Year in Review: 2021 Book List
There’s no sugar-coating this year: 2021 was honestly one of the hardest, weirdest years I’ve yet encountered. I’ve spent most of it waiting to hear back from agents on my first book, while editing a second, and it’s likely Aaron and I will be moving in 2022. It’s been a transitional year and also a pandemic year, and to top it off, I got COVID-19 and was sick over Christmas. (Luckily I was fully vaccinated, so while I felt terrible, I was never in danger of hospitalization.) 2021 has been the year of waiting. I like to think that a year from now, I’ll look back magnanimously and see how much I learned and grew. But I’m not there yet. Right now there is no magnanimity. But there are books.
Thank everything that is holy for books during this pandemic! I read for personal growth, pure fun, and everything in between, with a final tally of 63 books.
Overwhelmingly, they came from the library: at 31, almost half. 12 were from Book of the Month; eight I purchased from Bookshop or independent bookstores; six were gifts; three were giveaways; and three were from our two local Little Free Libraries, which have done a booming free business during the pandemic.
From the 63, I picked 10 standouts, listed in alphabetical order following the big list.
The Age of Light ~ Whitney Scharer
Almost Famous Women: Stories ~ Megan Mayhew Bergman
American Panda ~ Gloria Chao
An American Sunrise ~ Joy Harjo
Beach Read ~ Emily Henry
Beautiful World, Where Are You ~ Sally Rooney
The Best American Science Fiction and Fantasy 2020 ~ Edited by Diana Gabaldon and John Joseph Adams
Beyond Shame: Creating a Healthy Sex Life on Your Own Terms ~ Matthias Roberts
Blue-Skinned Gods ~ SJ Sindu
A Cafecito Story: El Cuento del Cafecito ~ Julia Alvarez
The Color of Law: A Forgotten History of How Our Government Segregated America ~ Richard Rothstein
Counting Descent ~ Clint Smith
Dear White Peacemakers: Dismantling Racism with Grit and Grace ~ Osheta Moore
The Eternal Audience of One ~ Rémy Ngamije
Faith after Doubt: Why Your Beliefs Stopped Working and What to Do about It ~ Brian D. McLaren
Felon: Poems ~ Reginald Dwayne Betts
The Final Revival of Opal & Nev ~ Dawnie Walton
for colored girls who have considered suicide/when the rainbow is enuf ~ Ntozake Shange
Gay and Lesbian Washington D. C. ~ Frank Muzzy
The Glass Hotel ~ Emily St. John Mandel
Here and Now and Then ~ Mike Chen
Home Body ~ Rupi Kaur
How Much of These Hills is Gold ~ C. Pam Zhang
How to Avoid a Climate Disaster: The Solutions We Have and the Breakthroughs We Need ~ Bill Gates
If Beale Street Could Talk ~ James Baldwin
Infinite Country ~ Patricia Engel
The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue ~ V. E. Schwab
The Knife Man: The Extraordinary Life and Times of John Hunter, Father of Modern Surgery ~ Wendy Moore
Leaves of Grass: The First (1855) Edition ~ Walt Whitman
The Lincoln Highway ~ Amor Towles
A Little Hope ~ Ethan Joella
Luster ~ Raven Leilani
Memorial ~ Bryan Washington
Mexican Gothic ~ Silvia Moreno-Garcia
The Midnight Library ~ Matt Haig
Milk and Honey ~ Rupi Kaur
On Earth We’re Briefly Gorgeous ~ Ocean Vuong
One Last Stop ~ Casey McQuiston
Outlawed ~ Anna North
Passing ~ Nella Larsen
Project Hail Mary ~ Andy Weir
The Rumi Collection ~ Edited by Kabir Helminski
Sankofa ~ Chibundu Onuzo
Shameless: A Sexual Reformation ~ Nadia Bolz-Weber
Sharks in the Time of Saviors ~ Kawai Strong Washburn
The Space Between Worlds ~ Micaiah Johnson
Steering the Craft: A Twenty-First-Century Guide to Sailing the Sea of Story ~ Ursula K. Le Guin
The Sun and Her Flowers ~ Rupi Kaur
Teixcalaan Series ~ Arkady Martine
A Memory Called Empire
A Desolation Called Peace
These Ghosts Are Family ~ Maisy Card
Things We Lost to the Water ~ Eric Nguyen
This Is How You Lose the Time War ~ Amal El-Mohtar and Max Gladstone
Untamed ~ Glennon Doyle
What Comes After ~ JoAnne Tompkins
Where the Past Begins: Memory and Imagination ~ Amy Tan
Winter’s Orbit ~ Everina Maxwell
The Witcher Series ~ Andrzej Sapkowski
The Last Wish
Sword of Destiny
Season of Storms
A World Between ~ Emily Hashimoto
Reread
Red, White & Royal Blue ~ Casey McQuiston
Top 10
Afterparties ~ Anthony Veasna So
One of my absolute favorites of the year. I had to sit and think after each one of So’s stories, and would have read a novel based on each one. Short stories aren’t always my thing, but So’s were genius, defying my expectations for short story and character in brilliant ways. I can’t recommend Afterparties enough.
Dear White Peacemakers: Dismantling Racism with Grit and Grace ~ Osheta Moore
Moore’s vision of dismantling racism through peacemaking and rehumanization is truly powerful, plus generous and incisive and truthful. I was immensely encouraged and challenged by her book; it felt like such a gift.
