The Best Books I Read in 2021

This past year, like most people, I spent a lot of time inside. As a result I spent most of my free time reading. In doing so, I discovered some of my favorite books and some books that were just not for me. I waded through genres, explored authors, and read some of the best books I have in my entire life. I have compiled a list of such books in no particular order -- though most were written before 2021--for anyone who is looking to read more -- or at all -- in 2022. 

 I could talk forever about how much I love the 2020 novel Writers & Lovers by Lily King, which is not only my favorite book of this year but also probably my favorite book of all time. One of the less plot based and more character centric books on this list, this book is a work of pure genius. Writers & Lovers follows struggling writer Casey Peabody as she navigates writing a novel as well as grief, love, aging, and womanhood. Based in Cambridge, this book is both incredibly well-written and wonderfully funny and left me brimming with emotions no other book has ever made me feel as well as a need to hear more from Casey. In my experience, novels about writing novels generally fall flat from a lack of self-awareness. However, Writers & Lovers, through a sense of humor and an absence of ego, manages to resurrect the rawness and overflowing of emotion that perfectly captures why people turn to writing in the first place. I truly can not say enough good things about this book and absolutely recommend it to everybody.

Just Kids, the memoir by singer-songwriter, author, and poet Patti Smith, details her relationship with artist Robert Maplethroup, their life together, and her own journey to one of the most influential elements of the punk movement in New York. Beginning from her childhood up to the death of Maplethroup, this book offers a unique look at Smith’s inspirations, failures, and many triumphs. Just Kids is probably one of the most beautifully written and poetic books I have read not just this year, but in my whole life. Smith has a knack for choosing just the right words in just the right order, showcased time and time again in her entire body of work, and perhaps best displayed in Just Kids. A slow moving but carefully crafted masterpiece, I would recommend this book to everyone, even those who have never heard of Patti Smith. 

Though labeled overrated by many -- especially those on Tiktok -- the 2018 novel My Year of Rest and Relaxation by Ottessa Moshfegh absolutely blew me away and was the gateway to my exploration of the rest of Moshfegh’s haunting works. Each character, particularly the narrator, was distinctly unlikeable and we read, with unease, as our unnamed protagonist attempts to achieve her goal of sleeping for an entire year by taking as much prescribed medication her truly terrible psychiatrist will give her. Spoiler alert; it’s a lot. She treats herself and her relationships terribly and it makes for an engrossing read. I do want to add that the biggest criticism I’ve heard for this book is that it is predictable. I found, personally, that this was one of the best parts. In a truly horrific feeling of dramatic irony, I felt the overwhelming urge to scream at our narrator with what I know is coming. All in all, I absolutely adored this book and found it a catalyst to my obsession with unreliable and unhinged narrators, something Moshfegh’s works do not lack. I strongly recommend it to anyone, especially those with free day to devote entirely to Moshfegh's world.

  Severance by Ling Ma was an unsettling but captivating read following a woman trying to survive and find meaning in life after a pandemic destroys global civilization and kills almost every single person on earth. Though written in 2018, Severance perfectly, yet eerily, captures the feelings of isolation, uncertainty, and fear we have been feeling for almost two years. Normalcy for our narrator is shown through flashbacks of her life and job and are contrasted with utter destruction as she slowly loses everybody in her life and ends up joining a small group of other survivors as they attempt to build a space for themselves in a desolate and inhospitable world. I flew through this book in less than a day and find myself thinking of it often as I live through a situation similar to Ma’s creation, though one I’m sure she never anticipated. It is a unprecedented look at womanhood in the face of destruction and anyone who enjoys feminist and/or dystopian literature would be sure to enjoy this. 

Another book, also about writing and grief, that I loved this year was The Friend written in 2018 by Sigrid Nunez. Written in second person, it wades through the story of a writer whose friend committed sucide and leaves his dog to her. Though I loved the exploration of grief and its intersection with writing for profit as well as the pathological codependency we have with our pets, the highlight of this book were the questions it pondered and didn’t necessarily answer. Questions like, can women ever enjoy the simple pleasures in life the way men do, like taking a walk, or are they intrinsically unable to due to the dangers a patriarchal society has established? Does writing increase or decrease empathy for others? It’s highly intelligent tone and distinctive style are the clinchers that forced me to spend the week after finishing it reading parts of it outloud for those unlucky enough to be in the same vicinity of me and the reason it is on this list.

Sally Rooney’s Normal People has been a huge hit recently and though I thoroughly enjoyed reading it, it was her 2017 debut novel, Conversations with Friends, that I couldn’t stop thinking about. Tongue in cheek from the very beginning, pretty much none of the characters in this novel are actually friends. Following the lives of two couples, Conversations with Friends, follows the intersection of their lives and their explorations in love, friendship, and modern relationships. Saddled with dynamic characters containing wells of depth, this book highlights Rooney’s strengths in a way that, for me, Normal People, fell short with. I adored each character for their likable traits as well as their faults -- of which there were no shortage. Like Normal People, the Irish setting is both charming as well as plot enhancing as class and identity are heavy themes throughout. If you have read Normal People and liked it, this one's for you, and if you haven’t read it (and/or read it and didn’t like it), this book is still 100% worth a shot.

The final book that I read in 2021 was Beautiful Boy; A Father’s Journey Through His Son’s Drug Addiction by David Sheff. I had, of course, seen the 2018 film adaptation starring Timothée Chalamet and Steve Carell when it came out but had never gotten around to reading the book that it was based on. When I say this book left me utterly speechless, I mean it. Before reading it, I could not have imagined that it could be better than the movie as it’s one of my favorites of all time but, without a doubt, it was. A harrowing recount of an extremely personal story of addiction mixed with well-researched facts about addiction as a disease, this book deals with such a delicate subject with the complete sensitivity it deserves and serves as a crucial text in the push for the understanding of addiction as a disease and not a choice. I would recommend this book strongly but also carefully as the details are heavy yet utterly necessary.

By Eliora Abramson