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Books Set in the 2000s
Whether you found this post searching for the best books set between 2000 and 2009, or you’re participating in our Decades Challenge, we hope you’ll find some great books set in the 2000s to add to your TBR lists. If you’re looking for books set between 2010-2019, you can find them here.
Literary Themes in Books Set in the Aughts or the Noughties – 2000 to 2009
Our recommendations include numerous memoirs and non-fiction accounts of major world events of the first decade after the millennium, as well as works of fiction that span drama, comedy, and young adult literature. Other books on our list provide an eye-opening look at the stark contrast between life in America and in other parts of the world at the start of the 21st century.
Before recommending books set in this decade, we like to provide historical context. If you prefer, feel free to scroll straight to our list of books set in the 2000s.
The first decade of the 21st century was largely defined by the 9/11 terrorist attack and the war that followed, and, in the second half of the decade, by the largest recession since the Great Depression. Near the end of the decade, America elected its first Black president, as well as the most diverse Congress in history.
Our daily lives were influenced by the arrival of social media, the reality TV craze, and the rapid increase in internet businesses. By the end of the decade, flip phones gave rise to iPhones and allowed us to begin carrying the power of a computer in our pockets.
For additional historical context, check out the timeline of major world events included at the end of the post.
Books Set in the 2000s (2000-2009)
You are welcome to choose any book that you’d like to read for the challenge, but we hope that this list of books has given you a good starting point.
Sign Up for the Decades Reading Challenge
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Printable Version This Book List
Readers who support The Book Girls’ Guide through our Buy Me a Coffee (BMAC) membership site can access printable versions of the reading challenge book lists. As we update each book list throughout the year – following the monthly reading challenge schedule – each list will be available in a single-page printable format for our BMAC members.
We offer two membership levels. Both our BFF members and our Inner Circle members get access to the single-page printables for the year-long reading challenges. Visit our Buy Me a Coffee membership page for a full list of benefits for each level.
Our BMAC members help cover the cost of running the challenges so we can keep them free for everyone!
Book Recommendations for Other Decades
In addition to our recommendations organized by decade below, you can browse all of our historical fiction book lists here.
- Books that Span Multiple Decades
- Books Set in the 2010s
- Books Set in the 2000s
- Books Set in the 1980s
- Books Set in the 1990s
- Books Set in the 1970s
- Books Set in the 1960s
- Books Set in the 1950s
- Books Set in the 1940s
- Books Set in the 1930s
- Books Set in the 1920s
- Books Set in the 1900s and 1910s
- 28 Books Set in the 1880s and 1890s
Major Events of 2000 to 2009
We compiled this list of major events of the time period to provide some historical context for your reading. We hope you enjoy learning a bit more about this period in history.
- In 2000, Vermont became the first state in the US to legalize Civil Unions for same-sex couples. Three years later, Massachusetts became the first state to legalize gay marriage.
- The results of the 2000 US Presidential Election were so close that it triggered an automatic recount in the State of Florida. After a machine recount, just 600 votes separated the two candidates, requiring a manual recount. When the recount was not completed in the required number of days, the case ended up in court. In December of 2000, the US Supreme Court ruled in Bush v. Gore, giving the presidency to George W. Bush. Bush was reelected to a second term in 2004.
- The first crew to live on the International Space Station – made up of one American and two Russian astronauts – arrived in November of 2000 and stayed aboard the ISS for 136 days.
- Following the success of MTV’s The Real World in the 1990s, reality TV achieved prominence and global popularity in the 2000s with the success of shows like Survivor, which premiered in May of 2000, The Amazing Race, Big Brother, and The Bachelor, and The O.C.
- Email continued to gain popularity throughout the decade and began to replace “snail mail” as the primary form of sending letters and communications.
- Apple released iTunes in January of 2001, providing an easy way to purchase, store, and organize digital music.
- On September 11, 2001, 19 highjackers took control of four US commercial airliners. Planes crashed into the two tallest towers of the World Trade Center in NYC, causing both to collapse within hours. A third plane crashed in the Pentagon in Virginia, and the fourth plane crashed in a field in rural Pennsylvania after passengers appeared to resist the hijackers. Nealy 3,000 people died on 9/11, and more than 6,000 were injured.