The Eternal Audience of One ~ Rémy Ngamije
Here’s another favorite that would have made any top list I made, of any length. I stumbled across it randomly, through winning a Goodreads giveaway, and it blew me away. It’s a masterclass in voice. Ngamije’s writing is sharp, funny, and original. Highly recommend.
Felon: Poems ~ Reginald Dwayne Betts
Absolutely unreal. It always feels like a revelation to read writing this incredible. I paused over so many lines, reading them over again. This is one of the books I’d like to buy so I can pick it up off the shelf and spend time mulling over just a few of Betts’ words, so magnificently strung together.
The Glass Hotel ~ Emily St. John Mandel
This is only my second Mandel, but she’s one of those authors whose works inspire a need to read everything else she’s written. It’s only a matter of time! I inhaled The Glass Hotel, and am awed by her ability to make anything — for example, Ponzi schemes or the shipping industry — utterly fascinating and intimate.
The Midnight Library ~ Matt Haig
I expected to enjoy this one, but didn’t realize just how much I’d love it. I read it right around my birthday, which was perfect timing, and loved Haig’s meditations on freedom, regrets, and exploring our unlived lives.
Outlawed ~ Anna North
Another book that snuck up on me, right into my top 10. Outlawed was the Western I didn’t know I desperately needed. North’s storytelling felt effortless. She explored who society casts away and why in a way that didn’t feel heavy-handed, but deft, penned in a light yet confident hand. I’m anxious to read more North.
Sharks in the Time of Saviors ~ Kawai Strong Washburn
Washburn’s debut was so vivid and fresh. He somehow enabled me to sit with the emotions of an event for longer than in other novels, while still propelling me forward. It’s been a while since I read a book set in Hawaii, and Washburn created such a striking sense of place, painting Hawaii as I’d never seen it.
These Ghosts Are Family ~ Maisy Card
Another book of short stories, for someone who professes to not be that into short stories! Card’s excellent debut should have received way more hype. It was fascinating to watch how she weaved the stories together. I honestly didn’t like many of the characters, but Card wrote them in a way that made them seem so real, it didn’t matter if I liked them or not. I still wanted to read about them.
Winter’s Orbit ~ Everina Maxwell
I was reading Winter’s Orbit at exactly the right time in my life, when I needed to escape and disappear inside another world for a few hours. I blazed through it and also didn’t want it to end. I loved Maxwell’s mix of romance and science fiction, and eagerly await more books from her.
Afterparties ~ Anthony Veasna So
One of my absolute favorites of the year. I had to sit and think after each one of So’s stories, and would have read a novel based on each one. Short stories aren’t always my thing, but So’s were genius, defying my expectations for short story and character in brilliant ways. I can’t recommend Afterparties enough.
Dear White Peacemakers: Dismantling Racism with Grit and Grace ~ Osheta Moore
Moore’s vision of dismantling racism through peacemaking and rehumanization is truly powerful, plus generous and incisive and truthful. I was immensely encouraged and challenged by her book; it felt like such a gift.
The Eternal Audience of One ~ Rémy Ngamije
Here’s another favorite that would have made any top list I made, of any length. I stumbled across it randomly, through winning a Goodreads giveaway, and it blew me away. It’s a masterclass in voice. Ngamije’s writing is sharp, funny, and original. Highly recommend.
Felon: Poems ~ Reginald Dwayne Betts
Absolutely unreal. It always feels like a revelation to read writing this incredible. I paused over so many lines, reading them over again. This is one of the books I’d like to buy so I can pick it up off the shelf and spend time mulling over just a few of Betts’ words, so magnificently strung together.
The Glass Hotel ~ Emily St. John Mandel
This is only my second Mandel, but she’s one of those authors whose works inspire a need to read everything else she’s written. It’s only a matter of time! I inhaled The Glass Hotel, and am awed by her ability to make anything — for example, Ponzi schemes or the shipping industry — utterly fascinating and intimate.
The Midnight Library ~ Matt Haig
I expected to enjoy this one, but didn’t realize just how much I’d love it. I read it right around my birthday, which was perfect timing, and loved Haig’s meditations on freedom, regrets, and exploring our unlived lives.
Outlawed ~ Anna North
Another book that snuck up on me, right into my top 10. Outlawed was the Western I didn’t know I desperately needed. North’s storytelling felt effortless. She explored who society casts away and why in a way that didn’t feel heavy-handed, but deft, penned in a light yet confident hand. I’m anxious to read more North.
Sharks in the Time of Saviors ~ Kawai Strong Washburn
Washburn’s debut was so vivid and fresh. He somehow enabled me to sit with the emotions of an event for longer than in other novels, while still propelling me forward. It’s been a while since I read a book set in Hawaii, and Washburn created such a striking sense of place, painting Hawaii as I’d never seen it.
These Ghosts Are Family ~ Maisy Card
Another book of short stories, for someone who professes to not be that into short stories! Card’s excellent debut should have received way more hype. It was fascinating to watch how she weaved the stories together. I honestly didn’t like many of the characters, but Card wrote them in a way that made them seem so real, it didn’t matter if I liked them or not. I still wanted to read about them.
Winter’s Orbit ~ Everina Maxwell
I was reading Winter’s Orbit at exactly the right time in my life, when I needed to escape and disappear inside another world for a few hours. I blazed through it and also didn’t want it to end. I loved Maxwell’s mix of romance and science fiction, and eagerly await more books from her.
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