According to the New York Times Book Review, these are the 100 best books of the first quarter of the 21st century.

My second child is a Golden Dragon. (He was born in the Year 2000.) So I’m going to go ahead and blame him for how few of these books I’ve actually read. I was busy!

I have read some. And I’ve seen many movies and limited series (and one Broadway musical) based on others.

These are the ones I’ve read:

Bel Canto; Olive Kitteridge; The Great Believers; Demon Copperhead; Middlesex; The Goldfinch; Small Things Like These; A Visit From the Goon Squad; Between the World and Me; Sing Unburied Sing; Atonement

So, 11 out of 100. Pretty bad!

How many have you read?

One book that I can’t believe I never read because everyone was always talking about is: Joan Didion’s The Year of Magical Thinking.

One book I assume I’d like, based on other books I’ve read by the author is: The Runaway by Alice Munro.

Predictably, readers of the New York Times had a different list. Here in the main article, you can see which ones readers chose that didn’t make The Book Review’s list. I concur with readers on many of those including A Gentleman in Moscow, The Nightingale, The Glass Castle and Just Mercy.

If I had to pick one book that was left off both lists, I’d say Trevor Noah’s Born a Crime. Such a great memoir!

And one author that was left off both lists: Anne Lamott. I mean, I know she wrote a lot of great stuff before the year 2000, but I feel like at least one of her later books should have been included, like maybe Plan B: Further Thoughts on Faith.

Thoughts?