2021 Book Wrapup
Hello and Merry Christmas! As you’ve probably noticed, 2021 is slinking toward its end, and as you’ve probably heard me exclaim, this was the year I decided to reconnect with reading. After graduating from college, I was frustrated by how little I had read for pleasure. More accurately, I was disheartened by how little I wanted to pick up a book, after spending most of my life seeking books out avidly.
I started out 2021 with a brand-new notebook, organized toward the goal to read for 30 minutes a day. While I didn’t end up sticking to that, it was a great way to get myself back in the habit of turning to a book as one of the activity options when on the train, laying around, etc. It helped a lot that I started working in the publishing industry halfway through the year, allowing me to add an extra 10 books to my final book tally of 32 books. I’m proud of the number, but I’m proud because of what it means to me and for me–not for its clout or progress or whatever. I’ve been told this year that I need to read 6 books a month by certain people in the industry, and while I would love to get there, my goal is to enjoy reading, not to just rip through titles with a reckless and number oriented wrath.
So all that being said, here is my Top 5, my Mid-Tier 3, and my bottom two, as well as a few titles that I’m looking forward to getting next year. I hope this list gets you thinking about reading in 2022, and forgive the disjointed nature of this post!
Top Tier
Conversations with Friends, Sally Rooney (4/5)
Frances, and her best friend/Ex Bobbi, are drawn into the world of Melissa and her tall, handsome husband, Nick. The four become friends, and Frances struggles to maintain control of her feelings, her body, and her relationships.
I picked up Sally Rooney’s first book early in the year, and while it started out as a slow burn, I found myself curled up on the couch, unable to stop reading, and savoring each page. It’s maybe my favorite out of her three books, because it expertly captures the anxiety and devoted feeling of first love, and explores the theme of self-preservation in a really interesting way. It made me want to write, to read, and to re-examine my relationships in the context of its characters. It’s juicy, sexy, and emotionally poignant. There’s a TV show adaptation coming out soon, so please, for me, read the book first?
Station Eleven, Emily St. John Mandel (4/5)
In the aftermath of a society-ending pandemic, an ensemble of characters, all connected to a traveling theater troupe, fight to find connection and stability in a world that now accepts anything: murderous prophets, Shakespeare, and hope.
I wrote a whole review on this one, which you can read here. I’ll echo my own thoughts from August: the premise of a pandemic novel is something I dream not of, but the triumph of Station Eleven doesn’t lie in its premise but in its characters and in the deftly woven storyline. The characters and pacing are just plain tasty, and the pandemic is the setting, not the plot. There is now an HBO Max series out, so you know it’s worth reading (and maybe watching? I’ll get back to you on that).
Song of Achilles, Madeline Miller (3.5/5)
A Retelling of the myth of Achilles and his lover, Patroclus.
This one was a beautiful queer love story, with the spice of a little Greek Mythos thrown in. I found myself disappointed only by my expectations, which were high, given the stellar reviews of Miller’s work across the internet. This book was quick, moving, and got me thinking about the powers of love and grief. The most exciting part for me was how deftly Miller transformed classic myths (something I love) into an accessible romance. Sweet, melancholy, and a good summer read.
The Regrets Amy Bonnaffons (3.5/5)
When Thomas dies, he finds himself unable to completely cross the threshold to the afterlife until he spends 90 days as a ghost. He and Rachel (a very-much-alive woman) fall in love and reckon with the aftermath of their strange situation.
I don’t think I could find a book more suited to me if I tried. This novel has everything: magical realism, ghost sex, a love affair, and excellent writing. This is Bonnaffons’ first book, and so some aspects were underdefined, but overall it was a thought-provoking and emotional read. I took away some thoughts about how love walks in and out of your life. I also wrote a longer review about this book, so check out more of that here.
The Night Circus, Erin Morganstern (5/5)
In a mystical and magical circus that only opens its doors at night, Celia and Marco are each competing in a game that they were bound to as children. They can’t help falling for one another, but unbeknownst to either of them, neither can live while the other survives.
Ok, this one is cheating a little because it’s been one of my favorites since 2012. Maybe you know that I’m a sucker for a well-built fantasy world, but this was a re-read that did not disappoint. The Night Circus invites you into a family of performers and audience members who are all transported by the power of magic, community, and of theater workmanship. This title mishmashes my love of theater and its community with a dark and star-crossed love story. If you’re a fantasy fan and haven’t given this one a shot, it’s worth picking up. Erin Morgenstern’s description makes you yearn for a place and for characters that you know can’t possibly exist, but you’ll still be looking out of the corner of your eye for a black and white striped tent.
Mid Tier
The Mothers, Brit Bennett (3.5/5)
Nadia, a high school senior, marked by her mother’s suicide, begins dating Luke, her church pastor’s son. When she gets pregnant, her choice to abort the fetus and keep it a secret reverberates into her life and the lives of her church community.
