As I have done every year for years, here are a list of the books I read in 2021. A prolific year indeed at 134 books with the majority being lauded! I keep track of all my reads on Goodreads, should you want to find me there.
As with previous years, I am using the handy five-star scale to present these books, rather than chronological or otherwise. Conveniently, the top book was also my most enjoyed (and a relatively recent) book for me. Despite its age, Bill Bryson’s A Short History of Nearly Everything still feels like a must read for us all, even in 2021/2022.
I also find it fascinating and comforting that I didn’t find anything terrible enough to rate it “1.” This is a trend I hope to continue with my own selection and reflection processes.
The Five Star Books (67)
A Short History of Nearly Everything by Bill Bryson – 2004
Spit Temple by Cecilia Vicuna – 2012
Hope in the Dark by Rebecca Solnit – 2005
A Feeling Called Heaven by Joey Yearous-Algozin – 2021
The World’s Lightest Motorcycle by Yi Won – 2021
Seek You: A Journey Through American Loneliness by Kristen Radtke – 2021
Forget It by Anastacia Renee – 2017
Open Spirit by Travis Catsull – 2003
What Noise Against the Cane by Desiree C. Bailey – 2021
Punks: New & Selected Poems by John Keene – 2021
The Sum of Us: What Racism Costs Everyone and How We Can Prosper Together by Heather McGhee – 2021
How Beautiful We Were by Imbolo Mbue – 2021
White Tears/Brown Scars: How White Feminism Betrays Women of Color by Ruby Hamad – 2020
Boat People by Mayra Santos-febre – 2005
Her Wilderness Will Be Her Manners by Sarah Mangold – 2021
The Deering Hour by Karen Elizabeth Bishop – 2021
Teaching to Transgress: Education as the Practice of Freedom by bell hooks – 1994
Living Nations, Living Words: An Anthology of First Peoples Poetry by Joy Harjo – 2021
Wildsam Field Guides: Atlanta by Taylor Bruce – 2020
Zot!: The Complete Black-and-White Collection: 1987-1991 by Scott McCloud – 2008
Split Tooth by Tanya Tagaq – 2018
The Age of Surveillance Capitalism: The Fight for a Human Future at the New Frontier of Power by Shoshana Zuboff – 2019
I Remember Nightfall by Marosa Di Giorgio – 2017
Slay by Brittney Morris – 2019
Party Everywhere by Jeffrey Cyphers Wright – 2017
Blue Lyre by Jeffrey Cyphers Wright – 2018
Desert Southwest (Wildsam Field Guide, #9) by Taylor Elliott Bruce – 2016
The Hidden Girl and Other Stories by Ken Liu – 2020
Concrete Rose = by Angie Thomas – 2021
Virga & Bone: Essays from Dry Places by Craig Childs – 2019
The Uninhabitable Earth: Life After Warming by David Wallace-Wells – 2019
The Paper Menagerie and Other Stories by Ken Liu – 2016
Why We Sleep: Unlocking the Power of Sleep and Dreams by Matthew Walker – 2017
Carnation and Tenebrae by Marosa Di Giorgio – 2020
Catacombs by Safiya Sinclair – 2011
Consecration of the Wolves by Alexis Levitin – 2021
Curb by Divya Victor – 2021
On the Come Up by Angie Thomas – 2019
Caste: The Origins of Our Discontents by Isabel Wilkerson – 2020
Memorial Drive: A Daughter’s Memoir by Natasha Trethewey – 2020
Arachnid Verve by Shauna Osborn – 2016
The Reindeer Chronicles: And Other Inspiring Stories of Working with Nature to Heal the Earth by Judith Schwartz – 2020
Terminal Events by Alfredo De Palchi – 2020
Our Bearings: Poems by Molly McGlennen – 2020
The Buddha in the Attic by Julie Otsuka – 2011
White Like Me: Reflections on Race from a Privileged Son by Tim Wise – 2004
Saturn Peach by Lily Wang – 2020
Cannibal by Safiya Sinclair – 2016
When My Brother Was an Aztec by Natalie Diaz – 2012
Dispatch: Poems by Cameron Awkward-Rich – 2019
The Secret Meaning of Things: Poetry by Lawrence Ferlinghetti – 1968
Nothing but the Music: Documentaries from Nightclubs, Lofts, Dance Halls & a Tailor’s Shop in Dakar by Thulani Davis – 2021
Heavy by Kiese Laymon – 2018
The Collected Poems of Chika Sagawa by Chika Sagawa – 2015
Sister Citizen: Shame, Stereotypes, and Black Women in America by Melissa V. Harris-Perry – 2011
Now It’s Dark by Peter Gizzi – 2020
The Emperor of All Maladies: A Biography of Cancer by Siddhartha Mukherjee – 2010
Just Us: An American Conversation by Claudia Rankine – 2020
Eloquent Rage: A Black Feminist Discovers Her Superpower by Brittney Cooper – 2018
Huckleberries and Coyotes: Lessons from Our More than Human Relations by Michelle M. Jacob – 2020
