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Writer's pictureGreg Barlin

The Top 50 Books of the Last 5 Years

Updated: 3 days ago


A post was recently shared with me that presented "Goodreads Members' Top Books of the Past Five Years". I took a read through the list, and I'll be honest, I was triggered! There were some winners on the Goodreads list, but there was also a bunch of fluff. There are so many better books published since 2020 than what the masses have identified above.


I had to fix it, and there was only one way to do so: I simply had to create my own list.


Enjoy!

 

#50 - Remarkably Bright Creatures (2022)

by Shelby Van Pelt ★★★★★

An elderly woman befriends an octopus, who in turn helps her solve the mystery of her son's disappearance.



 

#49 - The Thursday Murder Club (2021)

by Richard Osman ★★★★★

What happens when 4 septuagenarians entertain a hobby of solving cold cases, only to have a body turn up at their retirement home?


 

#48 - Mad Honey (2023)

by Jodi Picoult and Jennifer Finney Boylan ★★★★★

It's a love story and a legal thriller, but its authors' deft handling of many tough subjects is what elevates this novel even more.


 

#47 - Happy Place (2023)

by Emily Henry ★★★★★

An exploration of relationships and friendships in Henry's most mature offering yet, centered around a week-long vacation in Maine.


 

#46 - The House in the Cerulean Sea (2020)

by TJ Klune ★★★★★

A lovely and cheeky queer story, this traces the evolution of a man as he comes to grips with his professional and sexual identity.

 

#45 - First Lie Wins (2024)

by Ashley Elston ★★★★★

A twisty plot-driven novel about a woman who manufactures a relationship, only to find she might be the one being played.


 

#44 - Nightcrawling (2022)

by Leila Mottley ★★★★★

The story of Kiara, a young woman 3 months shy of her 18th birthday, living in East Oakland and trying to scrape by on her own, who finds herself sucked into the world of sex working.

 

#43 - Only If You're Lucky (2023*)

by Stacy Willingham ★★★★★

A story of a four tight-knit girls at a small college turns dark when it seems they might have been involved with a frat boy's death.

*Released in 2024, but I read an ARC in late 2023, so it's on that list

 

#42 - The Push (2021)

by Ashley Audrain ★★★★★

What happens when a mom can't connect with her child, and she starts to wonder if her child isn’t just different, but maybe inherently bad?

 

#41 - Grit (2023*)

by Angela Duckworth ★★★★★

*Please indulge this outlier -- published in 2016, but I read in 2023.

Both entertaining and helpful, Duckworth systematically lays out a plethora of evidence for why passion + perseverance = success.

 

#40 - Great Circle (2021)

by Maggie Shipstead ★★★★★

Meet protagonist Marian Graves, a woman in determined to fly planes in the early 1900s at a time when women, quite simply, didn't.


 

#39 - Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, and Tomorrow (2022)

by Gabrielle Zevin ★★★★★

Spanning 30 years of the main characters' lives, it's the story of 3 friends inspired to create something great in the world of gaming.

 

#38 - The Storyteller (2024*)

by Dave Grohl ★★★★★

The former drummer for Nirvana and founding member of the Foo Fighters shares stories of his life in rock in this memoir.

*Published in 2021, but I read it in 2024.

 

#37 - Long Bright River (2020)

by Liz Moore ★★★★★

When sex workers start to turn up murdered, a Philly cop investigates, hoping to stop the trend before her sister becomes a victim.


 

#36 - Book Lovers (2022)

by Emily Henry ★★★★★

A better version of the "city dweller finds love in a small town" trope, while also ranking as the funniest book I read in 2022.


 

#35 - 60 Songs That Explain the '90s (2024)

by Rob Harvilla ★★★★★

A nostalgia-inducing romp through the most impactful songs of the '90s, focusing on their meaning to the decade and to music overall.


 

#34 - The God of the Woods (2024)

by Liz Moore ★★★★★

Set in 1975, the search for a missing child acts as the foundation for Moore's tactful exploration of societal themes of the time.


 

#33 - The Year of the Locust (2024)

by Terry Hayes ★★★★★

Another great spy thriller from Hayes after 10 long years. Despite some questionable supernatural plot choices, it's still a winner.


 

#32 - Exiles (2023)

by Jane Harper ★★★★★

A stellar offering from author Harper about a missing woman and a history of complicated relationships among friends in a small town.

 

#31 - The Mountains Wild (2020)

by Sarah Stewart Taylor ★★★★★

Years after her cousin's disappearance, detective Maggie D'Arcy is asked to consult an a case with eerie similarities.


 

#30 - Firekeeper's Daughter (2022)

by Angeline Boulley ★★★★★

A high school girl is thrust into an FBI investigation to try to uncover a drug ring that is terrorizing Native American tribes


 

#29 - Razorblade Tears (2021)

by S.A. Cosby ★★★★★

When two young gay men are murdered, their fathers join forces to take solving the murders into their own hands.


 

#28 - All My Rage (2022)

by Sabaa Tahir ★★★★★

An exploration of the immigrant experience through the story of two high school students of Pakistani descent, growing up in rural CA.


 

#27 - American Dirt (2020)

by Jeanine Cummins ★★★★★

The journey of a mother and her son as they flee Acapulco for the United States after becoming targets of the local cartel.


