Best Books of 2021: Top 10

A Novel

by Doerr, Anthony

Paperback - 2021

Doerr's first novel since 2014's beloved All the Light We Cannot See is an epic, page-turning suite of stories that span from ancient history into the fut...Show more Doerr's first novel since 2014's beloved All the Light We Cannot See is an epic, page-turning suite of stories that span from ancient history into the future. Where Doerr's previous novel had a child protagonist, his latest offers several. Anna is an orphan toiling away with her sister as an apprentice in late medieval Constantinople while a local village boy named Omeir is swept up into the Ottoman army. Konstance lives on a generation ship hurtling towards a habitable planet in the future. And Seymour is a troubled teenager in modern day Idaho inching towards an eco-terrorist assault near a public library. So what's with the strange title? All of the stories are connected to a fictional lost classic of ancient Greece, the surviving fragments of which have been lovingly translated by Zeno, an elderly gentleman who is organizing a children's theater production of the story in the library during Seymour's attack. Some storylines ultimately work better than others (the medieval storyline is especially fresh material and the spaceship story is genuinely suspenseful) but every storyline has its strengths and the book as a whole flies by, a real page-turner. Looking to get absolutely lost in a story the way you did as a child? This will likely do the trick. Doerr's love of books, libraries and pure storytelling shines through on every page of this novel that will appeal to fans of David Mitchell and Donna Tartt's The Goldfinch. Show less

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Crying in H Mart

A Memoir

by Zauner, Michelle

Paperback - 2021

Musician, director, and author Michelle Zauner has taken the literary year by storm and rightfully so. Crying in Hmart opens up with Zauner doing just th...Show more Musician, director, and author Michelle Zauner has taken the literary year by storm and rightfully so. Crying in Hmart opens up with Zauner doing just that- crying in an Hmart food court as she connects with the memories of her mother through the comfort of food. Zauner's mother, who died of cancer in 2014, expressed her love through food leaving Zauner with lasting memories. Indie music fans may also be familiar with Zauner as the leader of the band Japanese Breakfast, whose debut album Psychopomp also explores Zauner's grief. As part of her grieving process Zauner embraces her Korean heritage by learning more about familiar dishes and ingredients. One source Zauner takes great comfort in when learning to prepare her mother’s favorite dishes is the work of author and food blogger Maangchi. Maangchi's recipes are a great pairing with this book for those less familiar with Korean cooking and ingredients. At times heavy, at times light, and everything in between, this captivatingly layered memoir tackles pain and grief along with the comforts of cooking, music, and family. Show less

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Detransition, Baby

A Novel

by Peters, Torrey

Book - 2020

Peters's spirited comedy of manners, featuring two nuanced trans characters, is brimming with keen insight and compassion. It is a deeply satisfying book ...Show more Peters's spirited comedy of manners, featuring two nuanced trans characters, is brimming with keen insight and compassion. It is a deeply satisfying book that manages to be both extremely ambitious and very entertaining. Reese, a trans woman in her 30s, is contacted by her ex, Ames, formerly Amy, who lived as a trans woman while involved with Reese but detransItioned and is now living as a man. Ames identifies as trans but found the experience of living as a trans woman difficult. Ames has impregnated girlfriend Katrina, a cis woman, but feels uneasy parenting as a father. Ames suggests the situation might be more comfortable if Reese were in the parenting mix. Reese, unsurprisingly, finds the proposal ridiculous. While the reader waits for this all to unfold, and it does in amusing, beautiful and profound ways, the novel delves into the past lives of Ames and Reese, offering full and complex portraits of trans womanhood. Peters's novel is also a real pleasure: a gossipy, witty and well-plotted page-turner. Show less

