Reading in 2021

My reading life in 2021 was rich and satisfying. I found authors who, after reading a couple of their books, I want to read everything they’ve written (Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, Lauren Groff). I delighted in Nigerian literature (I loved Tomi Adeyemi’s Legacy of Orïsha series). I read books that awed me with their execution (Ducks, Newburyport by Lucy Ellmann, Fates and Furies by Lauren Groff). I read books I still think about, months later (The Line by Olga Grushin), books that sucked me in and nobody was allowed to talk to me until I finished (Leave the World Behind by Rumaan Alam, Klara and the Sun by Kazuo Ishiguro, Normal People by Sally Rooney), life-affirming books that brought me joy and a sense of rightness with the world (The Signature of All Things by Elizabeth Gilbert).

I read books with friends (Evvie Drake Starts Over by LInda Holmes, The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue by V.E. Schwab, The Midnight Library by Matt Haig). Like many, I devoured (and sobbed through) retellings of Greek myths (The Song of Achilles and Circe by Madeline Miller). I read two books twice in 2021 (The Shipping News in January and December, The Secret History in September; I didn’t want it to end).

I read 70 books in 2021, and those alone would have been enough. But 2021 brought additional reading pleasures, like the launch of the online Pipe Wrench magazine, edited by a former colleague, and which always leaves me thinking, like right now, weeks after first reading it, I’m still thinking about the Greek meaning of the word apocalypse and why dystopian fiction is so resonant. I listened to some spectacular fiction in 2021 as well. I subscribe to the New Yorker Fiction and Writer’s Voice podcasts, and the first of every month — today! — is always a joy because a new episode of the Fiction podcast drops, where one author reads another author’s short story and discusses it with the New Yorker fiction editor, Deborah Treisman. The stunner listen from this year that I can’t stop thinking about is Karen Russel’s reading of her story “The Ghost Birds” from the October 11 issue. I continue to be astonished by the creativity and beauty of the human mind. This, above all, is probably why the written word (and all of the arts, I suppose) bring me so much pleasure.

And with that, here are the books I read in 2021, in the order I read them:

• Beartown by Frederick Backman
• Clap When You Land by Elizabeth Acevedo
• Leave the World Behind by Rumaan Alam ♥️
• Shadow of Night by Deborah Harkness
• The Shipping News by Annie Proulx ♥️
• Mexican Gothic by Silvia Moreno-Garcia ♥️
• The Curious Charms of Arthur Pepper by Phaedra Patrick
• The Book of Life by Deborah Harkness
• Open City by Teju Cole
• The Seas by Samantha Hunt
• Ghost by Jason Reynolds
• Kindred by Octavia Butler
• Fates and Furies by Lauren Groff ♥️
• Memorial by Bryan Washington
• Untamed by Glennon Doyle
• American Street by Ibi Zoboi
• Ducks, Newburyport by Lucy Ellmann ♥️
• Children of Blood and Bone by Tomi Adeyemi ♥️
• Children of Virtue and Vengeance by Tomi Adeyemi ♥️
• Interview With the Vampire by Anne Rice
• In Five Years by Rebecca Serle
• Circe by Madeline Miller ♥️
• The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo by Taylor Jenkins Reid
• We Have Always Lived in the Castle by Shirley Jackson
• Go Tell It on the Mountain by James Baldwin
• The Elements of Style by Strunk and White ♥️
• The Line by Olga Grushin ♥️
• All Systems Red by Martha Wells ♥️
• The Freedom Artist by Ben Okri
• Bitter Orange by Claire Fuller
• Akata Witch by Nnedi Okorafor
• Evvie Drake Starts Over by Linda Holmes
• Deep Work: Rules for Focused Success in a Distracted World by Cal Newport
• The Song of Achilles by Madeline Miller ♥️
• Trust Exercise by Susan Choi
• The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue by V.E. Schwab ♥️
• Think Again: The Power of Knowing What You Don’t Know by Adam Grant
• Barbarian Days: A Surfing Life by William Finnegan
• HBR Guide to Better Business Writing by Bryan A. Garner ♥️
• A Visit From the Goon Squad by Jennifer Egan
• The Midnight Library by Matt Haig
• Upstream: The Quest to Solve Problems Before They Happen by Dan Heath
• North and South by Elizabeth Gaskell
• Rules of Civility by Amor Towles
• The Secret History by Donna Tartt ♥️
• How to Take Smart Notes by Sönke Ahrens
• Girl, Woman, Other by Bernardine Evaristo
• Small Island by Andrea Levy
• The Signature of All Things by Elizabeth Gilbert ♥️
• The Best Service is No Service by Bill Price
• Matrix by Lauren Groff
• Homegoing by Yaa Gyasi
• Hamnet by Maggie O’Farrell ♥️
• Purple Hibiscus by Chimamanda Ngochi Adichie ♥️
• Conversations with Friends by Sally Rooney
• Crazy Rich Asians by Kevin Kwan
• Klara and the Sun by Kazuo Ishiguro ♥️
• We Should All Be Feminists by Chimamanda Ngochi Adichie
• The Guncle by Stephen Rowley ♥️
• Spell of the Highlander by Karen Marie Moning
• China Rich Girlfriend by Kevin Kwan
• The Turner House by Angela Flournoy
• The Shipping News by Annie Proulx ♥️
• Miss Iceland by Auður Ava Ólafsdóttir
• The Color Purple by Alice Walker ♥️
• Manhattan Beach by Jennifer Egan
• Wintering: The Power of Rest and Retreat in Difficult Times by Katherine May
• Conversation: What to Say and How to Say It by Mary Greer Conklin ♥️
• Normal People by Sally Rooney ♥️