Review of My Reading in 2021

 Well, I am a little late for the review...blame it on the holidays, traveling, workers in the condo, getting home in January.  You can pick what excuse you like for me!  But I am back home and feeling settled and, better late than never, here's my review of my 2021 reading!

I read 72 books last year. (I am challenging myself to 80 for 2022). I have 17 books from my reading in 2021 that I rated from very good to excellent:

Magic Lessons-Alice Hoffman

The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue-VE Schwab

Wintering-Kathleen May

Outliers-Malcolm Gladwell

We Begin at the End-Chris Whitaker

Hidden Valley Road-Robert Kolker

The Dry-Jane Harper

Killers of the Moon Flower-David Grann

Mrs. Lincoln’s Sisters-Jennifer Chiaverini

Beneath a Scarlett Sky-Mark Sullivan

The Heart’s Invisible Furies-John Boyne

The Lost Book of Names-Kristin Harmel

The TieThat Binds-Kent Haruf

The Exiles-Christina Baker Kline

Oh William-Elizabeth Strout

All the Children Are Home

The Book of Magic-Ann Hoffman

It's very surprising to me that 5 of the 17 were non-fiction! You may notice that 2 of the books are by the same author (one was read in January, and one was read in December).

Now to whittle down the list. This is fairly easy this year as some books really stood out to me. Here's my top 6:

Magic Lessons-Alice Hoffman

The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue-VE Schwab

The Heart’s Invisible Furies-John Boyne

The Exiles-Christina Baker Kline

Oh William-Elizabeth Strout

The Book of Magic-Ann Hoffman

I really loved these 6 books. But as soon as I read one of them, I was quite certain that it would be my 2021 favorite, and I was right:

The Heart's Invisible Furies by John Boyne gets my vote for the number one favorite book read in 2021. If you haven't read it, I highly encourage you to read it. It's a beautiful story with wonderful writing.

December Reads

 

I actually read six books last month, but forgot to put one of them in the photo collage and am too lazy to re-do it right now! I read two very good books in December and the other four were just ok.

1) The Book of Magic by Alice Hoffman: another winning book from a favorite author! This is the last book in the Magic series and it did not disappoint!

"Some stories begin at the beginning and others begin at the end, but all the best stories begin in a library."

And those words are exactly how this story began. Elderly Jet Owens still worked at the library and that is where she first heard the death beetle, signifying that she had seven days to live.  She left the library with her niece Sally and went home to let her sister Franny know that she (Jet) had seven days to live.

There were three generations of Owens women alive and they were all under the curse of their ancestor Maria Owens...it appeared that anyone the Owens family loved was destined to die early.

When the youngest of the women, Kylie Owens, learned that her fiance had been struck by a car and had severe head injuries, she realized that it was the curse striking yet again in the family.

This time the family decided they could break the curse by going to England where the curse began. As family members began searching for answers, the answers came. And in the end, as they say, all that matters is love.

2) The Push by Ashley Audrain: I immensely enjoyed this book! This story is wrought with many issues.  It is a story about marriage, children, generations of abuse, and mental illness.

In the very simplest terms, the story comes down to this: is the mother crazy or is the daughter evil?

I'm not even going to go into the details of this book, because I don't want to spoil anything for a reader. But I do encourage the book to be read!  Good story!

3, 4 & 5) Life is Messy by Matthew Kelly, The Stranger in the Lifeboat by Mitch Albom, and Hallelujah Anyway by Anne Lamott. None of these books really delivered for me.  And I do like the authors, but the books kind of struck me as books put out because it was time to put out a new book (if that makes sense).

6) I Found You by Lisa Jewell: This story struck me as three stories in one, all involving a man found on the beach one day who did not remember who he was or where he was from.  Meanwhile, a woman living elsewhere learned that her husband who is missing never existed. And elsewhere, a man remembers some man who had been quite disturbing and he never learned where the man had gone to. 

This was a pretty good, easy-reading mystery that I picked up while waiting for my hoped-for-book for Christmas! Which I did receive!!!