expert opinions and community preferences, striving to create a rich and enjoyable resource for readers.

This list was originally published in 2024 and was added to this site over 3 years ago.

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Rank Book Authors Year Country Language Actions
204 The Remains of the Day Kazuo Ishiguro 1989 British English
1680 Harold and the Purple Crayon Crockett Johnson 1955 American English
13 Pride and Prejudice Jane Austen 1813 British English
17 The Lord Of The Rings J. R. R. Tolkien 1959 English English
475 Gilead Marilynne Robinson 2004 American English
733 Arrow of God Chinua Achebe 1964 Nigerian English
623 Lonesome Dove Larry McMurtry 1985 American English
215 The Haunting of Hill House Shirley Jackson 1959 American English
4088 Love and Rockets Gilbert Hernandez, Jaime Hernandez, Mario Hernandez 1982 American English
1206 Pachinko Min Jin Lee 2017 American English
573 Are You There God? It's Me, Margaret Judy Blume 1970 American English
502 Another Country James Baldwin 1962 American English
409 My Brilliant Friend Elena Ferrante 2012 American Italian
274 The Stand Stephen King 1978 American English
443 Americanah Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie 2013 Nigerian English
190 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy Douglas Adams 1979 British English
15 Wuthering Heights Emily Brontë 1847 British English
1485 A Perfect Spy John le Carré 1986 British English
2088 Madeline Ludwig Bemelmans 1939 Austrian English
8 Don Quixote Miguel de Cervantes 1605 Spanish Spanish
655 Stories of Ernest Hemingway Ernest Hemingway 1987 American English
641 Bridget Jones's Diary Helen Fielding 1996 British English
100 Dune Frank Herbert 1965 American English
575 I Capture the Castle Dodie Smith 1948 British English
205 The Complete Sherlock Holmes Arthur Conan Doyle 1927 British English
397 Wolf Hall Hilary Mantel 2009 British English
1348 Sandman Neil Gaiman 1989 British English
741 The Goldfinch Donna Tartt 2013 American English
713 The Killer Angels Michael Shaara 1974 American English
176 The End of the Affair Graham Greene 1951 British English
2166 The Buddha in the Attic Julie Otsuka 2011 American English
399 His Dark Materials Philip Pullman 1995 British English
143 The Talented Mr. Ripley Patricia Highsmith 1955 American English
4163 The Good Lord Bird James McBride 2013 American English
271 The Awakening Kate Chopin 1899 American English
1506 Selected Stories William Trevor 1992 Irish English
308 The Bluest Eye Toni Morrison 1970 American English
112 Doctor Zhivago Boris Pasternak 1957 Russian Russian
16 To Kill a Mockingbird Harper Lee 1960 American English
396 The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao Junot Diaz 2007 Dominican English
1022 Lincoln in the Bardo George Saunders 2017 American English
191 And Then There Were None Agatha Christie 1939 British English
837 The Sellout Paul Beatty 2015 American English
1039 Birds of America Lorrie Moore 1998 American English
20 Madame Bovary Gustave Flaubert 1857 French French
3568 Little Fires Everywhere Celeste Ng 2017 American English
676 The Princess Bride William Goldman 1973 American English
39 Frankenstein Mary Shelley 1818 British English
312 Labyrinths Jorge Luis Borges 1962 Argentinian Spanish
1117 The Fifth Season N. K. Jemisin 2015 American English
2898 Indigo Beverly Jenkins 1996 American English
7 Moby-Dick Herman Melville 1851 American English
747 Blonde Joyce Carol Oates 2000 American English
770 The Underground Railroad Colson Whitehead 2016 American English
1330 The Song of Achilles Madeline Miller 2011 American English
1695 The Last Good Kiss James Crumley 1978 American English
738 The Joy Luck Club Amy Tan 1989 American English
