I find it helpful, at the end of the year, to look back and see what books were important, impactful or memorable. Here is my list of the best books I read in 2021!

I think Anxious People by Fredrik Backman might have been the best book I read in 2021. it was that great combination between soulful and deep and laugh out loud funny that was so powerful and helpful in the middle of a pandemic. Backman, understands people and had deep insights into the human condition so if you haven’t read it yet, this is a must read!

This year I read several books about the immigrant experience  and of those I read I thought How Much Of These Hills is Gold by C Pam Zhang and The Transcendent Kingdom by Yaa Gyasi were stunning in their ability to describe with such clarity the unique experience of living in a country where they are not fully welcomed nor their contributions recognized. Both of these authors are relatively new so I hope we will hear much more from them in the future.

I read quite a few historical novels this year, but the best were the The Four Winds by Kristin Hannah, The Hamilton Affair by Elizabeth Cobb and Matrix by Lauren Groff.  In the Four Winds, Hannah takes us into the Dust Bowl years where farms in the midwest were blown away by the wind during years of unrelenting drought. Many are forced to abandon their farms and move to California to start a new life, only to be segregated in camps with no running water and exploited by the farmers in California for their labor. This is a chilling but powerful book about a shameful and overlooked part of our history

The Hamilton Affair explores the life of Alexander Hamilton from his wife Elizabeth’s perspective using her letters and other information we understand her role in his life and why she made it her life’s purpose to keep his memory alive.

The Matrix by Lauren Groff is a unique look at a fictional Mother Superior in a nunnery in twelfth century England. Based on careful research and materials from various nunneries from this time period, Groff crafts an engaging and complicated character who builds her small nunnery into a formidable institution.

In non fiction, Notes On A Silencing by Lacy Crawford and Jesus and John Wayne by Kristin Kobes Du Mez were the two books that stood out the most. Notes On A Silencing speaks not only to the incredible damage that occurs when a child is abused at boarding school, but how the cover up and the silencing exacerbates and creates even more lasting and detrimental damage to those who are abused. Powerful and deeply disturbing, this book was one that is hard to forget.

Jesus and John Wayne, is a historical examination of what led Christian Evangelicals to support Trump. What is so compelling in this book is the step by step analysis of the compromises and the deeply disturbing heretical theological choices Evangelicals have made since the early 1950’s that led them to abandon Jesus for money and power.

I read a couple of books that were short story collections. The Tsar of Love and Techno by Anthony Marra which is an exploration of existence and legacy in Soviet Russia and Exhalation by Ted Chiang which explores the great existential questions of what it means to be human, what is memory and how do our choices define who we are. Both books were thought provoking and very memorable!

Lastly are the books that I just enjoyed immensely. Project Hail Mary by Andy Weir was so fun to read that you hardly realize that great existential questions like the survival of humanity are actually being discussed in some memorable ways. The Lamplighters by Emma Stonex was a fascinating but creepy mystery story about a lighthouse where the three lighthouse keepers disappear and are never found. The Keeper of Lost Things by Ruth Hogan was one of those books that is so entertaining, insightful, and lovely that you just savor it until the very end.  Since I finished it, each time I come across a reference to it, I smile and remember how much I enjoyed reading it. Now that is my definition of a good book!

I hope this list is helpful as you begin this new year of reading! Enjoy!