The New York Times recently asked its readers for book recommendations to determine the “best book of the last 125 years”. Readers around the world have applied for thousands of books in different genres. The editors of The New York Times selected the 25 most recommended books as finalists. The New York Times published a survey of 25 books, among which it will be selected as the best book of the last 125 years.
It was stipulated that only a single book, not a series of books, should be included in the list where an author could only participate with one book. E.g; Only Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone from the Harry Potter series was included in the list. The poll, which started yesterday, will be open to readers’ votes for 10 days. The results of the survey will be announced in December.
Let’s take a look at the list, which includes many works from dystopian novels to fantasy stories.
1984
- Author: George Orwell
- First published in 1949
- Description: Nineteen Eighty-Four; is an allegorical, dystopian and political novel about fear, propaganda and brainwashing and manipulation of the people in a dystopian world under the rule of a totalitarian central single party. The novel, which includes concepts such as Big Brother and the Thought Police, stands out with its exact description of today’s problems, although it was written many years ago.
All The Light We Cannot See
- Author: Antony Doerr
- First published in 2014
- Description: Doerr chronicles survival, love, and what it means to be a terrible, relentless tragedy through the lives of a blind French girl and a German boy during World War II.
Loved / Beloved
- Author: Toni Morrison
- First published 1987
- Description: A novel about the psychological and physical traumas of slavery and how one person can lift such a terrible weight. The story centers on Sethe, a formerly enslaved woman who is forced to make devastating choices while living a life of fear and combines elements of realism and folklore to surprising effect.
Catch 22 / Catch-22
- Author: Joseph Heller
- First published 1961
- Description: Heller’s pessimistic novel about the absurdities of war follows the experiences of John Yossarian, an Air Force bomber caught in military bureaucracy.
The Catcher In The Rye
- Author: J. D. Salinger
- First published in 1951
- Description: A classic tale of teenage anxiety and alienation, Salinger’s novel follows Holden Caulfield, who is expelled from private preparatory school while wandering around New York City. Caulfield’s sarcastic, slang, and sad voice has become the most memorable (and imitated) character in American literature.
Charlotte’s Network / Charlotte’s Web
- Author: E. B. White
- First published in 1952
- Description: An American children’s novel about the unlikely friendship of a spider and a pig, written after observing a spider on his farm in White, Maine.
A Confederacy of Dunces
- Author: John Kennedy Toole
- First published 1980
- Description: An almost genius comic novel featuring an eccentric and memorable cast of New Orleans characters, notably job-seeking Ignatius J. Reilly.
The Fellowship Of The Ring
- Author: John Ronald Reunel Tolkien
- First published in 1954
- Description: This is the first part of The Lord of the Rings fantasy trilogy by John Ronald Reuel Tolkien. In this book, Tolkien describes the life of the Hobbits and Gandalf’s first meeting with Bilbo.
A Fine Balance / A Fine Balance
- Author: Rohinton Mistry
- First published 1996
- Description: Mistry’s stunning novel covers life in India and the issues of caste, class and religion; During Indira Gandhi’s direction, four characters from different backgrounds come together in a narrow circle and become a makeshift family.
A Gentleman in Moscow / A Gentleman In Moscow
- Author: Amor Towles
- First published in 2016
- Description: It is a story of hardship and endurance that begins when a Russian count is sentenced to life-long house arrest by the Bolshevik court in Moscow, which has become a world on its own.
Gone With The Wind
- Author: Margaret Mitchell
- First published 1936
- Description: Margaret Mitchell tells the story of the love triangle between the powerful spirit and stunning beauty Scarlett O’Hara, the free and impressive Rhett Butler and the extremely handsome Ashley Wilkes, accompanied by the apocalypse of civil war.
The Grapes of Wrath / The Grapes of Wrath
- Author: John Steinbeck
- First published 1939
- Description: John Steinbeck chronicles a divided and largely destroyed America shaken by the Great Depression and the struggles of the 1930s.
