#books 2021books

[abigailzimmer]

Favorite Reads of 2021

I read more books this year than I ever have since I started documenting my reading in 2009. The continued ups and downs of the pandemic made books a grateful escape, but having read so much—and a lot of it “reading lite”—there’s much that blurs together and fades quickly. However, I was excited to come across Katherine Addison and Nghi Vo, whose stories thrilled me to my toes. I read Ken Liu’s The Paper Menagerie in January and his images have haunted me throughout the year. I read very few poetry books in 2021, and yet they’re the words that most take up residence in my mind and heart. And The Hidden Life of Trees kept me company on my frequent walks among the trees of my neighborhood. Here are a few more books that clung to my restless mind this year:

1. The Hidden Life of Trees by Peter Wohlleben portrays trees so personably, talking in terms of how they parent and educate, passing on knowledge or learning from a summer of drought. How beeches are somewhat the bullies of the forest as they grow around and through the crowns of other trees. How trees that are sleep deprived—either nightly or seasonally—don't live long. How the roots of a particular old quaking aspen have sprouted thousands of offshoots in its time. How trees are social, communicating threats to each other via scents and taking care of their wounded by sharing nutrients via their roots. How walking under some stands of trees can lower your blood pressure and increase lung capacity. How tree species migrated south and then back north after the Ice Age. How trees with year round red leaves are rather inefficient and would have died out had humans not thought them so pretty and continued cultivating them. How the whole life cycle of a tree's life is important to a forest, which we often don't allow for, and other fascinating facts that makes this book such a pleasure to spend time with.

2. Hotel Almighty is such an exquisite book that immediately upon finishing I went and ordered three more copies to gift to friends! Sarah J. Sloat erasures and adds collage to pages from Stephen King's Misery. Each page is rendered so differently. I gasped aloud several times. There are surprising and beautiful lines such as “lay back in the urgency of work” and "burning seemed the proper thing, like research for a great drama." This book is a pleasure.

3. In Nghi Vo’s novella When the Tiger Came Down the Mountain, a story collector is trapped by three tiger sisters and must wait through the night for help to come, so the story collector tells the sisters a folk story of a tiger and scholar. However, the tigers have the same tale in their folklore, and frequently interrupt to tell it from their perspective. It's a beautiful questioning of who gets to tell a story and how the story is shaped by who’s telling it. Doesn’t hurt that that the folktale also centers a poem, which I will always cheer on.

4. A lot of poetry books are quiet with a kind of quiet that works its way in, slows you, attunes you, shifts you, and I like that kind of poetry, I do. But then there's Homie by Danez Smith, which is loud and spilling off the page and calling to you from across the street and even while there are a lot of heavy topics that they address—of losing a friend to suicide, of not being able to come out fully to their family, of trying to survive and thrive in a white supremacist and straight world—at its core, it is a book of joy that revels in and reveres friendship, and god, I love friendship and I love people writing about their friends and I love when love feels loose and uncontainable and the largest part of the sky and I think this book might bring you joy, too. "a thousand years of daughters, then me. what else could I have learned to be?"

5. I was surprised at how compelling I found Katherine Addison’s The Goblin Emperor, which has a premise I glossed over and not much plot to speak of. But I couldn’t put it down! A forgotten half goblin/half elf in the middle of nowhere suddenly finds himself in line for the throne and moves to the elven court to begin his rule. It’s not as high fantasy as it sounds as it’s more about the intricacies and politics of being at a royal court than in a fantastical land. And it’s not even as Games of Thrones-ish as it sounds because the new king, Maia, whose journey we follow, is so earnest in his desire to rule kindly and give respect to those who serve him—to the continued astonishment of those around him. He’s good, but with all the relatable insecurities about managing others while being true to oneself. There are several attempts to dethrone Maia, yet there isn’t a strong plot driving the book. It’s mostly about Maia learning the ropes in an oppressive/traditional society while trying to change it and tenuously building friendships even though he’s repeatedly told that kings can’t be friends with those below him—meaning anyone. Ugh. You just want him to find a friend!

6. Meghan Privitello’s Notes on the End of the World doesn't look like any specific apocalypse. At the end of the world time crumbles, carnivals never leave town, earthquakes hit, animals are where they don't belong, and "every barn has become a church / to worship storms in." But each day's note captures some moment of bravery or loneliness, regret or determination or sanity that speaks to even small world-falling-apart experiences. Privitello asks: "with minutes until disaster / what do you gather? How do you / navigate your own useless fear?” And later: “Somehow we’ve all been given the same fate, / which means our lives are ordinary.”

7. By Bus by Erica Van Horn is a little travelogue documenting the conversations you don't want to hear as the author commutes by bus through the small towns of Ireland. So much happens on a bus: shoes are polished and a woman looks for a husband and a mother is forgotten in the last town. A near disaster with a red Ford Fiesta creates an unexpected kinship among the passengers, and tourists on one side of the bus take pictures of sheep while the other side focuses on a castle. There are lots of missed connections and lateness (never earliness) and scathing criticism for passengers who don't say thank you when they leave. It's a very charming book about people being people that almost (almost!) has me thinking fondly of my daily train commute before the pandemic. 

8. Witch Wife by Kiki Petrosino is so playful and witchy! I feel in awe of the energy in Kiki’s poems, her unapologetic way of writing and being herself, the human mix of everything good, messy, and hard. And it’s clear that she takes pleasure in words—through her forms such as sestinas and villanelles as well her prose and other pieces—a pleasure so swiftly passed on to the reader.

9. Night Talks by Elisabeth Rynell, translated from Swedish by Rika Lesser, is a raw expression of grief / a long poem and lament written upon the sudden death of Rynell’s husband. It’s beautiful and hard. Most of it is poetry, but she bookends it with a moving interview with her sleepless self at night and with stills of memories. // I began reading poetry when in need of words I couldn’t find myself, and I am always grateful for those who commit to paper their thoughts in the midst of pain. It makes some books strange to recommend, but they are there for when you need them.

