My reading year was definitely mixed. Between the pandemic, two kids going through the college application process, complicated job dynamics and no beach vacation, my reading came in fits and spurts, with some dry spells mixed in. I haven’t been in the car as much either, which means less audiobook time. I had some great successes with books I couldn’t put down, but I also found myself mired in books that seemed to take weeks to finish. I found it more important than ever to just follow my mood and let it take me where it did. All in all, I am pretty happy with the year, given all the distractions and intense mood changes.
I missed my goal of 70 books, finishing 62 in total. I did complete the 2021 Everyday I Write The Book Blog Reading Challenge with my final book of the year, Gretchen Berg’s The Operator (which satisfied the Pick A Book, Any Book category).
Here are my 2021 reading stats:
Books finished: 62
Fiction: 48 (77%)
Non-fiction: 14 (23%), including 6 memoirs
Authors of color: 9 (14%)
Male/Female authors: 50 female (80%), 12 male (20%)
Audiobooks: 17 (27%), plus 5 audio/print combos
Average rating: 3.75
Repeat authors: 12 (19%) – Laura Dave, Cynthia D’Aprix-Sweeney, Jennifer Weiner, Taylor Jenkins-Reid, Dana Spiotta, Katherine Heiny, Joyce Maynard, J. Courtney Sullivan, Lionel Shriver, Kate Ascher and Matthew Norman.
My resolutions for 2022 are literally the same ones I had last year: to read more BIPOC authors; to break 70 books for the first time; to plow through a lot of of the backlist books at home; and to continue to be respectful of and responsive to my reading moods. Some things never change.
Here are a few superlatives for the year:
Best Books of 2021:
Good Morning Monster, Catherine Gildiner
My Dark Vanessa, Kate Elizabeth Russell
What Comes After by Joanne Tompkins
The Nine Lives Of Rose Napolitano by Donna Freitas
What Could Be Saved, Liese O’Halloran Schwarz
The Plot, Jeanne Hanff Korelitz
Count The Ways, Joyce Maynard
Should We Stay Or Should We Go, Lionel Shriver
Best Audiobooks:
The Secret Lives of Church Ladies, Deesha Philyaw
A Very Punchable Face, Colin Jost
Brat: An 80s Story by Andrew McCarthy
The Plot, Jeanne Hanff Korelitz
Should We Stay Or Should We Go, Lionel Shriver
Books I Could Not Put Down:
The Push, Audrey Audrain
Too Good To Be True, Carola Lovering
The Paper Palace, Miranda Cowley Heller
The Idea Of You, Robinne Lee
The Plot, Jeanne Hanff Korelitz
Count The Ways, Joyce Maynard
Should We Stay Or Should We Go, Lionel Shriver
Books That Surprised Me:
That Summer by Jennifer Weiner
The Idea Of You, Robinne Lee
Best Memoirs:
Good Morning Monster, Catherine Gildiner
A Very Punchable Face, Colin Jost
Brat: An 80s Story by Andrew McCarthy
Most Overhyped Books:
Malibu Rising, Taylor Jenkins-Reid
The People We Keep, Allison Larkin
The Other Black Girl, Zakiya Dalila Harris
Thank you so much for following this blog! I hope that you all have a healthy, happy 2022, with lots of time for reading.
