Big Books of 2026

Listopia > Book Lists Voted on by Tim (26 Lists)



My Brilliant Friend by Elena FerranteThe Appointment by Herta MüllerVertical Motion by Can Xue
22 Female Authors to Read in Translation
73 books — 63 voters
Reading Like a Writer by Francine ProseBook Lust by Nancy Pearl13 Ways of Looking at the Novel by Jane SmileyThe Possessed by Elif BatumanWhat We See When We Read by Peter Mendelsund
Best Non-Fiction Books About Books and Reading
1,036 books — 529 voters

Arrows of Rain by Okey NdibeNight at the Fiestas by Kirstin Valdez QuadeGhettoside by Jill Leovy
Anticipated Literary Reads For Readers of Color 2015
136 books — 169 voters
Carpenter's Gothic by William GaddisManservant and Maidservant by Ivy Compton-BurnettVox by Nicholson Baker
The Dialogue Novel
30 books — 35 voters

I Hotel by Karen Tei YamashitaLa Medusa by Vanessa Place
Large Experimental Books by Women
87 books — 71 voters
Interpreter of Maladies by Jhumpa LahiriThe Isle of Youth by Laura van den BergA Guide to Being Born by Ramona AusubelDrinking Coffee Elsewhere by Z.Z. Packer
15 Contemporary Short Story Collections By Women You Should Really Read
15 books — 27 voters

The God of Small Things by Arundhati RoyWe Need New Names by NoViolet BulawayoThe Iguana by Anna Maria Ortese
Women Around the World
1,159 books — 431 voters
All Aunt Hagar's Children by Edward P. JonesBefore You Suffocate Your Own Fool Self by Danielle Evans
Hurston/Wright Legacy Award Winners
40 books — 10 voters

Island People by Coleman Dowell
REALLY, Really Underrated Books (Fewer than 100 Ratings)
1,576 books — 243 voters
We Need New Names by NoViolet BulawayoThe Translator by Nina SchuylerPossession by A.S. ByattThe Poisonwood Bible by Barbara KingsolverThe Hour of the Star by Clarice Lispector
Great Women Authors
1,228 books — 334 voters

Four New Messages by Joshua CohenIn the House Upon the Dirt Between the Lake and the Woods by Matt BellScorch Atlas by Blake ButlerThe Ask by Sam LipsyteBattleborn by Claire Vaye Watkins
50 Books That Define the Past Five Years in Literature
48 books — 58 voters
The Polish Boxer by Eduardo Halfon
Latin American Lit (In Translation)
106 books — 48 voters

Lolita by Vladimir NabokovMrs Dalloway by Virginia WoolfOne Hundred Years of Solitude by Gabriel García MárquezThe Trial by Franz KafkaUlysses by James Joyce
Penguin Modern Classics
411 books — 486 voters
Visible Worlds by Marilyn Bowering
Oh, Canada!
1,345 books — 504 voters

Cutting Teeth by Julia FierroThe Hundred-Year House by Rebecca Makkai
Patience is bitter, but its fruit is sweet: Incoming for 2014
59 books — 103 voters
Invisible Man by Ralph EllisonShip Fever by Andrea BarrettSabbath's Theater by Philip RothMating by Norman RushWhite Noise by Don DeLillo
National Book Award Winners
241 books — 204 voters

The Cyclist Conspiracy by Svetislav Basara
Open Letter Books
125 books — 49 voters
The Shell Collector by Anthony DoerrDelicate Edible Birds and Other Stories by Lauren GroffPraying Drunk by Kyle MinorBrief Encounters with Che Guevara by Ben FountainLike You'd Understand, Anyway by Jim Shepard
Contemporary Short Story Collections
551 books — 335 voters

The Unchangeable Spots of Leopards by Kristopher JansmaIf on a Winter’s Night a Traveler by Italo CalvinoCollected Fictions by Jorge Luis BorgesAt Swim-Two-Birds by Flann O'BrienThe Things They Carried by Tim O'Brien
Metafiction
442 books — 578 voters
Battleborn by Claire Vaye WatkinsWatering Heaven by Peter Tieryas Liu
Debut Short Story Collections
84 books — 105 voters

Museum Pieces by Elizabeth TallentThe Starboard Sea by Amber Dermont
Underdog Literature: 2012
237 books — 76 voters
Safe as Houses by Marie-Helene BertinoWatering Heaven by Peter Tieryas Liu
Collections of Short Stories
2,894 books — 2,039 voters

Watering Heaven by Peter Tieryas Liu
Best books of October, 2012
108 books — 241 voters
Demonology by Rick MoodyLabyrinths by Jorge Luis BorgesThe Age of Wire and String by Ben MarcusTime's Arrow by Martin Amis
Oulipo,etc.
254 books — 250 voters