My Favorite Reads of 2021
After the pandemic wrecked everything, I decided my reading goal for 2021 would be my least ambitious in years: 1. The habit of reading has fully ingrained into my life by now, so I ended up reading a healthy 133 books. This year I read some especially wonderful nonfiction and fantasy, and it shows in my list of favorites this year.
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Think Again by Adam Grant (2021)
Industrial psychologist Adam Grant has written a book on a skill you didn’t know you needed - rethinking and unlearning. Grant lays out a powerful argument for relying on intelligence to guide you through thorny problems, and the ways our ingrained thought patterns can leave us unable to draw new conclusions. A must-read in a world where online rhetoric feels So Important™️and leaves no room for reflection.
What We Don’t Talk About When We Talk About Fat by Aubrey Gordon (2021)
In a remarkably personal book, Aubrey Gordon (host of one of my must-listen podcasts, Maintenance Phase) lays out a compelling argument for the ways in which our society falls short of supporting (or even humanizing) fat people. Gordon completed an enormous amount of research, but she also peppers the story with personal anecdotes, the data made real. It’s occasionally painful, but ultimately eye-opening book.
The Midnight Library by Matt Haig (2020)
Nora Seed has been given the opportunity of a lifetime, literally. She wakes up in the liminal space between life and death to discover an immense library, each book containing the story of her life if she had only made different choices. Depressed and broken, Nora eagerly jumps at the chance to correct her past regrets. Technically fantasy, this book will prompt even the most grounded among us to view our lives and choices through a new lens.
The Once and Future Witches by Alix E. Harrow (2021)
The three Eastwood sisters - shy Agnes, comely Beatrice, prickly James - have only 2 things in common: 1. magic and 2. the unquenchable knowledge that they have the power to make things better. They find common cause in joining the women’s suffrage movement in New Salem, Massachusetts in 1893, and find themselves up against a foe whose oily tentacles reach far into their past. Part fantasy, part reimagined history, this gloriously burning tale absolutely flies. You’ll be crushed it’s over.
Tribe: On Homecoming and Belonging by Sebastian Junger (2016)
When Sebastian Junger returned from his final tour in Western Asia, he stepped right into a world that was somehow even more ideologically divided than the one he’d just come from. In Tribe, he spins an interesting though exercise on belonging, individualism, and what draws us together. Even better, this book clocks in at a short and easy 168 pages.
Before the Coffee Gets Cold by Toshikazu Kawaguchi (Org. 2015, Eng. 2020)
This book deserves to win every single award. I have cried at perhaps six books in my life and I cried during this book more than once. In an out-of-the-way cafe in Tokyo, there is a special coffee service that endows the drinker with the power to travel through time. There are a few catches, however. First, you can only time travel within the cafe. Second, you must return before the coffee gets cold. Four customers travel in time, each with goals and experiences as varied and dear as the human experience.
This is a book in translation. This is a book by a BIPOC author.
The Sum of Us by Heather McGhee
In the wake of forced desegregation in the 1960s, cities across the country (not just the south!) opted to close all public pools rather than allow black children to swim in formerly white pools. With that powerful metaphor as an opener, McGhee takes the reader across the country to show how racism hurts all of us, and how dismantling white supremacy lifts us all up. It’s occasionally a tough read, but will ultimately leave you with a lot of hope.
This is a book by a BIPOC author.
The Thursday Murder Club by Richard Osman (2021)
As an avid consumer of cozy mysteries, I thought this might be a bog-standard, nice mystery. WRONG. Four retirees get together every Thursday to review cold cases. Imagine their joy when a dead body turns up in their development! The characters in this book are so rich and real. Osman is a comedian, and it shows in the genuinely funny writing. A shining example of how wonderful a “fluff” read can be.
Say Nothing by Patrick Radden Keefe (2019)
If you think you know about the Troubles…think again. Thanks to an oral history project by a former Provo-turned-Boston-University professor, Radden Keefe delves deep into the stories of a few major figures of the violent clashes between Catholics and Protestants in Northern Ireland in the latter part of the 20th century. As well as providing a comprehensive timeline, Radden Keefe leaves no stone unturned, fully uncovering the complicated actions and personalities of the major players. Try to take sides after reading it. I dare you.
The Priory of the Orange Tree by Samantha Shannon (2019)
This book has everything for a classic fantasy lover. Dragons! Maps! Training montages! Magic! But it’s Shannon’s masterful writing that puts this book over the edge. She plays with language in exceptionally creative ways - making up words whose definitions are immediately clear. Plus, there’s a genuinely lovely sapphic romance element. If you want to lose yourself in a big fat fantasy novel, let it be this one.
Station Eleven by Emily St. John Mandel (2014)
Thanks to HBO acquiring the rights and the minor matter of a global pandemic, this fascinating story had renewed interest in 2021 and I LEAPT onto that bandwagon. 20 years after a flu pandemic wipes out over 98% of the world’s population in just a few weeks, we follow a young woman in a traveling theater troupe through a Brave New World. Interspersed with old memories and new hope, this book occupies the liminal space between grief and hope in the most beautiful way.
One to Watch by Kate Stayman-London (2020)
In a perfect intersection of Aubrey Gordon’s interests (see above), plus size fashion influencer Bea Schumacher wakes up after a drunken tirade against what is clearly supposed to be a facsimile of the Bachelor franchise to an offer to lead the show. Unsurprisingly, people (including the show’s producers) don’t stop being jerks to fat people when there’s a camera in their face. It’s a fun and fascinating look at where we are, and how far we have to go.
I Think You’re Wrong (But I’m Listening) by Sarah Stewart Holland and Beth Silvers (2019)
She was a liberal. She was a conservative. Can I make it anymore obvious? Millennial moms and former lawyers Stewart Holland and Silvers started a podcast based on having compassionate political conversations way back in 2015. As things only grew more chaotic around them, they wrote this practical, interesting guide to navigating tough, personal conversations that tend to flourish and/or flounder in political spaces.
The Empress of Salt and Fortune by Nghi Vo (2020)
Perhaps the biggest surprise of the year! I don’t know how Vo crammed so much into a tiny novella, but this brilliant little book will truly stun you. An elderly woman recounts her time in the service of the Empress In-Yo, and the powerful gravity of a court. Told through the eyes of a non-binary cleric, Empress explores what true power and freedom are through this richly realized high fantasy.
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