One of my 2021 New Year’s resolutions (or “goals,” as I like to call them) was to read more books and listen to more audiobooks. I didn’t have a specific number in mind, but I was hoping for at least five or so. Well, I’m super happy to report that I ended up reading/listening to 14 books. This may be a paltry number for some or a large number for others, but for me, it’s pretty great. I’ve slacked off on reading in the past years and it’s something that I really wanted to get back into the habit of doing in 2021.
While I took break from reading during my three month maternity leave, I learned that, for me, reading really begets reading. Once I finished a book, it was like I was in a cycle and I couldn’t wait to dive into another one!
Overall, I enjoyed many more books than I didn’t this year. I even gave six of the 14 books I read 5/5 stars!
Just to note – Like music, shows, food and so many other things, books are extremely subjective. We all have varying preferences and opinions, which means one person may love a book while another may loathe it. My reviews, or “quick takes” of the books listed below are simply my humble opinion.
Here are the 14 books I read in 2021, ranked:
14. Golden Gates: Fighting for Housing in America by Conor Dougherty
Rating: 2/5 stars
Memorable Quote/Passage: “Zoning says a lot about who we are and who we are becoming. At least at the local level, zoning is democracy, and democracy is zoning.”
Quick Take: Every now and then I like to choose a book that’s completely random/out of my wheelhouse. This book was definitely that. I chose it because I have a slight obsession with San Francisco and I was interested in learning about the housing crisis there. The only thing I really knew going into the book was that San Francisco has one of the highest costs of living in the U.S. The book was well researched and shed light on various residents and politicians alike, but it just didn’t pique my interest like I thought it might.
13. The Vanishing Half by Brit Bennett
Rating: 2/5 stars
Memorable Quote/Passage: “Her death hit in waves. Not a flood, but water lapping steadily at her ankles. You could drown in two inches of water. Maybe grief was the same.”
Quick Take: You know that little note/disclaimer I included in the intro to this post? Yeah, it was primarily due to not liking this book. It’s a book that is pretty much universally lauded, however I did not care for it. While there were parts that kept me wondering what was going to happen next, the ending was a huge let down and left me feeling totally disappointed.
12. We Were Liars by E. Lockhart
Rating: 2/5 stars
Memorable Quote/Passage: “Do not accept an evil you can change.”
Quick Take: Similar to The Vanishing Half, this book is highly praised, and I was into it until the ending. I must say, though, E. Lockhart is a terrific writer.
11. They Both Die At The End by Adam Silvera
Rating: 3/5 stars
Memorable Quote/Passage: “I’ve spent years living safely to secure a longer life, and look where that’s gotten me. I’m at the finish line but I never ran the race.”
Quick Take: Like We Were Liars, They Both Die At The End is in the Young Adult genre. However unlike the former, I very much enjoyed this one. I mean, could a title be any more intriguing?! I enjoyed the characters and found the story to be very riveting.
10. An Ugly Truth: Inside Facebook’s Battle for Domination by Cecilia Kang and Sheera Frenkel
Rating: 3/5 stars
Memorable Quote/Passage: “The root of the disinformation problem, of course, lay in the technology. Facebook was designed to throw gas on the fire of any speech that invoked an emotion, even if it was hateful speech—its algorithms favored sensationalism.”
Quick Take: I really enjoy reading tech and business books. I was especially looking forward to reading this Facebook exposé and it didn’t disappoint. The writers definitely did their homework as it’s chock full of explosive interviews and (disturbing) insider information about the social network behemoth.
9. No Filter: The Inside Story of Instagram by Sarah Frier
Rating: 3/5 stars
Memorable Quote/Passage: “The more you give up who you are to be liked by other people, it’s a formula for chipping away at your soul. You become a product of what everyone else wants, and not who you’re supposed to be.”
Quick Take: Instagram is one of my favorite social media apps, so I enjoyed reading about its founders, beginning and development. While there’s a part of me that thinks that selling Instagram to Facebook was a no-brainer business move, there’s another part of me that thinks they could have absolutely held their own against Facebook the way TikTok is now.
8. Flowers For Algernon by Daniel Keyes
Rating: 3/5 stars
Memorable Quote/Passage: “I don’t know what’s worse: to not know what you are and be happy, or to become what you’ve always wanted to be, and feel alone.”
Quick Take: I read this book in the ninth grade. I remembered the premise, but it was one I definitely wanted to re-read. The subject matter is extremely interesting and it’s simultaneously heartwarming and heart-wrenching. It lags in the middle for me, but overall, it’s a beautiful read.
