Best and worst reading of 2021

[charlatti]

What were the best books you read this year? What were your least favorites?

(We have not done this already, right? I don’t remember a thread.)

[abs]

2021 was such a blah year of reading for me. I didn't read anything truly spectacular.

Highest ranked on Goodreads:
The Guncle
Meet Me in Paradise
Just Haven't Met You Yet
The House in the Cerulean Sea
The Night She Disappeared
Local Woman Missing

Lowest:
While We Were Dating
People We Meet on Vacation
Twice Shy
The Midnight Library

I had a bunch of DNF's, too.

[charlatti]

I had some good stuff this year.

Best:
Labyrinth of Ice by Buddy Levy
Greenwood by Michael Christie
The Arsonist’s City by Hala Alyan
Great Circle by Maggie Shipstead
Godspeed by Nickolas Butler
The Final Revival of Opal and Nev by Dawnie Watson
Pachinko by Min Jin Lee

Disliked:
The Children’s Blizzard by Melanie Benjamin
A Special Place for Women by Laura Hankin
The Night Swim by Megan Goldin
The End of Men by Christina Sweeney-Baird
(I have more low-star books, but these are the ones I remember well enough to know why I disliked them. The others were easily forgettable.)

[abs]

charlatti A Special place for Women was a DNF for me.

[charlatti]

Dec 28, 2021 9:59:17 GMT -5 abs said:

charlatti A Special place for Women was a DNF for me.

You were better off! I think it needed a better description — it is cutesy chick lit, which has its place, but I went in expecting thoughtful social commentary. It was definitely not that.

[meowmaps]

Best:

Group: How One Therapist and a Group of Strangers Saved My Life by Christie Tate
The House in the Cerulean Sea by T.J. Klune
Somebody’s Daughter by Ashley C. Ford
Migrations by Charlotte McConaghy
Intimacies by Katie Kitamura
Once There Were Wolves by Charlotte McConaghy
Everyone in This Room Will Someday Be Dead by Emily R. Austin
This Will All Be Over Soon by Cecily Strong
Between Two Kingdoms by Suleika Jaouad

Most Disappointing:

The Book of Rosy by Rosayra Pablo Cruz
Confessions on the 7:45 by Lisa Unger
Outlawed by Anna North
The Wife Upstairs by Rachel Hawkins
Firekeeper’s Daughter by Angeline Boulley
The Therapist by B.A. Paris
Dial A for Aunties by Jesse Q. Sutanto
Animal by Lisa Taddeo

I read a lot of really good books in between but I can’t type one-handed anymore.

[mrspez07]

Best (5*):
The Trespasser by Tana French
The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue By VE Schwab
The Rose Code by Kate Quinn
The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins
Code Name Helene by Ariel Lawhon
The Once and Future Witches by Alix E Harrow

Worst (2*):
Small Fry by Lisa Brennan-Jobs (audio)
The Glass Hotel by Emily St John Mandel
The Witness by Nora Roberts
Skin Tight by Karl Hiaassen

I read a lot of 3* books this year

[litskispeciality]

Best:

Followers by Megan Angelo
When Life Gives you Luluemons by Lauren Weisberger
The Perfect Ruin by Shanora Williams
U/O The Night Swim by Megan Goldin (however the end was pretty meh)

Worst:
A Reliable Wife
U/O Firefly Lane
Nine Perfect Strangers

I actually hit goal of 24.5 (I don't count a R.L Stein Fear Street book as a whole book, maybe I should?) and if I can stay focused I might be able to finish one final Kindle book for 25.5. I've never hit goal of 24/year so I'm super excited.

*edit U/O is unpopular opinion

[litskispeciality]

meowmaps, I didn't like The Wife Upstairs when I read it a year or two ago. Almost DNF. Not sure if it's just to close to girl on a train/boat whatever, but it was overrated.

[tacokick]

I am sure I am missing some. I think I’m going to hit at least 260 books read this year.


These are books I didn’t like but finished out of morbid curiosity or because they were quick and I didn’t realize they weren’t going to improve so just finished them:


YUCK LIST:


Black Widows by Cate Quinn

Fly Away by Kristin Hannah

Little Cruelties by Liz Nugent

We Came, We Saw, We Left: A Family Gap Year by Charles Wheelan

Other People's Children by R.J. Hoffman

Mergers and Acquisitions: Or, Everything I Know About Love I Learned on the Wedding Pages by
Cate Doty

Dream Girl by Laura Lippman

Model AND Nowhere Girl by Cheryl Diamond (I am convinced this woman is a con artist)

The Night We Burned by S.F. Kosa

Luckiest Girl Alive by Jessica Knoll

The Last Guest by Tess Little

Survive the Night by Riley Sager

Good Apple: Tales of a Southern Evangelical in New York by Elizabeth Passarella

The Final Girl Support Group by Grady Hendrix


FAVES:


Forever Young by Hayley Mills

Don't Let It Get You Down: Essays on Race, Gender, and the Body by Savala Nolan

The World Cannot Give by Tara Isabella Burton

The Very Nice Box by Laura Blackett and Eve Gleichman (except the end was meh)

The Thirteenth Cat by Mary Downing Hahn

Fault Lines by Emily Itami

Agatha of Little Neon by Claire Luchette

White Smoke by Tiffany D. Jackson (end was meh)

When All the Girls are Sleeping by Emily Arsenault

Reckless Girls by Rachel Hawkins (I hated her other book and didn’t finish it but really liked this one!)


