The Best of 2021: Books
“They show us what community and friendship mean; they show us how to live and die.”
In 2021, I still made time for books of all kinds. Poetry collections, snapshot biographies, some of the greats of world literature. I’m happy to write about fifteen of them for you now. As always, there are two key parameters when it comes to my Year in Books piece.
One, I do not limit myself to books published in 2021 because that would be too narrow. I include books I read for the first time instead. That does mean, however, that my rereads are not included on the list and hoo boy, did I have tons of rereads in 2021. I reread one of my all-time favorites, Little Women by Louisa May Alcott. I finished a years-long reread of the Wizarding World with Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows. I reread immense collections of poetry and short stories by writers like Emily Dickinson, Sylvia Plath, and Charles Dickens. And for more professional purposes, I reread The Old Man and the Sea by Ernest Hemingway and William Shakespeare’s Othello and Macbeth.
Two, I do not rank the books. Tweets, television shows, podcasts? Sure. I’ll rank them. With literature, though, it has never sat right with me. So, instead, I sort them alphabetically. This year, I arbitrarily decided to alphabetize them by title! And without further ado (unless some of you out there would like some ado?), let’s jump right into that literary alphabet.
Bird by Bird by Anne Lamott
I swear I heard about Anne Lamott’s Bird by Bird before Ted Lasso made reference to it. I promise. I actually heard about it from a college writing professor a couple years ago. See? Cliches can always top themselves. I’m sure that was one of Lamott’s rules about writing in Bird by Bird. But the one that sticks with me the most is the titular one. Just take it bird by bird. Everything. Bird by bird.
The Crucible by Arthur Miller
I read The Crucible on a dare because it was just one of those staples of the literary canon that slipped past me during secondary school for whatever reason (I’ve never read Lord of the Flies either). But it was a dare I was eager to take up because I have a strong fascination with the real-life subjects and setting of the play. Salem, Massachusetts is among my favorite towns in the United States and a dramatized version of the community’s most infamous event was sure to hit. Death of a Salesman did, after all.
The Diary of a Young Girl by Anne Frank
The Diary of a Young Girl was another one that just never met me during my time in grade school. (Though, in Anne Frank’s case, I know why. The two seventh grade English classes had different schedules for their units and the one I was in had Frank for the spring semester. The one I was switched into midway through the year, however, had Frank for the fall semester.) Considering I had to teach Anne Frank this year, I knew it was time to familiarize myself with it. And oh my goodness, how beautiful is this diary? I’ll never forget the entry from May 3, 1944:
“I’m young and have many hidden qualities; I’m young and strong and living through a big adventure; I’m right in the middle of it and can’t spend all day complaining because it’s impossible to have any fun! I’m blessed with many things: happiness, a cheerful disposition and strength. Every day I feel myself maturing, I feel liberation drawing near, I feel the beauty of nature and the goodness of the people around me. Every day I think what a fascinating and amusing adventure this is! With all that, why should I despair?”
I’m sure 99% of the people reading this have already read Anne Frank’s diary, but if you haven’t, don’t wait as long as I did.
Eat a Peach by David Chang
I just completely dig Dave Chang’s sensibilities. His efforts to provide cultural contexts to food have been remarkable both on television (The Next Thing You Eat, Ugly Delicious) and in podcasting (The Dave Chang Show), so it was no surprise that his expertise translated to books, as well. Eat a Peach, his memoir about family, mental health, struggle, passion, kitchens, and business is a remarkable read. The honesty and vulnerability in every page is why I love the culture Chang describes and why I’ve always loved Chang himself. One of my favorites from 2021, for sure!
Fences by August Wilson
I had seen the 2016 adaptation of Fences with Denzel Washington and Viola Davis, so nothing about reading the play for the first time was a surprise to me. It was just nice to see all the words I’d only known on screen on paper instead. It allowed for much closer analysis, a better understanding of the symbolism and motifs at play, and a clearer picture of which stage directions were chosen by August Wilson all those years ago.
Kitchen Confidential by Anthony Bourdain
After reading Dave Chang’s book, I felt compelled to go to the publication that opened up a whole world of food writing for the world, writ large. Anthony Bourdain’s Kitchen Confidential is the original, seminal text for what these types of memoirs can be and it certainly did not disappoint. Bourdain was such a singular spirit and, with the hindsight of his tragedy, the book took on an identity it never intended to have. But that’s the Bourdain of it all. There have been many imitators, but no one ever taken seriously enough as a true challenger to Kitchen Confidential.
Movies (And Other Things) by Shea Serrano
Shea Serrano’s writing style is certainly not for everyone. Sometimes, it’s not even for me if I’m being honest. But there was enough here in the cinematic edition of his (And Other Things) series to warrant a position on the Year in Books piece! You always have to value that Serrano’s opinions and perspectives on movies mirror approximately zero other people’s. Some of my favorite chapters include “Were the Jurassic Park Raptors Just Misunderstood?,” “Which Movie Had the More Intense Opening: Face/Off or Finding Nemo?,” and “Who’s in the Perfect Movie Heist Crew?” It’s the most serious scholarship you’ll read about Letty all year.