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Empire of Pain

The Secret History of the Sackler Dynasty

by Keefe, Patrick Radden

Paperback - 2021

In his latest, journalist O'Keefe (Say Nothing) sets out to reveal how much the Sackler family, who owned Purdue Pharma, the company that made OxyContin a...Show more In his latest, journalist O'Keefe (Say Nothing) sets out to reveal how much the Sackler family, who owned Purdue Pharma, the company that made OxyContin and aggressively marketed the drug as a safe, nonaddictive pain medication, knew about its potential for abuse and addiction. A sweeping and damaging portrait of a family, O'Keefe's book opens with the story of Arthur Sackler, the patriarch of the Sackler dynasty, and his brothers Raymond and Mortimer. Arthur, a doctor who found his way into the marketing industry, went on to lead a successful marketing campaign for Valium. The family bought a pharmaceutical company which would become Purdue Pharma, which produced the blockbuster pain medication OxyContin. The Sacklers would also become famous for their philanthropy, including Sackler-named wings in the Metropolitan Museum of Art and the Louvre and university buildings, including Harvard and Oxford. The Sacklers' stunning wealth came from the sale of OxyContin, which generated $35 billion in profits, all while the family dodged and denied responsibility for the unfolding opioid crisis devastating families and communities across the country. O'Keefe presents compelling evidence that the family members involved in the company were very aware of the drug's role in the crisis but cared more about profits. Empire of Pain is a page-turning exposé that's well-researched, absorbing and so thoroughly incriminating it will leave readers stunned. Show less

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The Five Wounds

A Novel

by Quade, Kirstin Valdez

Book - 2021

33-year-old Amadeo is a neglectful father to his pregnant teenage daughter, an inconsiderate son to his loving mother, with whom he lives, and a disappoin...Show more 33-year-old Amadeo is a neglectful father to his pregnant teenage daughter, an inconsiderate son to his loving mother, with whom he lives, and a disappointment to his great uncle, who cast him as Jesus for Holy Week, in spite of his fondness for alcohol. In other words, he's not a terribly sympathetic protagonist, particularly in contrast to his endearing daughter and stalwart mother, who are also major characters. But halfway through this hopeful, multi-generational novel set in New Mexico, through Quade's empathetic alchemy, you start rooting for Amadeo to stop drinking and to be a better father and son in this challenging year of his family's life. A richly imagined novel about forgiveness, community, redemption and love - particularly parental love - The Five Wounds offers many pleasures, including fresh, vivid writing. (On Amadeo's grandson: "He seizes his grandfather's hand and shakes it, squawking with loopy joy.") For fans of Elizabeth Strout, Jeffrey Eugenides and Anne Tyler. Show less

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Harlem Shuffle

by Whitehead, Colson

Book - 2021

Whitehead continues to astonish with his range, delivering yet another excellent novel that's dramatically different from his previous work. Here Ray Carn...Show more Whitehead continues to astonish with his range, delivering yet another excellent novel that's dramatically different from his previous work. Here Ray Carney is a self-made family man in late-50s Harlem with one foot in the straight world as a businessman running a small furniture store and one foot in crime. He's worked hard to escape the shadow of his late father's criminal legacy but he dabbles in low-key fencing to help make ends meet. Then his no-good cousin Freddie talks him into a lucrative role in a heist. Carney's in-laws live on Striver's Row and make little effort to hide their opinion that he's unworthy of their daughter, and Carney is on the lookout for every opportunity to improve his family's fortunes, so Freddie's offer proves irresistible. Whitehead's eye for mid-century New York City is impeccable, evoking the time and place with vivid detail from the Hotel Theresa's glory days to the Harlem riots of 1964 to the secret history of Mount Morris Park (now named Marcus Garvey Park). This is top-notch historical fiction, as well as being sophisticated crime fiction with a high caliber of characterization. Fans of James McBride's Deacon King Kong, S. A. Cosby's Blacktop Wasteland and those eager for a fresh perspective on heist fiction won't want to miss it. Show less

