Best
Books (I Read in) 2021
Another
year of good reading, and after I drafted this write-up, I noticed how often I
used the words “in conversation with,” which is one of my favorite ways to
think about books and about art in general, as a wide-ranging, open-to-all,
free-flowing, connect-the-dots, ongoing conversation in my own head. So here’s
a randomly-ordered list of favorite books I read in 2021, culled down in a
cold, agonized sweat to 10(ish).
I long ago
determined that I won’t include a book by a friend in my top 10, so I’ve moved
those books to a separate list (which I stress over nevertheless because I’m
not always timely about reading a friend’s book in the same year in which it
was published).
Finally, I
should note that in the spirit of honesty, here’s the place where I can mention
that, ahem, another book that I liked this year is my OWN book, published in
2021 by Unnamed Press—ADMIT
THIS TO NO ONE, linked(ish) stories about “official” DC—so it seems silly
not to mention it or to point out that it got some very
good reviews.
You can buy it through the press, at your fave indie bookstore, or Amazon.
Anyway:
you’re here for the books, not shameless self-promotion. Do I mean “best,” or
do I mean “favorite,” or do I mean “book that was exactly right for the moment
I read it”? Maybe I simply mean that each of these is a “book I literally and
truly recommended to others at least once over the year.”
~~~
BEST
BOOKS
The Good
Lord Bird by James
McBride [novel]: I watched (and loved) the Showtime limited series and had to
immediately read the book, which I also loved. John Brown is a fascinating,
complicated pre-Civil War character, and as with many larger-than-life people, he’s
best viewed through the POV of someone else, and here it’s a young Black boy called
Onion (mistaken by the whites for a girl) who travels with John Brown’s
militia. This voice-y book is funny and provocative, and here’s one time where
I can’t quite say the book is significantly better than the show because the
show is so excellent. Honestly, try to carve out time for both.
Hamnet:
A Novel of the Plague
by Maggie O’Farrell [novel]: Hmmm…do you think that “A Novel of the Plague”
might have been added by the marketing department?? Nevertheless, this book is
an immersive look at 16th century England, when a writer we know to
be Shakespeare (he’s never named) is working on plays as his wife tries to keep
the family surviving and thriving. Then…a great loss. The writing is gorgeous,
and I’m a sucker for a book where art and grief are intertwined. One favorite
section is the set-piece that follows the path of a plague-carrying flea, shows
how a global pandemic winds its way toward intimate (a lesson we’re now all too
familiar with).
Hidden
Valley Road: Inside the Mind of an American Family by Robert Kolker [nonfiction]: What
a big and terrible and terribly sad and rippling story about a single family in
the 50s and 60s in which 6 brothers out of 12 kids are afflicted with
schizophrenia. Despite the vastness of these events, the book is perfectly
organized and structured; the family’s bravery as they sift through the secrets
and family myths will break your heart; and you’ll emerge with a deeper ache over
the toll of mental illness. One bright spot is the usefulness of this family as
a case study in medical research.
*Say
Nothing: A True Story of Murder and Memory in Northern Ireland by Patrick
Raddon Keefe [nonfiction]: I knew only the broad parameters of The Troubles in
Northern Ireland, and this book was riveting. Again, perfectly structured and
organized, especially given a massive cast of “characters” and long-time span
and, well, a big, huge history of several cultures and countless events. If you’re
someone who thinks you only like novels, this book reads like one. Note: There
are many lenses through which to view The Troubles, and this book focuses on the
IRA…not that this is a rosy view, not in the least. I remembered reading
an early, chilling piece of this book in The New Yorker that never left
my mind. *One of my most-recommended books this year.
Collision
Low Crossers: A Year Inside the Turbulent World of NFL Football by Nicholas Dawidoff [nonfiction]:
Football?! Remember, I’m working on a novel about a football player, so reading
this book started as research and ended up as pure pleasure. Journalist
Dawidoff embeds himself with the coaching staff of New York Jets during the
2011 season, back when the Jets were enjoying glorious times with Rex Reed as
head coach. Full access means fascinating observations and insight into an
extraordinarily stressful life, where everybody gets a collection of elite,
talented athletes to work with, yet only one coach emerges on the top of the
heap come Super Bowl Sunday.
11/22/63 by Stephen King [novel]: I’m sure
Mr. King will be as surprised as I am to find his book on my annual list. My
husband and I watched the Hulu production of this book, which was enjoyable,
and my husband—who cares deeply about all things JFK—kept telling me that I
would really like the book. “Yet again, honey, (spoken in sing-song),
you’re right, and I’m wrong.” This time travel book asks if one man might
stop the assassination of JFK. How, and at what cost? The plot was compelling,
smart, and well-built as I’d expect from King, but I actually responded more to
the emotional storyline of the characters, and their depth and complexity. A
clear case of the book being superior to the show. (Note: this one’s a doorstop
at 849 pages!! Feel free to award yourself credit for reading 3 books as I did!)
*Early
Morning Riser by Katherine Heiny [novel]. Cross Anne Tyler with Laurie
Colwin and set this smart rom-com in small-town Michigan, and you get this
charming, funny, joyful book that’s elegantly written without being show-offy.
As I said when I recommended this novel at least 1000x, do NOT pay attention to
the jacket copy, which is dopey. Just read this book if you want to feel happy!
*One of my most-recommended books this year.
