At the beginning of 2021, I set a goal for myself: read 45 books by the end of the year. I’m a history major, and I often read a book or two per week for my classes. This kind of schedule is exhausting and makes me associate reading with doing work. I missed reading for fun and wanted to get back into the habit of reading for pleasure. On month eleven of my literary journey, I now have a wonderful habit of reading fiction each night before bed. Even if I have a bad day, I know that I’ll get to end it with a good story. So, here are the thirteen top books I read this year, and why you should read them too!
- “She’s Come Undone,” by Wally Lamb, is a magical book. Every time I read it, it gets better. The book is a quirky and beautiful coming of age story of Dolores Price, a fiery character whose voice you won’t forget. Delores narrates the story, using her dark humor to describe things like “roasting in hell like a rotisserie chicken.” I love this book with every fiber of my being. It changed the way I think about self-love and acceptance, and about the often unexpected directions life can lead you in. Memorable snippet: “It was a matter of perspective, I began to see. The whole world was crazy; I’d flattered myself by assuming I was a semifinalist.”
- “Where the Crawdads Sing,” by Delia Owens, lives up to its reputation; all the rave reviews are true. It is one of the best books I have ever read. Owens’ evocative imagery accompanies a murder mystery/coming-of-age story set in the marshes of North Carolina. It’s a powerful ode to nature, loneliness, and all-consuming longing. Favorite snippet: “There are some who can live without wild things, and some who cannot.”
- “Kindred,” by Octavia E. Butler, is a must-read. Dana, a Black woman living in California in 1976, is suddenly transported back in time to the antebellum South to save the life of a slave owner’s son, Rufus. Throughout the book, she is pulled back and forth in time, and she must figure out the strange connection between herself and Rufus before it’s too late. Memorable snippet: “Nothing in my education or knowledge of the future had helped me to escape. Yet in a few years an illiterate runaway named Harriet Tubman would make nineteen trips into this country and lead three hundred fugitives to freedom.”
- “The Rose Code,” by Kate Quinn, is like “The Imitation Game” on steroids. Quinn tells the story of three women working undercover in Bletchley Park (a top-secret British intelligence station) to crack the Enigma code during World War II. When a traitor arises, the trio must bring them down. The book is suspenseful, brilliant, and badass. Memorable quote: “No one should tell their mother more than one-third of anything they get up to.”
- “A Midsummer Night’s Dream,” by William Shakespeare, is awesome. I had never read a Shakespeare play cover to cover before, and this fantastic work of art is a perfect gateway to the world of the Bard. I read the book at night before bed, and I found that my reading experience began to blend with my dreaming afterward. Memorable snippet: “And though she be but little, she is fierce.”
- “The Vanishing Half,” by Brit Bennett, tells the story of identical twins who grow up in a small Southern Black community whose paths diverge as they enter adulthood. While one sister, Stella, passes for White and lives in a suburban White community, the other sister, Desiree, is stuck in the same town she grew up in. The story takes twists and turns with each turn of the page, and is delivered with wildly beautiful writing. Memorable snippet: “Her death hit in waves. Not a flood, but water lapping steadily at her ankles. You could drown in two inches of water. Maybe grief was the same.”
- “Atonement,” by Ian McEwan, has some of the most lovely prose of any book I read. The book stars thirteen-year-old Briony Tallis, whose colorful imagination leads her to make a horrible mistake that will ripple through time. Throughout the book, McEwan takes split seconds in time and expands them across ten pages, delving into each detail and perspective. Memorable snippet: “Wasn’t writing a kind of soaring, an achievable form of flight, of fancy, of the imagination?”
- “The Guest List,” by Lucy Foley, is a whodunit mystery reminiscent of Agatha Christie’s “And Then There Were None,” except it’s modern and way more fun. The story is set on a remote island off the coast of Ireland, where a happy couple is having a destination wedding. However, before the weekend is out, one guest is murdered. This was a thrilling read, and it combined all my favorite things: weddings, murder mysteries, and fabulous writing. Memorable snippet: “But it’s all about the moment, a wedding. All about the day. It’s not really about the marriage at all, in spite of what everyone says.”
- “The Goldfinch,” by Donna Tartt, takes the classic coming of age framework and turns it on its head. The protagonist, Theo, is an unlikely and accidental art thief who navigates a world of first-class criminals while trying to heal from the loss of his mother. Memorable snippet: “You can look at a picture for a week and never think of it again. You can also look at a picture for a second and think of it all your life.”
- “Beach Read,” by Emily Henry, is exactly what its title promised. When I picked up the book, I expected it to be a cringy romantic comedy with zero literary value. I was wrong! Henry tells the story of two writers who take an enemies-to-lovers journey as they attempt to write a book in the others’ genre and style. Henry does an incredible job making her characters seem like real people, and likable ones at that. Memorable snippet: the protagonist, January, reflects on an ex-boyfriend and says: “He fit so perfectly in the love story I’d imagined for myself that I mistook him for the love of my life.” Powerful stuff, Emily Henry.
- “Ask Again, Yes,” by Mary Beth Keane, is another romance novel, but it’s more dark than beachy. It begins as the classic girl-next-door friends-to-lovers story, until a horrible tragedy divides the lovers’ families, creating a Montague vs. Capulet dynamic. As the years pass, both families grapple with the notion of moving on. Can you ever truly recover from a tragic and life-altering incident? And can you forgive the people who gave you those scars? Memorable snippet: “We repeat what we don’t repair.”
- “Luster,” by Raven Leilani, is a story about desire so intense and vivid that it scintillates. The book stars Edie, a struggling woman in her 20s who has an affair with a married man and then moves into his house with his family. She forges a relationship with the family’s adopted daughter, who, like Edie, is Black in a White suburban neighborhood. Leilani’s writing has a dark edge, and she knows how to make her reader feel the words on the page. Memorable snippet: “I couldn’t tell if I liked being alone, or if I only endured it.”
- “The Echo Maker,” by Richard Powers, has been on my list for a while. Powers wrote one of my favorite books, “The Overstory,” which rightfully won the Pulitzer Prize for his revelatory writing. Karin, the protagonist in “The Echo Maker,” tends to her brother after he suffers a brain injury. The twist: her brother believes that Karin is an imposter posing as his sister. Powers blends neuroscience, nature, prose, and family together in a story about finding truth in messy situations. Powers’ writing is truly transcendent and changed the way I think about the natural world and our place in it. Memorable snippet: “Time didn’t age you; memory did.”
Honorable mentions:
“Fates and Furies,” by Lauren Groff
“Station Eleven,” by Emily St. John Mandel
“Bewilderment,” by Richard Powers
Halle Newman can be reached at hnewman@wesleyan.edu. If you have any book suggestions, reach out to her!