The Secret Knowledge of Water by Craig Childs – 2001
Mediocre: The Dangerous Legacy of White Male America by Ijeoma Oluo – 2020
Tropical Deco: The Architecture and Design of Old Miami Beach by Laura Cerwinske – 1991
Recollections of My Nonexistence: A Memoir by Rebecca Solnit – 2020
Yi Sang: Selected Works by Yi Sang – 2020
Requisite by Tanya Holtland – 2020
Voir Dire by Nico Vassilakis – 2020
The Four Star Books (49)
How to Read Nature: Awaken Your Senses to the Outdoors You’ve Never Noticed by Tristan Gooley – 2017
Unterzakhn by Leela Corman – 2012
Erosion: Essays of Undoing by Terry Tempest Williams – 2019
The Stone Sky (The Broken Earth, #3) by N.K. Jemisin – 2017
Apsara Engine by Bishakh Kumar Som – 2020
Bowling Alone: The Collapse and Revival of American Community by Robert D. Putnam – 2001
Bright Half Life by Tanya Barfield –
Our Time Is Now: Power, Purpose, and the Fight for a Fair America by Stacey Abrams – 2020
Dusk, Night, Dawn: On Revival and Courage by Anne Lamott – 2021
Islands of Abandonment by Cal Flyn – 2021
Solitude: A Return to the Self by Anthony Storr – 2005
Soul of Nowhere by Craig Childs – 2003
Good Morning Bone Crusher! by Thomas Walton – 2021
The Obelisk Gate (The Broken Earth, #2) by N.K. Jemisin – 2016
Nice Racism: How Progressive White People Perpetuate Racial Harm by Robin DiAngelo – 2021
The Mindfulness Prescription for Adult ADHD: An 8-Step Program for Strengthening Attention, Managing Emotions, and Achieving Your Goals by Lidia Zylowska – 2012
Wildsam Field Guides: Pacific Northwest by Taylor Bruce – 2021
tide tables and tea with god by Cassondra Windwalker – 2021
Brilliant Beacons: A History of the American Lighthouse by Eric Jay Dolin – 2016
All the Rage by Rosamond S. King – 2021
Uncomfortable Conversations With a Black Man by Emmanuel Acho – 2020
Wildsam Field Guides: The Moon by Taylor Bruce – 2019
Lighthead by Terrance Hayes – 2010
Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf? by Edward Albee – 2006
Sho by Douglas Kearney – 2021
A Camera Obscura by Carl Marcum – 2021
American Quasar by David Campos – 2021
To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee – 2006
Surfacing by Kathleen Jamie – 2019
Wade in the Water: Poems by Tracy K. Smith – 2018
How to Disappear: Notes on Invisibility in a Time of Transparency by Akiko Busch – 2019
Voodoo Hypothesis by Canisia Lubrin – 2017
The Mother of All Questions by Rebecca Solnit – 2017
Roll Deep: Poems by Major Jackson – 2017
Thief in the Interior by Phillip B. Williams – 2016
The Hill We Climb: An Inaugural Poem for the Country by Amanda Gorman – 2021
Indecency by Justin Phillip Reed – 2018
Blood Dazzler by Patricia Smith – 2008
The Fifth Season (The Broken Earth, #1) by N.K. Jemisin – 2015
The Bad-Ass Librarians of Timbuktu and Their Race to Save the World’s Most Precious Manuscripts by Joshua Hammer – 2016
The Anchor’s Long Chain by Yves Bonnefoy – 2015
The Colossus and Other Poems by Sylvia Plath – 1998
The Undocumented Americans by Karla Cornejo Villavicencio – 2020
Oyo: The Beautiful River by Mark B. Hamilton – 2020
The Dutch House by Ann Patchett – 2019
Everything You Hold Dear: Poems by Jamie Sharpe – 2020
The Dyzgraphxst by Canisia Lubrin – 2020
Grace Notes: Poems by Rita Dove – 1991
Harlem Shadows by Claude McKay – 2009
The Three Star Books (13)
On Fire: The Case for the Green New Deal by Naomi Klein – 2019
My Boyfriend Is a Bear by Pamela Ribon – 2018
Sea Fever: Selected Poems by John Masefield – 2005
The Round House by Louise Erdrich – 2012
Finding Beauty in a Broken World by Terry Tempest Williams – 2008
Virga by Shin Yu Pai – 2021
A Bell Curve is a Pregnant Straight Line by Vi Khi Nao – 2021
And So Wax Was Made & Also Honey by Amy Beeder – 2020
Rain: A Natural and Cultural History by Cynthia Barnett – 2015
The Firefly Letters by Margarita Engle – 2010
Go Set a Watchman by Harper Lee – 2015
Invitation to the Voyage: Selected Poems and Prose by Charles Baudelaire – 2020
Dance Dance Revolution by Cathy Park Hong – 2007
The Two Star Books (5)
The Personal Librarian by Marie Benedict – 2021
Is This Scary?: Poems by Jacob Scheier – 2021
The Ants by Sawako Nakayasu – 2014
Starting from San Francisco by Lawrence Ferlinghetti – 1967
The 5 Love Languages: The Secret to Love that Lasts by Gary Chapman – 2014