I tend to not finish books if I don’t like them, so most of the books I finish, I like. Evidently.

Books of 2021

43 books read in 2021

Favorite reads of 2021:

  1. What Happened To You?: Conversations on Trauma, Resilience, and Healing by Dr. Bruce Perry and Oprah Winfrey

  2. What I Know for Sure by Oprah Winfrey

  3. We Are the Weather: Saving the Planet Begins at Breakfast by Jonathan Safran Foer

  4. Braiding Sweetgrass: Indigenous Wisdom, Scientific Knowledge, and the Teachings of Plants by Robin Wall Kimmerer

  5. The Sun Does Shine: How I Found Life and Freedom on Death Row by Anthony Ray Hinton

  6. Maybe You Should Talk to Someone: A Therapist, Her Therapist, and Our Lives Revealed by Lori Gottleib

  7. The Handmaid's Tale & The Testaments by Margaret Atwood

  8. Still Alice by Lisa Genova

  9. The Course of Love by Alain de Botton

  10. Immortality by Milan Kundera

Books read in December 2021:

Books read in November 2021:

Books read in October 2021:

  • The Stranger by Albert Camus, finished on the 28th

    • 4.5/5

  • Schindler's List by Thomas Keneally, finished on the 26th

    • This all happened less than 80 years ago – less than a century has passed since these horrors, atrocities, and murders were inflicted. Upwards of five million European Jews were killed in the Holocaust. Schindler’s List focuses on Oskar Schindler who was able to save 1,200 Jews, more than any other individual in World War II. Reading this book is really emotionally heavy and filled with very graphic descriptions of cruelty, misery, and death. It is a sober reminder of the unjust abilities of mankind, the normalization of hatred, and the effort it takes to be a good human in an inhuman world. 5/5

  • Getting Relationships Right: How to Build Resilience and Thrive in Life, Love, and Work by Melanie Joy, finished on the 22nd

  • This Will All Be Over Soon: A Memoir by Cecily Strong, finished on the 14th

    • Showcased as a memoir but reads a lot more like a kind of brain-dump of a diary, although with the filter of knowing she's writing for an audience. Full of a lot of sadness, primarily about her late cousin Owen, but also about those she was close with or tangentially close with. I appreciated her opening up about her anxiety. Unfortunately, this book lacks a plot, self-growth, or appreciation for all the privilege she had over the past year and a half, and thus sometimes reads as whiney, rather than strong. 3/5

  • Beautiful World, Where Are You by Sally Rooney, finished on the 9th

    • 4/5

  • Driven to Distraction: Recognizing and Coping with Attention Deficit Disorder from Childhood Through Adulthood by Edward M. Hallowell

    • Pretty eye-opening to a reader who doesn’t know much about ADHD, as there are various manifestations it can present as. I still don’t understand why there is a relationship between left-handedness and ADHD?! 3/5

Books read in September 2021:

  • Leave the World Behind by Rumaan Alam, finished on the 17th

    • Would be a good ending if there was a part two. The resolution wasn’t a resolution at all, just a bit of a metaphorical mic drop, maybe. 4/5

  • The Course of Love by Alain de Botton, finished on the 12th

    • So good! Highlighted so much. 5/5

  • Somebody's Daughter by Ashley C. Ford, finished on the 3rd

    • How can you really know what to think about a memoir? "Stars" don't really do a life justice. I'm always grateful to read memoirs, seeing the relatability of so much and the empathy for all else. Ashley Ford is a brilliant writer this is a fantastic piece of work. 5/5

  • And Then There Were None by Agatha Christie, finished on the 2nd

    • I’ve “started” this book at least three times, but finally read it. And I read it so quick (one day!). Thankful for the epilogue. 4/5

Books read in August 2021:

  • My Dark Vanessa by Kate Elizabeth Russell, finished on the 31st

    • Starting this book leaves you in a much different place than at the end, somehow satiated but not satisfied, more aware but a slightly numb, and just a little bit depressed.
      Not the book you expect about a fifteen year old being sexually abused and how the experience carries and continues well after high school. I was expecting it to go in either one direction or the opposite but I continuously had to relinquish that expectation as it went all over the place, into areas I wouldn’t explore or know. No doubt it’s wonderfully written. Although, the emotions I read were difficult to align with or understand. 4/5

