Book List 2021

This year was a great reading year, perhaps especially because I spent the first four months in the English countryside and only saw a total of five people due to the most severe lockdown that Britain had during the pandemic. But good things spring up even out of that I suppose, and having done more reading is certainly one of them. Here are some of my 2021 reads:

Love Nina, by Nina Stibbe

The wonderful gardener that I worked with on Tuesdays while staying at my family’s house recommended this wonderful set of letters from a nanny (who would go on to be a famous author) to her sister. “You need a bit of cheering up,” he said. And gosh, didn’t these hilarious letters that detailed the nannying of the two sons of the Editor of the London Review of Books do just that. I read excerpts out loud at dinner and gosh did tears stream down my face!

The Return of the Prodigal Son, by Henri Nouwen

Henri Nouwen will always have such a soft place in my heart, and I credit the reading of one small bit of this story every morning with putting my heart back together again after suffering from severe anxiety my first term of Cambridge. Nouwen’s tenderness in helping readers see themselves as the ‘father’, ‘elder brother,’ and ‘prodigal son’ is something I will cherish forever.

Just Mercy, by Bryan Stevenson

I was invited to read this book with a book club out of Oxford University by someone who works at a senior level in the British prison system. Reading it and then watching the film in community was a deep joy and helped to fill some time during the long winter. What a powerful story of justice, sacrifice, (often) senseless suffering, and (sometimes) redemption. I think this should be a must-read for everyone.

When Hitler Stole Pink Rabbit , by Judith Kerr

I have a family connection to Judith Kerr, and I spent the late Christmas/early New Years time reading this older children’s story. It has such a beautiful way of detailing just how hard the war was on children. Judith Kerr went on to write fabulous childrens stories such as ‘The Tiger Who Came to Tea’ and I will always love her a little more for reading them now that I know what she experienced.

Burnout, by Emily Nagoski and Amelia Nagoski

Every single woman must pick up this book. The Nagoski twins are nothing short of geniuses,  unlocking the proclivity of women to burnout and the singularity of the female experience while doing so. I read this while recovering from my second burnout and gosh was it a transformative gift.

Northanger Abbey, by Jane Austen

“I know, I should be studying but I’ve given up,” I said on a Friday night when my cousin's husband came around the door to find me laid out on the sofa reading this instead of my science and evidence homework. “I’ll get the wine,” he said wisely. This was a book that I thoroughly enjoyed, both for its length and its wit. I now know where one of my favourite Austen quotes comes from: “There is nothing I would not do for those who are really my friends. I have no notion of loving people by halves, it is not my nature.”

The Paris Library, by Janet Skeslien Charles

This book was beautiful. A little unremarkable as historical fiction goes, but humanizing as to the secrets that some survivors of war have had to carry deep inside them for life.

Wintering, by Katherine May

This book was recommended many times to me and I so enjoyed the author’s interview on the On Being podcast. If I’m honest, I found it a little too scattered and autobiographical to translate into my own life, but it was a gentle book which was just what the season called for.

Lead from the Outside, by Stacey Abrams

This is another book that I found transformative and that I think every single woman should read. This politician, lawyer, activist, and author radically transformed my belief in myself and my courage to just ask and dare to dream. Perhaps the most useful bit was the encouragement to be honest and bold with yourself about your goals. Perhaps it’s time for a re-read!

Spinning Silver, by Naomi Novik

I was never into fantasy, but between my friends Heidi, Sara, and Ashley I’ve come to LOVE Naomi Novak’s books and have read just about as many as I can get my hands on!

On All Fronts, Clarissa Ward

Jiven asked me the other day about why I am “so into” female war journalists, and I think what I settled on is that I find it courageous and symbolic, ground-breaking and true when women midwife truth and stories from the frontlines of suffering. Clarissa is a front-facing face at CNN and I couldn’t know as I read this piece now what a pivotal voice she would be from Ukraine especially. A must read. A voice of our generation. 

Heart Map and the Song of Our Ancestors, by  Devon Spier 

This piece of poetry is gorgeous. The author is from Montreal and her poems settled deep in my heart. Poetry about Jewish yearning and carving a path faithful to yourself and the history you carry in your bones, this book is a stunning read for anyone, regardless of ethnic or religious background. 

The Midnight Library, by  Matt Haig

I must confess that I didn’t love the Midnight Library, but it will always have a special place in my heart for two reasons: 1) My boyfriend used it as a prop to pretend to read with me in the mornings in Scotland while he worked up his courage to ask me to be his girlfriend and 2) Matt Haig is a gorgeous, vulnerable, courageous voice for mental health and I often wish I could meet him, just to hug him and lend as much of my courage and gratefulness to him as I could.

