Peddie’s Top Reads: Aligning with The New York Times Best 100 Books of the 21st Century

The New York Times recently unveiled its “The 100 Best Books of the 21st Century,” selected by a distinguished panel of 503 novelists, nonfiction writers, poets, literary critics and others. Peddie English teachers, including Matt Roach, reviewed this list with joy and affirmation of the literary richness our students experience.

By Matt Roach, English teacher and director of teaching and learning

If you’ve attended Peddie any time in the last 15 years, chances are you’ve read several books from The New York Times’ list as part of your English curriculum. Going through the list was a veritable joy; by our count, at least 26 books that the Times ranked in the top 100 of the 21st century have been part of the Peddie curriculum.

Why is this number so high? Well, for one thing, our teachers read widely and have great taste. 

For another, Peddie teachers have the trust, freedom and support to take thoughtful and well-considered risks in the curriculum. We continually add new books and find dynamic texts that speak to today’s students and about today’s world.

There are books on the list that have become a part of our core curriculum. There are books on the list that have formed the backbone of favorite spring electives. And there are books that students have written great Senior Theses on. 

Some of these acclaimed books have emerged as curriculum staples because of teachers’ own particular interests. Some emerged from graduate school courses at the Bread Loaf School of English. Teaching these books was often the product of joyful collaboration with colleagues and teaching teams. 

Reflecting on this list, I think of all the amazing students who have discussed, analyzed, critiqued and loved these books over the years. 

A personal favorite of mine is “My Brilliant Friend,” the Times’ #1 book of the 21st century. I’ve taught it as a spring elective for two of the past four years, after a colleague and I developed a course on it. Elena Ferrante’s novel is layered, compulsively readable and a searing portrait of human dynamics, history and intersectionality. 

Other books that have featured prominently in our classes at Peddie include George Saunders’ “Lincoln in the Bardo” (#18), which is part of a “Stay Illusion” senior class; “Tenth of December” (#54), also by George Saunders, has appeared in English 12, as well as the elective “This is America: Satire and Dystopia” my colleague Kurt Bennett and I taught.

Jennifer Egan’s “A Visit from the Goon Squad” (#39) makes appearances in our senior seminar in contemporary literature, “Reckless Libertines,” and was a major part of the “Madness” course several years ago, as was Junot Diaz’s “The Brief, Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao” (#11) and Chimamanda Adichie’s “Americanah” (#27).

Richard Powers’ “The Overstory” (#24) was a part of the sophomore course this past year, while “The Underground Railroad” (#7) by Colson Whitehead was a foundational part of our Historical Fiction curriculum for 11th graders.

Viet Thanh Nguyen’s “The Sympathizer” (#90) was the core text of the senior course, “The Question of These Wars.” “Men We Reaped” (#97), by Jesmyn Ward, was a required opening-of-school read for juniors. Jenate Brown taught a class on Joan Didion that included “The Year of Magical Thinking” (#12). Marc Onion has taught Zadie Smith’s “White Teeth” (#31) for years, while Ami Shah has taught Pachinko (#15) by Min Jin Lee for the last two years as part of her spring elective, “An Asian Century.” 

Our flexible and dynamic course structure, which includes core courses and a rich selection of electives, allows us to incorporate so many different books. This structure supports teachers in expressing their creativity and using books that are new and exciting to them and to students. 

While we love the classics — all seniors still read “Hamlet,” all sophomores still read “Macbeth,” all freshmen read “The Odyssey,” etc. — being open to the best current books allows us to introduce new voices, new perspectives and new ideas. 

It is also worth noting that the history department has, for the past several years, required students to read Michelle Alexander’s “The New Jim Crow.” The curricular innovation at Peddie is cross-disciplinary.

We’re excited to read and consider the books on this list that we have not yet encountered, but I think it’s safe to say that if we were to come up with our own Peddie list of the best books of the 21st century, it would look a lot like what the Times’ literary experts produced.