  • Nothing to See Here by Kevin Wilson, finished on the 26th

    • 4.5/5

  • Normal People by Sally Rooney, finished on the 25th

    • 2/5

  • One Hundred Years of Solitude by Gabriel García Márquez, finished on the 20th

    • 5/5

  • The Hidden Life of Trees: What They Feel, How They Communicate – Discoveries from a Secret World by Peter Wohlleben, finished on the 17th

    • First part is interesting but then it feels awfully dragged out and the passion evaporates, leaving a sense of neutrality at the end. Audiobook narrator would be a great bedtime story teller. 3/5

Books read in July 2021:

Books read in June 2021:

  • Field Notes From A Catastrophe: Man, Nature, and Climate Change by Elizabeth Kolbert, finished on the 23rd

    • Wild that this was published in 2006... The metaphorical bells and horns were blaring then and on the whole scheme of things, we've dug our own grave even deeper (using reusable water bottles is the absolute least you can do). So many self-proclaimed environmentalists really don't do much self-effort to lessen their impact. Posting on Instagram about how much you care about the environment while really not doing any of the work to make tomorrow better than today... yikes. I know that’s not really a review of the book but it’s been nagging at me. 4/5

  • That Summer by Jennifer Weiner, finished on the 22nd

    • Thought this was going to be a “beach read” but it’s actually pretty heavy (sexual assault). I found a lot of the grasping-at-modernity very distracting to the story and in many ways it lessened my connection with the characters. Although, perhaps it was so heavily added in because the characters simply were never developed enough to the extent a story like this warrants. 2.5/5

  • The Social Leap: The New Evolutionary Science of Who We Are, Where We Come From, and What Makes Us Happy by William Von Hippel, finished on the 15th

    • Almost as good as Sapiens. 5/5

  • We Are the Weather: Saving the Planet Begins at Breakfast by Jonathan Safran Foer, finished on the 11th

    • One of my favorite books I think! Very personal, introspective, and pretty accessible. 5/5

Books read in May 2021:

  • Maybe You Should Talk To Someone: A Therapist, Her Therapist, and Our Lives Revealed by Lori Gottlieb, finished on the 31st

    • A great book that is helpful for productive self-reflection (as opposed to the frequent destructive self-criticism that we all too easily engage in). Moreover, a book that helps you see “beyond the fence” of our own lives and issues, so to speak. There’s a lot of people with a lot going on, it’s not just us. 5/5

Books read in April 2021:

Books read in March 2021:

Books read in February 2021:

Books read in January 2021:

  • Guns, Germs, and Steel: The Fates of Human Societies by Jared Diamond, finished on the 28th

    • I realized I have read so much of this book in college, but just snippets or chapters here and there, never in full and never in the succession the author intended. This is one of those books that is digestible enough that those who should read it could… does that make sense? There’s a lot more to the stories and histories, a lot more suffering specifically, that is certainly addressed but doesn’t come close to full digestion. But I don’t think that’s his aim, I think he knows where he stands, he knows his place, how he has greatly benefited, and that those who have as well should hear what he has learned. 5/5

  • A People’s History of the United States: Highlights from the Twentieth Century by Howard Zinn, finished on the 19th

    • 5/5

  • The Tattooist of Auschwitz by Heather Morris, finished on the 8th

    • 5/5

Finished 33 books in 2020. See all here.

FAVORITE READS OF 2020:

  1. Sapiens by Yuval Noah Harari

  2. A Man Called Ove by Fredrik Backman

  3. The Warmth of Other Suns by Isabel Wilkerson

  4. On Fire by Naomi Klein

  5. Homo Deus: A History of Tomorrow by Yuval Noah Harari

  6. An American Marriage by Tayari Jones

  7. The Big Short by Michael Lewis

  8. Uncomfortable Conversations With a Black Man by Emmanuel Acho

  9. This Changes Everything: Capitalism vs The Climate by Naomi Klein

  10. The Unbearable Lightness of Being by Milan Kundera