Becca, I just wanted to thank you for including Bookshop links rather than Amazon. Yay for supporting our fave local indies rather than Jeff Bezos's (presumably) many yachts!
Loved this project! I’d only read 11 of the NYT list, and I’ve read 41 of these. My people are here. 🥰 Also glad to see Educated and Know My Name included here. Incredibly significant memoirs for millennial women in particular I think!
Becca you are truly out here DOING THE WORK!! We're not worthy. I'm personally devastated to see Prep by Curtis Sittenfeld didn't make the top 100 (relieved to see there are least ~20 other people who submitted Prep in their personal top 10), but am so happy to see many other books on here that changed me in big and small ways.
I've read 37 of these books, and I feel far more seen here than by the NYT list.
I was curious last week about whether combining authors who write multiple books in the same genre might substantially increase their rankings. I fussed with the data and found:
- Gabrielle Zevin was (still) the top-ranked author with 373 votes, almost all of which were for T&T&T.
- Kristin Hannah came in 2nd with 359 votes, almost double the count for any one book.
- Taylor Jenkins Reid received 294 votes, 2/3 of which were from Evelyn Hugo.
- Gillian Flynn had 246 votes, almost all for Gone Girl
- Ann Patchett had 245 votes, more than double the count for her "best" book (Tom Lake).
- J.K. Rowling's Harry Potter had 212 votes (counting a few for Sorcerer's Stone, which were technically disqualified) - over 3 times the number for any one book. None of her later, perfectly competent, novels received any votes.
Rounding out the top ten authors: Emily Henry (Beach Read, Book Lovers, and others), Barbara Kingsolver (mostly Demon Copperhead), Anthony Doerr (All the Light We Cannot See, with an assist from Cloud Cuckoo Land), Sally Rooney (mostly Normal People)
Looking at it this way, the list is about evenly split between authors popular for a single incredible book and authors who are known for many excellent works.
I'm fascinated that five of us listed I Must Betray You by Ruta Sepetys, but none of her other books are in there. Especially Salt to the Sea! I mean, I'm one of those five people, but still. Wonder if that's the recency bias coming into play.
If the one other person who listed Disability Visibility is in here, hi, I want to meet you!
I'm using the lists with crossover to mine to (further) build out my TBR :D
This list is pretty incredible! Of my books 4 other people picked White Oleander and 12 other people picked The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Nighttime. I am the most shocked by only 3 people choosing The Unmaking of June Farrow given the recency bias that was noted. I am the lone person who voted for Everything Inside by Edwidge Danticat and I will fight to my grave over how amazing that book is!
This was great! I skimmed the master list looking for my 10 (because I couldn’t remember all 10 I voted for) and the crossover of my 10 and those with mostly the same 10 titles was interesting
THANK YOU for this massive undertaking! It was intriguing and informative in ways I expected and desperately wanted - and in ways I didn't even know to wish for. Like the two-sies list which I'm now combing through. Also, because time is limited and marches on faster than I'd like, I'm so picky about whose rec's I take to for my TBR pile because I don't want to waste a read. But I have 100% faith that the books I haven't read that show up on this list should be on my list too.
I just added up my total and I’ve read 53 of them (versus 11 of the NYT list). Such a great list and my Libby holds are now full of more books I want to read!
I was a one-fer and a two-fer!! I was the lone vote for The Sweetness at the Bottom of the Pie. I absolutely love this series (this is book 1) of murder mysteries (and I’m not even a mystery fan) by Alan Bradly about a spunky young girl in 1940’s-50’s England who is an aspiring chemist. I highly recommend.
And there was one other person who voted for The Pull of Our Stars by Emma Donoghue!
Thank you Becca for putting this together it was so fun! I had read 35 on the list and now have lots to add to my TBR pile!!
I'm halfway through it! Very ensemble-y and character driven so far. I have no idea where the plot is going at the moment, which is sort of exciting? Overall I'm enjoying it! Note that it's ~700 pages, so you'll want to be in the mood for that.
I just put a display together at my bookstore using your list! Excited to see what conversations it sparks
OMG seriously? Stuff of dreams!
Becca, I just wanted to thank you for including Bookshop links rather than Amazon. Yay for supporting our fave local indies rather than Jeff Bezos's (presumably) many yachts!
Love that you did a bit of data analysis even if the end result is that I am very old compared to a lot of your followers 😂
Loved this project! I’d only read 11 of the NYT list, and I’ve read 41 of these. My people are here. 🥰 Also glad to see Educated and Know My Name included here. Incredibly significant memoirs for millennial women in particular I think!
If anyone else is a Storygraph nerd, I made a reading challenge to keep track of how many books I'd read! Here's the link if anyone else wants to join :) https://app.thestorygraph.com/reading_challenges/7a7da974-3ac2-44b1-83d5-0e205fd29089
Love this!
thank you so much for this! just joined!