10. The Paper Menagerie by Ken Liu is a beautiful collection of short stories that take place in China, Japan, the US, beneath the Atlantic Ocean, outer space, the past, and the future. My favorite story is one in which people's souls are born with them as objects—a salt shaker, ice cube, pack of cigarettes—and they must learn to live without using them up. Another story imagines the ways different alien species make "books"—some record of thoughts that can be passed to the next generation. In another story, a woman survives by accepting change again and again until ultimately she is transformed into light. There are heavy-sad moments as well as sweet-sad, and often a theme of something to be sacrificed. Ken Liu's premises are smart and inventive, and like any good sci-fi, tell us a tale of our humanity.

[bellamysgriffin]

A QUOTE FROM EVERY BOOK I READ IN 2021: Emma by Jane Austen

[aaronstveit]

BOOKS READ IN 2021 ➵ PRIDE AND PREJUDICE  BY JANE AUSTEN (★★★★☆)

I cannot fix on the hour, or the spot, or the look, or the words, which laid the foundation. It is too long ago. I was in the middle before I knew that I had begun.

[housebaylor]

2021 Books. ⋙ A Master of Djinn by P. Djèlí Clark

“Partner? Another lady Spooky Boy? Pretty like you? With a thing for suits and infidels? Should bring her by.”

[daphneblakess]

books i read in 2021: hani and ishu’s guide to fake dating by adiba jaigirdar

“Friends can talk about things. They can figure things out, get past things. Do you want a friend in your life who you can never disagree with? A friend who you can’t grow with?”

[emohell]

BOOKS READ IN 2021 → Six of Crows by Leigh Bardugo

and yet, they hesitated. the knowledge that they might never see each other again, that some of them—maybe all of them—might not survive this night hung heavy in the air. a gambler, a convict, a wayward son, a lost grisha, a suli girl who had become a killer, a boy from the barrel who had become something worse.

[omgreading]

I finished a book.

The Love Hypothesis by Ali Hazelwood

I enjoyed it.

[unadulteratedreviewwitch]

I think I preferred this over Flights.

[booksofmirth]

Book of the Month: October 2021

Kingdom of the Wicked, Kerri Maniscalco

[easybookreview]

Book Review: The broken Stone by Sachin.V.Yadgir

Book Review: The broken Stone by Sachin.V.Yadgir

The broken Stone “Dad, I name the tale, a lie to die”, Here is a lie. Everyone says something, but nobody reveals it and Death: nobody is resting, and also the lies witnessed by everyone don’t last long. But this trip is filled with drama. Lies exist almost forever and their creators are unknown! At first , the book asks you some questions and leads you to find out the answer throughout the…

[ulooktiredbooks]

The Lost Village by Camilla Sten

Camilla Sten's The Lost Village gave all the creepy abandoned village vibes I was hoping for. Our main character is a filmmaker looking to create a documentary about an abandoned village that her grandmother grew up in. Her grandmother would tell her stories about the village and showed her letters from her family after she moved away. Inexplicably, overnight all the people in the village went missing except for a baby that was found alone. This filmmaker leads a team to try and explore the village and find any missing information.

The book was a great read and there were not very many moments where the story seemed to drag. I enjoyed the atmosphere that Sten created and felt as though I could see what she intended. While the atmosphere and main story line were amazing, I did feel as though there were some aspects that weren't for me. The main character was quite abrasive in her thoughts about other people but you could tell that this was a character that over thought every little interaction with another person. As someone with anxiety, it's understandable but not the most fun to read. The ending did leave me wishing there was a bit more explanation and maybe a bit of a twist that was unexpected. I have read other reviews where they loved the twists in this story but to me they seemed quite obvious with the evidence from the book and the hints were a bit heavy handed.

The Lost Village was a fun ride that is worth the time to read and had a few creepy moments in the book that are worthy of a read alone. Rating out of 5 stars, I would give this book a 3.

[booksbycsenge]

[bellamysgriffin]

A QUOTE FROM EVERY BOOK I READ IN 2021: Those Who Leave and Those Who Stay by Elena Ferrante

[monicageorge13]

A day that starts with the smell of apple pie and a good book is always a good one 😍 #HeStartedIt #SamanthaDowning #Book #Books #ApplePie #Baking #BakedGoods #Morning #Home #Kindle #Reading #Reads #GoodReads #Apple #Pie #QuietTime #Quiet #2021Books #Alexandria #Egypt #Bookstagram #Photography #CaptureYourLife #DocumentYourLife (at Alexandria, Egypt) https://www.instagram.com/p/COpW-GfB05d/?igshid=1xjkzrx1na6s9

[housebaylor]

2021 Books. ⋙ The Soulmate Equation by Christina Lauren

“Do you actually believe our result could be real? That we could be soulmates?”

[ccbusyreading]

Do No Harm By Christina McDonald

This book was very good but also very frustrating. I almost passed on this book due to the premise. A doctor finds out her son has Leukemia and starts selling Oxy in order to pay for an experimental treatment to save his life. I just so happens that her husband is a detective who is in charge of uncovering the uptick in Oxy sells, overdoses, and eventually murders that all seemed to be linked.

The book was extremely well written and the story was engrossing. I thought it was going to give me Walter White vibes (which in a sense it did) but it turned out to be an incredible story. The book was frustrating because at times there were too many unnecessary words and the shift from Emma’s (the doctor) point of view which was first person and her husband’s point of view which was third person was a little annoying. 

The book ended in a way I didn’t expect but I think if you like thrillers, you will love this one.