8 Books I Loved In 2021

In the last few years, my love for reading books has come back into my life (I deliberately and without apology paused this and other things for a chapter, as I mentioned in the last tip here). In 2021, I finished 56 books and enjoyed all of them. The reason I can say “all of them” about the ones that I finished is that I have gotten better at just giving up on books I’m not enjoying - no shame in not finishing!

Below are brief descriptions of 8 that were some of my absolute top favorites of the year. I’d love to know in the comments what recommendations you have for me to read in 2022! If you’re on Goodreads, find me here: https://www.goodreads.com/jessicaeastmanstewart. My favorites from 2019 and 2020 are linked at the bottom of this post as well.

You can buy any of these books in my 2021 Favorite Books List on Bookshop, which supports local bookstores.

Best Overall

I am still sad that I finished this book - The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo by Taylor Jenkins Reid (Bookshop | Amazon) - it’s one that you finish and grieve being done with it because it’s just that good. It’s an unexpected story (spoiler: it’s not about the husbands) and just so, so fun and engaging. Highly recommend.

Best Stories

These are the two stories that kept me up later at night than I wanted because I was so engrossed in them.

• While Justice Sleeps by Stacey Abrams (Bookshop | Amazon) - I’m pretty confident Stacey Abrams is the one of the most talented people alive today (maybe tied with Lin Manuel Miranda?). How is she such a smart and effective politician and also an amazing fiction writer? Who knows, I’m just glad we get to benefit. This was a great story.
• The President's Daughter by James Patterson and Bill Clinton (Bookshop | Amazon) - I enjoyed the last time these two collaborated on a book, and so I wanted to try this one and it did not disappoint. Politics, government, international relations, and parents doing what it takes to try to get their (badass) daughter back.

Best True Story

I read The Woman They Could Not Silence: One Woman, Her Incredible Fight for Freedom, and the Men Who Tried to Make Her Disappear by Kate Moore (Bookshop | Amazon) as part of Sharon McMahon’s book club, and what an inspiring and maddening story of a woman fighting back against men who aimed to institutionalize her for having her own opinions. You’ll shake your head at the injustice and nod it at her wins along the way.

Best Business Book

Recommended to me by so many women who run incredible businesses, Profit First: Transform Your Business from a Cash-Eating Monster to a Money-Making Machine by Mike Michalowicz (Bookshop | Amazon) was one that I was so glad to read as the year closed. It helped me to learn a system for how to think about money in my new business that I feel like is likely to set me up for success as it grows. I can’t recommend it enough if you’re in business or want to be.

Best Dystopian Fiction

Vox by Christina Dalcher (Bookshop | Amazon) was one of my earliest reads in 2021, and it has stuck with me since. It describes an America where half of the population has been silenced, and the story of a woman who fights to protect herself and her daughter. It’s eerily believable.

Most Impactful on My Life

I gave this book - (Why We Sleep: Unlocking the Power of Sleep and Dreams by Matthew Walker (Bookshop | Amazon) - to a few others as holiday gifts this year because I love them and want them to have the same experience I had with this book - to really understand and more deeply value the importance of sleep. This is a well-researched and to-the-point book that will leave you with new knowledge and a commitment to figuring out how to prioritize sleep in our busy lives. You deserve this book.

Best Perspective-Widener

Homeland Elegies by Ayad Akhtar (Bookshop | Amazon) was a book I got from President Obama’s 2020 Favorite Books list, and it did not disappoint. It’s a terrific story about the complexities of America and helped me see through the eyes of those with a different identity and experience than my own (which is a type of book I try to read often). The description says it better than I could: “A deeply personal work about identity and belonging in a nation coming apart at the seams, Homeland Elegies blends fact and fiction to tell an epic story of longing and dispossession in the world that 9/11 made. Part family drama, part social essay, part picaresque novel, at its heart it is the story of a father, a son, and the country they both call home.”

