The Best Books I Read in 2021

Being on sabbatical for most of 2021, I was able to do a lot of reading – exactly 50 books, split 1/3 nonfiction and 2/3 fiction. So, for the fifth year in a row, here’s my list, this time in a highly subjective countdown to the best book of the year.

15. The Return: Fathers, Sons and the Land In Between by Hisham Matar (non-fiction)

A middle-aged Libyan, now settled in the West, goes back to the homeland he fled as a teenager, in search for answers about his father’s disappearance. Unexpectedly beautiful and deeply moving, and a look at what Gaddafi’s Libya tells us about what will happen if our global slide into authoritarianism is allowed to continue.

14. Piranesi by Susannah Clarke (fiction)

Set in a world too strange to describe. While I enjoyed reading it, I wasn’t sure if I actually liked it. But it stayed with me a very long time afterwards and kept intruding, unbidden, into various moments. Saying anything specific about the book seems like it would give away too much but if you like alternative realities, this is a great one.

13. Homeland Elegies by Ayad Akhtar (fiction)

This was on a lot of lists in 2020, and it’s easy to see why. A semi-autobiographical memoir of a Pakistani-American writer, set in Trump's America with everything it means to be both of the elite class and yet always a Muslim immigrant.

12. The Analog Trilogy by Eliot Peper (fiction)

This is a cheat because it’s really three books (called Bandwidth, Borderless and Breach respectively). I’m a sucker for stories that mix politics, business, and technology in varied global settings and/or potential futures. As I watched Joe Manchin imperil the world all of last year, I really thought he’d make a great candidate for the lead character’s sting operations...

11. Two Steps Forward by Graeme Simsion and Anne Buist (fiction)

A cute story of love and redemption set on the famous Camino de Santiago trail in France and Spain. I love that it was written together by a real-life couple who hiked that trail several times, and it made me seriously consider doing the Camino this year itself.

10. The Glass Hotel by Emily St. John Mandel (fiction)

While the plot was a bit disjointed at times, it was beautifully written. I liked that the story moved through so many unconnected worlds, from the lifestyles of Wall Street tycoons to a remote hotel in the Canadian wilderness to a container ship in the high seas to life in a prison, and more.

9. A Promised Land by Barack Obama (non-fiction)

A tome! The consensus of most reviews have been that this book is unusually self-aware and reflective for a major politician and also a bit self-justifying and defensive. I agree with all of that. But I also found Obama to be surprisingly – and impressively – aware of how the rest of the world views America, something that even highly educated and liberal Americans rarely comprehend. He is a mainstream politician who sees everything with the eye of the outsider – and that’s what makes the book worth reading.?

8. Into Africa: The Epic Adventures of Stanley and Livingstone by Martin Dugard (non-fiction)

A chronicle of the epic quests of David Livingstone to find the source of the Nile and Henry Stanley to find Livingstone in the heart of Africa. If you’re into tales of adventure, exploration and history, you’ll like this. The massive extent of the Arab slave-trade in Africa was something I knew very little about; it deserves to be known as much as the American and European versions.?

7. The Call of the Wild by Jack London (fiction)

My trip to Alaska as well as the #2 book on this list (below) inspired me to revisit this classic from childhood. I found it just as captivating 20+ years later.

6. Born to Run: A Hidden Tribe, Superathletes, and the Greatest Race the World Has Never Seen by Christopher MacDougall (non-fiction)

I’d heard about this book primarily because of its story of a Mexican tribe that runs long distances without shoes. What I found most fascinating was, firstly, the plausible evolutionary theory about persistence hunting i.e. that humans evolved to run long distances and we’ve forgotten how to, and second, the unforgettable stories of the strange and fascinating ultramarathoner community.

5. Where the Crawdads Sing by Delia Owens (fiction)

If you like nature, you’ll love this book. An abandoned little girl learns to survive off the land. Then she gets older and is drawn into a love triangle, a murder mystery, and the intolerance of a nearby community that can’t understand how someone like her can exist. Superb writing, with the magic of the natural world in every page.

4. Consolations: The Solace, Nourishment and Underlying Meaning of Everyday Words by David Whyte (non-fiction)

52 essays, each just 2-3 pages long, meditating on the hidden meanings of words we use without thinking, like “Friendship” and “Regret” and “Gratitude”. It’s a book to keep by your bedside or dip into over your coffee on a Sunday morning, and be guided into new ways of thinking about your life.

3. The Blue Bear: A True Story of Friendship and Discovery in the Alaskan Wild by Lynn Schooler (non-fiction)

Someone once said that you can always find what you are looking for online. But it takes a bookstore to find what you’re not looking for. I had never heard of this book before I picked it up on a whim in a Juneau bookstore. Since I was travelling in Alaska, why not read a book set there? And boy did I get lucky! The subtitle says it all – an unlikely friendship between a Japanese photographer and an Alaskan tour guide as they have great adventures in one of the most beautiful places in the world. If you’ve been to southeast Alaska, read this book to revisit that magical land.

2. American Wolf: A True Story of Survival and Obsession in the West by Nate Blakeslee (non-fiction)

There are two intertwined stories in this book. One is about politics, hunting, and conservation – the messy, maddening world of humans. The second is about the life of one of the most charismatic animals in the world, and her family’s quest for survival amidst enemies both two- and four-legged. The first story will make you despair for our species, the second will make you fall in love with another.

1. Utopia Avenue by David Mitchell (fiction)

Mitchell is one of my all-time favorite writers and his new book was brilliant not only for its transcendent writing and compelling story of the rise and fall of a rock’n’roll band in the 1960s, but also because it took me happily down many rabbit holes of music research – and far too many hours on YouTube listening to old songs. My only caveat is that you’d probably get more out of this book if you’ve read some of his previous ones first. But it stands on its own even without knowing the backstory. It was my favorite book of the year.

-----

I also wrote a book this year, but you probably already know that. If you haven’t yet, do check it out.

Want more book recommendations? Here are my 'best books' reviews from?2017,?2018, 2019 and 2020.

And I'm always looking for new book recommendations, so do suggest them in the Comments, and shape my reading in 2022!