Best Books of 2021

 Since I recapped my top makes of the previous year, I decided to also recap my top reads as well. As a book lover who held on way, way too long to the notion of "I'm a reader, not a listener" of books, I have converted 100% to audio books since retiring in 2009. I can get into such a good sewing groove with a good book going alongside me. I love the multitasking aspect of it - stay engaged with a book while also making a quilt. Win-win!

Late last month, I counted all my reads for 2021 - 38 titles on my list. Of those, 3 were DNF - did not finish. So the net total for last year is 35. Considering all the weeks spent taking vacations (I never listen to a book while with DH), I am pleased with 35. For some reason, I felt as though I'd read fewer. And I did read fewer than 2020. Not concerning. A fluctuating total is to be expected, I think.

The six book represented in the collage represent my top 6 reads of 2021. Gosh, these were good books for a variety of very different reasons, by my estimation.

The Book of Lost Friends - I still am haunted by the Wingate book - so beautifully written about a topic that had never occurred to me before - how did freed slaves find their lost loved ones after the Civil War? 

The River - this is the one book I sorta' wish I'd had a physical copy of just so that I could look at the words on the pages. Heller's prose is wonderful, and had I my own copy, it'd be underlined all over the place. The plot was exceptional - again, very unique in its perspective. 

A Place Called Wisdom - my book club read this together, and what a fantastic discussion. It is a coming of age story about a boy who encounters some really diverse and interesting people on his way back to being reunited with his grandmother. Very poignant and quite engaging.

The Overstory - This is the book for my intellectual self; gosh, was it a challenge! Not so much in that it was hard to read; rather, it had such big thoughts. I sometimes felt as if my brain were incapable of pondering such intellectual notions. I am sure that if I were to read it again, I would understand it so much more clearly. Such an academic book, but I found that I connected with all the characters. It is an impressive book; one that weaves story lines together so cleverly and so subtly. I doubt I ever will reread it, but I am sure I would gain new insights were I to do so.

The Last Days of Night - The entire time I read this book, I kept thinking that it would be a fabulous movie. I later learned that it is indeed being made into a movie. That is definitely one I will see. It is about the invention of the AC and DC current. That saga is basically a feud between Thomas Edison (who won the race) and Nikolai Tesla. It was a cut-throat battle, one that is very well told in this book.

Surviving Savannah - The oft-used technique of a present-day story told alongside an historic one has become quite popular, some done more successfully than others. This one succeeded, in my opinion, and I was engaged by both story lines. The historic one wins out, though, as they so often do. I learned about an actual event that I wasn't even aware of having happened - a shipwreck off the North Carolina coast in post-Civil War era. The ship left from Savannah, GA. It obviously predates the Titanic, but the two catastrophes had definite similarities.

Have you read anything good yet in 2022? I have 3 books downloaded on my Overdrive App at the moment, yet I fear all of them will have to be renewed next month. They are: 1) Bring Up the Bodies, by Hilary Mantel, 2) These Is My Words by Nancy E. Turner, and 3) The Book That Matters Most by Ann Hood. 

I am not going to get a single one done, let alone three! Vacationing is not a time for me to be reading. I will be doubling down when we get back home and I return to the quilting room.

Happy Quilting, Friends!