 

#26 - The Final Strife (2022)

by Saara El-Arifi ★★★★★

A land where one’s blood color determines their race is the setting while a secret sect try to infiltrate to infiltrate the government.


 

#25 - Starling House (2023)

by Alix E. Harrow ★★★★★

Harrow returns to top form with a genre-blending story of a young woman trying to scrape by in a town haunted by its past and secrets.


 

#24 - Rubicon (2023)

by J.S. Dewes ★★★★★

A stand-alone novel unrelated to her "Divide" series, author Dewes elegantly explores immortality, AI, and what it means to be human.


 

#23 - Cloud Cuckoo Land (2021)

by Anthony Doerr ★★★★★

It's a love story and a legal thriller, but its authors' deft handling of many tough subjects is what elevates this novel even more.


 

#22 - Open (2024*)

by Andre Agassi ★★★★★

One other outlier...so what if it came out in 2009? Don't care. I read it in 2024, and it's one of the best autobiographies I've come across in a long time.

 

#21 - Nothing to See Here (2020)

by Kevin Wilson ★★★★★

An old friend desperately needs Lillian's help caring for her kids. There's one catch, though: when the kids get upset, they catch fire


 

#20 - Fourth Wing (2023)

by Rebecca Yarros ★★★★★

Perhaps the most-hyped book of 2023 lives up to it, as we follow the journey of a young girl as she attempts to become a dragon rider.


 

#19 - Iron Flame (2024)

by Rebecca Yarros ★★★★★

Yarros gives us a rarity -- a sequel to a force-of-nature debut that's just as good as the original, and in some ways possibly better.


 

#18 - The Will of the Many (2024)

by James Islington ★★★★★

A truly excellent start to a trilogy about an orphan who infiltrates an Academy for societal elites in order to uncover a conspiracy.


 

#17 - Group (2020)

by Christie Tate ★★★★★

When author Christie Tate hits rock bottom, she decides to try a radical form of group therapy, where everything is NOT confidential.


 

#16 - Race the Sands (2020)

by Sarah Beth Durst ★★★★★

Part Seabiscuit, part palace politics, part commentary on societal boundaries and castes -- this novel was great on multiple levels.


 

#15 - The Mayor of Maxwell Street (2024)

by Avery Cunningham ★★★★★

Skillful dialogue and prose adorn this debut that combines a love story with the search for a mysterious gangster in 1920s Chicago.


 

#14 - The Divide (2021-2024)

by J.S. Dewes ★★★★★

I'm cheating a bit on this one by selecting a 3-book series for one slot, but they're all equally great and all released within the last five years. An action-packed space opera that's great for fans of The Expanse.


 

#13 - The Covenant of Water (2023)

by Abraham Verghese ★★★★★

It was not the novel I liked the most -- it was slow at times, and seemed to drag on forever -- but it was the novel for which I have the most respect in 2023.

 

#12 - Demon Copperhead (2022)

by Barbara Kingsolver ★★★★★

An ode to Charles Dickens in the form of a modern retelling of David Copperfield, set in Appalachian Virginia over the last 30+ years.


 

#11 - Still Life (2023)

by Sarah Winman ★★★★★

A beautifully written (despite its lack of quotation marks) character study of a cast of memorable souls that spans 30 years from the end of World War II until the mid-70s.

 

#10 - Small Mercies (2023)

by Dennis Lehane ★★★★★

A masterful book, Lehane's best since Mystic River, set against the racial tensions of Boston school busing during the summer of '74.


 

#9 - Thistlefoot (2022)

by GennaRose Nethercott ★★★★★

The reunion of 2 siblings around a mysterious house is the backdrop for this lyrical beauty of a novel, my favorite of 2022.


 

#8 - All the Colors of the Dark (2024)

by Chris Whitaker ★★★★★

Whitaker delivers another masterpiece of character development while tackling several tough topics -- a challenging but uplifting read.


 

#7 - James (2024)

by Andy Weir ★★★★★

More than a retelling of "Huck Finn" from the point of view of Jim, this is a brilliant treatise on race and slavery in 1860s America.


 

#6 - Project Hail Mary (2021)

by Andy Weir ★★★★★

A scientist trapped alone in space trying to survive. What worked for Weir with The Martian does again and this time might be even better.


 

#5 - Chain-Gang All-Stars (2023)

by Nana Kwame Adjei-Brenyah ★★★★★

Set in a near-future society that feels all too possible, prisoners fight in gladiatorial death matches for a chance at freedom.


 

#4 - All the Sinners Bleed (2023)

by S.A. Cosby ★★★★★

Another tightly crafted Southern Noir novel from Cosby packed with social commentary and memorable characters. Possibly his best yet.


 

#3 - Lost Man's Lane (2024)

by Scott Carson ★★★★★

Set in 1999, a coming-of-age story about a high schooler who finds himself embroiled in a supernatural missing persons investigation.


 

#2 - Blacktop Wasteland (2020)

by S.A. Cosby ★★★★★

A “one last job” crime caper that ends up with a lot more depth and character development than expected. It's outstanding.


 

#1 - We Begin at the End (2021)

by Chris Whitaker ★★★★★

A thought-provoking and heartbreaking coming of age story, mixed with a small town mystery. My clear favorite of 2021 by a wide margin.



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