My Reading Life -- 2021

When I look back on my reading life in 2021, it feels like an embarrassment of riches. I read 113 books in a variety of genres. I got caught up on the backlist of some favorite authors like William Kent Krueger, Jacqueline Winspear, and Louise Penny. I branched out, reading more non-fiction, science fiction, and "social justice" fiction. Most of my selections rated a 4 or 5 on Goodreads. My reading was more selective, intentional, and well-curated than in past years. Despite the challenges of COVID, I'm not generally stressed or overloaded.  I'm retired, after all... So I have no need to use reading as a safety valve. I want my reading to challenge me, inform me, and make me wiser. I definitely cleared that bar in 2021.

Choosing 10 favorites was very difficult because it was such a good year. This list, in order by author not ranking, represents some of the best as well as the breadth of my year in books.

I attribute much of my reading success in 2021 to my decision to seek out book recommendations from a few trusted sources. Two of them, Anne Bogel and Gretchen Rubin, both sang the praises of Octavia Butler as one of their favorite authors. The book I chose to start with, Kindred, checked important boxes for me -- a writer of color whose corner of science fiction I like to think of as cultural anthropology combined with time travel. Wow! Kindred explored the horrors of slavery in a truly unique way. It's an important, eye-opening, moving book.

The Sentence by Louise Erdrich was my last book of 2021 and one of my very favorites. It tells the story of an incredibly challenging year in my home city from the perspective of a native American employee in a locally owned bookstore. Erdrich skillfully addresses racial justice issues around both the murder of George Floyd and the native American community. The book is filled with pain but also with so much humor.  Who knew Louise Erdrich could be so funny? It is both heart-breaking and heart-warming. And as a wonderful bonus, it is filled with book recommendations. My TBR positively exploded!

I heard Lisa Genova speak on a (virtual) book tour for her new book Remember: The Science of Memory and The Art of Forgetting.  She was funny and engaging while delivering important information succinctly. Loss of brain function as I age is probably my biggest fear, stemming from watching my father and other relatives struggle. I'm terrified that my mind will die while my body lives on. I read Genova's non-fiction book Remember (excellent) and then decided to read Still Alice, which has been sitting on my stack for several years. I found it wonderful and haunting. One of the final scenes, when Alice can't remember long enough to follow through on her earlier self's recommended course of action will be seared in my memory forever (or for as long as my memory functions. Still Alice is a book that has really stayed with me.

A Bay Area friend with somewhat quirky but discerning taste in books recommended Klara and the Sun by Kazuo Ishiguro. It's an unusual coming-of-age story told from the perspective of an AI robotic companion to a young woman with fragile health. Ishiguro proves himself the master of first-person narrative. We enter the "mind" of the AI as it learns about the world and tries to apply key principles of its programming to complex situations and perplexing human emotions. Klara and the Sun artfully explores the ethics of AI as well as genetic and societal engineering. I was so impressed that I read Remains of the Day, another masterpiece of first-person narrative. I'm ashamed to admit I didn't read it sooner. There's more Ishiguro on my horizon.

My book club read The 100-Hundred-Year-Old Man Who Climbed Out the Window and Disappeared by Jonas Jonasson and found it delightful. It's very reminiscent of Fredrik Backman's A Man Called Ove and My Grandmother Asked Me to Tell You She's Sorry. It features wry, almost slap-stick Scandinavian humor coupled with the knowledge that we lose much as a society if we ignore the unique wisdom of the young and the old. The value of injecting humor when exploring challenging topics seems to be an important theme in many of my favorite books this year.

Deacon King Kong by James McBride is such a funny book. I really appreciate authors like McBride who have the skill to explore challenging subjects with humor that doesn't diminish the importance of the issues. Deacon King Kong is a wild ride through Brooklyn in the 1960's, illuminating the culture of the black community and the attitudes that surround it. And it's so funny! My enjoyment motivated me to read The Good Lord Bird about James Brown -- equally funny and illuminating.

My daughter's book club (a very intellectual, highly educated group of young professionals) read The Sum of Us: What Racism Costs Everyone and How We Can Prosper Together by Heather McGhee. I've found that I can't go wrong piggybacking on their picks. We have a growing lexicon of excellent books that help us understand the history and impact of racism in our country and how me might constructively move forward. McGhee's book is an important entry on that list, shedding light on the historic and current economic impacts of our decision first to enslave and then to segregate and discriminate. Perhaps if we can accept that racism hurts all of us in our pocketbooks, we can begin to eliminate it.

I was a bit hesitant to read All the Devils Are Here by Louise Penny because it was set in Paris, not in quaint, beloved Three Pines. I love Paris, of course, but I wasn't sure I could love a Louise Penny book that didn't feature the normal quirky cast of characters. But love it I did. One of the things I most admire about Louise Penny is her dedication to her craft. She never rests on her laurels, as some other famous authors do. The plot of each book is skillfully designed, and she continues to plumb the depths of her characters. All the Devils provides insights into Gamache's youth and the dynamics of his family today.  Penny, as usual, balances a page-turning story with keen psychological insight.  An engaging, thought-provoking read. 

Think Like a Pancreas by Gary Scheiner is a very personal selection for this list.  It has been life-changing for me in my journey to becoming a competent, well-controlled diabetic. My doctor has told me repeatedly that some people have an easy journey where oral meds and a few life-style changes do the trick. My journey is much more challenging, and it's not my fault. But whatever the fault, I was very baffled and frustrated until I discovered Scheiner's book. He helped me understand so much about how my pancreas works (or often doesn't work). And he gave me the tools to be more in control and competent. Life-changing.

Bryan Stevenson is an incredibly talented writer and an even more impressive human being. Just Mercy was "featured" at Starbucks quite a few years ago. I picked it up in Seattle when we were babysitting our granddaughter (so that makes it 6 years ago), and it sat on my shelf until this year. I heard Stevenson speak and immediately sought out the book and devoured it. He lays out a compelling case for the tremendous damage we have done with our mass incarceration policy and provides constructive suggestions for how we can begin to undo the damage. This is another key book in the lexicon of racial justice books that everyone should read.