My favorite books of 2021
I couldn't narrow it down so, uh, here's 59 books you might like
I read a lot this year and since I mostly read things I like — I am a prolific not-finisher when books don’t appeal to me — I really couldn’t narrow it down to a top 10. (Sorry.) So instead, you get 59 books I genuinely enjoyed & think you might, too.
At the very least, I sorted them into some categories based on topic.
Fiction
Gender & what it means to be a woman & love:
Outlawed - Anna North
Detransition, Baby - Torrey Peters
Motherhood is messy:
The Fourth Child - Jessica Winter
The Four Winds - Kristin Hannah
Romances that are a little bit hot:
The Ex Talk - Rachel Lynn Solomon
The Girl with Stars In Her Eyes - Xio Axelrod
People We Meet on Vacation - Emily Henry
One Last Stop - Casey McQuiston
Romances that are a lot hot:
The Intimacy Experiment - Rosie Danan
The Soulmate Equation - Christina Lauren
Seven Days in June - Tia Williams
The Heart Principle - Helen Hoang
The Love Hypothesis - Ali Hazelwood
A Lot like Adiós - Alexis Daria
The Fastest Way to Fall - Denise Williams
Corporate culture is a scam:
Black Buck - Mateo Askaripour
Imposter Syndrome - Kathy Wang
The kind of novel you can’t put down because the narrator is just so compelling:
Intimacies - Katie Kitamura
How Lucky - Will Leitch
Lucky - Marissa Stapley
The internet is disintegrating our brains:
No One Is Talking About This - Patricia Lockwood
Several People are Typing - Calvin Kasulke
Being a celebrity seems not so fun:
The Final Revival of Opal & Nev - Dawnie Walton
The View Was Exhausting - Mikaella Clements & Onjuli Datta
If This Gets Out - Sophie Gonzales & Cale Dietrich
Sibling drama! (especially sisters)
Yolk - Mary H.K. Choi
They’ll Never Catch Us - Jessica Goodman
Malibu Rising - Taylor Jenkins Reid
What Could Be Saved - Liese O’Hallaran Schwarz
Race & family & love & the way things change very quickly and also way too slowly:
What’s Mine & Yours - Naima Coster
We Are Not Like Them - Christine Pride & Jo Piazza
Infinite Country - Patricia Engel
Faith & religion are complicated:
Revival Season - Monica West
God Spare the Girls - Kelsey McKinney (cross-categorize under sister-sister!)
I’m very glad not to be a teenager anymore but also maybe it’s nice to feel your feelings the way teenagers do:
The People We Keep - Allison Larkin
Instructions for Dancing - Nicola Yoon
No spoilers except to say: maybe there are aliens!?!?
Project Hail Mary - Andy Weir
Thrillers that will keep you reading late into the night:
We Were Never Here - Andrea Bartz
Falling - T.J. Newman
Too Good to Be True - Carola Lovering
Ace of Spades - Faridah Àbíké-Íyímídé
Goodnight Beautiful - Aimee Molloy
A pandemic novel that won’t feel too real (but still a little real)
Doctors and Friends - Kimmery Martin
Non-fiction
Memoirs
Between Two Kingdoms - Suleika Jaouad
Thanks for Waiting - Doree Shafrir
Both/And - Huma Abedin
Somebody’s Daughter - Ashley C. Ford
Put the Sacklers in prison
Empire of Pain - Patrick Radden Keefe
The things we love will always destroy us (but also, maybe, save us?):
Turning Pointe - Chloe Angyal
The Secret to Superhuman Strength - Alison Bechdel
Words matter!
Cultish - Amanda Montell
On grief & food
Crying in H Mart - Michelle Zauner
Essays that will make you laugh/cry:
Minor Feelings - Cathy Park Hong
Essays that will make you laugh/cry/want to pet a dog:
These Precious Days - Ann Patchett
On Animals - Susan Orlean
Corporate culture is a scam, non-fiction edition:
Out of Office - Anne Helen Petersen & Charlie Warzel
Abolition is the future
We Do This Til We Free Us - Mariame Kaba
If you’re looking for a specific recommendation, just let me know. Here to help!