Everything I Read in 2021
The new year is already upon us and has left 2021 in the dust. I can’t believe it came around so fast. Does anyone else feel like time stopped in March 2020 and has simply not resumed, whilst simultaneously moving so damn fast you can’t catch your breath? Yeah. Same.
I did read a few books in 2021. Not my best, but it’s been a busy year. I managed 12 books this year. Last year I managed 13, but I was doing a literature degree, and there was a national lockdown which literally locked me in the house. Perfect reading conditions.
So the 12 books I read in 2021, were:
A Study in Scarlet - Arthur Conan Doyle
And that was it. 2021 done.
I will say I read most of A Clockwork Orange by Burgess but just could not seem to finish it. It’s nearly finished - I’m going to have to race to the end in 2022.
Top Books I Read in 2021
Girl, Woman, Other
I gave this 5/5 stars. Each character (I believe there are 12 - mostly women - who we encounter that are nuanced, flawed, interesting, and important in their own different ways. We hear their lives and see how they intertwine spectacularly. To quote myself:
‘Evaristo employs her characters to think freely, and say things that perhaps are hard to hear, or that disagree with your own philosophies, but that’s what makes it so interesting.
We aren’t in an echo-chamber of like minded individuals.
We are in a world, very much like our own, where everyone is different, and everyone has their own opinions. A world where everyone is just trying to survive.’
Gone Girl
I also gave this 5 whole ass stars and it deserved every single one of them. I sped through this because I was immediately hooked by the writing. I actually watched the film first, because, as a lover of films and my most trusted advisor, Natalia told me to. It meant that the film really did take its proper toll on me. The book did not disappoint, despite me knowing the plot. Gripping, revealing, a brilliant construction of the self, and deconstruction of the self. A truly cleverly horrible story. It’s a weird feeling when you are genuinely impressed by the evil things people do. The whole plot revolves around the cultivation of the self: the outward image, what we show the world, and what we believe. It’s impeccable.
The Testaments
When I read Girl, Woman, Other, I thought ‘I can’t believe this book had to share The Booker Prize 2019’. Then I read The Testaments and I understood. I think this was the perfect addition to The Handmaid’s Tale. The characters we meet in this book - the perspective we see. Just brilliant. We see a life from before Gilead, we see a life grow up during Gilead both from inside and outside its walls. I just thought it was so well done, so cleverly written, and so brilliantly paced. Where I found myself tiring of its predecessor, I did not find that to be the case here.
Those were my top rates for 2021. I think I had a good range of books and I really enjoyed every single one. Reading is literally therapy. I started off so well and then life took off - I got a grad job, moved to Cardiff and was finally within walking distance of my bestest friends, I then moved to Bristol, and had to adapt to my new life (going great btw) and honestly reading just took a back seat and that’s okay.
Books will always be there for you. Time and time again. Never forget that.
Happy new year x
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