The Big Book Post 2021

Welcome to the only time of year I post in this blog: recap time!

Somebody stop me, this is probably the most long-winded one yet.

Jan: Dreyer's English: An Utterly Correct Guide to Clarity and Style by Benjamin Dreyer

Feb: Motherless Brooklyn by Jonathan Lethem

Mar: The Starless Sea by Erin Morgenstern

Apr: Days of Distraction by Alexandra Chang

May: The Godspell Experience: Inside a Transformative Musical by Carol de Giere

Jun: A Favourite of the Gods by Sybille Bedford

Jul: The Midnight Library by Matt Haig

Aug-Sep: Cloud Atlas by David Mitchell

Oct: Dune by Frank Herbert

Nov: ¡Hola Papi!: How to Come Out in a Walmart Parking Lot and Other Life Lessons by John Paul Brammer

Dec: The Ocean at the End of the Lane by Neil Gaiman

Dec: Interpreter of Maladies by Jhumpa Lahiri

I finished 11 books this year, beating last year's total by 1 and falling short of this year's goal by the same number. I read about 1/4 of Dune before giving up on it, making Dune this year's Outlander (maybe I should stop trying to read 800-page genre fiction?). 

The first book I read this year was probably my favorite: Dreyer's (which Goodreads also tells me was the most highly rated of all the books I finished this year). I also gave high marks (4 stars) to Cloud and Distraction. My only 2-star review was Midnight, which I know is a popular book (the most shelved book of the ones I read this year, according to Goodreads), but I had problems with it (see my Goodreads review, linked above).

More Goodreads nonsense:

• Shortest book I read this year: Ocean (181 pages), but that honor would have gone to Passing if I'd finished it (and I will)
• Longest book I finished this year: Cloud (509 pages), and it took me a good long time, too
• Least popular book I read this year: Godspell (79 people shelved it to Midnight's 1.8 million, but I know one of them! Hi Rebecca if you're reading this.)

And by the way, I think I'm in good book-nerd company on Goodreads this New Year's Day as the site is super slow.

By the authors

I finished 6 books by male authors and 5 by female authors (Passing by Nella Larsen would have evened the score). Bedford is the oldest author I read this year, Dreyer the oldest living author (unless de Giere, whose age I could not find, is older). I could not find the birth years of Chang or Brammer, but I suspect the latter is the youngest author I read this year. Morgenstern, 43, is the youngest author I read this year whose age I could track down. This year I read mostly American authors, with the exception of 4 English authors (Bedford, Haig, Mitchell, Gaiman) and possibly de Giere who may be Canadian (and let's give her the benefit of the doubt). Bedford was born in Germany but is considered English. Lahiri was born in England but identifies as American. I didn't dig too deep into this, but I read at least 2 LGBTQ+ authors (Dreyer, Brammer), and three authors in particular shared their ethnic heritage in their books (Chang, Brammer, Lahiri). Most of the authors were new to me, but this year I read my second book of Morgenstern's, Bedford's, and Lahiri's, and my sixth by Gaiman.

By publication date

The only book I finished this year published before 1999 was Favourite (1963). Passing, published in 1929, would have been the oldest. Many of my reading years feature a return to the books that were on the best sellers list when I was working at Borders in 2002, and this year's selection from that pool are Interpreter (1999) and Motherless (1999). The only book I read that was published in 2021 was Papi, but Distraction and Midnight were from 2020 and Dreyer's and Starless were 2019.

By setting

Most of the books I read this year take place in the present day (for the book). Godspell reaches back into the seventies to tell the beginning of that story. Favourite is mostly set in and around WWI. Cloud covers the widest time period, from the mid-19th century to unfathomably in the future. Five books take place partially or entirely in NYC (Dreyer's, Motherless, Starless, Godspell, Papi) and Distraction takes place mostly in New York state. The books by the UK authors take place mostly in the UK (Favourite, Midnight, Ocean) except Cloud, which is mostly in and around the Pacific Ocean. Interpreter takes us to Boston and India.

