My 2021 Reading List
I read 37 books in 2021, 13 more than I read in 2020! I credit this to the availability of audiobooks and using the Overdrive and Hoopla apps from the Mesa County Public Library, but I still read books I hold in my hands, too.
I’m in a bit of a World War II phase right now, so many of the historical fiction novels I read were set in that era. My absolute favorite was Send for Me by Lauren Fox. I loved it so much that it ruined me for anything I tried to read for a while afterwards. It was so poetic and immediate and full of details and tension! It helped me write better poems while I was reading it. My family gave me a copy for my birthday, and I sometimes read a little of it before I write. I finally found Cold Mountain by Charles Frazier that filled the void, and another book I loved was The Lincoln Highway by Amor Towles, but I didn’t technically finish it until January of 2022, so it will go on next year’s list. I will definitely be reading these three books again. I think I found Send for Me and The Lincoln Highway from Jenna Bush Hager’s Read with Jenna bookclub.
In addition to reading and listening to books, I also start out every day listening to The Writer’s Almanac, which includes a poem. I can’t recommend this enough - it’s interesting, informative, inspiring, and only five minutes long - perfect!
Here is my 2021 reading list, in the order I finished them:
Washington - Ron Chernow - nonfiction - see my blog about it here
Dearly (New Poems) - Margaret Atwood - poetry
Louisa May Alcott - Susan Cheever - nonfiction - see my blog about it here
The Art of Memoir - Mary Karr - nonfiction - see my blog about it here
Rebecca - Daphne Du Maurier - fiction
Columbine - Dave Cullen - nonfiction
All Quiet on the Western Front - Erich Maria Remarque - historical fiction - World War I
Bossypants - Tina Fey - nonfiction - I thought I needed some lighter reading after the previous two books, and this fit the bill! But it was more than funny - it was a good story, too.
Stein on Writing - Sol Stein - nonfiction - see my blog about it here
No Ordinary Time (Abridged for audio) - Doris Kearns Goodwin - nonfiction
Me Talk Pretty One Day - David Sedaris - essays - this was another attempt to bring a little more humor into my life. I admire writers who are funny! It’s something I find very hard to do.
Hush - Rosemerry Wahtola Trommer - poetry - I bought this book from Lithic Bookstore the day after the Capitol riot in January, because I needed to read something positive. I read a poem a day in order to savor this lovely book, dog-earing many of the pages! Rosemerry is one of my favorite poets, and I actually know her, which makes it that much more special.
Demimonde - Kierstin Bridger - poetry - Kierstin is another poet I know and love. She combines poetry and history, two of my favorite things, in this collection.
Three Stories and Ten Poems - Ernest Hemingway - poetry and short stories - I am embarrassed to admit that before this year I hadn’t read anything by Hemingway. After I watched the excellent Ken Burns documentary about him on PBS, I was inspired to read some of his work. Some of these stories felt too short to me, and I wanted more, but on the other hand, it was also liberating to think that stories can be that length.
Good Poems - edited by Garrison Keillor - poetry - I have read this before, but it deserves rereading. Whatever you are going through, you will find a poem to comfort you in this book.
The Four Winds - Kristen Hannah - historical fiction - I have never felt so hot and dry as I did while reading this novel set in Texas during the dust bowl. I loved these lines from the book: “It wasn’t the fear that mattered in life, it was the choices made when you were afraid. You are brave because of your fear, not in spite of it.”
A Farewell to Arms - Ernest Hemingway - This was an interesting and semi-autobiographical World War I novel. I loved the Italians and how he portrayed them - they were a small part of the novel, but their dialogue made me smile, which was good, because it’s kind of a sad book. These lines stood out to me: “They were beaten to start with. They were beaten when they took them from their farms and put them in the army. That is why the peasant has wisdom, because he is defeated from the start. Put him in power and see how wise he is.” I also liked: “I never think and yet when I begin to talk, I say the things I have found out in my mind without thinking.”
A Promised Land - Barack Obama - This was a long memoir, but I found it very interesting to get a behind the scenes view of his presidency, and to get a historical perspective of our relationships with other countries.
