My Year of Books 2021
My reading fell off a bit this year, coming up short of the 60 books I set as my goal over on Goodreads, despite the fact that quite a few of the books I logged were pretty short and lots of comics and graphic novels in the mix this year as well. But failing at a reading challenge is pretty forgivable, I reckon, and I’ve just adjusted my goal for 2022 down to a more manageable 50 books… Wish me luck! I’ll be continuing to log books over on Goodreads and will try to post more full reviews on my review blog Tipped In throughout the coming year.
One advantage of reading quite a few shorter works was that last year saw me tackling a bunch of classics I have been meaning to read for years, and in general they didn’t disappoint: The Talented Mr. Ripley, The Spy Who Came in From the Cold, , Wise Blood, My Man Jeeves, Passing, The Dispossessed, and The Incredible Shrinking Man were all excellent, and even if they didn’t blow my mind I definitely appreciated Travels with Charley and Siddhartha. Happy to have checked those all of “The List” as it were. I also caught up with shorter works from some of my fave contemporary authors like Jennifer Egan and Ben Winters.
Probably my biggest discover of the year was purely by happenstance: I picked up Days by Moonlight by André Alexis based on its cover and the fact that I was interested to read more contemporary Canadian literature, so I dived in knowing nothing. What starts off as a seemingly straightforward travelogue soon blossoms into something quite unusual, full of utterly absurd humor (an unexpected scene featuring a perplexed and put-upon owl had me laughing out loud), sharp social critiques, beautiful descriptions of the natural world, and some extremely surprising plot twists. Reminded me great books like “Pale Fire” by Nabokov, “The Crying of Lot 49” by Pynchon, and “White Boy Shuffle” by Beatty, but this was totally unique. I am so delighted to find out that this is part of André Alexis’ “Quincunx” cycle (a quincunx, I was intrigued to learn, is the distinctive shape of a “five” on a die… four dots in a square with one more in the center), and I am eager to dig into the rest of these novels in the coming year. Highly recommended, my discovery of the year.
Lots of graphic novels this year, especially French books that I read in French. Lots of great discoveries for me like Camille Jourdy and Elène Usdin. I have a bunch more interesting French BD sitting in my “to be read” pile as well… It can be a bit more of a challenge for me to read in French, it definitely takes longer but it is really worth it and I’m frankly amazed by how much better I am at it. That’s one of the nice things I look forward to: I have spent the first forty years of my life reading almost exclusively in English, but I think the future will hold a lot more French literature… I’m excited to discover a whole new world of books.
I think one of the things that slowed me down in 2021 is that between the shorter books, I tried to take quite a few rather lengthy books that have been either sitting on my “to be read” pile for a few years (like 2666 by Roberto Bolaño, which I am about 1/2 way finished with) or that came out this year from authors I was particularly eager to read (like The Free World by Louis Menand), so hopefully I will be able to check those off the list in 2022 (some others I am looking forward to in 2022 include The Wisdom of Crowds by Joe Abercrombie, more works by Andre Alexis, Jennifer Egan’s new book The Candy House (a sequel to A Visit from the Good Squad!), digging into works by Rachel Kushner (I read a couple of her essays last year and really liked them), and possibly Karl Ove Knausgaard’s new book The Morning Star (another long and dense book to add to the shelf).
Here is my 2021 list, including “blurbs” from the linked reviews, and links to my Bookshop in case you want to pick any of them up (I get a referral fee):
The City of Belgium by Brecht Evens ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ Review
“A moving and surprising look at party people, panic attacks, and the power of storytelling.”
Comment ne rien faire by Guy Delisle ⭐️⭐️⭐️
Chronique de jeunesse by Guy Delisle ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
Upgrade Soul by Ezra Claytan Daniels ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
The Bloody Chamber and Other Stories by Angela Carter (reread) ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
The Overstory by Richard Powers ⭐️⭐️⭐️
The Eighth Detective by Alex Pavesi ⭐️⭐️⭐️
The Talented Mr. Ripley by Patricia Highsmith ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ Review
“I can see why Tom Ripley has become an iconic character, he’s truly a dark, deep, sad, bizarre, and complex figure.”
Cyclopedia Exotica by Aminder Dahliwal ⭐️⭐️⭐️
The Keep by Jennifer Egan ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
Howl’s Moving Castle by Diana Wynne Jones
Emerald City by Jennifer Egan ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
The Prestige by Christopher Priest ⭐️⭐️⭐️ Review
“Like many people I came to this novel by way of the Christopher Nolan film adaptation from 2006… after reading it I come away even more impressed by the adaption job Christopher and Jonathan Nolan did in bringing this to the screen, and in my opinion certainly improving on the already pretty impressive source material.”