By genre

Fiction: 8

• Fantasy: 3 (Midnight, Starless, Ocean)
• Historical: 2 (Favourite, Cloud)
• Sci-fi: 1 (Cloud)
• Short stories: 1 (Interpreter)
• Other: 2 (Distraction, Motherless)

Non-fiction: 3

• Language/Writing: 1 (Dreyer's)
• Arts & Entertainment: 1 (Godspell)
• Memoir: 1 (Papi)

Awards

• Motherless won the 1999 National Books Critics Circle Award for fiction
• Interpreter won the 2000 Pulitzer Prize for Fiction
• Cloud won the 2005 British Book Award for literary fiction and was shortlisted for the Booker Prize
• Ocean was the 2013 British Book Awards Book of the Year, and is the only book I read this year that was a #1 on the NYT best seller list

Movies and book clubs

• I read Motherless with the Page & Popcorn (P&P) Book & Movie Club, and we watched the 2019 film together (remotely). Motherless was also a selection in WNYC's Get Lit with All of It book club, and I watched Alison Stewart's interview with Jonathan Lethem. 
• Passing, which I am reading now, is also a P&P selection. I also watched The White Tiger and the 1984 and 2021 Dune adaptations with P&P but did not read the former and did not finish the latter.
• I haven't yet but plan to watch the 2012 film adaptation of Cloud, despite reports that it is bad and/or weird.
• I watched the 1993 film of Remains of the Day, which I read 8 years ago.
• I watched season 4 of Hulu's The Handmaid's Tale, which has by now gone way beyond the book, which I read in 2005 with the CHA book club. I also watched all of Anne With an "E" and The Wheel of Time, but have not read either of those book series.

How the books came to me

• Interpreter and Ocean were loaned to me by Holly and Garrett (respectively) when I arrived at their home having finished Papi on the train ride there. Distraction was a loaner from a coworker and Cloud was loaned to me by a neighbor, despite that I have a copy of it on my shelf loaned to me by a former roommate (Sharon, if you're reading this, do you want that back?).
• Godspell was mailed to me by a friend whose job I guess is to get rid of books? I saw Godspell and an Ursula K. Le Guin compilation and claimed them both, and Aubrey Gordon's book What We Don't Talk About When We Talk About Fat is also on its way to me thanks to him.
• Dreyer's and Starless were both holiday or birthday gifts from my parents, and Papi was a birthday gift from Álvaro
• I found Midnight on the bargain table at Powerhouse in Industry City (it was damaged). Motherless must have been either a Housing Works or roadside giveaway find because it is ravaged. Favourite has been on my shelf for a few years, but I think it originally came from McNally Jackson.

Goals

• Starless, Favourite, Dreyer's, and Motherless were goals from last year that I successfully completed, yay. I didn't make it to The Testaments by Margaret Atwood, so that will come with me into the new year
• I've just been handed a pile of loaners from Kathryn which I will prioritize, including Solutions and Other Problems by Allie Brosh, and the first three books in Ursula K. Le Guin's Earthsea series. I also have When Brooklyn Was Queer by Hugh Ryan on my shelf, a gift from Kathryn.
• And speaking of gifts, I am now the proud owner of the following pile of books gifted from my parents which I should get on: 12 Bytes by Jeanette Winterson, Circe by Madeline Miller, and Stay Sexy & Don't Get Murdered by the My Favorite Murder ladies. I also got A Gentleman in Moscow by Amor Towles from an office gift exchange, as well as the aforementioned Passing which I'm already half-way through.
• As if the above weren't enough for one year, I'm also hoping to get through some of these which have been on the top of my pile for a while but keep getting bypassed: The Devil in the White City by Erik Larson, The Name of the Rose by Umberto Eco, and Goodbye to Berlin by Christopher Isherwood.
• Do I dare to want more books after accumulating so many (the above being the tip of the iceberg)? Yes. This year I would like to acquire and read Fuzz by Mary Roach and Early Riser and The Constant Rabbit by Jasper Fforde.

And lastly

In 2018, I made a post listing my most-read authors. Since then, my top three have not changed (Jasper Fforde with 9 books, David Sedaris with 8, J.K. Rowling with 7), but three authors have ascended into what is now a five-way tie for fourth place, I/me having read six of their books each. Joining Sarah Vowell and Margaret Atwood in this category are: 

• Neil Gaiman after I read Ocean last year
• Gregory Maguire after I read Hiddensee and Confessions of an Ugly Stepsister in 2019 and 2020 respectively
• Mary Roach after I read Gulp in 2019

And these authors have moved into the category of authors I've read more than once:

• Donna Tartt after I read The Goldfinch in 2019
• John Hodgman after I read Medallion Status in 2020
• Erin Morgenstern, Sybille Bedford, and Jhumpa Lahiri having read their books in 2021
• Ursula K. Le Guin, having read her for the first time in 2019 (The Lathe of Heaven) and again in 2020 (The Left Hand of Darkness)

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OK that's (more than) enough. See you in my next recap post!