Reading Envy 236: Best Reads of 2021

Jenny asked previous podcast guests to chat about their top reads of the year, whether or not they were published in 2021. Jenny also chimes in with her own obscure categories. Please enjoy hearing from Tina, Tom, Lindy, Trish, Andrew, Kim, Jeff, Elizabeth, Audrey, Scott, Robin, Mina, Emily, Chris, Nadine, and Ross.

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Reading Envy 236: Best Reads of 2021

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Books discussed:

(duplicates removed)

Four Hundred Souls: A Community History of African America, 1619-2019 edited by Ibram x. Kendo and Keisha N. Blaine
Broken Horses written and read by Brandi Carlile
Several People are Typing by Calvin Kasulke
When the Light of the World was Subdued edited by Joy Harjo
Braiding Sweetgrass by Robin Wall Kimmerer
The Murderbot Diaries series by Martha Wells
Xeni by Rebekah Weatherspoon
Act Your Age, Eve Brown by Talia Hibbert
The Love Hypothesis by Ali Hazelwood
American Dreamer by Adriana Herrera, narrated by Sean Christen
Fight Night by Miriam Toews
Nervous Conditions trilogy by Tsitsi Dangarembga
The Secret Lives of Church Ladies by Deeshaw Philyaw, read by Janina Edwards
Exhalation: Stories by Ted Chiang
Seasonal Quartet by Ali Smith
How to Be Both by Ali Smith
MaddAddam trilogy by Margaret Atwood
Barkskins by Annie Proulx
Signs for Lost Children by Sarah Moss
Tidal Zone by Sarah Moss
Ladivine by Marie Ndiaye
To Cook a Bear by Mikael Niemi
Kindred by Octavia Butler
The Heart’s Invisible Furies by John Boyne
The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue by V.E. Schwab
Mexican Gothic by Sylvia Moreno-Garcia
Summer Sons by Lee Mandelo 

Project Hail Mary by Andy Weir
Hidden Wyndham: Life, Love, Letters by Amy Binns
Chasing New Horizons: Inside the Epic First Mission to Pluto by Alan Stern and David Grinspoon
Dune by Frank Herbert
One Long River of Song by Bryan Doyle
Ink Knows No Borders: Poems of the Immigrant and Refugee Experience edited by Patrice Vecchione and Alyssa Raymond
Razorblade Tears by S.A. Cosby
Blacktop Wasteland by S.A. Cosby
Sparrow Envy by J. Drew Lanham
Home is not a Country by Safia Elhillo
Moon of the Crusted Snow by Waubgeshig Rice
Cutting for Stone by Abraham Verghese
Wretchedness by Andrzej Tichy
The Twilight Zone by Nona Fernandez
Peach Blossom Paradise by Ge Fei
The Love Songs of W.E.B. DuBois by Honoree Jeffers
Summer Brother by Jaap Robben; translateld by David Doherty
Njal’s Saga by Anonymous
Brood by Jackie Pollen
Nobody Ever Talks About Anything But the End: A Memoir by Lizi Levine
Nancy by Bruno Lloret; translated by Ellen Jones
Shadow King by Maaza Mengiste
Shuggie Bain by Douglas Stuart
The Overstory by Richard Powers
Cloud Cuckoo Land by Anthony Doerr
City of Brass by S.A. Chakraborty
The Actual Star by Monica Byrne
Bewilderment by Richard Powers
The Galaxy and the Ground Within by Becky Chambers
A Psalm for the Wild Built by Becky Chambers  
O Beautiful by Jung Yun
While Justice Sleeps by Stacey Abrams, narrated by Adenrele Ojo
Shelter by Jung Yun
My Dark Vanessa by Kate Elizabeth Russell
Love and Saffron
 by Kim Fay
Shadow Life by Hiromi Goto and Ann Xu
Wake: The Hidden History of Women-Led Slave Revolts by Rebecca Hall and Hugo Martinez
The Chosen and the Beautiful by Nghi Vo
The Seed Keeper by Diane Wilson
Open Water by Caleb Azumah Nelson
Great Circle by Maggie Shipstead
Telephone by Percival Everett
When We Cease to Understand the World by Benjamín Labatut; translated by Adrian West; read by Adam Barr
To Calais in Ordinary Time by James Meek
The Anarchy: The East India Company, Corporate Violence, and the Pillage of an Empire by William Dalrymple
A Spare Life by Lidija Dimkovska, translated by Christina E. Kramer
Mud Sweeter than Honey: Voices of Communist Albania by Margo Rejmer, translated by Antonio Lloyd-Jones
Sovietistan: Travels in Turkmenistan, Kazakhstan, Tajikistan, Kyrgyzstan, and Uzbekistan by Erika Flatland, translated by Kari Dickson

Related episodes: 

Episode 046 - Books for Your Kitty Party (The Best of 2015) with Libby Young and many other guests
Episode 075 - After the Year We've Had (Best of 2016)
Episode 105 - Best Reads of 2017
Episode 139 - Stocking Stuffer (Best Reads of 2018)
Episode 176 - Best of 2019
Episode 209 - Best Reads of 2020
Episode 210 - Reading Goals 2021

Stalk me online:

Jenny at Goodreads
Jenny on Twitter
Jenny is @readingenvy on Instagram and Litsy


All links to books are through Bookshop.org, where I am an affiliate. I wanted more money to go to the actual publishers and authors. I link to Amazon when a book is not listed with Bookshop.