Friends, I know this might seem like late in 2022 to be looking back at the best of 2021, but our episode on our favorite things of 2021 just dropped, and I needed some time to reflect on what I truly loved and hated about my reading in 2021. I love that for the first time I read 100 books, which beat my highest ever record of last year’s 75 books. I know that still doesn’t seem like a lot to many, but for me, a person who is a self-proclaimed slow reader, I feel pretty great about it. The pandemic has been good to my reading life.

But that doesn’t mean all the books I read this year were great. So here I give you my top 10 favorite books I read in 2021, and then we’ll end with my least favorite books of 2021 (since that’s what y’all are all here for anyway).

My Top 10 Favorite Books of 2021

10. For Your Own Good by Samantha Downing — I’ve been recommending this one to a lot of people. My sales pitch is that this book is like Tom Perotta’s Election if Election was a thriller. I don’t think thrillers need to have a bunch of twists and turns to be good, and often books can be ruined by stupid twists, but the twists in this book were actually surprising, appropriately wild, and just fun. I love a dark academia novel from the perspective of a jaded teacher, too. This was just a wonderful mix of humor and thrills that I think a lot of people will enjoy.

9. All’s Well by Mona Awad — Here’s another dark academia novel from the perspective of a teacher. Miranda Fitch is a drama teacher who is directing the school play of (you guessed it) All’s Well that Ends Well. But her students don’t respect her, and they’re trying to stage a version of Macbeth instead. Miranda is also dealing with chronic pain stemming from the accident that ended her acting career. But then she meets three strangers in a bar, and her luck changes. This book was so strange and it includes just a bit of magic and also we love the Shakespeare reference. PLEASE READ IT!

8. Earthlings by Sayaka Murata — I won’t spend too much time on this one, because we did a whole podcast episode about it. But I will say this: For Your Own Good is a book that I think will be good for a lot of readers. All’s Well is weird and won’t be for everyone, but I still feel confident recommending it to most people. Earthlings? Yeah, this is going to be too weird for most people, but damn it worked for me. I loved this.

7. Of Women and Salt by Gabriela Garcia — This is a book I read for a work book club, and I was unsure about it going into it. This is a sweeping generational story that starts in a 19th-century cigar factory in Cuba and goes all the way to present-day detention centers in the United States. And it’s only 207 pages. How? How can someone write about so much in so few pages? Well this book does it, friends. And it’s beautifully written. I cried. This is another one that I think everyone should put on their to-read lists, even if sweeping family sagas aren’t normally your thing.

6. Such a Fun Age by Kiley Reid — I feel like I’m likely the last person on earth to read this one, so this book probably needs no introduction. This is another book I read for my work book club at Pure Barre. Shout out to Pure Barre for getting me to read two of my favorite books of the year! Such a Fun Age is one of those page-turners that I could not put down, not because it a edge-of-your-seat thriller, but because the characters’ actions were so awkward and cringe that I couldn’t wait to see how everything fell apart. If you’re a gossip queen who loves seeing people do dumb things, then you will eat this shit up. I know this book also has really important things to say about racism and the white savior complex, and yes, it does talk about that stuff and more. But also for pure entertainment value, this works as well.

5. White Smoke by Tiffany D. Jackson — This is one of those books that I really regret we didn’t pick for YA Book Club, because there’s so much to talk about with this one. I know a lot of people are comparing this horror novel to Get Out meets The Haunting of Hill House, but honestly this book gives me Candyman vibes. This book examines gentrification and the evils of capitalism and racial disparities when it comes to drug arrests and a lot more. And it’s also actually creepy. Oh, and I loved the anxiety/panic attack rep in this book too. This was my first Tiffany D. Jackson book, and I really want to read more now.

4. This is Not the Jess Show by Anna Carey — Where are all my millennials hungry for 90s nostalgia? This book is for you! Mary and I covered this book for YA Book Club, and we loved it, so if you want to know more about our thoughts, check that out. Oh, and the sequel This is Not the Real World will be out later this year!

3. Elatsoe by Darcie Little Badger — This is another book Mary and I read (and loved)—along with guest Todd— for YA Book Club, so definitely check that out! This book was so, so special.

2. The Last House on Needless Street by Catriona Ward — I’ve talked a lot about this one too, which is going to be a common theme for these books up at the top because I can’t shut up about books I love. This is another weird one that’s not going to be for everyone, but it was definitely for me. I had the opportunity to interview Catriona Ward for the podcast about this book, so if you want to know more about it, check that out! And we will be reading Catriona Ward’s 2022 novel Sundial later this year, so read that along with us too.

1. Transcendent Kingdom by Yaa Gyasi — This book y’all. THIS BOOK. It had me weeping. It crushed my soul. It was so good! And I gushed about all of this on the podcast, so shameless plug.

My Bottom 5 Worst Books of 2021

We’re not going to call out the authors here because I’m not trying to put anyone on blast (okay maybe just a little). Anyway, they know what they did. Anyway, these books are ranked from really bad to really really bad.

5. Ready Player Two — Ready Player Two only comes in as the 5th worst book of the year, because we all expected this one to be bad. This is another one we read for the podcast, and we all hated it, as expected.
4. The Lost Apothecary — This is one of those books that I hate the more and more I think about it, and the more I hear how many people loved it. It’s become a trend in historical fiction to have one present day timeline and one timeline in the past. The Lost Apothecary is no different, and it manages to do nothing exciting with either timeline. The present day timeline is literally like “Oh no, police think I murdered my boyfriend. Oh wait they don’t anymore. The end!” I hate this so much.
3. The Sanatorium — You know, I wasn’t too excited about this book, but then ole Reese picked it for her book club, and I do love a snowy atmospheric thriller. But the main character of this story was a grown ass woman with a big “not like other girls” attitude. Miss me with that. Also The Sanatorium is boring.
2. The Wife Upstairs — I’m very confused about everyone talking about the shocking twist in this book. The twist is that there is a wife upstairs? But that’s literally the title of the book? I somehow read two books from this author this year and I hated both of them. Fool me once, shame on me. Fool me twice… I won’t get fooled again.
1. Lost in the Never Woods — This book was offensively bad. While Mary and I loved a lot of our YA Book Club picks this year, this wasn’t one of them. I hated this so much that I never want to read another book from this author ever again. Check out our full thoughts here.