I read 92 books this year, ten more than last year and one more than my goal of 90. 52 were fiction and 40 were nonfiction, a slightly more even distribution than last year’s 58 to 33. Much like last year, most of these books were great. Some were incredible. Some sucked. Also, much like last year, I’m starting this new one off with another takedown of Silicon Valley (An Ugly Truth by Sheera Frankel and Cecilia Kang.)
A few trends stand out to me, looking back at this year’s list. I read more science fiction than usual (intentional, for collection development purposes and curiosity). I also delved into more series this year than I normally do (Murderbot and the Three Pines mysteries, which couldn’t have less in common but I find both to be delightful). There were also more than usual titles that had multiple authors or editors.
Looking back at last year’s recap, I’m going to pull a quote that feel very relevant at the current moment: “As shitty as this year was, I’m grateful I had the time and stability to read as much as I did, and for the fact that my brain still finds so much solace in the written word. Books got me through, folks. Whatever got you through was the right thing for you.” Same deal this time around, and also it’s nice to look back at this list and last year’s and remember that there was a time before the nonstop misery/anxiety spiral that was the fall of 2021. And I super miss listening to books while gardening.
Note: I’m not going to do a list of favorites from 2021 this time just because so much of what I read this year didn’t come out this year. I’m looking forward to reading the best books of 2021 when people stop placing so many holds on them, lol.
Top 5 fiction:
Dana Spiotta – Wayward
Rory Power – Wilder Girls
Rumaan Alam – Leave the World Behind
Maggie O’Farrell – Hamnet
Kim Michele Richardson – The Book Woman of Troublesome Creek
Top 5 nonfiction:
Danielle Henderson – The Ugly Cry
P.E. Moskowitz – The Case Against Free Speech
Jathan Sadowski – Too Smart
Xiaowei Wang – Blockchain Chicken Farm
Bryan Stevenson – Just Mercy
Top 5 that taught me the most:
Sara Ahmed – Complaint!
Cliff Kuang & Robert Fabricant – User Friendly
Margaret O’Malley – The Code
Mariame Kaba – We Do This ‘Til We Free Us
Naomi Klein – The Shock Doctrine
Top 5 that will probably have the most significant and/or lasting impact on me:
Andrea Bonior – Detox Your Thoughts
bell hooks – Teaching to Transgress
Dean Spade – Mutual Aid
Chana Porter – The Seep
Robin Wall Kimmerer – Braiding Sweetgrass
(bonus – Ash Sanders’s essay in All We Can Save, “Under the Weather,” was one of the best things I read all year.)
5 best audiobooks:
Margaret Atwood – Oryx & Crake
Donella Meadows – Thinking in Systems (also relevant in all of the other categories, save for fiction)
Rory Power – Wilder Girls
Raynor Winn – The Salt Path
Laura van Dernoot Lipsky – Trauma Stewardship
The complete list of my 2021 reads:
- Wendy Liu – Abolish Silicon Valley
- Tommy Orange – There There
- N.K. Jemisin – The City We Became
- Aaron Benanav – Automation and the Future of Work
- Chana Porter – The Seep
- Alexis Henderson – The Year of the Witching
- Ursula K. LeGuin – The Dispossessed
- Akwaeke Emezi – The Death of Vivek Oji
- Naomi Klein – The Shock Doctrine
- Kim Stanley Robinson – Red Mars
- R. Eric Thomas – Here For It
- Bryan Stevenson – Just Mercy
- Colson Whitehead – Nickel Boys
- Yaa Gyasi – Transcendent Kingdom
- Emily M. Danforth – Plain Bad Heroines
- Margaret O’Mara – The Code
- Olga Grushin – The Charmed Wife
- Maika & Maritza Moulite – One of the Good Ones
- Leah Lakshmi Piepzna-Samarasinha & Ejeris Dixon – Beyond Survival
- Mariame Kaba – We Do This ‘Til We Free Us
- Laura van Dernoot Lipsky – Trauma Stewardship
- Lori Majewski & Jonathan Bernstein – Mad World
- Kate Bornstein & Caitlin Sullivan – Nearly Roadkill
- Nnedi Okorafor – Binti
- Charlie Jane Anders – All the Birds in the Sky
- Nicholas Carr – The Shallows
- Jathan Sadowski – Too Smart: How Digital Capitalism is Extracting Data, Controlling Our Lives, and Taking Over the World
- Kim Michele Richardson – The Book Woman of Troublesome Creek
- Clare Pooley – The Authenticity Project
- Robin Wall Kimmerer – Braiding Sweetgrass
- P.E. Moskowitz – The Case Against Free Speech
- Lee Vinsel & Andrew Russell – The Innovation Delusion
- Mateo Askaripour – Black Buck
- Annalee Newitz – Autonomous
- Douglas Stone & Sheila Heen – Thanks for the Feedback
- M.L. Rio – If We Were Villains
- Matt Haig – The Midnight Library
- Tara Dawson McGuinness & Hana Schank – Power to the Public
- Patricia Lockwood – No One Is Talking About This
- Naomi Alderman – The Power
- Fredrik Backman – Anxious People
- Xiaowei Wang – Blockchain Chicken Farm
- Rumaan Alam – Leave the World Behind
- Torrey Peters – Detransition, Baby
- Brene Brown – Braving the Wilderness
- Becky Chambers – To Be Taught, If Fortunate
- Tommy Wallach – We All Looked Up
- Megan Devine – It’s OK That You’re Not OK
- Dana Spiotta – Wayward
- Joanne McNeil – Lurking: How a Person Became a User
- Kevin Roose – Futureproof
- Terry Miles – Rabbits
- Cliff Kuang & Robert Fabricant – User Friendly
- Tsedal Neeley – Remote Work Revolution
- Martha Wells – All Systems Red
- Lulu Miller – Why Fish Don’t Exist
- Jenny Offill – Weather
- Brandon Taylor – Real Life
- Ayana Elizabeth Johnson & Katharine K. Wilkinson – All We Can Save
- Charles Yu – Interior Chinatown
- Martha Wells – Artificial Condition
- Taylor Jenkins Reid – The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo
- Dean Spade – Mutual Aid
- Donella Meadows – Thinking in Systems
- Nguyễn Phan Quế Mai – The Mountains Sing
- Robert I. Sutton – The Asshole Survival Guide
- Naomi Kritzer – Catfishing on CatNet
- Alexandra Kleeman – Something New Under the Sun
- Rory Power – Wilder Girls
- Rory Power – Burn Our Bodies Down
- Louise Penny – Still Life
- Kiese Laymon – Long Division
- Maggie O’Farrell – Hamnet
- Donna Tartt – The Secret History
- bell hooks – Teaching to Transgress
- Martha Wells – Rogue Protocol
- Diane Musho Hamilton, Gabriel Menegale Wilson, Kimberly Loh – Compassionate Conversations
- Jay Caspian Kang – The Loneliest Americans
- Danielle Henderson – The Ugly Cry
- Raynor Winn – The Salt Path
- Andrea Bonior – Detox Your Thoughts
- Margaret Atwood – Oryx & Crake (re-read)
- Tressie McMillan Cottom – Lower Ed
- Lindy West – Shit, Actually
- Sara Ahmed – Complaint!
- Tim Hwang – Subprime Attention Crisis
- Erving Goffman – The Presentation of Self in Everyday Life
- Jessica Bruder – Nomadland
- Katherine McKittrick – Dear Science & Other Stories
- James C. Scott – Seeing Like a State
- Keller Easterling – Extrastatecraft
- Louise Penny – A Fatal Grace