Passing by Nella Larsen ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ Review
“Quick, tightly written piece that reminded me of Katherine Mansfield, with a well-rendered mix of interior struggles, interpersonal cruelty, and a thoughtful exploration of the intricacies of racial identity in America”
Wise Blood by Flannery O’Connor ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ Review
“As raw, cruel, nasty, fascinating, and darkly comic as anything I can recall reading.”
Inside Jobs by Ben Winters ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ Review
“The three stories collected are of varying levels of excellence but they all get the job done, creating an old-school crime atmosphere while embracing the peculiarities of a very specific moment.”
The Incredible Shrinking Man by Richard Matheson ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
Juliette: Les fantômes reviennent au printemps by Camille Jourdy ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ Review
‘I really liked this book, maybe even loved it. I found it to be a totally charming and low-key family/relationship dramady, which reminded me of a good indie film…”
Becoming Horses by Disa Wallander ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
The Ministry for the Future by Kim Stanley Robinson ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ Review
“A big book full of thought-provoking ideas, but that is more often interesting than genuinely engrossing.”
The Dispossessed by Ursula K. LeGuin ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ Review
“…a unique and thoughtful mix of a bildungsroman, philosophical treatise, revolutionary tract, political thriller, and novel of ideas… No simple answers are given here and LeGuin includes scenes and concepts that are certain to make people of all political leanings uncomfortable.”
The Burning Secret by Stefan Zweig ⭐️⭐️⭐️
Alay-Oop by William Gropper ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
The Man Without Talent by Yoshiharu Tsuge ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ Review
“This meandering, melancholic semi-autobiographical graphic novel, originally serialized in 1985-86, is remarkably ahead of its time.”
Rebecca et Lucie mènent l’enquête by Pascal Girard ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ Review
“Fantastic breezy read that combines a page-turner of a missing persons case with a loving, sensitive, and often hilarious look at the day-to-day life of a young mother.”
The Fifth Quarter by Mike Dawson ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ Review
“This story is wonderfully positive and uplifting but still deals with some very real emotional matters and difficult life lessons.”
René.e au bois dormant by Elène Usdin ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
“…a really remarkable book, a beautiful and moving story that is presented with such a strong artistic voice that it is almost incredible that this is Elene Usdin’s first graphic novel.”
Superman Red Son by Mark Millar and Dave Johnson ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️Review
“While deeply indebted to classics like Whatever Happened to the Man of Tomorrow? and The Dark Knight Returns, the unique setting and truly excellent concept make this tale stand out.
Ping Pong Vol. 1 by Taiyo Matsumoto ⭐️⭐️⭐️Review
“Dense and intense, Ping Pong is definitely a master class in depicting action, movement, and energy on the page, but is somewhat lacking in human connection, which is perhaps to be expected from a narrative focused entirely on the high-intensity world of competitive high school table tennis to the virtual exclusion of all other subjects.”
I am Not Starfire by Mariko Tamaki and Yoshi Yoshitani ⭐️⭐️⭐️Review
“The rather interesting characters and their difficult but very honest relationships resolve into something a bit less intriguing and far more conventional by the end of the narrative, and that is a shame.”
The Spy Who Came in From the Cold by John LeCarré ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
“Excellent, twisted, deep, and dark.”
A Legacy of Spies by John LeCarré ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️Review
“…this one never really took off for me off and wraps up abruptly, but it was a quick read with an interesting protagonist, so I leave satisfied.”
Travels with Charley by John Steinbeck ⭐️⭐️⭐️
Sousbrouillard by Anne-Caroline Pandolfo and Terkel Risbjerg ⭐️⭐️⭐️Review
“…an intriguing, scattershot, romantic, old-fashioned, and ultimately somewhat superfluous tale of seeking one’s identity and finding it, after a fashion, in stories.”
Le Joueur d’échecs by Stefan Zweig ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
World’s Funnest by Evan Dorkin and others ⭐️⭐️⭐️ Review
“The gag is great if straightforward (even if it has been done before to darker and more powerful effect) but the art lineup is insanely stacked. Well worth a read (and it’s a quick one).”
Siddhartha by Herman Hesse ⭐️⭐️⭐️ Review
“Quite ahead of its time considering it was published nearly 100 years ago in 1922.”
By Night in Chile by Roberto Bolaño ⭐️⭐️⭐️
Days by Moonlight by André Alexis ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ Review
“What starts off as a seemingly straightforward travelogue soon blossoms into something quite unusual, full of utterly absurd humor (an unexpected scene featuring a perplexed and put-upon owl had me laughing out loud), sharp social critiques, beautiful descriptions of the natural world, and some extremely surprising plot twists… Highly recommended, my discovery of the year.”
Half a King by Joe Abercrombie (reread) ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ Review
“It’s best to go in knowing little and gather the loose threads one-by-one as you go… Lots of fun “ah-ha!” moments await you.”
My Man Jeeves by P.G. Wodehouse ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️