7. The Midnight Library by Matt Haig
Rating: 4/5 stars
Memorable Quote/Passage: “It is easy to mourn the lives we aren’t living in. Easy to wish we would develop other talents, said yes to different offers. Easy to wish we would work harder, loved better, handled our finances more astutely, been more popular, stayed in the band, gone to Australia, said yes to the coffee or done more bloody yoga. It takes no effort to miss the friends we didn’t make and the work we didn’t do and the people we didn’t marry and the children we didn’t have. It is not difficult to see yourself through the lens of other people and to wish you were all the different kaleidoscopic versions of you they wanted you to be. It is easy to regret and keep regretting, ad infinitude until our time runs out. But it is not the lives we regret not living that are the real problem. It is regret itself. It’s the regret that makes us shrivel and wither and feel like our own and other peoples worst enemy. We. can’t tell if any of those other versions would have been better or worse. Those lives are happening, it is true, but you are happening as well, and that is the happening we have to focus on.”
Quick Take: This was a truly wonderful read. While it has a predictable ending, the message is top-tier. I kept thinking about this quote on longing and regret as I read the book: “Just because something could have been different doesn’t mean it would have been better.”
6. Maybe You Should Talk To Someone by Lori Gottlieb
Rating: 5/5 stars
Memorable Quote/Passage: “We can’t have change without loss, which is why so often people say they want change but nonetheless stay exactly the same.”
Quick Take: I LOVED this book and I would recommend it to everyone. The patients’ stories and the therapist’s own were all so very touching. Especially Julie’s. Julie’s had me absolutely sobbing. There’s a copious amount to learn about life, love, loss and more in this gem of a book.
5. Atomic Habits by James Clear
Rating: 5/5 stars
Memorable Quote/Passage: “Every action you take is a vote for the type of person you wish to become. No single instance will transform your beliefs, but as the votes build up, so does the evidence of your new identity.”
Quick Take: There’s a reason Atomic Habits has been on every ‘Best Seller’ chart for what seems like a gazillion years now. IT’S FANTASTIC. It seems people often say a non-fiction, self-help-type book could have just been a long article. What makes Atomic Habits so great is it gives proven and actionable steps for one to create and/or improve their daily habits – and ultimately transform their life. It’s a stellar guide and would also be a really great gift.
RELATED READING: Book Takeaways: ‘Atomic Habits’
4. A Knock At Midnight by Brittany K. Barnett
Rating: 5/5 stars
Memorable Quote/Passage: “Where does my greatest joy intersect with the world’s greatest need? Let me go there.”
Quick Take: This was the first book I read in 2021 and was the one that tugged on my heartstrings the most. It made me feel ALL the feelings – sadness, disbelief, outrage and so much more. Brittany Barnett is a living angel and the world needs more people like her.
3. Spark: The Revolutionary New Science of Exercise and the Brain by John J. Ratey
Rating: 5/5 stars
Memorable Quote/Passage: “What makes aerobic exercise so powerful is that it’s our evolutionary method of generating that spark. It lights a fire on every level of your brain, from stoking up the neurons’ metabolic furnaces to forging the very structures that transmit information from one synapse to the next.”
Quick Take: If I could choose just one genre of books to read for the rest of my life it would be books on health and wellness. I just love learning from doctors, scientists and experts about the human body and the latest innovations in health and wellness. The case studies in this book were extremely interesting – all demonstrating that the benefits of aerobic exercise reach far beyond the body.
Rating: 5/5 stars
Memorable Quote/Passage: “An education is not so much about making a living as making a person.”
Quick Take: I’m three years late to this book, as it was all the rage in 2018 winning alllll the awards. I can most definitely see why as it is OUTSTANDING. It’s probably my favorite memoir after When Breath Becomes Air.
And my number one favorite book I read in 2021 was…
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1. Man’s Search For Meaning by Viktor Frankl
Rating: 5/5 stars
Memorable Quote/Passage: “Everything can be taken from a man but one thing: the last of the human freedoms–to choose one’s attitude in any given set of circumstances, to choose one’s own way.”
Quick Take: Powerful. Moving. Insightful. It’s difficult to find the words for this sobering masterpiece. In short, this book is about finding meaning in great, great pain and suffering. This book had a profound impact on me and is one that I will absolutely reach for again and again.
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I would love to hear about your favorite book(s) you read this year. Leave a comment below letting me know!
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