Best Books Read in 2021

COVID delayed my year-end wrap-up--not a great way to start the year--but here it is!

First, I'll share some stats and fun facts about my reading year, then my Top Picks in different categories, and finally my Top 10 (or whatever) lists in each category. It was an outstanding reading year, so I had some tough choices to make.

You can see a complete list, with links to reviews, of all the books I've read since 2015 at the Book Reviews tab.

Stats and Facts

Total Books Read in 2021 = 78 (just a few less than in 2020)

 

Adult Fiction = 45 (58%)

Adult Nonfiction = 11 (14%) – 6 were memoir

Teen/YA = 10 (13%)

Middle-Grade = 12 (15%) 

 

Of those books, 

Audiobooks = 25

Graphic Novel/nonfiction = 10

Poetry = 0

 

More Facts:

Women Authors = 47 (60%)

Diverse books = 33 (42%)

From my own shelves = 38 (49%)

Re-reads = 1

Authors read more than once in 2021: Connie Willis

Shortest book: The Importance of Being Earnest by Oscar Wilde (play) – 94 pages

Longest book: Anna Karenina by Leo Tolstoy – 964 pages

Average book length: 353 pages

 

Top Picks - Best of the Best

So many good books! See below for my Top 10 lists. Links are to my reviews. I try to force myself to choose one best, but I just had to declare a tie in fiction last year!

Best Adult Fiction

It's a tie! Both of these books blew me away, made me laugh and cry, and got perfect 10's:

The Heart's Invisible Furies by John Boyne

 

 

A Gentleman in Moscow by Amor Towles  

Best Short Stories

Not the End of the World by Kate Atkinson 

 

 

 

Best Nonfiction

  The Sixth Extinction by Elizabeth Kolbert 

 

 

Best Memoir

No Cure For Being Human (And Other Truths I Need to Hear) by Kate Bowler  

 

 

Best Audiobook

The Night Watchman by Louise Erdrich  

 

 

Best Teen/YA

Young Man with Camera by Emil Sher  

 

 

Best Middle-Grade

Drums, Girls, and Dangerous Pie by Jordan Sonnenblick 

 

 

Best Graphic Novel/Memoir

Flamer by Mike Curato  

 

Top 10 (or Whatever) Lists

Lists are alphabetical. Some books appear in more than one category.

Top 10 Adult Fiction

The Air You Breathe by Frances de Ponte Peebles

All Clear by Connie Willis

Blackout by Connie Willis

The Book of Longings by Sue Monk Kidd

Clock Dance by Anne Tyler

A Gentleman in Moscow by Amor Towles

The Heart's Invisible Furies by John Boyne

The Night Watchman by Louise Erdrich

The Summer Guest by Justin Cronin

The Vanishing Half by Brit Bennett

 

Top 8 Nonfiction/Memoir

Becoming by Michelle Obama (re-read)

Crying in H Mart by Michelle Zauner

An Elegant Defense: The Extraordinary New Science of the Immune System by Matt Richtel

I'll Be Gone in the Dark: One Woman's Obsessive Search for the Golden State Killer by Michelle McNamara

Nature's Best Hope by Douglas Tallamy

No Cure For Being Human (And Other Truths I Need to Hear) by Kate Bowler

The Sisters of Auschwitz by Roxane van Iperen

The Sixth Extinction by Elizabeth Kolbert

 

Top 5 Teen/YA

All of This Is True by Lygia Day Peñaflor

Dragon Hoops by Gene Luen Yang

Flamer by Mike Curato

Young Man with Camera by Emil Sher

Zara Hossain Is Here by Sabina Khan

 

Top 5 Middle-Grade

A Corner of White by Jacalyn Moriarty

Drums, Girls, and Dangerous Pie by Jordan Sonnenblick

A Home for Goddesses and Dogs by Leslie Connor

Other Boys by Damian Alexander

The Remarkable Journey of Coyote Sunrise by Dan Gemeinhart

 

Top 5 Graphic Novel/Memoir

Dragon Hoops by Gene Luen Yang

Flamer by Mike Curato

A Map to the Sun by Sloane Leong

Other Boys by Damian Alexander

Twins by Varian Johnson and Shannon Wright

 

Top 4 Short Stories

Astray by Emma Donoghue

Breakfast at Tiffany's by Truman Capote (novella & short stories)

Not the End of the World by Kate Atkinson

Whisky for Breakfast by Christopher P. Mooney

 

Top 10 Audiobooks

All of This Is True by Lygia Day Peñaflor

Animal Dreams by Barbara Kingsolver

Becoming by Michelle Obama (re-read)

A Corner of White by Jacalyn Moriarty

An Elegant Defense: The Extraordinary New Science of the Immune System by Matt Richtel

The Night Watchman by Louise Erdrich

The Remarkable Journey of Coyote Sunrise by Dan Gemeinhart

The Sisters of Auschwitz by Roxane van Iperen

Under the Whispering Door by T.J. Klune

Zara Hossain Is Here by Sabina Khan