I really enjoyed reading this novel–I thought it had beautiful character depth and captured the intricacy of young adult decisions really poignantly. This is Bennett’s first book, and her second, The Vanishing Half is a widely read and loved title. I really enjoy getting to know an author through their first books, and I am really excited to read more of Bennett’s work, especially because this one, like many first novels, was emotional, full of big swings, and a few misses. I wanted a little more suspense and commitment to the chosen literary devices, but I ultimately closed the covers and kept thinking about the characters.
The Opposite House, Helen Oyeyemi (3/5)
Two interwoven stories: Maja, a Black Cuban woman, is haunted by her family’s history as she carries her first child, and Yemaya Saramagua a Santeria emissary who struggles to find the truth among her world of saints and powerful beings.
Ok, to be clear, this is going to be someone’s favorite book, it just wasn’t mine. Beautiful, lyrical, with well-exacted imagery and characters, blended so that when reading, I didn’t really know which way was up. This novel is deeply steeped in Yoruba culture, which I wished I had more of an understanding about while reading, and I think that the knowledge barrier was part of the reason I had such a slow time through this book. I felt a little lost while reading, and I’ll chalk that up to the blurred storyline as well: it isn’t a novel you read for the story as much as you do for the feeling. I’d like to re-read it, and if you like novels that sound a bit like poetry this is a great addition to your TBR.
On Earth, We’re Briefly Gorgeous, Ocean Vuong (3/5)
Framed as a letter written to his mother, Little Dog unearths memories from his life and his family’s history in Vietnam, exploring race, queerness, and masculinity.
This is everyone’s darling, but I honestly thought it read as a long-form poem, not a novel, and should have been marketed as such. I found the writing absolutely beautiful, but I had a hard time wading through the concentrated emotion: Poems offer a depth and intensity of feeling that novels can not, because (due to its length) a novel needs to be more varied in tone. Vuong is clearly a masterful writer, and offered variety in emotion but not in intensity. This novel is 110% in all the time, and when paired with a flair for the intellectual, I couldn’t help but decide that it wasn’t for me.
Disappointments
Ready Player One, Ernest Cline (2/5)
In the year 2044, most people spend their entire lives in the OASIS, a virtual reality system that contains everything you could want, while the real world is full of climate destruction. When the founder of the OASIS releases a quest and offers the winner his entire fortune and control over the OASIS, Wade Watts, a gamer fanatic, sets off to win the competition.
I picked up Ready Player One because I watched a video recommending it to get out of a reading slump and was hoping that adding it to my list would kill two birds with one stone: check a classic sci-fi off my list and get me reading avidly again. Unfortunately, it wasn’t exactly the case for me. I enjoyed reading, but most of the book wasn’t made up of the plot, it was made up of intense descriptions about the way the game world and the history of the clues functioned: I skimmed half of the book because the descriptions were not integral to the plot, nor particularly interesting to me (a non-gamer). The story was a classic underdog-competes-for-the-win situation, but if I were you, I’d seek out a comparable title that has less useless description.
Franny and Zooey, J.D. Salinger (2/5)
Originally published as two short stories, this novel explores the anxieties of burgeoning adulthood. Franny, a college student, struggles to explain her ennui to her boyfriend, and when she returns home irrevocably depressed, Franny’s genius siblings try to make her feel better.
Guys this one really wasn’t it. It was recommended to me by a handful of people, who cited it as a iconic coming of age novel, and I picked it up, excited to say I’d at least read one Salinger novel. I found it frustratingly pretentious and circular. The characters didn’t seem to grow or change much, and there were long conversations about topics that weren’t ever explained. If I read this in class and was forced to have discussions about it, I might have enjoyed it a little more, but as it was, I found it pretty dry. I do bet that, if you were a Catcher in The Rye fan, you might like this one too.
Looking Forward to:
Nothing Could Be Further Than The Truth, Chris Evans
This set of short stories (sadly not written by an avenger), is a fabulist set of stories about lost people.
I’m a sucker for any sort of short story that plays with memory and nostalgia, and these stories add a little mystical something that I’m excited to hear more about. Here’s a quote from the press release:
“Nothing Could Be Further from the Truth is peopled by strays — those who fall for the allure of nostalgia, grapple with male fragility, deny familial trauma, and acquiesce to authority. Resignation and reinvention are always a breath apart for these characters whose lives have fallen short of their dreams, and for others who never expected more.”
Cleopatra and Frankenstein, Coco Mellors (4/5) *Coming Feb 2022*
This novel follows a dysfunctional marriage between Cleo, a struggling painter, and Frank, an ad executive. Beginning with their cosmic meeting on New Year’s Eve and continuing through two years of their relationship, Coco Mellors explores how depression, addiction, maturity, and time can rot or ripen the love we find in life.
If I could have counted this as a 2021 read (I got access to an early release manuscript), it would have been part of the top 5 for sure: witty, heartbreaking, and voice-y in a completely relatable way. Can’t wait to buy it and read it again when it comes out in February.
What have you been reading this year? Send me your favorites or comment them below ;) and I’ll make sure to add them to my towering TBR for 2022.
