Top 20 Books I Read in 2021

this is one of those rare books that feel like they're written explicitly for me not only does it deal with the history of my native knack of the woods call it northwestern italy but it deals with history more broadly speaking in a tone that is at once learned but also constantly stupefied

a novel that feels very much like steinbeck was going all out he was trying to wrap his every thought about the nature of his home country about the nature of the human spirit of good and evil into one single story

a book that completely rocked my understanding of what jane austen's fiction even is about and that really kept captivated me in the world of its heroine

a novel that shocked me with the depths of its perception and that reminded me a lot of one of my favorite books from 2020 which is boodenbrooks by thomas mann

both are stories about very different characters brought together by very peculiar circumstances who struggle to understand each other's world views and struggle to navigate each other's limited understandings

lastoria feels very much like war and peace to me with its capacity for embracing the movements of history of its tradition of oppression and suffering while also being able to tackle the intricacies of the psyche

norwegian mood touches very delicately on how death and mourning can shape a young life as i've mentioned in my review of the novel i don't think it's an unproblematic novel but it is definitely very engaging and very compelling

a novel that is pure linguistic fireworks and that stretched my understanding not just of what the potential of science fiction is but what the potential of the english language really is

on beauty pays direct and explicit homage to howard's end and re-imagines many of its plotlines and themes within the context of the 21st century

was a huge surprise so very different from clarks jonathan strange and mr laurel but truly engaging truly stimulating and captivating and frankly quite touching

a novel that's stunning in how beautifully it creates not only the biography but the entire over of two fictional victorian poets

was the funniest book i've read this year it was hilarious

The copenhagen trilogy deals very lucidly almost cruelly with family relationships with codependency with addiction with emotional turmoil

a beautiful novel about how easily a human being and a human life can slide off the tracks a very important theme for a novel that is concerned with talking about prison life and about the dehumanizing and inhumane aspects of the prison system

a novel that creates an entire world with separate cultures and nations traditions deities systems of power and politics and does so completely effortlessly without indulging in descriptions or needless exposition

i wish all my novels came with a sea monster on page three and i wish they all dealt with characters who are so complex and so flowed and frayed in their psyche

a book that is every bit as nightmarish as the end and may stale this is the sequel to the handmaid's tale but which is also a testament truly to the good as much as the evil that can reside in the human heart

a wonderfully rambling treaty on an archetypal legendary tyrant and a book that shows very persuasively how men of evil have to be brutal but not necessarily have to be brilliant

the novel that does what any other novel does but better and larger all but inimitable in the scope of its reflections on the nature of history and destiny and free will

a uniquely sinister uniquely fascinating novel that almost reads like a fairy tale