My Top Books of 2021
Every year is a new reading adventure. This year, happily, was one of the best fiction-reading years I’ve had in a long time. I followed my heart a bit more than my head in choosing titles and ended up with some new favorites, as well as re-reading an old favorite that makes the list again as an honorable mention.
As always, my list is divided into fiction and non-fiction, with a special focus on writing books I enjoyed. I hope you’ll have fun with the list and perhaps pick up a few new favorites of your own!
Total books read: 48
Fiction to non-fiction ratio: 23:25
Top 5 genres: Romance (with 16 books), Personal Growth (with 10), Western (with 10), Fantasy (with 7), and History (with 4).
Number of books per rating: 5 stars (5), 4 stars (31), 3 stars (11), 2 stars (1), 1 star (0).
Writing Books1. Rereading by Patricia Meyer Spacks (read 5-7-21)
I may have to go really meta and re-read this book someday—it’s that good and thought-provoking. In what is really a literary memoir of sorts, Spacks reflects back on the 70+ years of her reading life with thoughtfulness, whimsy, and delightful jaunts into some of my own favorite classics. She inspired me to do a little rereading of my own this year.
2. Wild Mind by Natalie Goldberg (read 7-11-21)
Lots of inspiration in beautiful, bite-sized chapters. An insightful and honest look at the down and dirty of the daily writing life and all its many paradoxical challenges.
3. Writing Down the Bones by Natalie Goldberg (read 12-23-21)
Classic that it is, I didn’t like this one quite as much as Goldberg’s second book Wild Mind (above), perhaps because I read the other first. Still, Writing Down the Bones offers up its fair share of authorial soul-bearing and pithy snippets of advice for the loosing of the creative spirit.
4. The Artisan Soul by Erwin Raphael McManus (read 4-2-21)
Think of this as kind of a “lite” version of Julia Cameron’s The Artist’s Way. A quick, inspiring read from a faith-based perspective.
Fiction1. A Wizard of Earthsea by Ursula K. Le Guin (read 4-10-21)
Beyond wonderful. Where has this book been all my life? Such wonderful and effortless worldbuilding. Gorgeous prose. And the nuanced and symbolic depth of the narrative is fantasy as its best.
2. Piranesi by Susannah Clarke (read 10-29-21)
In this much-anticipated outing, Clarke does not disappoint. This is an extremely unique book, not quite like anything else I have ever read, and yet it is admirably solid, beautifully written, and poignantly thematic. Helmed by an eminently likable narrator, it is a book that is deeply memorable and full of food for thought.
3. Eyes of Silver, Eyes of Gold by Ellen O’Connell (read 11-6-21)
Hit all the buttons for both romance and western. The characters felt effortlessly real and dimensional, the plot always forward-moving without being contrived, and the Colorado setting drawn with a deft and familiar touch.
4. The Return of the King by J.R.R. Tolkien (read 2-4-21)
Predictably, this trilogy was an incredibly special experience. Such a powerful, archetypal, truthful story, told with such elegance and empathy. Truly a masterpiece in its complexity. It is easy to understand why it has many imitators but few if any equals.
5. The Midnight Library by Matt Haig (read 4-25-21)
It’s a Wonderful Life meets Groundhog Day. This is one of those books that does what books are supposed to do—pull you in again and again with the need to know “what’s gonna happen?” I started this book after abruptly quitting on a previous one that triggered my anxiety out of the blue. I almost quit this one too after realizing it was about yet another depressed millennial. But it grabbed me, and even if it’s a little on the nose here and there, it offered a pitch-perfect plot and character arc. It spoke encouraging truths to me, and I loved it.
Honorable Mention: The Night Circus by Erin Morgenstern (re-read 5-14-21)
This is an honorable mention only because this is the second time I read it (inspired by Patricia Meyer Spacks’s Rereading). I always say there’s no such thing as a perfect novel, but this one comes awfully close. If anything, I enjoyed it more on this second read. It is possibly the most visually evocative book I’ve ever read. Lush, gorgeous, colorful prose brings to life the titular circus as a phenomenally creative and unique story setting. So often I’m disappointed when stories claim “unique and magical” settings that awe their characters, when really, as a reader, they’re places I’ve already seen a hundred times. No so here. Morgenstern has created a spectacle of wonder and imagination that leaps right off the page. The mystery of the plot and the charming characters end up taking a bit of a backseat to the overall splendor of the descriptive prose, but they provide more than enough steam to power the story forward.
General Non-Fiction1. Romancing the Shadow by Connie Zweig and Steve Wolf (read 7-5-21)
A well-rounded look at many different aspects of shadow work (relationships, work, etc.), bolstered by many examples from the authors’ personal practices.
2. The Road Less Traveled by M. Scott Peck (read 12-2-21)
Rightfully a classic. Moving, eye-opening, challenging, and inspiring. Full of lots of seminal ideas about self-growth that are simultaneously demanding and benevolent.
3. Egypt: A Short History by Robert L. Tignor (read 2-15-21)
A brisk, articulate, and engrossing overview of the mammoth subject of Egyptian history.
4. The Wives of Henry VIII by Antonia Fraser (read 11-16-21)
Excellent, in-depth, entertaining exploration of a perennial topic. Fraser puts the focus not on Henry but on the women who made him (in)famous.
My BooksAnd if all these goodies aren’t enough to fill your To Be Read pile this year, here’s a few more! 
Wordplayers, tell me your opinion! What were your top books of 2021? How many books did you read? Tell me in the comments!The post My Top Books of 2021 appeared first on Helping Writers Become Authors.