Nine Stories by J.D. Salinger
Reading Nine Stories was my second exposure to the writing of J.D. Salinger I’ve had in my life. And I have to say? Intellectually worthwhile and a solid read, but it barely compares to The Catcher in the Rye. That’s a pretty perfect work of fiction, after all! It’d be like saying, “Well, ‘Enchanted’ is a pretty good Taylor Swift song, but it’s certainly no Evermore.” Anyway, I’m always a sucker for a short story collection and Salinger’s conception of what they could be was just unparalleled. If I had to pick a favorite, I’d probably go with “Down at the Dinghy.”
Nothing Like I Imagined by Mindy Kaling
Returning for her third collection of expository essays in 2021 was Mindy Kaling. Granted, we still don’t have the book she is allegedly writing with B.J. Novak about their friendship, but Nothing Like I Imagined is certainly a suitable hold-over while we all wait. Included are stories about a time someone tried to (maybe?) hijack Novak’s car, when she grapples with her connection to spirituality, when she way overshot what her fame meant to others, and how she could possibly hope to raise a child without her own mother to help her. It’s really a beautiful collection and I remain enamored with every piece of creative output Kaling has conjured.
On Earth We’re Briefly Gorgeous by Ocean Vuong
As you can see on the cover, On Earth We’re Briefly Gorgeous is “a novel.” But it’s so much more. It’s a story written in the form of a letter across language barriers between a Vietnamese mother and son, it’s a nonlinear narrative, it’s labeled as an “epistolary novel.” But these are merely ways to categorize it. All of the labels for On Earth We’re Briefly Gorgeous miss that it is a stunning assortment of soaring, debut prose and a touching treatise on a fractured, healing relationship. Ocean Vuong is a beautiful writer (and yes, I am slightly biased because I’ve had classes with Vuong at the helm of them).
One Man Against the World by Tim Weiner
I’m always a sucker for autobiographies that focus on one key element of the subject’s life, rather than hitting the usual beats of a life in a gamut. Birth to death will never be as fascinating to me as the ability to dive deep on a key, defining time period. I’m the same way with biopics! (Steve Jobs forever.) Tim Weiner’s tragic ballad for Richard Nixon, perhaps the most fascinating president, is a riveting read. Nixon’s story will never make complete sense to me, but One Man Against the World gets me the closest to understanding him. Because it never had to be him against everyone. His psychology dictated it, but it was never true.
The Taming of the Shrew by William Shakespeare
I try to read a new Shakespeare play every year and in 2021, I was able to finally read the foundation for one of my favorite movies (10 Things I Hate About You), The Taming of the Shrew. The mixy-matchy, sneaky-deaky comedy from the Bard is a totally fun romp and instantly one of my favorites from his collection of comedies. I was so into the play that it even convinced me to watch the movie, Kiss Me Kate, which is not good, but does derive its title from the aforementioned Shakespeare. Whenever a title comes from Shakespeare, I’m just hooked. Some of his sharpest writing is present here!
We Meet Them by Nicole Mello
It seems like there’s a new book from Nicole Mello, my sister, here on this list every year! This year, We Meet Them clocks in as a novella. But a more mysterious one, at that. I detected a flicker of Joyce Carol Oates in the plotting of We Meet Them, but the writing remains wholly theirs.
Yearbook by Seth Rogen
Comedy memoirs and essay collections from comedians are very consistent genres that work on me. This year, we were gifted with one from Seth Rogen, which contained stories about his early forays into the medium and stand-up, hilarious drug tales gone wrong, and the fascinating breakdown of what went wrong with the release of The Interview. There’s a clear voice from Rogen in the book and it’s a satisfying culmination for a man who’s been in a new phase of his career since 2017.
Zeitoun by Dave Eggers
Zeitoun was my first exposure to the writing of Dave Eggers and, man, it did not disappoint. As a book, it’s immaculately constructed and just impossible to believe. The journalistic nature and sheer implausibility reminded me of when I read Unbroken for the first time. Of course, at the heart of the book is a tragic story and another notch in the belt of the United States’ utter moral failure at every turn. But it is also met with hope for the individual and a reckoning at who’s actually making this planet a better place. Zeitoun is no easy read, but it’s tremendously worthwhile.
No two books on this list are the same. I mean, it’s already whiplash enough to go from Seth Rogen to Dave Eggers, never mind Anne Frank to Dave Chang or Shea Serrano to J.D. Salinger. But as always, the lists reveal to me that you just have to pursue what you like, no matter where it falls and no matter how it contrasts from the things you liked before. It makes for a varied year of reading, which is deserved because the world reflected by them is just as varied.
More from the Best of 2021 series:
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