Favorite Books of 2021
2021… Another year mostly at home, juggling remote schooling for two kids for the first half of the year, going back to work as a residential real estate attorney at the beginning of the year, being on the board of two Parent-Teacher Organizations, keeping up with my other volunteer duties… overall, an incredibly busy year. And while I didn’t make it to my goal of reading 100 books this year, I made it to 65, and I’m happy with that, considering that I didn’t know I’d be going back to work when I set my original goal. According to Goodreads, I read 21,828 pages this year, and my average star rating was 3.9, which makes the quality of books slightly higher in 2021 than 2020.
Here is the list of books that I gave a 4.5 star rating or higher this year:
The 7 1/2 Deaths of Evelyn Hardcastle by Stuart Turton
A man finds himself jumping from one person’s body into the next while trying to figure out how to get out of the time loop he seems to be trapped in.
Alison Arngrim’s memoir of her childhood, her time on Little House on the Prairie, and her life after the show.
A special book about the love story between two New Yorkers, both who bring a lot of baggage to their relationship and struggle to handle their differeneces.
The Dream Daughter by Diane Chamberlain
A young widow will do anything to save the life of her daughter, including traveling through time to try to get her the treatment she needs.
The House in the Cerulean Sea by T.J. Klune
A by-the-book caseworker at the Department in Charge of Magical Youth learns that sometimes rules have to be broken.
A young orphan is sent to a boarding school to become an astronaut and tries to prove everyone wrong who has never believed in her.
Land of Big Numbers by Te-Ping Chen
A collection of stories of seemingly ordinary people out of modern-day China set within the context of living under an authoritarian government,
The Last House on the Street by Diane Chamberlain
A historical fiction novel about a white girl in North Carolina risking her comfortable life to join the Civil Rights Movement and the consequences of her actions.
The Library of the Dead by T.L. Huchu
Ropa supports her family by working as a ghostalker, someone who is paid to deliver messages from the recently deceased to their loved ones, but when she tries to help a mother find her missing son, Ropa finds herself in over her head.
Maybe One Day by Debbie Johnson
When cleaning out her late mother’s home, Jess comes across a box of letters from Joe, the love of her life who she thought abandoned her, and it starts her down a path of trying to find him all these years later.
An entertaining and educational middle school graphic novel about the Revolutionary War, told to the executioner by Nathan Hale as he stands on the scaffold.
A racially-charged novel described as “Upstairs, Downstairs meets Parasite “.
Small Things Like These by Claire Keegan
A quiet novella condemning the hypocrisy of the Catholic Church in Ireland.
Under the Whispering Door by T.J. Klune
A man learns the meaning of life after it’s too late.
The Vanishing Half by Britt Bennett
A family saga where twin sisters are divided when one passes as white and one does not