The Great Gatsby / The Great Gatsby
- Author: F. Scott Fitzgerald
- First published date: 1925
- Description: Fitzgerald’s novel about an enigmatic millionaire on Long Island is a shocking examination of uniquely American longing.
The Handmaid’s Tale / The Handmaid’s Tale
- Author: Margaret Atwood
- First published in 1985
- Description: This dystopian classic depicts a near future in which the United States becomes the Republic of Gilead, a theocratic dictatorship that disenfranchises women and forces them to have children.
Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone / Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone
- Author: J. K. Rowling
- First published 1997
- Description: This first volume of the legendary series tells the story of an orphan boy who discovers that not only is Harry Potter a wizard, but that the fate of the wizarding world rests on his shoulders.
Infinite Joker / Infinite Gesture
- Author: David Foster Wallace
- First published 1996
- Description: Wallace’s 1,000-page masterpiece is set in a future America where the years are commemorated with commercial products, and among its many subjects it covers tennis, addiction, political terrorism and a movie that is said to be so fun that audiences watch in loops until they die.
To Kill a Mockingbird
- Author: Harper Lee
- First published 1960
- Description: Based on Lee’s childhood in Alabama, this novel is told through the eyes of a young Scout Finch. The story of her father, Atticus, a lawyer defending an African-American man, illuminates the issues of racial inequality and injustice in the Deep South.
A Little Life / A Little Life
- Author: Chania Yanagihara
- First published in 2015
- Description: At the heart of this depressing novel about four male college friends is a heartbreaking question: Can a person recover from an indescribable trauma? The story focuses most intensely on Jude, a lawyer who is subjected to a series of horrific events.
Lolita
- Author: Vladimir Nabokov
- First published in 1955
- Description: In this brilliant, deeply disturbing fictional memoir of a pedophile published in France, the main character, Humbert Humbert, talks about his obsession with his 12-year-old stepdaughter, Lolita. The novel may continue to divide readers due to its sensitive subject matter, but we can say that there is an agreement on Nabokov’s dazzling prose style.
Lone Pigeon
- Author: Larry McMurtry
- First published in 1985
- Description: Two old cowboys embark on an epic journey from Texas to Montana in McMurtry’s sprawling, endearing tale of bigger-than-life adventure.
One Hundred Years of Solitude
- Author: Gabriel Garcia Marquez
- First published in 1967
- Description: The surreal, colorful epic of the Buendia family, interwoven with the story of the legendary town of Macondo, reveals more than a century of Latin American history.
More Stories / The Overstory
- Author: Richard Powers
- First published: 2018
- Description: Although it is about many people, the real stars of Powers’ novel are trees and the way they communicate and endure. A magnificent celebration of nature and at the same time a warning of climate change, this novel is characterized as a bird’s eye view of our planet.
A Prayer For Owen Meany / A Prayer For Owen Meany
- Author: John Irving
- First published 1989
- Description: Love, loss, and what it means to have—or not have—belief is explored in Irving’s big-hearted novel about lifelong friends John Wheelwright and Owen Meany.
A Tree Grows in Brooklyn / A Tree Grows in Brooklyn
- Author: Betty Smith
- First published 1943
- Description: A plain-spoken, heartbreaking adult novel that captures a young girl’s desire to survive and find beauty in her Brooklyn apartment. The book was based on Smith’s experience as the child of first-generation immigrants in the county’s Williamsburg neighborhood in the early 20th century.
Ulysses
- Author: James Joyce
- First published: 1918
- Description: Joyce’s brilliant, wildly experimental novel follows Leopold Bloom for a day in Dublin: June 16, 1904. A masterpiece of modernism (and its inventive nature and linguistic flights), the book has been inexhaustible for nearly a century. It became a source of pleasure and work.
You can also participate in the survey that will determine the best book of the last 125 years.
16481
