Books of 2021

It’s been a year hasn’t it? First we think we’re in the clear as vaccines roll out, summer comes and we’re enjoying the freedom of being outdoors, then fall hits with a new variant and it all feels like just too much. The isolation and minimal social contact has taken a toll on my mental well-being and I know the same is true for so many.

So I’m focusing on the positive and feeling grateful for the good friends I have, the love and energy I get from people I’m able to spend time with, and of course, for the good fortune to live in the mountains and breathe freely. Not to mention, good books, who like good friends can take me out of myself to worlds different from my own.

As I reflect on the year that was, I like to look back at my reading. Some were old favourites I came back to again, some were just old but new to me. Some were read for research purposes and some were recommended by fellow readers. Some were picked up and put back down. But always, they entertained, educated, inspired and lifted me up.

For some reason, I read more this year than I usually do. Maybe it was Covid, maybe not, but there were so many amazing books it was just impossible not to bury myself inside them. And kudos to the Canadians! There are some brilliant new home-grown writers we should all be paying attention to. Many of them are young emerging writers, and I’m excited to see where their careers take them.

Here are my picks for 2021:

Top 10 fiction
A Ladder to the Sky by John Boyne
The Certainties by Aislinn Hunter
The Things They Carried by Tim O’Brien
The Push by Ashley Audrain
Moon of the Crusted Snow by Waubgeshig Rice
How a Woman Becomes a Lake by Marjorie Celona
What Strange Paradise by Omar El Akkad
Astra by Cedar Bowers
August into Winter by Guy Vanderhaeghe
Fight Night by Miriam Toews

Top non-fiction
A Promised Land by Barack Obama
Group by Christie Tate

Top fictionalized stories based on true events
Mary Coin by Marisa Silver
The Mystery of Right & Wrong by Wayne Johnston
Em by Kim Thuy

Other reads
A Russian Sister by Caroline Adderson
Pleased to Meet You by Caroline Anderson
Every Step She Takes by K.L. Armstrong
Little Nothing by Marisa Silver
Love’s Executioner & Other Tales of Psychotherapy by Irvin D. Yalom
A Beckoning War by Matthew Murphy
The Forgotten Home Child by Genevieve Graham
The Looking Glass War by John Le Carre
The Grasshopper by Joseph Lothian
The Arms Maker of Berlin by Dan Fespermann
The Alphabet House by Jussi Adler-Olsen
The Pull of the Stars by Emma Donoghue
July, July by Tim O’Brien
In the Lake of the Woods by Tim O’Brien
How to Pronounce Knife by Souvankham Thammavongsa
A Most Ungentlemanly Way of War by Bernd Horn
Ridgerunner by Gil Adamson
Before the Crown by Flora Harding
The Miniaturist by Jessie Burton
The Girls Are All So Nice Here by Laurie Elizabeth Flynn
The End of the Affair by Graham Greene
Our Man in Havana by Graham Greene
No Relation by Terry Falls
No Other Life by Brian Moore
Indians on Vacation by Thomas King
Wow, No Thank You by Samantha Irby
Circling the Sun by Paula McLain
Love & Ruin by Paula McLain
When the Stars Go Dark by Paula McLain
Pilgrim at Tinker Creek by Annie Dillard
Peace Shall Destroy Many by Rudy Wiebe
The Book of Lost Names by Kristin Harmel
Saturday by Ian McEwan
The Child in Time by Ian McEwan
The Good Father by Wayne Grady
Y by Marjorie Celona
The Plot by Jean Hanff Korelitz
Recipe for a Perfect Wife by Karma Brown
West of Sunset by Stewart O’Nan
The Winter Wives by Linden MacIntyre
Notes on a Nervous Planet by Matt Haig
Normal People by Sally Rooney
Conversations with Friends by Sally Rooney
Beautiful World, Where Are You by Sally Rooney
The Son of the House by Cheluchi Onyemelukwe-Onuobia
Swimming Back to Trout River by Linda Rui Feng
Animal by Lisa Taddeo
The Lincoln Highway by Amor Towles
The Spectacular by Zoe Whittle
Project Renewment by Bernice Bratter & Helen Dennis
The Strangers by Katherine Vermette
The Break by Katherine Vermette
My Monticello by Jocelyn Nicole Johnson

Happy holidays my friends and thanks so much for allowing me to bring my reading & writing thoughts into your day. It’s an honour to share my passion for books with you and for keeping me connected to other readers like yourself.

​Take time for yourself, get all the vaccines you can, and most importantly, stay hopeful. Here’s to better days ahead. 
In the meantime, happy reading!
Joni