The Switch & The Road Trip, by Beth O’Leary

I am a Beth O’Leary fan for life and I am so glad that my friend Emily and my cousin Sophia are my partners in this! These two books were wonderful and I just flew through them. ‘The Switch’ is about a granddaughter and grandmother who switch lives, delightfully meddle in each other’s business, and ultimately find the love they didn’t know they were looking for. ‘The Road Trip’ is all about repair, forgiveness, and contending with self. It takes place on a road trip to Scotland and beautifully I read it on the train back from Scotland, while nestled in the arms of my new boyfriend. 

Writers and Lovers, by Lily King

This book felt quietly perfect, like going underwater - and there has only been one other book like this. It is the story of a completely broke author who finds her voice and takes her chance, despite a sorrow that threatens to swallow her whole. I will always associate the reading of this book with my Cambridgeshire library card and reading this at the Round Church with my perfect-as-always Bould Brothers cappuccino. 

Homebody, by Rupi Kaur

Rupi Kaur - I lived next to someone who fed me a steady diet of books through the month of June. This was one of them. I devoured it and loved what this spoke to me about love and my body. 

Untamed, by Glennon Doyle 

There was a lot of both positive and negative buzz about this book. I’ve read the two other Glennon Doyle books and while I appreciated what she was reaching for, I found it hard to separate from her celebrity at the time.

Stoner, by John Williams

Gosh - I initially found this book very hard to get through but the person I lived next to in my hall at Cambridge claimed it was his favourite book, and by the end I understood. It is best described as a story about a man who lives a life of quiet desperation, repressed passion, and unexpressed emotion but who nevertheless has a rich interior life, though it is never able to be translated externally.

Ghosts & Everything I Know About Love, Dolly Alderton

I fell in love with Dolly Alderton this year. Her autobiographical book ‘Everything I Know About Love’ has just been made into a short tv series on BBC iplayer and I’m dying to watch it. I adored her for her candidness, and relished in being able to identify the various locations she identified as I read the book while living in London. Her book ‘Ghosts’ is her first piece of fiction, and it was a FABULOUS depiction of the complexities of adult female friendship when love lives and parenthood don’t progress on a parallel, linear progression. 

All About Love, by Bell Hooks

How could I know while reading this that Bell Hooks would die later in the year? I kept this book in my tote bag and read it in more manageable chunks. Her reflections on community and family and love are gorgeous, and I do so hope that a lot more of my peers were catapulted into reading her work after news of her death hit us all.

Sorrow & Bliss, by Meg Mason

This novel was a masterclass in exploring the detrimental effects - with a redemptive edge - of mental illness without actually naming the mental illness itself. If I’m honest, her inner dialogue felt a bit too close to home at the time, and I almost felt a bit ill when reading it at various points. 

Born a Crime, by Trevor Noah

I think everyone should read this book. Trevor Noah is a public voice of our generation and I think people often gloss over his incredible personal story of reliance, discrimination , and suffering. Trevor is not that much older than me in the scheme of things, and the incredible discrimination he experienced in South Africa should serve as a reminder to us all that the past is not so distant as we might imagine it to be.

On Love & Tyranny, by  Dr. Ann Heberlein

This book was lent to me in England, and then Jiven bought it for me for my birthday and I felt fully how lucky I am to have a partner who listened to the philosophers I prattled on about. There are so many excerpts I wish I could read out loud to you, but if you do pick it up, go to the chapter about their relationship. The description of her and her husband's marriage being “her four walls” was so gorgeous, I still keep a photo of that passage on my phone. I love Hannah’s complicated but fiercely committed relationship to friendship, curiosity, and to the courage to change her mind and say sorry. I will say that I think this book should come with a warning as I think that the author takes a lot of liberties in filling in the gaps on what Hannah may have been thinking…which annoyed me, but I suppose you can’t have it all!

Re-reads, School Reads, & ‘Sorbets’:

And by way of conclusion, here are three ‘sobets’ of completely shallow romantic fiction (and one school re-read) that just FED THE SOUL during the crushing workload of Cambridge. (I regret nothingggg!!)

My Berlin Kitchen, by Luisa Weiss

Gurnsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society, by Mary Ann Shaffer 

What Is Populism, by Jan-Werner Muller 

Places I Stopped on the Way Home, by Meg Fee

Happy Reading!