2021 Reading List: Part I

In 2020, I read 46 books, just shy of my personal goal of 50. From historical fiction to self-help to fantasy, reading helped me unwind and explore new-to-me worlds and experiences in 2020–a year of hardship, COVID-19, and the shifting to a different kind of normal. In this new year I plan to continue to read, pushing myself to seek works that challenge my worldview, experience, and understanding. The below list includes all of the books I read in 2021 (not including 4-10 children’s books that I enjoy reading with Jameson daily!)

Last year I simply catalogued my reading list, this year I am adding a quote from each work that most inspired me to pause and think, laugh-out-loud, or intentionally shift my way of seeing the world. Here’s my January 1 – June 30, 2021 completed reads list. For July 1 – December 31, 2021, follow Part II.

1. Siracusa by Delia Ephron. A neighborhood free-little-library find. “This one was unbelievable and yet no one doubts it because, I suppose, his becoming a playwright encapsulates what we want to believe about life: that good comes of bad and all the absurdities play out in your favor.”
2. A Window Opens by Elisabeth Egan. A indie bookstore find and fun read. I did notice some parallels to my own life … like what it is like to be a working mom versus to be a focused-mom, and how we do both well, or not so well. “The same people who were so insistent that I should do something nice for myself when my dad was sick were now adamant that I should take all the time I needed before returning to reality.”
3. Writers & Lovers by Lily King. My mother-in-law passed away and while at a local book store, the book jacket description of this book called to me: … a mother’s sudden death and the story of a 31-year-old wannabe writer. “Fitzgerald said that the sign of genius is being able to hold two contradictory ideas in your head at the same time. But what if you hold two contradictory fears? Are you still some kind of a genius?”
4. Where She Went by Gayle Forman. Love, loss, and love. The path we choose and the way the world helps us find our way back when the time is right. “There are so many things I’d like to tell her, top among them is that I’ve always been ready.”
5. The Little Paris Book Shop by Nina George. A lovely read loaned to me by a neighbor. “Reading–an endless journey; a long, indeed never-ending journey that made one more temperate as well as more loving and kind.”
6. The Maytrees by Annie Dillard. A buy from The Bluestocking Bookshop used book store in town. “Falling in love, like having a baby, rubs against the main current of our lives: separation, loss, and death. That is the joy of them.”
7. The Watchmaker of Dachau by Carly Schabowski. An Amazon historical fiction selection. “It was. Before all this,’ Anna opened her palms and raised her arms, ‘it was sort of perfect, even when it wasn’t, even when bad things happened. It was still magical — but then, that is memory. To look back and make things brighter, bigger and better than they really were.”
8. Sweetbitter by Stephanie Danler. A book to read, not one I would read again. The use of the “R” word a few times caught me off guard. “…but at the ease with which whole afternoons were forgotten. The way thousands of wounds and triumphs were whittled down to only the sharpest moments, and even those failed to remain present.”
9. the book that matters most by Ann Hood. A lovely read from a second bag of books loaned to my by a friend. “If they complained about being bored, their mother–a melancholy Parisian who used laudanum to assuage the pains of homesickness and her husband’s infidelities–would hand them a book. ‘No on who reads can ever be board,’ she’d tell them, propped up in her bed in her pink silk dressing gown.”
10. The Skylark’s Secret by Fiona Valpy. A Kindle find and quick historical fiction read. “They mourned those sons of other mothers and fathers as though they were their own, as they would wish their men to be mourned should they fall in far-off lands: because humanity has no border.”
11. LEFT neglected by Lisa Genova. Another read from the bag of books loaned to me by our neighbor. “Like with all the changes that have been thrust upon me in the last month, I’m getting use to it, redefining normal.”
12. The Party by Robyn Harding. Another read from the bag of books loaned to me by our neighbor. I’m glad high school is over. “My friends?” Ronnie said, and her eyes filled. (Lisa had quickly learned that a glass eye still allowed tear flow.) “I don’t have any friends anymore”
13. Digging to America by Anne Tyler. I happened upon a new indie bookstore and shopped the used books section. I enjoyed this read. “Like these men following the women’s gossip–depending on their gossip, relying on it for connection–Sami floated on the gentle current of the relatives’ Farsi, comprehending some ninety percent and letting the other ten percent wash past him.”