A
Faithful but Melancholy Account of Several Barbarities Lately Committed by Jason Brown [short story
collection]: These multi-generational stories are linked, though not so much so
that one really needs the (admittedly scary-long) family tree in the front of
the book; I suggest no more than a quick glance. Here’s a “good” but bedraggled,
OLD—like, Puritan-old—family in Maine, trying to crawl out from under that historical
burden of being “special” in that “shining city on a hill” Puritan founding
fathers way. If you like reading work set in Maine, the author captures that
rugged beauty and seems to know and understand the landscape and the culture.
Sparse, elegant, cutting: every moment of triumph comes at great cost.
The
Secret Lives of Church Ladies
by Deesha Philyaw [short story collection]: Often there’s a reason that
“everyone” is reading a book all year, and the reason everyone has been reading
this book about Black women is that it’s INCREDIBLE. These stories aren’t
linked per se, but they’re in important conversation with each other, adding
layers to the collection as a whole. It’s a smart and deeply-rooted world; a
super-voice-y book; and the author creates ordinary-yet-extraordinary characters
living novel-deep lives in 20-30 pages.
**Hell
of a Book by Jason Mott [nove]: Is it “in conversation with” or a straight
line from Ellison’s Invisible Man through Toni Morrison’s Beloved
to the here and now, with maybe a nod to Huck Finn, if Jim had been allowed to
take charge of his own story? There’s definitely plenty of humor here in this sharp
and stylish story about a best-selling Black author traveling on book tour,
reckoning with the life he’s lived and the life Blacks, especially Black men,
live in America—but mostly there are worlds of pain and an insatiable ache. **I
haven’t recommended this book much—only because I just finished it. (In
fact, I held up writing this list, certain after 5 pages that this book would
end up on it.)
~~~
A
HALF-BOOK I’M ADDING TO THIS LIST BECAUSE I’M IN CHARGE AND I CAN
The first
3 stories of The Pugilist at Rest by Thom Jones [short stories]: Blistering
stories about Vietnam; the kind of writing that makes you want to grab someone
and say, “Read this right now.” I enjoyed many of the other stories, especially
the voice, though too many felt dated to my contemporary eye and out of synch
with modern times.
~~~
BOOKS I
LOVED BY WRITER FRIENDS/FRIENDS-ISH
Woman
Drinking Absinthe by
Katherine E. Young [poetry]: These poems about an affair are dark and
disturbing, mesmerizing and memorable, in exactly the right ways.
This Is
What America Looks Like: Poetry and Fiction from DC, Maryland, and Virginia edited by Caroline Bock and Jona
Colson [anthology]: Okay, I admit that there’s an excerpt from ADMIT THIS TO NO
ONE in here, but setting that aside, this book captures the mood of the moment,
in all its nuances.
The
Escape Artist by
Helen Fremont [memoir]: An honest and searing account of being disowned by
one’s family following the publication of another memoir. So much emotional work
for the writer to dive so deeply and cleanly into a tangled family and these
secrets; I’m in awe.
Surrendered
Child: A Birth Mother’s Journey
by Karen Salyer McElmurray [memoir]: Lyrical and lingering, infused with loss
and longing. This book about giving up a child for adoption burrows into your soul.
I
Grape, Or the Case for Fiction
by Brock Clark [craft book]: I’m a fan of books about the craft of writing, and
these essays made me ponder and (re)consider my own work. Also, these essays
made me laugh out loud.
Made to
Explode by Sandra
Beasley [poetry]: Lots of places and people familiar to citizens of DC and
Virginia, and a poet asking lots of uncomfortable (but necessary) questions of
herself and making uncomfortable (but necessary) observations about race and
white privilege in these superb poems.
All
These Hungers by Rick
Mulkey [poetry]: Elegantly structured and thoughtfully organized, this
collection of smart and dynamic poems speaks to hunger—for food, of the flesh—and
every inexpressible hunger we all feel.
The
Hive by Melissa
Scholes Young [novel]: Four sisters in blue collar Missouri have financial
worries and emotional woes as the family pest control business is threatened
and their mother is retreating into survivalist prepping. An empathetic
exploration of life outside the coastal siloes.
What
Happened Was by Anna
Leahy [poetry chapbook]: A stellar example of the small but mighty form of the chapbook;
poems about chilling and complicated interactions women have with men, inspired
by the #metoo movement.
Children
of Dust by Marlin
Barton [novel]: Set in the late 1800s in Alabama, a white mother may have
murdered two of her own babies fathered by her hateful husband. Or perhaps her husband’s
mixed-race mistress did the deed? Or…? Not a whodunnit, but a deep and
affecting exploration of the interwoven complications of race and gender during
Reconstruction, of how an uncomfortably shared past informs the present—still.
~~~
BLURBED
BOOKS
This may
be cheating?? I wrote blurbs for 2 books that will be published in 2022, and I
hope you’ll keep an eye out for them:
The Other
Ones by Dave Housley
[novel; January 2022]: What happens when some of the people in the office are in
the winning lottery pool but others aren’t? I’m a fan of books set in the
workplace, and I love ensembles of characters. This crisp, funny book contains
lots of heart.
You
Have Reached Your Destination
by Louise Marburg [short stories; fall 2022]: New Yorky stories with
pitch-perfect dialogue that reminded me of Grace Paley and a forlorn ache that’s
in conversation with an Edward Hopper painting.