Five Books I Loved in 2021 | January to June

Since the beginning of the pandemic, my reading habit has had quite a revival. It would not have been without my beloved local public library and their ability to pivot their focus to increasing their capacity for electronic and audiobooks while their brick and mortar establishments were locked down. Over the course of a week, I got a dozen email notifications followed by another, alerting me that books that I’d recommended they purchase years ago were finally available to borrow.

I am forever an optimist in believing that I’ll eventually be able to read my way through the embarrassingly long wish lists and TBRs housed on my library’s website, Amazon, and my Goodreads shelves, and most everyone who knows me, sees that I read a crazy amount of books every year, often trying to beat my own record. (Last year, I topped off just over two hundred books.)

This year is no different, as I’ve already finished seventy books in the first six months and have more than double that to be read in the second half of the year. Of all the memoirs and novels and children’s books and poetry and short story collections that I’ve read in 2021, there are five books that I have not been able to stop thinking about since closing their covers.

Writing Into the Wound: Understanding Trauma, Truth, and Language by Roxane Gay

I don’t know if I’d even call this a full book, as it was only about forty pages long, but the size certainly doesn’t negate its power. This digital contribution was exclusively offered through Scribd and it is both a handbook and a love letter to anyone who is writing or thinking about writing the story of their trauma. Gay put so much value into this little booklet and much of it would be helpful for any writer. In fact, it was some of the wisdom that she shares in it that has kept it at the front of my mind months after reading it. The biggest lesson this book taught me was how to process and share my painful experiences without inflicting more hurt to my heart and mind.

The Midnight Library by Matt Haig

I’ve never read a novel that so accurately captures the emotional despair and hopelessness that I have felt in some of my darkest days, but Matt Haig does so with grace. This is a feat that could only be done by someone who has experienced those feelings for themselves. I especially enjoyed the way that Haig plays with the idea of how our mindset impacts the choices that we make in life, and conversely, how the choices we make affect our mental health. I saw so much of myself in this protagonist, and reading through this book was a form of catharsis for me, helping me process some of my own grief and sadness.

*This novel does look closely at the topics of depression and suicide ideation, so if you are sensitive to these subjects, please read with care.

Homeland Elegies by Ayad Akhtar

I most appreciated this book as a writer, as Akhtar’s writing technique caught me off guard and showed me that it’s okay to try different styles in one project. Even though this is a work of fiction, it often felt like memoir and a collection of essays, and every single word was chosen with careful intention, making the book as a whole feel complete and cohesive. I was both impressed and inspired by this novel, and it was the author’s use of creative storytelling and the ability to break some of the old writing rules that kept me thinking about this one.

The Book of Two Ways by Jodi Picoult

I have so much respect for the amount of research Picoult does when writing one of her novels. She dives head-first into whatever topic she’s covering and then weaves what she’s learned into her stories flawlessly. This piece of fiction looked at two topics that have always interested me: the parallel universe and ancient Egypt. It was one of those books that I lost myself in. Even after I set it aside, I found myself pondering a scenario that I’d read about or thinking about a quote that I’d highlighted. Even months after having finished reading this novel, I want to drop everything and read it again because I want to experience that curious feeling once more.

Leave the World Behind by Rumaan Alam

It took me three hours to devour this haunting novel and the hair on the back of my neck still stands up when I think about it. It was horrifying but in a really mysterious and entertaining way. Although there was nothing specifically frightening or gory that happens in this story, there’s this thread of unsettling events that are so peculiar, but Alam writes about them as if they are nothing out of the ordinary. The one thing this book brought to light for me was that we have become so reliant on technology, that when we lose it for an extended period of time, we are incognizant of how to survive without a device telling us how to live.

If you are interested in reading my full reviews of each of these books, visit my Goodreads page.