Becca you are truly out here DOING THE WORK!! We're not worthy. I'm personally devastated to see Prep by Curtis Sittenfeld didn't make the top 100 (relieved to see there are least ~20 other people who submitted Prep in their personal top 10), but am so happy to see many other books on here that changed me in big and small ways.
I've read 37 of these books, and I feel far more seen here than by the NYT list.
If any of the people who put down Euphoria by Lily King want to start a book club with me, please let me know!
MORE OF THIS PLEASE. Love people finding book friends in the comment section.
Other book club lovers are obviously also welcome to join!
Or reply to my book club call: https://open.substack.com/pub/malikanwrites/p/you-can-find-me-in-da-club?r=467fu9&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=web
Just joined as I LOVE Euphoria ☺️
Yay!! Hopefully we can get a few more people together to make it more varied! I’ll be in touch with updates!
Love, love, love this!
I was curious last week about whether combining authors who write multiple books in the same genre might substantially increase their rankings. I fussed with the data and found:
- Gabrielle Zevin was (still) the top-ranked author with 373 votes, almost all of which were for T&T&T.
- Kristin Hannah came in 2nd with 359 votes, almost double the count for any one book.
- Taylor Jenkins Reid received 294 votes, 2/3 of which were from Evelyn Hugo.
- Gillian Flynn had 246 votes, almost all for Gone Girl
- Ann Patchett had 245 votes, more than double the count for her "best" book (Tom Lake).
- J.K. Rowling's Harry Potter had 212 votes (counting a few for Sorcerer's Stone, which were technically disqualified) - over 3 times the number for any one book. None of her later, perfectly competent, novels received any votes.
Rounding out the top ten authors: Emily Henry (Beach Read, Book Lovers, and others), Barbara Kingsolver (mostly Demon Copperhead), Anthony Doerr (All the Light We Cannot See, with an assist from Cloud Cuckoo Land), Sally Rooney (mostly Normal People)
Looking at it this way, the list is about evenly split between authors popular for a single incredible book and authors who are known for many excellent works.
Very interesting finding!
I'm fascinated that five of us listed I Must Betray You by Ruta Sepetys, but none of her other books are in there. Especially Salt to the Sea! I mean, I'm one of those five people, but still. Wonder if that's the recency bias coming into play.
If the one other person who listed Disability Visibility is in here, hi, I want to meet you!
I'm using the lists with crossover to mine to (further) build out my TBR :D
OH fascinating re: using the individual entries with crossover to build your TBR. Genius!
I'm also doing this! But also a little bit of "who picked *questionable book* and what else did you pick??"
I love Ruta Septys - Salt to the Sea broke my heart, so damn good.
Ugh autocorrect - Sepetys
This list is pretty incredible! Of my books 4 other people picked White Oleander and 12 other people picked The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Nighttime. I am the most shocked by only 3 people choosing The Unmaking of June Farrow given the recency bias that was noted. I am the lone person who voted for Everything Inside by Edwidge Danticat and I will fight to my grave over how amazing that book is!
This was great! I skimmed the master list looking for my 10 (because I couldn’t remember all 10 I voted for) and the crossover of my 10 and those with mostly the same 10 titles was interesting
THANK YOU for this massive undertaking! It was intriguing and informative in ways I expected and desperately wanted - and in ways I didn't even know to wish for. Like the two-sies list which I'm now combing through. Also, because time is limited and marches on faster than I'd like, I'm so picky about whose rec's I take to for my TBR pile because I don't want to waste a read. But I have 100% faith that the books I haven't read that show up on this list should be on my list too.
I'm one of the few 18-24 respondents, which is so cool! Thanks for doing this.
Interesting to find that my number one pick, The Nix by Nathan Hill, is a twosie.
I just added up my total and I’ve read 53 of them (versus 11 of the NYT list). Such a great list and my Libby holds are now full of more books I want to read!
I was a one-fer and a two-fer!! I was the lone vote for The Sweetness at the Bottom of the Pie. I absolutely love this series (this is book 1) of murder mysteries (and I’m not even a mystery fan) by Alan Bradly about a spunky young girl in 1940’s-50’s England who is an aspiring chemist. I highly recommend.
And there was one other person who voted for The Pull of Our Stars by Emma Donoghue!
Thank you Becca for putting this together it was so fun! I had read 35 on the list and now have lots to add to my TBR pile!!
Hello to the small group of us who voted for The Magicians! I hope you all find some magic in your lives this week <3
I'm one of them! Also are we reading Grossman's newest (The Bright Sword). I want to but also have a huge pile. Curious if anyone has read it yet?
I'm halfway through it! Very ensemble-y and character driven so far. I have no idea where the plot is going at the moment, which is sort of exciting? Overall I'm enjoying it! Note that it's ~700 pages, so you'll want to be in the mood for that.