2021 Reading Challenge
In 2021, I again I did not read as much as I had intended. The “everything of it all” oozed into another year and I felt distractible and itchy. When I did settle in, however, I read some really great books. Semper melius for 2022, and all that.
The Vanishing Half - Brit Bennett (1/28). A novel about “passing,” the passed, and the past. The characters, even the ones who are not passing, are actors, who keep parts of themselves invisible to project the identity they want the world to acknowledge.
A Doll’s House - Henrik Ibsen (2/7). I’m a little embarrassed that I never read this, seeing as I was a Theatre minor and all, so why not spend an evening remedying that?
Self Care: A Novel - Leigh Stein (2/27). I wanted a bitchy beach read that I could gobble over a weekend. This satire of goop-y startup culture certainly fit the bill.
Homegoing - Yaa Gyasi (4/6). Probably the longest resident of my TBR pile, most likely because I knew there was going to be slavery and war and I wanted to be in a headspace where I could absorb that and not have it feel like a "broccoli" read. In the end, I was glad I finally dived in to this sprawling family saga.
The Woman Upstairs - Claire Messud (5/1). “How angry am I? You don’t want to know...” With an opening line so bursting with repressed female rage, I knew this would be a palate-cleansing trip. Nachos after broccoli, if you will.
Leaving Isn't the Hardest Thing - Lauren Hough (5/16). Thought-provoking autobiographical essays about the traumas of growing up in a cult and leaving it (twice), surviving the Air Force during Don't Ask Don't Tell years, and finding "outsider" solidarity working in DC gay bars. With startling intimacy, she shares the hard-won wisdom and self-discovery that comes from building, breaking down, and rebuilding a life from scratch.
The Awakening - Kate Chopin (6/4). There are many 19th century novels about bourgeois women married to dull men who are contemplating or executing affairs—and usually later, themselves. This is the one by a woman. It digs into her daring to be dissatisfied with fussing over kids, which felt daring, but I was just not in a place to enjoy being wrapped in a fug of 19th century descriptivenss, lovely and unsentimental though it was.
Big Little Lies - Lianne Moriarty (6/23). Kicking off Paperback Beach Read Season with something I knew I would enjoy, having already watched the TV show that was based on this book. Frothy, funny, and with a surprisingly dark peak into a spiraling abusive marriage.
Leave the World Behind - Rumaan Alam (7/6). This almost reads like a play, in a good way. One vacation house shelters two families tiptoeing around and fumbling with their biases around race, class, and wealth while trying to figure out what in the world is going on outside their isolated bubble.
Luster - Raven Leilani (8/4). In the mood for a good cringe, this darkly funny intergenerational/interracial relationship story hit the spot.
Rememberings - Sinéad O’Connor (8/17). A fragmented and elliptical yet conversational and sharply observed (even when contradictory and rushed toward the end) account of Sinéad's abusive and wayward childhood and journey as an artist wrestling with spirituality and mental health. "In this book a girl ... does find herself ... by taking the opportunity to sensibly and truly lose her marbles. The thing being that after losing them, one finds them and plays the game better."
Crying in H Mart - Michelle Zauner (8/21). A memoir of grief, music, mother-daughter relationships and Korean home cooking food. A working extended metaphor examines how fermentation doesn't preserve a living thing as it is but rather transforms its decay into something digestible.
The Nickel Boys - Colson Whitehead (9/7). A based-on-a-true-story novel about a state-run so-called reform school and the boys broken in that system, one of hundreds of trauma factories that exist/existed in the US.
Against White Feminism - Rafia Zakaria (10/3). At times contradictory (asserting for anonymizing and naming people in similar circumstances within the space of a couple of paragraphs, for example) it’s important to recognize how white womanhood consistently pulls the spotlight on itself, to the obvious detriment of inclusive, intersectional feminism, including and especially in how it plays out in global politicking.
Lafayette in the Somewhat United States - Sarah Vowell (11/2). I haven't read her in a few years, and was interested in reading about the American Revolution from a different perspective.
