List of The New York Times number-one books of 2021

The American daily newspaper The New York Times publishes multiple weekly lists ranking the best-selling books in the United States. The lists are split in three genres—fiction, nonfiction and children's books. Both the fiction and nonfiction lists are further split into multiple lists.

Fiction

The following list ranks the number-one best-selling fiction books, in the combined print and e-books category.

The most frequent weekly best seller of the year was The Four Winds by Kristin Hannah with 5 weeks at the top of the list, followed closely by The Duke and I by Julia Quinn with 4 weeks.

Date	Book	Author	Publisher	Ref.
January 3	A Time for Mercy	John Grisham	Doubleday
January 10
January 17	The Duke and I	Julia Quinn	Avon
January 24
January 31
February 7
February 14	The Russian	James Patterson and James O. Born	Little, Brown and Company
February 21	The Four Winds	Kristin Hannah	St. Martin's Press
February 28
March 7	A Court of Silver Flames	Sarah J. Maas	Bloomsbury Publishing
March 14	The Four Winds	Kristin Hannah	St. Martin's Press
March 21	Life After Death	Sister Souljah	Emily Bestler Books
March 28	The Four Winds	Kristin Hannah	St. Martin's Press
April 4	Win	Harlan Coben	Grand Central Publishing
April 11	The Four Winds	Kristin Hannah	St. Martin's Press
April 18	The Hill We Climb	Amanda Gorman	Viking Books
April 25
May 2	Ocean Prey	John Sandford	G. P. Putnam's Sons
May 9	A Gambling Man	David Baldacci	Grand Central Publishing
May 16	Sooley	John Grisham	Doubleday
May 23	21st Birthday	James Patterson and Maxine Paetro	Little, Brown and Company
May 30	While Justice Sleeps	Stacey Abrams	Doubleday
June 6	The Last Thing He Told Me	Laura Dave	Simon & Schuster
June 13	Legacy	Nora Roberts	St. Martin's Press
June 20	Freed	E. L. James	Bloom Books
June 27	The President's Daughter	Bill Clinton and James Patterson	Little, Brown and Company
July 4
July 11	The Last Thing He Told Me	Laura Dave	Simon & Schuster
July 18	Once Upon a Time in Hollywood	Quentin Tarantino	Harper Perennial
July 25	The Paper Palace	Miranda Cowley Heller	Riverhead Books
August 1	The Cellist	Daniel Silva	HarperCollins
August 8	Black Ice	Brad Thor	Emily Bestler Books
August 15	The Last Thing He Told Me	Laura Dave	Simon & Schuster
August 22	Billy Summers	Stephen King	Scribner
August 29
September 5	Bloodless	Douglas Preston and Lincoln Child	Grand Central Publishing
September 12	The Madness of Crowds	Louise Penny	Minotaur Books
September 19	A Slow Fire Burning	Paula Hawkins	Riverhead Books
September 26	Forgotten in Death	J. D. Robb	St. Martin's Press
October 3	Apples Never Fall	Liane Moriarty	Henry Holt and Company
October 10
October 17	The Wish	Nicholas Sparks	Grand Central Publishing
October 24	The Lincoln Highway	Amor Towles	Viking Books
October 31	State of Terror	Hillary Rodham Clinton and Louise Penny	Simon & Schuster and St. Martin's Press
November 7	The Judge's List	John Grisham	Doubleday
November 14	Better Off Dead	Lee Child and Andrew Child	Delacorte Press
November 21	Game On	Janet Evanovich	Atria Books
November 28	The Dark Hours	Michael Connelly	Little, Brown and Company
December 5	Mercy	David Baldacci	Grand Central Publishing
December 12	Go Tell the Bees That I Am Gone	Diana Gabaldon	Delacorte Press
December 19	Wish You Were Here	Jodi Picoult	Ballantine Books
December 26	Call Us What We Carry	Amanda Gorman	Viking Books

Nonfiction

The following list ranks the number-one best-selling nonfiction books, in the combined print and e-books category.

Issue date	Title	Author(s)	Publisher	Ref.
January 3	A Promised Land	Barack Obama	Crown
January 10
January 17
January 24
January 31
February 7
February 14	Just as I Am	Cicely Tyson	HarperCollins
February 21	Think Again	Adam Grant	Viking Press
February 28	Walk in My Combat Boots	James Patterson and Matt Eversmann with Chris Mooney	Little, Brown and Company
March 7	How to Avoid a Climate Disaster	Bill Gates	Knopf
March 14
March 21
March 28	The Code Breaker	Walter Isaacson	Simon & Schuster
April 4	This Is the Fire	Don Lemon	Little, Brown and Company
April 11	The Code Breaker	Walter Isaacson	Simon & Schuster
April 18
April 25	Broken Horses	Brandi Carlile	Crown
May 2	On the House	John Boehner	St. Martin's Press
May 9	Out of Many, One	George W. Bush	Crown
May 16	What Happened to You?	Bruce D. Perry and Oprah Winfrey	Flatiron Books
May 23	Killing the Mob	Bill O'Reilly and Martin Dugard	St. Martin's Press
May 30
June 6	The Anthropocene Reviewed	John Green	Dutton
June 13	Killing the Mob	Bill O'Reilly and Martin Dugard	St. Martin's Press
June 20	How the Word Is Passed	Clint Smith	Little, Brown and Company
June 27	Killing the Mob	Bill O'Reilly and Martin Dugard	St. Martin's Press
July 4
July 11	The Body Keeps the Score	Bessel van der Kolk	Penguin Books
July 18	Nightmare Scenario	Yasmina Abutaleb and Damian Paletta	Harper
July 25	How I Saved the World	Jesse Watters	Broadside Books
August 1	American Marxism	Mark Levin	Threshold Editions
August 8	I Alone Can Fix It	Carol Leonnig and Philip Rucker	Penguin Press
August 15	American Marxism	Mark Levin	Threshold Editions
August 22
August 29
September 5
September 12
September 19	The Afghanistan Papers	Craig Whitlock	Simon & Schuster
September 26	American Marxism	Mark Levin	Threshold Editions
October 3
October 10	Peril	Bob Woodward and Robert Costa	Simon & Schuster
October 17
October 24	The Storyteller	Dave Grohl	Dey Street Books
October 31	Midnight in Washington	Adam Schiff	Random House
November 7	Not All Diamonds and Rosé	Dave Quinn	Andy Cohen
November 14	Going There	Katie Couric	Little, Brown and Company
November 21	The Lyrics: 1956 to the Present	Paul McCartney	Liveright
November 28	Will	Will Smith with Mark Manson	Penguin Press
December 5	The 1619 Project	Nikole Hannah-Jones and The New York Times Magazine	One World
December 12
December 19
December 26

See also

• Publishers Weekly list of bestselling novels in the United States in the 2020s