Favorite Reads of 2021

 

Cecilia Eckback. Wolf Winter.

• Beautifully written: interesting place, time, and characters. It was dark and unexpected and it completely pulled me in. 

Liane Moriarty. Apples Never Fall.

• Interesting story of a family: sensitive and kind without being sugary. Complex personalities, complex relationships, and gratifying personal journeys for all the characters.

Barbara Kingsolver. Animal, Vegetable, Miracle.

• Non-fiction: went from being a bit preachy in the beginning, to a very fun, friendly, and inspiring read about growing, making, and appreciating food.

Fredrik Backman. A Man Called Ove.

• So sad. So full of hope. So full of life. So full of death. 

Avi Loeb. Extraterrestrial.

• Non-fiction. Controversial, thought-provoking, and inspiring, but only after I was able to get through annoying first couple of chapters full off bragging and self-adoration.

Lauren Wilkinson. American Spy.

• Interesting, compelling, with believable multi-layered characters. Thought-provoking and deep enough for late-night conversations about ideologies, desires, philosophies, and political, personal, and moral implications of human actions.

New (for me) author I really liked:

Lisa Black (Gardiner and Renner series). Crime-solving police procedurals from the perspective of a forensic scientist. She really knows what she is talking about - I loved reading about microtubes, and repeat-pipettes, and multiple other technical details that are very familiar from my bench-work science days. Her writing is OK, the plot lines are OK (as in, not fabulous but interesting enough, and thought-provoking). She puts a lot of research and thought into her books. The best part, for me, were the (realistic, I think) forensic science approach and descriptions of every-day lab work. These books pulled me out of a reading slump. That said, I am not sure I'll be going back to her books any time soon.