Who I Am Through What I Read in 2021

We can learn a lot about who we are through what we read. Here’s my 2021 list. Feel free to add some of your favorite books for 2021 in the comments. My top 12 are **starred**.

1. The Rural Diaries, Hillarie Burton Morgan 
2. Magic Lessons, Alice Hoffman
3. Jesus Feminist, Sarah Bessey
4. My Story, Marilyn Monroe
5. Illumination Night, Alice Hoffman
6. Hawthorn Woods, Patrick Canning
7. Midnight at the Blackbird Café, Heather Webber
8. Girl: a Novel, Edna O’Brien
9. Shade: a Tale of Two Presidents, Pete Souza
10. The Book Charmer, Karen Hawkins
11. Multi-Cultural Literacy: Opening the American Mind, ed. Graywolf Press
12. **The Turner House, Angela Flournoy**
13. Angel Landing, Alice Hoffman
14. One Life, Megan Rapinoe
15. The Peach Keeper, Sarah Addison Allen
16. The Dangers of Smoking in Bed, Mariana Enriquez
17. Blue Diary, Alice Hoffman
18. The Invention of Wings, Sue Monk Kidd
19. Lamp Black, Wolf Grey, Paula Brackston
20. Second Nature, Alice Hoffman
21. The House on Vesper Sands, Paraic O’Donnell
22. The Sugar Queen, Sarah Addison Allen
23. **Road Out of Winter, Alison Stine**
24. The Last Apothecary, Sarah Penner
25. **Life Among the Terranauts, Caitlin Horrocks**
26. **Where I Come From: Stories from the Deep South, Rick Bragg**
27. Starlight on Willow Lake, Susan Wiggs
28. **Daughters of Erietown, Connie Schultz**
29. Nora: A Love Story of Nora and James Joyce, Nuala O’Connor
30. Lone Stars, Justin Deabler
31. The Nature of Witches, Rachel Griffin
32. Everyday Mojo Songs to Earth: New and Selected Poems, Yusef Komunyakaa
33. Oblivion Banjo: the Poetry of Charles Wright, Charles Wright
34. **Good Neighbors, Sarah Langan**
35. Why Didn’t You Just Do What You Were Told?, Jenny Diski
36. **We Can Only Save Ourselves, Alison Wisdom**
37. First Frost, Sarah Addison Allen
38. Meadowlands, Louise Glück
39. Lolita in the Afterlife: On Beauty, Risk, and Reckoning…, ed. Jenny Minton Quigley
40. The Lonely Century: How to Restore Human Connection…, Noreena Hertz
41. The Great Gatsby: But Nick Has Scoliosis, Dick Cody Heese
42. The Practice of Poetry, Robin Behn & Chase Twichell
43. The Poet’s Companion, Kim Addonizio & Dorianne Laux
44. Girlhood, Melissa Febos
45. The Niagara River, Kay Ryan
46. Standing Water: Poems, Eleanor Chai
47. An Early Afterlife, Linda Pastan
48. Heart Like a Window Mouth, Like a Cliff, Sara Borjas
49. The Beekeeper’s Ball, Susan Wiggs
50. Lost Lake, Sarah Addison Allen
51. **The Wilderness, Sanda Lim**
52. Witch Please, A Memoir: Finding Magic in Modern Times, Misty Bell Stiers
53. Body Talk: How to Embrace Your Body and Start Living Your Best Life, Katie Sturino
54. The Girl Who Chased the Moon, Sarah Addison Allen
55. The Menopause Manifesto, Dr. Jen Gunter
56. Can You Ever Forgive Me?, Lee Israel
57. Miranda, Susan Wiggs
58. A Case for the Dead Letter Detective: Poems, Lori Brack
59. Thank You: Poems, Linzi Garcia
60. **The Carrying: Poems, Ada Limón**
61. The Maidens, Alex Michaelides
62. The Apple Orchard, Susan Wiggs
63. Summer at Willow Lake, Susan Wiggs
64. Good Bones, Maggie Smith
65. Soft Science: Poems, Franny Choi
66. Faithful, Alice Hoffman
67. The Firebrand, Susan Wiggs
68. **The Wreckage of My Presence: Essays, Casey Wilson**
69. Monster in Miniature, Margaret Grace
70. Dinner at the Homesick Restaurant, Anne Tyler
71. The Night Garden, Lisa Van Allen
72. The Matrix, Lauren Groff
73. Long Division: a Novel, Kiese Laymon
74. **The Love Songs of W.E.B. Du Bois, Honorée Fanonne Jeffers**
75. Bitter Magic, Nancy Hayes Kilgore
76. Song of Ourselves: Walt Whitman and the Fight for Democracy, Mark Edmundson
77. Crossroads, Jonathan Franzen
78. The Orphan Witch, Paige Crutcher
79. The Butterfly Lampshade, Aimee Bender
80. The Ophelia Girls, Jane Healey
81. The Secret of Rainy Days, Leslie Hooten
82. Fight Night, Miriam Toews
83. The Receptionist, Kate Myles
84. The Cup of Silver Linings, Karen Hawkins
85. The Virtuous Con, Maren Foster
86. Think Again, Adam Grant
87. Trashlands, Alison Stine
88. The City of Mist, Carlos Ruiz Zafón
89. The Vixen: a Novel, Francine Prose
90. **The Book of Magic, Alice Hoffman**
91. The Museum of Ordinary Things, Alice Hoffman
92. Sacré Bleu: A Comedy d’Art, Christopher Moore
93. Dark Fields of the Republic, Adrienne Rich
94. Kaddish: Poems: Before and After the Holocaust, Jane Yolen
95. The Bookshop on the Corner, Jenny Colgan
96. The Speckled Beauty: A Dog and His People, Rick Bragg
97. Floating, Brilliant, Gone: Poems, Franny Choi
98. The Winter Witch, Paula Brackston
99. Bluebird, Bluebird, Attica Locke
100. Tacky: Love Letters to the Worst Culture Has to Offer, Rax King
101. Atlas of the Heart, Brene Brown
102. The Wife, Alafair Burke
103. The Hawthorne School, Sylvie Perry
104. The Paper Palace, Miranda Cowley Heller
105. Tidelands, Philippa Gregory
106. Traveling Light: Poems, Linda Pastan
107. The Next, Cynthia D’Prix Sweeney
108. The Ice Queen, Alice Hoffman
109. The Signature of All Things, Elizabeth Gilbert