My full list of 2021 books is here:

• The Woman They Could Not Silence: One Woman, Her Incredible Fight for Freedom, and the Men Who Tried to Make Her Disappear by Kate Moore
• Profit First: Transform Your Business from a Cash-Eating Monster to a Money-Making Machine by Mike Michalowicz
• Vox by Christina Dalcher
• The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo by Taylor Jenkins Reid
• Homeland Elegies by Ayad Akhtar
• The President's Daughter by James Patterson and Bill Clinton
• While Justice Sleeps by Stacey Abrams
• Why We Sleep: Unlocking the Power of Sleep and Dreams by Matthew Walker
• The Checklist Manifesto: How to Get Things Right by Atul Gawande
• Lead from the Outside: How to Build Your Future and Make Real Change by Stacey Abrams
• This Close to Okay by Leesa Cross-Smith
• How to raise kids who arena€?t assholes by Melinda Wenner Moyer
• Atomic Habits: An Easy & Proven Way to Build Good Habits & Break Bad Ones by James Clear
• Invisible Girl by Lisa Jewell
• Ford County by John Grisham
• Do Less: The Unexpected Strategy for Women to Get More of What They Want in Work and Life by Kate Northrup
• The Art of Gathering: How We Meet and Why It Matters by Priya Parker
• Then She Was Gone by Lisa Jewell
• Dare to Lead by Bren?? Brown
• Transcendent Kingdom by Yaa Gyasi
• Clap When You Land by Elizabeth Acevedo
• Agent Sonya: Moscow's Most Daring Wartime Spy by Ben Macintyre
• The Unitarian Universalist Pocket Guide by Peter Morales
• Call Your Daughter Home by Deb Spera
• Camino Winds (Camino Island, #2) by John Grisham
• When Breath Becomes Air by Paul Kalanithi
• The Mothers by Brit Bennett
• Where We Come From by Oscar C??sares
• The Guest List by Lucy Foley
• Such a Fun Age by Kiley Reid
• Big Summer by Jennifer Weiner
• We Keep Us Safe: Building Secure, Just, and Inclusive Communities by Zach Norris
• A Time for Mercy (Jake Brigance, #3) by John Grisham
• The Vanishing Half by Brit Bennett
• The House We Grew Up In by Lisa Jewell
• In the Flo: Unlock Your Hormonal Advantage and Revolutionize Your Life by Alisa Vitti
• No Cure for Being Human: And Other Truths I Need to Hear by Kate Bowler
• The 4-Hour Workweek by Timothy Ferriss
• Luster by Raven Leilani
• The Truth About Melody Browne by Lisa Jewell
• The Big Leap: Conquer Your Hidden Fear and Take Life to the Next Level by Gay Hendricks
• The Family Firm: A Data-Driven Guide to Better Decision Making in the Early School Years by Emily Oster
• We Run the Tides by Vendela Vida
• The Office of Historical Corrections by Danielle Evans
• Sooley by John Grisham
• Talking to Strangers: What We Should Know About the People We Dona€?t Know by Malcolm Gladwell
• What I Know for Sure by Oprah Winfrey
• American Sherlock: Murder, Forensics, and the Birth of American CSI by Kate Winkler Dawson
• I Had a Brother Once: A Poem, a Memoir by Adam Mansbach
• The End of Your Life Book Club by Will Schwalbe
• Life Is in the Transitions: Mastering Change at Any Age by Bruce Feiler
• Nobody Will Tell You This But Me: A True (as Told to Me) Story by Bess Kalb
• Sleep: Harness the Power of Sleep for Optimal Health and Wellbeing by Petra Hawker
• A Chosen Faith: An Introduction to Unitarian Universalism by John A. Buehrens
• Where the Mountain Meets the Moon by Grace Lin

Tell me in the comments what you think I should read in 2022! So far I’m starting with The Light of Days (Bookshop | Amazon) and The Judge’s List (Bookshop | Amazon).

You might also enjoy:

• 15 Books I Loved in 2020
• 7 Books I Loved Reading in 2019

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