Lilac Girls - Martha Hall Kelly - historical fiction - World War II
The Best of Me - David Sedaris - essays
Barrel Fever and Other Stories - David Sedaris - short stories and essays
The Book Woman of Troublesome Creek - Kim Michelle Richardson - historical fiction - late 1930s-1940s
Letters to a Young Writer - Colum McCann - nonfiction - I loved these lines: “One day you may find yourself hating writing precisely because you want to make it so good. Yet this awful truth is just another form of joy. Get used to it. The sun also sets in order for it to rise.” I have so many notes from this book, I really need to buy my own copy.
The Room Where It Happened - John Bolton - nonfiction - This was interesting to compare and contrast with the Obama book and the different ways they each see our foreign policy, which is complicated. It was a little scary and a little hard to get through, and I wanted him to just come out and say what he really wanted to say, but it was very informative and I’m glad I read it.
Fever 1793 - Laurie Halse Anderson - historical fiction - Philadelphia during the yellow fever epidemic
Reading Like a Writer - Francine Prose - nonfiction
The Underground Railroad - Colson Whitehead - historical fiction - This was one of my favorites. It was very well written - close and detailed, and it was very suspenseful. It reminds me a little of the movie Inglourious Basterds, because it doesn’t stick strictly to reality and it rewrites history a bit.
Leadership in Turbulent Times - Doris Kearns Goodwin - nonfiction - This was the second book of hers I read this year - she does such a great job writing about past U.S. presidents.
Nobody Will Tell You This But Me - Bess Kalb - nonfiction - This was a fun read. I love these women - a grandmother and a granddaughter. If you want a good example of voice, here’s your book!
I Alone Can Fix It - Donald J. Trump’s Catastrophic Final Year - Carol Leonnig and Phillip Rucker
On the House - John Boehner - nonfiction - John is a Republican and former Speaker of the House. I loved this book and his stories about working with each other, even if you don’t agree about everything, to get things done. He has lots of entertaining and crazy stories from growing up in a huge, humble, family to golfing with various political leaders and what they were like on the course. I highly recommend this one.
Send for Me - Lauren Fox - historical fiction - World War II - THIS WAS MY FAVORITE BOOK OF THE YEAR! I was only a few pages in when I knew I must own this book. Here’s an example of the beautiful, real, honest, present writing: “There was the warm Tuesday evening, just last week, when Klara dragged herself home after a long day at the bakery (poor, dependable Julius was still there, finishing the orders, closing the store). Klara trudged up the apartment stairs, expertly finessed the stubborn lock and opened the door to their apartment, and walked into an unholy, godforsaken mess: breakfast dishes still on the table (not even soaking in the sink), Annelise’s books and papers strewn about the living room, her cello propped against the wall, dressing gown on the floor like a puddle of pink cotton, an apple core on the piano. And there: Annelise herself, draped across the sofa, face slack and peaceful, asleep. Asleep! Well. A flame ignited inside Klara; she could almost hear the pop.” How can you not want to keep reading sentence after sentence like that? It makes me want to write a book this beautiful, and I despair that I might not be able to, kind of like what Colum McCann says above.
Cold Mountain - Charles Frazier - historical fiction - Civil War - After starting many novels and not liking any of them after Send for Me, I finally found Cold Mountain, which held up. This was also one of my favorites of the year.
The Paris Architect - Charles Belfoure - historical fiction - World War II
Radar Girls - Sara Ackerman - historical fiction - World War II
Orphan Train Rider - Andrea Warren - nonfiction - 1850s-1930s
Echo Mountain - Lauren Wolk - historical fiction - depression era
I started some books in 2021 that I’m still reading and savoring:
The Essential Rumi - translation by Coleman Barks - poetry - I started listening to this on Hoopla and it was so great and dense I had to buy a copy so I can read it slowly, a page or two a day, and let it soak in.
New and Selected Poems, Volume One - Mary Oliver - poetry - These are lovely poems!
Indigo - Ellen Bass - poetry - I love the line: “I still have opinions, / but I don’t believe in them.”
Rival Gardens - Connie Wanek - poetry - I heard a poem of hers on The Writer’s Almanac and wanted to read more.
What did you read in 2021? What would you recommend for me?