21st century classics | Bookshelf Fantasies

Top Ten Tuesday is a meme hosted by That Artsy Reader Girl, featuring a different top 10 theme each week. This week’s topic is 21st Century Books I Think Will Become Classics.

This is a hard one! And what do we mean by classics anyway? I’m going with ten books that I think will be read and discussed for many years to come — or at least, for some of these, books that I think SHOULD be read and discussed, even if they’re a bit under the radar right now.

My list skews mostly toward science fiction and fantasy, with a couple of others mixed in as well.

Here are my top 10:

The Book Thief by Marcus Zusak: I know this one is already being taught in high schools. So beautiful and powerful.
Station Eleven by Emily St. John Mandel: This book probably got a fresh wave of readers thanks to the TV adaptation.
The Song of Achilles by Madeleine Miller: It was hard to choose between this book and Circe! Both are wonderful. It’s so impressive to see classic stories made so fresh and compelling.
The Bear and the Nightingale by Katherine Arden: Gorgeous storytelling build on Russian fairy tale elements.
The Goblin Emperor by Katherine Addison: Simply my favorite piece of fantasy world-building! Deserves to be much more widely read.
Binti by Nnedi Okorafor: This novella, combinating Afro-futurism and science fiction storytelling, provides a fresh voice in the sci-fi/fantasy world.
Leviathan Wakes by James S. A. Corey: The entire Expanse series is super impressive — a great achievement in the world of science fiction.
Code Name Verity by Elizabeth Wein: Heart-breaking every time I read it, as well as an innovative approach to storytelling.
The Martian by Andy Weir: Geek fiction for the win! This deserves to be a sci-fi classic.
Piranesi by Susanna Clarke: So strange and beautiful. I think this book needs to be read more than once to fully absorb it.