Best reads of the year: 2021

Ever since the teenage me used to fill the backseat next to me in the car with a crate of library books as we set off on long drives to summer holiday destinations, I’ve been a voracious reader. I read to entertain, but even more so, to learn and to escape.?

In 2019, I read 15 books. As I counted up at the end of the year, I couldn’t believe how few it was. It had been one of my most intense years ever professionally, but whatever the excuse, I didn't recognise myself in my reading tally. So I set myself a target to do better for 2020. Helped by the pandemic, I did, and hit 47.?

In 2021, having set a target of 52 books, I’m thrilled to say I ended the year having read 82, beyond anything I had hoped for. It was hugely helped by an extended period of lockdown in the first half of the year, plus a return to some sunlounger vacations in the second half, which is when I can really hit my reading stride. I’m not at all sure I can match it in 2022 -- but I’m going to give it a shot!?

My top non-fiction reads of the year were:

Find your unicorn space, Eve Rodsky?

I’ve bored so many people with talking about how my life has improved since reading and implementing Fair Play, Eve’s previous book,?a revolutionary method to find harmony on the domestic front which has been unbelievably powerful for so many dual-career couples I’ve spoken to. Her excellent follow-up is about carving out time to reclaim your creative life. On the agenda for me in 2022: Hebrew lessons, some more time at the piano, and continuing to find ways to pretend I actually work for The Home Edit.?

Atomic Habits, James Clear

A great read ahead of New Year goal-setting, if that's your thing. Distills why goals, motivation and willpower aren't enough to create good habits or break bad ones.

"You do not rise to the level of your goals. You fall to the level of your systems."

Four Thousand Weeks, Oliver Burkeman

A challenging read for someone who loves inbox-zero as much as I do, but an important one as I think about mindset and aspirations for 2022 and beyond.

"Productivity is a trap. Becoming more efficient just makes you more rushed, and trying to clear the decks simply makes them fill up again faster. Nobody in the history of humanity has ever achieved “work-life balance,” whatever that might be, and you certainly won’t get there by copying the “six things successful people do before 7:00 a.m.” The day will never arrive when you finally have everything under control—when the flood of emails has been contained; when your to-do lists have stopped getting longer; when you’re meeting all your obligations at work and in your home life; when nobody’s angry with you for missing a deadline or dropping the ball; and when the fully optimized person you’ve become can turn, at long last, to the things life is really supposed to be about. Let’s start by admitting defeat: none of this is ever going to happen. But you know what? That’s excellent news."

Material Girls, Kathleen Stock

I've read a lot on the topic of sex, gender and feminism in 2021 in an effort to better understand the significant complexities and to be a better guide to leaders struggling to know how to support all facets of diversity in their workforces. Amongst a number of excellent works, this one dazzled me. Fully supportive of an individual's right to live in any way they choose, free from harassment, Stock makes a clearheaded and humane defence of the need to avoid biological sex being eroded in preference of self-defined gender identity in certain key areas of society. It says much about the challenges we're facing in discussing reality and defending truth that I thought carefully about whether to publicly share that I'd read this.

How to talk so kids will listen and listen so kids will talk, Adele Faber and Elaine Mazlin

“I was a wonderful parent before I had children. I was an expert on why everyone else was having problems with theirs. Then I had two of my own.” One of my big surprises this year was that, for someone who reads endlessly about communication in professional contexts, and having devoured endless books about the baby stage of parenting, I realised I'd done very little reading (which for me equals learning) about communicating with older children (mine are 9 and 7 at the time of writing). This book was like an oasis in a desert of some challenging pandemic parenting moments. Not only has the practical advice helped me immensely, but it has reminded me that there's a book out there to help me find my way through literally any difficult moment on any topic -- and that sometimes, even bookworms need that reminder.

Jews Don’t Count, David Baddiel

The most personal of the books on this list. Like Material Girls, another one that I thought twice about including. "Jews Don’t Count?is a book for people who consider themselves on the right side of history." Baddiel outlines why and how, in a time of intensely heightened awareness of minorities, Jews don’t count as a real minority: and why they should. This review provides a better summary of his argument than I have room for here. If you're surprised I've included this book choice... if you can't imagine what such a book could possibly say... if you're on the verge of rolling your eyes... please take a couple of hours to read this brief, engaging, well-written pamphlet.

You can see my full 2021 reading list here and I'll post my top fiction reads over on Instagram. Happy reading!