THE New York Times Book Review celebrated its momentous 125th anniversary with a readers’ vote for the best books of the past 125 years in October 2021.

They narrowed thousands of nominations down to 25 finalists and asked their readers to vote on the finalists. The book community has been waiting and, finally, the winner of their vote was announced at the year end.

“To Kill a Mockingbird” by Harper Lee was chosen as the best book of the past 125 years.

Lee’s masterpiece did have some competition. The New York Times says the win was by a narrow margin. Here, in order, are the four runners-up, any one of which could have held the title of the best book of the past 125 years: “Fellowship of the Ring” by J. R. R. Tolkien; “1984” by George Orwell; “One Hundred Years of Solitude” by Gabriel García Márquez and “Beloved” by Toni Morrison.

The other books that made up the full 25 finalist ballot included well-known classics like “The Grapes of Wrath” by John Steinbeck, “The Great Gatsby” by F. Scott Fitzgerald, and “A Tree Grows in Brooklyn” by Betty Smith. The oldest book on the list was “Ulysses” by James Joyce, published in 1922, with the first serialization in 1918.

But the list was not bound by any one decade, or even century. With several recent releases making the cut, it really proves that a truly great story can become an instant classic. “A Little Life” by Hanya Yanagihara, published in 2015, Amor Towles’s “A Gentleman in Moscow,” published in 2016, and Richard Power’s “The Overstory,” published in 2018, were the three most recent books to make the ballot.

While many of the titles up for vote were literary fiction, the 25 finalists were not restricted to nor dominated by any one genre. Science-fiction, romance and fantasy were included. Two children’s books made the cut, with “Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone” and “Charlotte’s Web” each taking a spot in the top 25.

Choosing a definitive best book of the past 125 years is a daunting task. Whatever one’s personal selection would have been, these 25 finalists are all amazing reads and make a great reading list to start off the new year. Here are more of the finalists so you can start to build your list:

• “All the Light We Cannot See” by Anthony Doerr;

• “Catch-22” by Joseph Heller;

• “The Catcher in the Rye” by J.D. Salinger;

• “A Confederacy of Dunces” by John Kennedy Toole;

• “A Fine Balance” by Rohinton Mistry;

• “Gone With the Wind” by Margaret Mitchell;

• “The Handmaid’s Tale” by Margaret Atwood;

• “Infinite Jest” by David Foster Wallace;

• “Lolita” by Vladimir Nabokov;

• “Lonesome Dove” by Larry McMurtry；

• “A Prayer for Owen Meany” by John Irving. (SD-Agencies)