The Best Books I Read in 2021

By Elizabeth Strout

I think every book Strout writes makes it onto my favorites list. But this one is my favorite book she's written so far. It's Lucy Barton again, but this time older and revisiting her first marriage after the death of her second husband. I don't know if I've ever loved a book as much as I love this one.

By Laird Hunt

This is a short book, but it conveys so much in just 200 pages. It's the quiet story of one woman's ordinary life in rural Indiana and it's an extraordinary work of art. The story is told with such deep empathy and intimacy that I found myself tearing up over and over as I read. It reminded me of Elizabeth Strout and Willa Cather - some of my favorites.

By Patrick Radden Keefe

Wow! This incredible non-fiction book takes on the Sackler Dynasty and the great and terrible role they played in the opioid crisis. It's a masterpiece of narrative reporting that is both compelling and infuriating. I couldn't put it down!

By Susanna Clarke

I have not stopped thinking about (or talking about) this book since I finished it. I don't even know how to describe it other than to say that if you want to read something completely different than anything you've read before, try this! When you're done, google the real Piranesi and his engravings and go down the rabbit hole.

By Kate Moore

I read this on kindle and it was so compulsively readable that I had no idea it was nearly 600 pages long - I read it in just three days! It's a non-fiction account of Elizabeth Packard who, in the 1860's, was committed to an insane asylum by her husband because he felt threatened by her independence and intelligence. An excellent read!

By Richard Powers

I left this Pulitzer prize winner sitting on my shelves for a long time before I finally picked it up. Something about the cover made me think it was going to be boring - but I was wrong! This book is a masterpiece of epic proportions.

The story opens with a cast of unrelated characters who each have a connection to a specific tree. As their stories play out, their lives and the trees they are connected to converge into an incredible and complex tale of salvation. I was so emotionally involved in this story that I felt heartbroken when it had to end. I look forward to reading more by this author this year.

By Kazuo Ishiguro

I don't think I've enjoyed an Ishiguro novel as much as this one since The Remains of the Day, though the story in this one is more similar to Never Let Me Go. I loved the exploration of what it means to love and what it means to be human. It was also a very atmospheric book, which I always enjoy.

This is one of those books that is best read without any sort of introduction - just pick it up!

By Colson Whitehead

This book broke my heart. It's fiction, but it's based on a real place and real events, which makes it even more horrifying.

The Nickel Academy is a reform school in 1960s Florida that was rife with corruption and abuse. It was hard to read, but Whitehead's writing is spectacular.

By Julia Phillips

Set in a remote north-eastern town in Russia, this book opens with the abduction of two sisters. Each subsequent chapter of the book is then told by a different character in the community affected in ways big and small by the abduction. I tore through this one and was thoroughly impressed by the way the characters and the mystery are weaved together by the end.

By Liz Moore

This book is beautiful and sad, and yet it's also a book that is so full of love. This one really filled me up in way that is hard to describe, but it made for perfect pandemic reading.

Ada Sibelius grows up alone with her brilliant but eccentric single father who runs a computer science lab in 1980's Boston. During her teenage years, her father's mind begins to slip, which not only leaves Ada on her own, but it also reveals secrets from the past that Ada is determined to unravel.

By Louise Erdrich

I thought 2021 might be too soon to read a novel set in 2020, but I was wrong. This book about an ex-con working in a haunted bookstore was the perfect book to read this year! I'm amazed by Erdrich's ability to capture the grief, turmoil, and reckoning of 2020 (along with the horrors Indigenous communities have experienced) with a dark dry humor that suits the subject so well. Expect to laugh out loud when you read this one.

And and and! It's also a novel about the transformative effect of literature, which is something I can always get behind.

By Charlotte McConaghy

Set in the not so distant future where entire species have gone extinct, Franny is tracking the last of the birds and trying to follow the last Arctic terns on their migration across the sea. But as she follows the birds, readers follow her into her haunting memories that reveal a tragic past. The writing is so beautiful and the story is completely enthralling. I loved this one.