One of my goals for 2021 was to get back into reading. It's strange to me how reading used to be such a regular part of my life and an activity I defined my identity by back when. But mid-way through my twenties the punishing reading schedule of law school combined with the siren song of television stamped out any appetite I had for recreational reading.
But in actuality, my mom had resolved to become "a reader" (although her delineation did puzzle me, since I have always considered my mom to be a reader) and in sharing her Audible password with me, she opened the door for many mini book discussions on my weekends home. Then, my sisters plus an honorary sister successfully launched a more formal book discussion group, which has successfully selected three titles in 2021. We are getting it done the way that works for us.
For attribution purposes, many of these titles were recommended by the Modern Mrs. Darcy book club; this is not my own curation.
It has been life-enriching to be consuming books again. Many selections have assisted me in considering certain topics anew. The Cold Millions, for example, read just before the George Floyd protests broke out, forced me to reexamine the role of direct action and peaceful protest. Codependent No More gifted me so much wisdom about why I struggle in certain ways in certain relationships. I listened to Americanah while I worked on a Nigerian asylum case and I listened to Sparks Like Stars while Kabbul fell to the Taliban.
I noticed when reviewing the ground I had covered this year was how each title evoked memories from when I had been reading that book. Even though the vast majority were consumed while driving, I remember those trips: stopping for Chick-fil-A in Virginia while listening to The Silver Chair; getting a speeding ticket in Roscoe while listening to The Other Black Girl; blushing through Beach Read on a flight back from Mexico; hunting for the Mercer Williams House in Savannah before starting Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil. Usually my memories feel very slippery to me, but sharing these books with other people (Peter, my mom, our book discussion group, our travel companions) has helped me hang onto not only the stories themselves, but also the slices of life that was happening while I encountered these stories.
This is the full list of books I finished in 2021:
- Station Eleven by Emily Mandel
- Killers of the Flower Moon by David Grann
- Silver Sparrow by Tayari Jones
- The Jane Austen Society by Natalie Jenner
- I'll Be Seeing You by Elizabeth Berg
- The Poet X by Elizabeth Acevedo
- The Great Sex Rescue by Sheila Wrap Gregorie
- The Cold Millions by Jess Walter
- This Tender Land by William Kent Krueger
- The Silver Chair by C.S. Lewis
- The Downstairs Girl by Stacey Lee
- The Making of Biblical Womanhood by Beth Allison Barr
- Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil by John Berendt
- Writers & Lovers by Lily King
- People We Meet on Vacation by Emily Henry
- Dream Big by Bob Goff
- Americanah by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie
- Liturgy of the Ordinary by Tish Harrison Warren
- Sparks Like Stars by Nadia Hashimi
- The Other Black Girl by Zakiya Dalila Harris
- The River by Peter Heller
- Out of the Pocket by Kirk Herbstreit
- The Handmaid's Tale by Margaret Atwood
- The Good House by Ann Leary
- Beach Read by Emily Henry
- Parable of the Sower by Octavia Butler
- It's Better to Be Feared by Seth Wickersham
- Evicted by Matthew Desmond
- Codependent No More by Melody Beattie
- The Last Watchman of Old Cairo by Michael David Lucas
