2021: The Year I Rediscovered My Love for Reading (and the 57 Books That Helped)
I read 57 books (it might end up being 58—I’ve still got a few days, after all!) in 2021. I didn’t set any sort of specific goal around this, only that I wanted reading to be more a part of my daily rhythms. As it turned out, I enjoyed it so much that I read more books in a year than I ever have before.
I was an avid reader as a kid, but somewhere between reading to ace comprehension tests and slogging through Great Expectations (uuuuuugh…of all the Dickens novels to assign, why this one?!) and speeding through other assigned reading by the due date with the inevitable 10-page essay in mind, I lost the joy of it.
I think I rediscovered that joy this year, and it’s been one of the nicest surprises of 2021.
A lot of friends have asked how a mom of four kids, five-years-old and under, who is a ghostwriter part-time, has time to read 57 books. To tell you the truth, I’m rather perplexed by that myself. I don’t really have any novel advice (book pun!), but here’s what has helped:
I rock a lot of audiobooks. I know some like to pooh-pooh audiobooks as “not really reading.” I disagree. I will grant that there are some genres of books or some literary styles I just cannot do on audio. But others have been a great fit, and have made the story or content even richer. And in this season it has meant the difference between reading a little and reading a lot, so I’m all in on audio.
Our library has the most fantastic, extensive collection of e-books, and an app that is super easy to use, which makes this little reading habit of mine much more affordable.
I read widely, and I read what I like. That’s not to say I haven’t selected several books for the sole purpose of stretching myself, but overall I’m more likely to actually read what I’m interested in. I try to come to all sorts and genres of books with curiousity, asking good questions, or even—dare I say it—just to enjoy it, rather than “decode” it.
Because I’ve spent all but nine days of this year nursing an infant, I’ve had lots of built-in sitting time. I don’t always read during this time, but most of the time I do. Squeezing in a few pages at a time really adds up.
In general, when I am reading well, I more readily observe the fruit of the Spirit springing up in my life, and find I’m being more fully formed into the image of Christ, compared with other forms of entertainment and leisure. I don’t want to over-spiritualize the practice of reading, but this is just what’s been true for me. Do I love discovering a new show? For sure! Do I enjoy being on social media? Without a doubt! Am I deeply moved by great movies or beautiful music? Well, of course! I am a human being with two ears and eyes attached to a heart, after all. Do I think there’s anything inherently wrong or “worse” about those things? Definitely not. But for me, reading makes my heart and mind more pliable, more responsive to the beauty and truth found in Christ, more compassionate toward my neighbor and my enemy. So as long as that’s true for me, I’m going to read on.
In any case, I get the feeling you’re here for the book list, so without further delay, here it is!
But first, one final note on how to decode this list.
Audiobooks are marked with a * (see, I told you I read a ton of audiobooks this year).
Also, rather than marking my favorite reads of the year, I’ve decided to note the books that challenged me and that I’m still thinking about months later, in bold. Some of those are also, in fact, among my favorites of the year. Other bolded books I had major points of disagreement with, yet reading the book shaped me in good, fruitful ways. If you want to see my favorites, you can take a look at my Instagram highlights with a brief (okay, some of them are not that brief…) review of all the books I’ve read this year.
Books of 2021
Waiting on the Word, Malcom Guite
The Gown*, Jennifer Robson
Gentle and Lowly: The Heart of Christ for Sinners and Sufferers, Dane Ortlund
Piranesi, Susanna Clarke
ABBA’s Child*, Brennan Manning
Alienated America: Why Some Places Thrive While Others Collapse, Timothy P. Carney
Delighting in the Trinity: An Introduction to the Christian Faith, Michael Reeves
Anne of Green Gables*, L.M. Montgomery
How to Really Love Your Child, D. Ross Campbell, M.D.
Brown Girl Dreaming*, Jacqueline Woodson
Mother to Son: Letters to a Black Boy on Identity and Hope, Jasmine L. Holmes
Pandora’s Lab: Seven Stories of Science Gone Wrong*, Paul A. Offit, M.D.
Emma*, Jane Austen
His Testimonies, My Heritage: Women of Color on the Word of God*, Kristie Anyabwile
Becoming Better Grownups: Rediscovering What Matters and Remembering How to Fly*, Brad Montague
The Sentence Is Death*, Anthony Horowitz
Sense and Sensibility*, Jane Austen
Handle with Care: How Jesus Redeems the Power of Touch in Life and Ministry, Lore Ferguson Wilbert
Land of Big Numbers*, Te-Ping Chen
Renovated, Jim Wilder
Talking Back to Purity Culture: Rediscovering Faithful Christian Sexuality, Rachel Joy Welcher
How to Find Love in a Bookshop*, Veronica Henry
Henry and the Chalk Dragon, Jennifer Trafton
Urban Apologetics: Restoring Black Dignity with the Gospel*, Dr. Eric Mason
The Girl with the Louding Voice, Abi Daré
Jesus and John Wayne: How White Evangelicals Corrupted a Faith and Fractured a Nation*, Kristin Kobes du Mez
Gilead*, Marilynne Robinson
The Wonder, Emma Donaghue
Ida B. the Queen: The Extraordinary Life and Legacy of Ida B. Wells*, Michelle Duster
Mythos: The Greek Myths Reimagined*, Stephen Fry
An Extravagant Death: A Charles Lenox Mystery*, Charles Finch
Growing Slow: Lessons on Un-Hurrying Your Heart from an Accidental Farm Girl, Jennifer Dukes Lee
Out of Many, One: Portraits of America’s Immigrants, George W. Bush
Breaking the Social Media Prism: How to Make Our Platforms Less Polarizing*, Chris Bail
Same Kind of Different as Me*, Ron Hall and Denver Moore
I Capture the Castle, Dodie Smith
Arsenic and Adobo*, Mia P. Manasala
Mr. Popper’s Penguins, Florence and Richard Atwater
Reading the Times: A Literary and Theological Inquiry into the News, Jeffrey Bilbro
The Blue Parakeet: Rethinking How You Read the Bible*, Scot McKnight
A Year in Provence*, Peter Mayle
The Lifegiving Table: Nurturing Faith through Feasting, One Meal at a Time, Sally Clarkson
A Church Called Tov: Forming a Goodness Culture That Resists Abuses of Power and Promotes Healing*, Scot McKnight, Laura Barringer
Gospel Fluency: Speaking the Truths of Jesus into the Everyday Stuff of Life*, Jeff Vanderstelt
The Last Thing He Told Me*, Laura Dave
Hamnet*, Maggie O’Farrell
Emotionally Healthy Spirituality*, Peter Scazzero
Inferno*, Dante Alighieri
A Spacious Life: Trading Hustle and Hurry for the Goodness of Limits, Ashley Hales
The Making of Biblical Womanhood*, Beth Allison Barr
Out of the Silent Planet*, C.S. Lewis
Everything Happens for a Reason and Other Lies I’ve Loved, Kate Bowler
Purgatorio*, Dante Alighieri
The Lifegiving Home, Sally and Sarah Clarkson
Jayber Crow, Wendell Berry
Eat This Book: A Conversation in the Art of Spiritual Theology*, Eugene H. Peterson
Perelandra*, C.S. Lewis
So now I have to know, have you read any of these? How did they shape you? Which of books should I add to my list for 2022?