14. Love by Toni Morrison. Another read from the bag of books loaned to me by our neighbor. “Oh, Christ, he thought, that was fifty years ago. What was the point in remembering the good old days as though the past was pure? He knew for a fact it was simply stifled.”
15. Once Upon A Time, There Was You by Elizabeth Berg. Another read from the bag of books loaned to me by our neighbor. “She wishes, suddenly, that she were sitting on a bench outside alone, nothing on her mind but a jostling mass of birds at her feet, going after the crumbs she throws. Because Sadie’s question is too big; it’s too difficult to answer.”
16. This One Is Mine by Maria Semple. Another read from the bag of books loaned to me by our neighbor. “So today, she came armed with her old standby, the single business card in her jacket pocket.”
17. The Trouble with Goats and Sheep by Joanna Cannon. Another read from the bag of books loaned to me by our neighbor. Solid weekend read in and around weekend activities. “And I decided it really was true after all. You only really need two people to believe in the same thing, to feel as though you might belong.”
18. The Good House by Ann Leary. A read I picked up from a Little Free Library around the corner while on a walk with my family. “Scott as always fascinated by this theory, about this double line of madness in my family.”
19. Airframe by Michael Crichton. A book I snagged from my Grandfather’s bookshelf on a weekend visit with my mom and son. Quick read.
20. The Girl with the Louding Voice by Abi Dare. The Kindle description grabbed my attention and I am so glad I dowloaded this book. “So, I nod my head yes, because it is true, the future is always working, always busy unfolding better things, and even if it doesn’t seem so sometimes, we have to hope of it.”
21. What Alice Forgot by Liane Moriarty. Another read from the bag of books loaned to me by our neighbor. Love and memories. “But love after three children, after a separation and a near-divorce, after you’ve hurt each other and forgiven each other, bored each other and surprised each other, after you’ve seen the worst and the best–well, that sort of love is ineffable. It deserves its own word.”
22. The House on the Cerulean Sea by TJ Klune. A friend posted about this book on Instagram a few weeks back and I downloaded it instantly. Wow. Being a mom to a child with differing abilities, this one hit home in a creative, meaningful, and profound way. “These children are faced with nothing but preconceived notions about who they are. And they grow up to be adults who know only the same. You said it yourself: Lucy wasn’t who you expected him to be, which means you already had decided in your head what he was. How can we fight prejudice if we do nothing to change it? If we allow it to fester, what’s the point?”
23. The Widow by Fiona Barton – Another read from a bag of loaned books. Managed to finish in a day with a few chapters here and there, in between puzzles, meals, children’s books, art projects, Wii games, bath time, and a few kids’ clips from the PBS Kids app. “It was more difficult when I met people I knew.”
24. The Old Man and the Sea by Ernest Hemingway – My first time reading this classic, definitely not the last. “Now is no time to think of what you do not have. Think of what you can do with what there is.”
25. The Girl Without a Name by Sandra Block – The first read from a bag of books loaned to me from a friend and neighbor. “But you know Zoe, sometimes doing nothing ends up being the same thing as doing something.”
26. The Invisible Life of Addie Larue by Victoria “V. E.” Schwab – A Kindle recommendation. The story creatively uncovers what comes of–or what could come of–answered dreams. “Even rocks wear away to nothing.” “A story is an idea, wild as a weed, springing up wherever it is planted.”
27. Foreign to Familiar by Sarah A. Lanier – A Holland Museum parent and child book club selection. “The Maoris of New Zealand have a saying, ‘I belong; therefore I am.'”
28. Less (Winner of the Pulitzer Prize) by Andrew Sean Greer – A Kindle recommendation and solid read. “And I say I’m ready. And he says for what? And I say to think about more important things. And he asked, ‘More important than what?’ ‘More important than love.’ And he looks at me like I’m crazy and says, ‘What could be more important than love?'”
29. Everything Inside by Edwidge Danticat – A purposeful purchase from the local bookstore with a selection of short stories. My favorite was The Gift. “Pou sa na pa we yo. For those we don’t see. For those who are not here.”
30. Braiding Sweetgrass by Robin Wall Kimmerer – This book was a gift from a friend and former boss. One of my many underlined passages “Hydrodictyon is a safe place, a nursery for fish and insects, a shelter from predators, a safety net for the small beings of the pond. Hydrodictyon–Latin for ‘the water net.’ What a curious thing. A fishnet catches fish, a bug net catches bugs. But a water net catches nothing, save what cannot be held. Mothering is like that, a net of living threads to lovingly encircle what it cannot possibly hold, what will eventually move through it.” (Page 90)