311 Winesburg, Ohio Sherwood Anderson 1919 American English
1261 The Blind Assassin Margaret Atwood 2000 Canadian English
1373 Winter's Tale Mark Helprin 1983 American English
1707 The House at Pooh Corner A. A. Milne 1928 British English
1381 Station Eleven Emily St John Mandel 2014 Canadian English
47 David Copperfield Charles Dickens 1849 British English
7802 Another Brooklyn Jacqueline Woodson 2016 American English
886 Riders of the Purple Sage Zane Grey 1912 American English
68 Their Eyes Were Watching God Zora Neale Hurston 1937 American English
2395 The Mambo Kings Play Songs of Love Oscar Hijuelos 1989 American English
677 Lud-in-the-Mist Hope Mirrlees 1926 British English
924 Where I'm Calling From Raymond Carver 1988 American English
2069 The Round House Louise Erdrich 2012 American English
791 Gone Girl Gillian Flynn 2012 American English
72 Pale Fire Vladimir Nabokov 1962 American English
421 A Visit From The Goon Squad Jennifer Egan 2010 American English
224 Watership Down Richard Adams 1972 British English
1129 The Namesake Jhumpa Lahiri 2003 American English
18 The Brothers Karamazov Fyodor Dostoevsky 1880 Russian Russian
1971 Parable of the Talents Octavia E. Butler 1998 American English
2207 Waiting Ha Jin 1999 Chinese English
433 Play It As It Lays Joan Didion 1970 American English
10 Anna Karenina Leo Tolstoy 1877 Russian Russian
758 Dandelion Wine Ray Bradbury 1957 American English
92 The Age of Innocence Edith Wharton 1920 American English
64 Midnight's Children Salman Rushdie 1981 Indian English
3496 Devil's Cub Georgette Heyer 1932 British English
320 Where the Wild Things Are Maurice Sendak 1963 American English
2694 Waiting to Exhale Terry McMillan 1992 American English
9 The Sound and the Fury William Faulkner 1929 American English
244 A Tree Grows in Brooklyn Betty Smith 1943 American English
2057 Sixty Stories Donald Barthelme 1981 American English
1111 Get Shorty Elmore Leonard 1990 American English
103 The Bell Jar Sylvia Plath 1963 American English
1716 Lake Wobegon Days Garrison Keillor 1985 American English
2703 The Nightingale Kristin Hannah 2015 American English
85 The Good Soldier Ford Madox Ford 1915 British English
1211 Normal People Sally Rooney 2018 Irish English
35 Alice's Adventures in Wonderland Lewis Carroll 1865 British English
1354 Olive Kitteridge Elizabeth Strout 2008 American English
314 The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay Michael Chabon 2000 American English
2636 An American Marriage Tayari Jones 2018 American English
2024 The Chosen Chaim Potok 1967 American English
1289 A Game of Thrones George R. R. Martin 1996 American English
1285 Selected Stories of Alice Munro Alice Munro 1996 Canadian English
788 Roots Alex Haley 1976 American English
250 Anne of Green Gables L. M. Montgomery 1908 Canadian English
2341 Jimmy Corrigan, the Smartest Kid on Earth Chris Ware 2000 American English
982 Speedboat Renata Adler 1976 American English
26 The Grapes of Wrath John Steinbeck 1939 American English
1585 Jonathan Strange and Mr Norrell Susanna Clarke 2004 British English
466 A Death in the Family James Agee 1957 American English
198 Blood Meridian Cormac McCarthy 1985 American English
2987 Tipping The Velvet Sarah Waters 1998 British English
197 Howards End E. M. Forster 1910 British English
411 Underworld Don DeLillo 1997 American English
359 The God of Small Things Arundhati Roy 1997 Indian English
1421 Ubik Philip K. Dick 1969 American English
61 The Golden Notebook Doris May Lessing 1962 British English
1390 A Brief History of Seven Killings Marlon James 2014 Jamaican English
1435 Life After Life Kate Atkinson 2013 British English
2638 The Adventures of Captain Underpants Dav Pilkey 1997 American English
3 The Great Gatsby F. Scott Fitzgerald 1925 American English