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Goodreads Readers’ Favorite Books From the Last 10 Years

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The Goodreads editors are back at it again, number crunching and bringing us all the interesting user data from their 125+ million members. This latest list looks at popular books published from 2014-2023, but there’s a bit of a twist—the list doesn’t look at how well these books did when they were first published. Rather, it looks at how they are currently doing.

By looking at books published the last decade that its members are reading and recommending now, Goodreads is not only highlighting books that have been popular the whole time, like Emily St. John Mandel’s Station Eleven, but also looking at ones whose popularity is just now taking shape.

As an aside, I was fully prepared (and kind of expecting) to see an upward trend in the list when it comes to diversity, but I didn’t. The shorter list for 2016 contains four non-white authors out of the eight mentioned compared to the one mentioned in 2023, for instance. Clicking on the subheading for each year does take you to the full list of books published that year that are popular on the site, but diversity isn’t improved much in the full lists.

In any case, it is still always interesting to look at what makes it to readers’ TBRs. Below is a sampling of the books that made the list, which include romantasy, historical fiction, memoirs, and more.

Books Published in 2023

Book cover of Yellowface by R. F. Kuang

Yellowface by R.F. Kuang

Books Published in 2022

I’m Glad My Mom Died by Jennette McCurdy

Books Published in 2021

Seven Days in June by Tia Williams

Books Published in 2020

The Vanishing Half by Brit Bennett

Books Published in 2019

Such a Fun Age by Kiley Reid

cover of Seven Days in June

Books Published in 2018

Becoming by Michelle Obama

Books Published in 2017

Pachinko by Min Jin Lee

Books Published in 2016

When Breath Becomes Air by Paul Kalanithi

Books Published in 2015

The Fifth Season (The Broken Earth, #1) by N.K. Jemisin

Books Published in 2014

Station Eleven by Emily St. John Mandel

For Goodreads’ sample list, click here.


Find more news and stories of interest from the book world in Breaking in Books.