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A Little Devil in America

Notes in Praise of Black Performance

by Abdurraqib, Hanif

Book - 2021

One of the preeminent music writers of his generation, Abdurraqib focuses on the rich legacy of Black American performance in his latest book which stretc...Show more One of the preeminent music writers of his generation, Abdurraqib focuses on the rich legacy of Black American performance in his latest book which stretches to encompass the work of comedians, dancers, magicians and film and TV performers, though music remains at the center of his attention. There are insightful essays here on figures you'll recognize from one name such as Aretha, Michael, Whitney, Beyoncé, as well as memorable pieces on Josephine Baker, blackface, the history of marathon dancing, and a Soul Train appreciation that is likely to inspire some joyful YouTube browsing. These essays, laced with autobiographical material that spark a vibrant personal connection to his subjects, also bear traces of the turbulent years in which they were composed, addressing political questions of race, identity and history with acuity. Fans of the author's podcasts, books and journalism will be delighted and rewarded. Show less

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The Love Songs of W.E.B. Du Bois

A Novel

by Jeffers, Honorée Fanonne

Paperback - 2021

Honorée Fanonne Jeffers's debut novel explores themes of caste, color, education, love, abuse, betrayal, and hope for a family. This is a very long book, ...Show more Honorée Fanonne Jeffers's debut novel explores themes of caste, color, education, love, abuse, betrayal, and hope for a family. This is a very long book, but as you're reading it, you want to tell the protagonists to take their time; to get the story, history, right. You want to know everything, but you're told in subtle details that some things have been withheld. This intergenerational novel goes back and forth in time, giving the reader a bit of a history on family, lineage, roots and is broken up by song/sections. There are a lot of characters in this novel, but one protagonist Ailey Garfield stands out as the youngest in her family. Ailey is a young Black girl who grew up in the North but spends her summers with her maternal family in Chickasetta, Georgia. As the novel progresses, we grow with Ailey, experience her heartbreak, and carry the burden of her family secrets. Ailey has a closer connection to her maternal family, her ancestors, and is lucky enough to have living relatives to aid her. We meet and fall in love with her Uncle Root and listen to his tales of meeting the scholar W.E.B. Du Bois. This novel will surely surprise you. It will make you feel every emotion and at times you might feel exhausted, but it's a wonderful tale to experience. Show less

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Matrix

by Groff, Lauren

Book - 2021

Set in 12th-century Europe, Matrix was inspired by Marie de France, the first known female French poet. There is very little known about Marie de France, ...Show more Set in 12th-century Europe, Matrix was inspired by Marie de France, the first known female French poet. There is very little known about Marie de France, but Groff has constructed a vivid and sensual novel of what her life may have been. Eleanor of Aquitaine has thrown the teenage Marie out of court and installed her in an impoverished English abbey with a handful of nuns. The shrewd and ambitious Marie slowly begins to transform the dire place into something formidable and flourishing, first by collecting unpaid rents and later, after years as its abbess, by constructing an impenetrable labyrinth around the convent. Centered on women's power, creativity and desire in an unlikely time and place, Groff's historical novel is captivating. Fans of Madeline Miller's Circe will find much to admire in Matrix. Show less

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The Sentence

A Novel

by Erdrich, Louise

Book - 2021

Erdrich's The Sentence opens with a macabre scene. Tookie, an Ojibwe woman, is tricked into transporting a dead body and crack cocaine across state lines ...Show more Erdrich's The Sentence opens with a macabre scene. Tookie, an Ojibwe woman, is tricked into transporting a dead body and crack cocaine across state lines and sentenced to prison. When she's released, Tookie gets a job at a Minneapolis bookstore – she developed a reading habit in prison – and marries the tribal police officer, Pollux, who arrested her for the crime. The couple is living a quiet life when Tookie's place of work becomes haunted by her most annoying customer, Flora, an elderly white women and "wannabe" indigene. The bookstore ghost isn't the only haunting Tookie has to endure, however. She is also haunted by her own past and the past of Indigenous Americans. Set during the onset of the COVID pandemic and the killing of George Floyd, Erdrich's timely story is also a moving account of recent, difficult history and collective grief featuring a cast of captivating characters, including Louise Erdrich herself, and an empathetic and authentic protagonist. Show less

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