Thursday, December 30, 2021

2021 Reads

I read 30 books this year; which actually surprised me since I feel like my reading has declined some in these pandemic times.  I read some really great stuff and some really terrible, awful, waste of time stuff.  Thirty feels like a good number to me in this year of a year; even though several of my chosen books were garbage.  2022 book related resolution - read only what I truly feel like reading, when I feel like reading it...and remember that it's perfectly okay to quit a book if you're not feeling it. I won't get in trouble with anyone if I put it down.

Anyway, here's my list for posterity: 

2021 Reads:


  1.  The Story of Edgar Sawtelle - David Wroblewski

  2.  The Alice Network - Kate Quinn

  3.  Lonesome Dove - Larry McMurtry

  4.  In Five Years - Rebecca Serle

  5.  Nobody Will Tell You This But Me: A True (as told to me) Story - Bess Kalb

  6.  Wow, No Thank You - Samantha Irby

  7.  How to Do Nothing: Resisting the Attention Economy - Jenny Odell

  8.  Long Bright River - Liz Moore

  9.  What Kind of Woman: Poems - Kate Baer

    10. The Midnight Library - Matt Haig

    11.  American Dirt - Jeanine Cummins

    12.  Rodham - Hilary Clinton

    13.  Hamnet - Maggie O’Farrell

    14.  The Book of Delights - Ross Gay

    15.  The Push - Ashley Audrain

    16.  In. The Graphic Novel - Will McPhail

    17.  When No One is Watching - Alyssa Cole 

    18.  Malibu Rising - Taylor Jenkins Reid

    19.  News of the World - Paulette Jiles

    20.  My First New York: Early Adventures in the Big City - Misc authors (collection of essays from New York Magazine)

    21.  Finding Freedom: A Cook’s Story Remaking a Life from Scratch - Erin French

    22.  We Were Liars - E. Lockhart

    23.  The Family Fang - Kevin Wilson

    24.  Writers & Lovers - Lily King

    25.  The Smoke Week - Elis Avery

    26.  The Nickel Boys - Colson Whitehead

    27.  Silver Sparrow - Tayari Jones

    28.  Sounds Like Me - Sara Bareilles

    29.  Migrations - Charlotte McConaghy

    30.  Say Nothing: A True Story of Murder & Memory in Northern Ireland - Patrick Radden Keefe

Best reads - Lonesome Dove, Writers & Lovers, The Nickel Boys, Finding Freedom.

Worst picks - Malibu Rising (ugh, terrible). The Midnight Library (wanted to love it, but didn't love the execution) The Family Fang (dumb) and When No One is Watching (even dumber.)

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