2021 Reading Review
In 2021, I read 50 books, a mix of fiction and non-fiction, audio listens, moderately thick tomes, and collections of short stories. My top 12 are listed below. Let me know what I should read in 2022!
Many of the best reads I had this year were histories — including Erik Larson’s book from a few years ago discussing the Chicago World’s fair, and Walter Isaacson’s crazy timely biography of individuals who set the stage for the rapid development of vaccines for Covid-19. Also, the audiobook of McConaughey reading his memoir is beyond fantastic. Still, I was clearly craving distraction this year (I wonder why), as sci-fi novels (x20) made up a plurality of my reading this year, and novels of any genre (x27) were a majority of my reads. I also chipped away at over a dozen mid-20th century books backlogged on my list of to-reads, which came at the expense of reading much of anything current this year.
Long-time friends will recognize this format as my annual reading list post. You can follow Caroline and me on Instagram in real time during the year under the hash tag #caroninoreads (or on Goodreads, link below).
Here are the 12 best books I read last year:
The Devil in the White City (Erik Larson)
The Code Breaker (Walter Isaacson)
Greenlights (Matthew McConaughey)
American Gods (Neil Gaiman)
Dune (Frank Herbert)
Homeland Elegies (Ayad Akhtar)
Woke Racism (John McWhorter)
Pictures at a Revolution (Mark Harris)
Jesus and John Wayne (Kristin Kobes Du Mez)
Termination Shock (Neal Stephenson)
How to Avoid a Climate Disaster (Bill Gates)
No Name in the Street (James Baldwin)
Honorable mentions: The Painted Word (Tom Wolfe at his wittiest), Once Upon a Time in Hollywood (Quentin Tarantino writing masterful pulp), Klara and the Sun (Kazuo Ishiguro gut wrenching as always), How to Make a Spaceship (Julian Guthrie giving background that puts the current billionaires space race into context), The Martian (Andy Weir being hilarious), The Fifth Season (NK Jemisin being imaginative), On Earth We’re Briefly Gorgeous (Ocean Vuong being vulnerable), Empire of Pain (Patrick Radden Keefe making your blood boil with history about the Sacklers).
