My 2021 Reading List

I love reading.  I always have.  Now, as I approach the age of 70, I read but I seem to be so distracted that the day slips away, and I find I spend more and more with magazines and Internet reads.

It isn't for lack of opportunity.  I own many books.  I also take books out from our local library, and hve ebooks on my Kindle. (I way prefer physical books, however.)  I also regularly take out e-books from the New York (City) public library, which, thanks to the pandemic, I have access to as a New York State resident.

What I decided to do this last week of December is compile a list of books read, or books I started and did not finish, for whatever reason.  I've included reviews  (some taken from a blog post I wrote in July of this year, and shortened):  I've assigned "stars" on a scale of one to five.

Razorblade Tears by S.A. Cosby.  I generally do not get into thrillers, but this book had so many good reviews, I decided to pick it up.  It's a harrowing book, but I am so glad I read it.

Two ex-cons, one black, the other white, team up to find the killer(s) of their sons, who were married to each other.  Both the fathers had rejected their gay sons,  and are propelled both by the need for vengeance and their guilt over how they treated their sons.   There is blood and violence, all of which rings true.  Be forewarned!. There's not much more I can say without spoiler alerts.   The plotting and the writing are both first class.

Five Stars.

The Auschwitz Photographer - The Forgotten Story of the World War II Prisoner Who Documented Thousands of Lost Souls by Luca Crippa and Maurizio Onnis   This is the true story of photographer Wilhelm Brasse, a Polish/Aryan gentile who refused to swear allegiance to the Nazis after they conquered Poland. He was deported to Auschwitz-Birkenau in 1939 and spent the rest of the war as a prisoner.  Because of his background as a professional photographer, the SS chose him to take intake photos of the prisoners. He was forced to take other types of photos, too, and we are not spared the details.

As the war ended, Brasse was ordered to burn the photos he took. He started to, but changed his mind as a final act of defiance.  We have him to thank for many of the Auschwitz photos that survived the war.

Five Stars. 

Klara and the Sun by Kazuo Ishiguro. 

Dystopian literature is one of my preferred genres.  I had already read Ishiguro's Never Let Me Go, a chilling story of an alternate present where human clones are bred to be used for organ donations. That book has never let me go - like all good books, it continues to echo in my mind from time to time.  Klara does not echo in the same way.  It is a deceptively simple story of a solar powered AF (Artificial Friend) who is purchased as the companion of a girl who has been genetically modified to increase her intelligence, and is slowly dying as a result.

Don't be fooled.  This is not a simple story and Klara is far from a simple AF.  Ishiguro provides the exact amount of information at the exact right time.

Five Stars 

Zero Fail, The Rise and Fall of the Secret Service" by Carol Leonnig. The United States' Secret Service is tasked with many duties, the most important of which is the 24 hour day protection of the President and Vice-President of the United States and his/her family.  Carol Leonnig, an investigative journalist with over 20 years experience, wrote a well documented (and scary) book of triumphs and failures taking place mainly from the Kennedy administration to right after the end of the Trump administration.  

You learn a lot about our various Presidents.  It's not always pretty.

Five Stars

The Kitchen Front by Jennifer Ryan tells the story of four women competing in a British cooking contest in 1942.  The prize: being a co-host for the BBC's cooking show, The Kitchen Front.  Their task?  Create the best edible recipes with food readily available in the food rationing system.  The contest is fictional but the radio show was real.  I loved the historical details and the strong female characters, which is why I gave it the rating I did.  But I also feel the book fell short in character development and the ending was somewhat unlikely.

Four Stars

The Silence of the Girls by Pat Barker.  This is a retelling of Homer's The Iliad from the point of view of a female character, Briseis, a Trojan queen taken captive and enslaved when the Greeks take her city and sack it.   I don't read much historical fiction but this intrigued me because I have never read The Iliad. 

On the whole, the book was well written. However, the British slang threw me out of the story more than once (minor quibble - certainly the soldiers couldn't speak in Greek for the English audience).  Just yesterday, I found the sequel in the library and took it out.

Four Stars. 

The Forest of Hands and Teeth, by Carrie Ryan.  I enjoy dystopian literature and (some) zombie literature.  I love a good zombie apocalypse, and looked forward to a good read.  The book disappointed. Stilted writing and one of the weirdest love triangles I've ever run across in dystopian young adult literature ruined the book, although I did finish it.   I won't be seeking out the sequels.

The End of Men by Christa Sweeney-Baird.  This book was written not long before before the COVID-19 pandemic.  So, one could compare and contrast the reactions to the pandemic in the book (a virus that kills only males, and kills most of them) to what happened "in our "2020 and beyond" reality. The book is presented to us as written by an (initially) unknown author some years after the pandemic struck, telling the story of various survivors.

The book also ponders many questions, some of which we will need to answer for ourselves as we move towards our future.

Five Stars.

She Who Became the Sun by Shelley Parker-Chan 

This started out great, but after about 75 pages, I just couldn't get into it anymore.  A Did Not Finish.

Libertie by Kaitlyn Greenidge

Similar to She Who Became the Sun, it started out great, and then, it wasn't. However, I feel that I may have failed the book.  I may give it another try in 2022.   Another Did Not Finish, for now.

These are the books I am currently reading.

Cloud Cuckoo Land by Anthony Doerr (just started the other day).  So far, I'm finding the several interwoven stories interesting.

The Dressmakers of Auschwitz by Lucy Adlington.   The author did not start out intending to write this book, but found the story while doing research on fashion and was fortunate enough to be able to interview the last surviving dressmakers.  What I love is that this is the first comprehensive look I've found of the daily life of women in a concentration camp. It's a slow read - lots of detail. Well worth your time.  This is shaping up as a Five Star read.

The Bird Way - A New Look at How Birds Talk, Work, Play, Parent, by Jennifer Ackerman. I've read this on and off.  My spouse may read this more than I will.

There's more, but I don't quite remember.

So, do I try to make a New Years's Resolution to read more?  No. I haven't done resolutions in years. But I need to go back to my roots, and start reading more in 2022.

Are you an avid reader?  What were some of your favorite reads? (If you blogged an end of year reading post, please feel welcome to drop a link to it.)