this is the best books list
Now THIS is a useful year-end books list: LitHub published a 100 Books That Defined the Decade rundown that is A) explicitly not about which ones were best, thereby ridding you of the guilt-and-adrenaline-combo of having to add a jillion titles to your library waitlist, and B) basically a SparkNotes for all the books you’ll ever overhear being talked about at major social functions until at least 2030.
Each entry gives you the rundown on “essential stats” (awards, bestseller status, whether there are 600 chapters or not), what the consensus was amongst critics, a graf or two on any relevant controversies attached, and all the related TED Talk/movie trailer links that you’d secretly want. Command + F to your heart’s desire, or bookmark this and have infinite talking points when doing battle with your book club nemeses forever!!! Everyone wins!!!!
(h/t @juliaccarpenter!!)