The textbook market is thriving in 2021—new titles, editions, and reprints appear every minute. But how can you possibly know which are the best textbooks in your subject? Is this textbook good, or this edition appeared in the wake of the textbook pricing racket system? Checking upon Textbook Awards will help you find college books whose pedagogy is delivered according to the best practices! Find a digest of the best textbooks to buy in 2021 below!

We all have some sort of knowledge about the Booker Prize, the Nobel Prize in Literature, and several other paramount literary awards that aid us in navigating the contemporary literary scene. For advanced bookworms, there are hundreds of other awards given to distinguished authors across the globe. But what about textbooks and other scientific and educational publications? 

Compared to fiction or journalism, there are only a few textbook awards established to distinguish the most remarkable K-12 and college books. In any case, these awards are a clear sign of quality that helps you navigate among thousands of college books available for self-study and classroom work.

Textbook and Academic Author Association 

 This is the most prominent foundation that supports the best initiatives in textbook publishing, distinguishing new books and revised editions of educational classics. Look for a TAA award winner sticker on your college book covers!

The TAA provides three types of awards: 

• McGuffey Longevity Award for extraordinary books that are in print for more than 15 years and still are in demand
• Textbook Excellence Award for recently published textbooks 
• Most Promising New Textbook Award for the first editions of textbooks that have the full potential to become all-time classics

The Association selects the best textbooks based on their pedagogical advancement, scholarship, writing style, and design. The awards are given for textbooks falling into eight thematic categories such as humanities, economics, STEM, and so on.

The Best Textbooks of 2021 

Here are our top picks from the TAA textbook award winners for 2021. Check the complete list for more inspiration! 

• Design of Machinery, 6th edition, by Robert L. Norton
• March’s Advanced Organic Chemistry: Reactions, Mechanisms, and Structure, 8th edition, by Michael B. Smith
• The Logic of American Politics, 9th edition, by Samuel Kernell, Gary C. Jacobson, Thad Kousser, and Lynn Vavreck
• The McDonaldization of Society: Into the Digital Age, 9th edition, by George Ritzer
• Entrepreneurship: The Practice and Mindset, 2nd edition, by Heidi M. Neck, Christopher P. Neck, and Emma L. Murray
• Human Development: A Cultural Approach, 3rd edition, by Jeffrey Jensen Arnett and Lene Arnett Jensen
• Intercultural Communication: A Critical Perspective, by Rona Tamiko Halualani
• African American Psychology: A Positive Psychology Perspective, by Stacie Craft DeFreitas
• Child and Adolescent Development: A Social Justice Approach, by Kristine Anthis
• Entrepreneurial Finance: The Art and Science of Growing Ventures, by Luisa Alemany and Job J. Andreoli

PROSE Awards

Are you more interested in popular science books? The Association of American Publishers endows Awards for Professional and Scholarly Excellence (PROSE Awards)—the winners of this award are clearly of the best scholarly quality!

R.R. Hawkins Award is the most prestigious out of PROSE Awards. This year, the winner is Ancient Maya Politics: A Political Anthropology of the Classic Period 150–900 CE by Simon Martin.  

The Association of American Publishers also distinguishes best textbooks and science books written in a specific discipline. Therefore, the PROSE Award for Excellence in Social Sciences went to Mind Over Media: Propaganda Education for a Digital Age by Renee Hobbs.  

The best textbook in Physical Sciences & Mathematics, according to PROSE, is A Philosophical Approach to MOND: Assessing the Milgromian Research Program in Cosmology by David Merritt. 

Royal Society Book Prize

Another solid guideline for popular science books is Royal Society Insight Investment Science Book Prize. The winner of 2020 is a fantastic multifaceted study Explaining Humans: What Science Can Teach Us about Life, Love and Relationships by Camilla Pang.

BooksRun Best Textbooks Tips

There are also other options! We regularly publish lists of the best textbooks to buy on various subjects. These selections are based on our users’ choices, readers’ reviews, and ratings on Goodreads. So have a look and find something for yourself! 

• If you study medicine, here is a list of 10 must-read books for medical students.  
• We also have something in hand for future lawyers!  
• Here is a list of fascinating books on Chemistry, suitable also for self-study and total beginners. 
• This is a selection of the most appealing books ever—you will want to have them on your coffee table.   
• Textbooks on this list will find fans among Psychology students and enthusiasts.  
• And here are the most popular textbooks bought and rented by BooksRun users. 

Stay tuned and regularly check our blog for updates and further recommendations!

Whatever book you fall for, BooksRun will be there for you! Use our services to buy the textbooks you need and sell those you don’t want anymore!