2021 was definitely a delightful years for writers and readers around the world....
BOOKSHELF
2021 was definitely a delightful years for writers and readers around the world. As the world began to enjoy some normalcy, writers picked up the pace and published books that touched hearts of readers and brought some positivity and hope to the world.
Here are some popular books of the year …
The Cousins by Karen M. McManus
In this multi-POV young adult thriller, Milly, Aubrey, and Jonah Story are cousins who barely know each other and have never met the grandmother who has just invited them to work at her island resort for the summer. Hoping for an opportunity to get back into their rich grandma’s good graces, they travel to the island and soon discover her plans for their stay are far different than they imagined.
Tokyo Ever After by Emiko Jean
In this charming romance that will remind readers of The Princess Diaries, Izumi is having a hard time fitting in with her mostly white town when she learns her father’s true identity as the Crown Prince of Japan. Flying across the world to discover the father she never knew and explore her new princess title, Izumi quickly learns that being a princess comes with heaps of traditions, jealous family members, and challenges from grappling with two identities.
The Secret to Superhuman Strength by Alison Bechdel
This graphic novel is a meditation on exercise and happiness that paints the Vermont cartoonist as a “neurotic wretch”, moving between sporting obsessions as relationships come and go. Karate, running, cycling, skiing and yoga all promise peace of mind, but it never lasts.
This gifted artist and exerciser comes to a soulful conclusion in the book. The secret to superhuman strength lies not in six-pack abs, but in something much less clearly defined: facing her own non-transcendent but all-important interdependence with others.
Notes on the Sonnets by Luke Kennard
In the Forward prize-winning Notes on the Sonnets, Luke Kennard takes Shakespeare to a house party you’d never want to attend. Through a cycle of anarchic, playful and despairing prose poems, he shows us the endless need we all have to connect: “If the dull substance of my thoughts were skin we’d walk along the skin-lined thoroughfare and pause under a fleshy, pulsating tree, I’d say, in all this hideous world you found me.” It’s a reminder of how poetry makes the world a touch less hideous.
Silverview by John le Carré
Having made his fortune, Julian Lawndsley has left the City to run a bookshop in East Anglia, where a meeting with an eccentric Polish émigré and former spy draws him into a web of intrigue. The cast of characters, including several husband-and-wife spy pairings, are compromised by secrets, loyalties and allegiances both professional and familial, and no one, least of all the Service itself, is innocent. Valedictory, with a final turn of events that ends surprisingly but pleasingly in a cock-up, this is a satisfying coda to the career of the finest thriller writer of the 20th century.
Esther’s Notebooks by Riad Sattouf
For something more wholesome, settle down with Esther’s Notebooks, in which cartoonist Riad Sattouf lays out a series of strips based on his friend’s daughter’s Paris schooldays. They’re not exactly escapist – racism and the spectre of terrorism intrude on the playground frighteningly early – but these three funny, insightful volumes, packed with phone envy, classroom politics and friendship, are a comic treat.
Summerwater by Sarah Moss
A creeping aura of disquiet pervades this quietly unsettling novel set in a cluster of cottages in rural Scotland. Lacking cell service, the families spend their days watching each other’s movements through the blinds, learning perhaps a little too much about the others. It’s a slow burn, but the payoff at the end will leave you breathless.
Firekeeper’s Daughter by Angeline Boulley
Winner of this year’s Goodreads Choice Award for Young Adult Fiction, Firekeeper’s Daughter introduces a compelling new heroine to the YA scene. As a biracial and unenrolled tribal member, 18-year-old Daunis Fontaine feels like an outsider both on and off the local Ojibwe reservation. But she soon finds a higher purpose when she witnesses a terrible murder—and decides to go undercover with her own investigation.
Girl A by Abigail Dean
After Lex escapes from an abusive childhood, she does her best to put it all behind her. But when her mother dies in prison and leaves their family home to her and her siblings, the woman formerly known as “Girl A” has to reconnect with the only people who really know what happened to them. This gripping story about family dynamics and the nature of human psychology will hold you tight all the way through.
No One Is Talking About This by Patricia Lockwood
This fragmented, genre-bending story about a woman who earns social media fame and wonders about what “the portal” is doing to society, her brain and the people who use it, feels both strange and intimately familiar. It’s bizarre, oddly funny, at times piercing and absolutely a must-read for all of us social media users.
Beautiful World, Where Are You by Sally Rooney
Rooney’s name needs no introduction, and neither does this book. In her typical fashion, it follows four people who feel like someone you might know and puts them in social and romantic entanglements that you’ll immediately invest in.
Compiled by S.G