A Double Life by Flynn Berry

Mirrorland by Carole Johnstone


Yolk by Mary HK Choi

The Trespasser by Tana French

[dontlook]

I’m at 59 books and will hit 60 by the end of the year. The goal was 52. I thought I had a rough reading year but I enjoyed quite a few.

Favorite: ***indicates a top read
- A black women’s history of the United States
- The Four Winds
- Hidden Valley Road
- Caste
- The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue***
- Hench***
- Unfollow: A memoir of loving and leaving westboro baptist church
- Scythe trilogy (3rd book was a little disappointing)
- The house on the cerulean sea***
- This Tender land ***
- Nothing to see here
- Project Hail Mary
- Later
- Black Buck
- Under the whispering door
- love and other words
- Replay***


Not Great: I quit reading most of the books I don’t like apparently because I don’t have too many I didn’t like.
- The guest list
- The wrong family
- The patient

[travella]

Best Books of the Year
Between Shades of Gray by Ruta Septeys
The Day the World Came to Town: 9/11 in Gander, Newfoundland by Jim DeFede
Address Unknown by Katherine Taylor
Forest of Vanishing Stars by Kristin Harmel
The Paris Library by Janet Charles
A Fine Balance by Rohinton Mistry
The Nature of Fragile Things by Susan Meissner



Worst Books of the Year (1*/DNF)
The Santa Suit by Mary Kay Andrews
The 7 1/2 Deaths of Evelyn Hardcastle by Stuart Turton
Survive the Night by Riley Sager
Miss Graham's Cold War Cookbook by Celia Rees
The Light of Days: The Untold Story of Women Resistance Fighters in Hitler's Ghettos by Judy Batalion
The Children's Blizzard by Melanie Benjamin
Great Plains by Ian Frazier

[ssmjlm]

I’m at 85, goal was 100.

I had a lot of DNFs, 13 this year. So many bad books out there that desperately need an editor.

Best:
Forever Never by Lucy Score
Second First Impressions by Sally Thorne
The Soulmate Equation by Christina Lauren
The Perfect Catch by Meghan Quinn
Games We Play by Dana Isaly
The Suite Spot by Trish Doller

Worst (2 stars and below):
Verity by Colleen Hoover
The Villain by LJ Shen
Finlay Donovan is Killing It by Elle Cosimano
The Road Trip by Beth O’Leary
The Last Thing He Told me by Laura Dave
The Therapist by BA Paris
Wild at Heart by KA Tucker
People We Meet on Vacation by Emily Henry
The Spanish Love Deception by Elena Armas

[estrellita]

I read 31 books, which was 5 short of my goal, but I got into a major reading slump toward the end of the year!

Favorites (5*)
Outlawed
The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue
The Four Winds
Uprooted
Where the Crawdads Sing
The People We Keep
Project Hail Mary

Least favorite (3*)
Ready Player Two
Unf*ck Your Brain
All the Ugly and Wonderful Things
Anna K Away
Libertie
The Book Woman of Troublesome Creek
The Sweetest Remedy

[Vespasia]

I'm late to this because I didn't feel like typing it all out on my phone. I actually didn't base this on star ratings but rather the books that stuck with me. While reviewing my read list, I was very tempted to change some of my original ratings. 


Best of 2021:
Hench by Natalie Zina Walschots
Ariadne by Jennifer Saint
Girl at War by Sara Novic
A Children's Bible by Lydia Millet
The Rose Code by Kate Quinn
Certain Dark Things by Silvia Moreno-Garcia

Worst Books of 2021:
Survive the Night by Riley Sager
Something in the Water by Catherine Steadman

Other Disappointing Books:
House on the Cerulean Sea + The Midnight Library (just not my type)
Once There Were Wolves (DNF - too depressing)
Velvet was the Night by Silvia Moreno-Garcia
The Mystery of Mrs. Christie by Marie Benedict

[ufcasey]

This is one of my favorite threads of the year and I forgot to reply to it! I read 138 books in 2021 and here are my top 20 favorites, broken down by genre:


Top Classic:
Address Unknown by Katherine Kressmann Taylor

Top Fantasy/Sci-Fi:
Rhythm of War by Brandon Sanderson (4th in a series)
The 22 Murders of Madison May by Max Berry

Top General Fiction:
We Are the Brennans by Tracey Lange
The Paper Palace by Miranda Cowley Heller
The Final Revival of Opal & Nev by Dawnie Walton

Top Historical Fiction:
Malibu Rising by Taylor Jenkins Reid
The Vanishing Half by Brit Bennett
The Rose Code by Kate Quinn
The Vanished Days by Susanna Kearsley

Top Mystery/Thriller/Suspense:
A Great Reckoning by Louise Penny (12th in a series)
The Night She Disappeared by Lisa Jewell
Confessions on the 7:45 by Lisa Unger

Top Non-Fiction:
She Come By It Natural: Dolly Parton by Sarah Smarsh
Becoming Superman: A Writer's Journey by Michael J. Straczynski
Into the Forest: A Holocaust Story by Rebecca Frankel

Top Romance:
Act Your Age, Eve Brown by Talia Hibbert (contemporary)
The Soulmate Equation by Christina Lauren (contemporary)
Dark Horse by Michelle Diener (sci-fi)
Gild by Raven Kennedy (fantasy)