- In response to the 9/11 attacks, the US invaded Taliban-controlled Afghanistan in October of 2001, marking the beginning of the US “War on Terror.” The following year, President Bush created the Department of Homeland Security to fight threats of terrorism.
- Following 9/11, and the subsequent Shoe Bomb attempt several months later, much stricter screening measures were put in place at airports, and the Transportation Security Administration (TSA) is put in place to oversee security in all modes of transportation.
- After several years of rapid growth among new tech companies, the “Dot Com Bubble” burst in the early 2000s, leaving many investors with steep losses.
- In February of 2003, the Space Shuttle Columbia disintegrated upon re-entry, killing all seven crew members.
- In March 2003, the US invaded Iraq, launching the Iraq War that lasted until the end of 2011. The purported basis of the war was the belief that dictator Saddam Hussein possessed or was building weapons of mass destruction, although none were ever found. In 2006, Saddam Hussein was found guilty of crimes against humanity by a Iraqi judge, and sentenced to death by hanging.
- The Human Genome Project was completed in 2003, with scientists from around the world identifying over 20,000 individual genes and successfully sequencing 99% of the human genome.
- Roy Horn, one half of the Siegfried & Roy illusionist duo that mesmerized Vegas audiences for decades, was mauled by his white tiger on stage in front of an audience of 1,500 at MGM’s Mirage Hotel and Casino, leaving Horn partially paralyzed.
- NASA’s Mars Spirit Rover arrived on Mars in 2004 on a mission that included searching for evidence of water on Mars and whether there were ever conditions that could have sustained life on the planet. The mission continued until contact with the Spirit Rover was lost in 2010.
- Facebook was launched as a social networking site in 2004, but was initially open only to students at Harvard. By the next year, it had over a million users around the world, which was just the beginning.
- Martha Stewart, creator of one of the most successful home and lifestyle brands, was charged with insider trading and convicted of related felonies. She served five months in prison.
- On December 26, 2004, an earthquake in the Indian Ocean measuring 9.3 on the Richter Scale struck near Indonesia. The earthquake triggered tsunami waves that swept across the coastlines of Sri Lanka, India, Bangladesh, the Maldives, Burma, Thailand, Malaysia, and Indonesia, killing at least 290,000.
- In August 2005, Hurricane Katrina hit the coastal areas of Louisiana, Mississippi, and Alabama. Levees that separated Lake Pontchartrain from New Orleans were breached, causing nearly 80% of the city to be flooded. Nearly 1,600 people died in Hurricane Katrina across the impacted states.
- Then Prince Charles, now the King of England, remarried in 2005. Queen Elizabeth did not attend the civil ceremony between Charles and Camilla Parker Bowles, but did host a reception for the couple.
- In 2007, a student went on a killing spree on the Virginia Tech campus, killing more than 32 people.
- Apple introduced the first iPhone in June of 2007.
- The global financial crisis of 2007 and 2008 sparked the most severe recession since the Great Depression of the 1930s. Now referred to as the Great Recession, the crisis was the result of the US housing bubble bursting, combined with excessive risk-taking by banks in the years prior.
- In the 2008 US Presidential Election, Barack Obama defeated John McCain to become the 44th president and the first African American to hold the position.
- In April 2009, four pirates attempted to hijack a cargo ship off the coast of Somalia. They were unable to take control of the ship but took the captain hostage. US Navy SEALs rescued the captain several days later.
- Just minutes after taking off from NYC’s La Guardia Airport on January 15, 2009, a US Airways flight collided with a flock of geese, causing the plane to lose both engines. In what is now known as the “Miracle on the Hudson,” the pilot, Captain Sully, was able to successfully crash land the plane in the Hudson River between Manhattan and New Jersey, saving the lives of all 155 passengers and crew.
- The 2009 death of Michael Jackson – the King of Pop – brought outpourings of grief from around the world.
