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Best and Worst reads of 2021

69 replies

StColumbofNavron · 28/12/2021 10:53

I don’t think we have a thread yet. I love to see what people have read and rated.

Standouts for me:
Frenchman’s Creek, Daphne du Maurier
Dona Flor and Her Two Husbands, Jorge Amado
The Island of Missing Trees, Elif Shafak

Honourable mention
The Return of the Native, Thomas Hardy
Twenty Years Later, Alexander Dumas
The Autumn of the Ace, Louis de Bernieres

Not For Me
Where the Crawdads Sing, Delia Owens
Us, David Nichols

OP posts:
HerBigChance · 29/12/2021 09:05

Loved
Jews Don't Count
Thursday Murder club
The Appeal
Magpie Murders
The Dinner Guest
Girl, Woman, Other

Wanted to love more: Ladder of Years, Anne Tyler

anormalperson · 29/12/2021 08:12

Loved
Boys don't cry - Fíona Scarlett
Snowflake- Louise Nealon
Sally Rooney - Beautiful World where are you ( though I get why some people don't like it I just adore her writing style)
Grief is the thing with feathers - Max Porter

Did not love
The Girl with the Louding voice - abi daré
Girl A - Abigail Dean

SergeiL · 28/12/2021 23:23

100% placemarking for the kindle

KERALA1 · 28/12/2021 22:57

Enjoyed

Shuggie Bain
Girl Woman Other
Sorrow and Bliss
The High House by Jesse Greengrass
CJ Sansom books Dark Fire/Dissolution
Grapes of Wrath

Didn't like
The Magus John Fowles wtf weird book
Crawdads - felt like a book for kids

SwumMum · 28/12/2021 22:50

I've had a remarkable number of dnf this year - perhaps a symptom of lockdown impatience?

I loved the Richard Shepherd books and the new Ann Cleeves Two Rivers ones. Also got into the Strike series and really enjoyed them (as a big Rankin fan I felt they had a similar vibe).

I didn't particularly love a Midnight Library and was disappointed as so many raved about it. I also found the Dawn French book that seemed like it was everywhere for a bit a bit bonkers in terms of plot. Although I read it and enjoyed at the time!

I got a great haul of Christmas books and feel 2022 is going to be a v good reading year!

(I really enjoyed Kate Clancy's book and whilst I recognise all the criticisms and that I am also at fault in my position of white privilege, and did also have some thoughts about the exploitative nature of some of the anecdotes etc, I also think there was a lot of good in it and that whilst we must listen, acknowledge, apologise and correct the wrongs etc, we should also not ascribe intentions that weren't there, nor throw the baby out with the bathwater if at all possible. Her points about private schooling and about local schools were genuinely thought provoking for me).

Puddock1 · 28/12/2021 22:46

Enjoyed the Dutch House by Ann Pratchett too.

Puddock1 · 28/12/2021 22:43

Great thread!

Loved:
We Begin At the End - Chris Whitaker (favourite book of the year)
This Is Going To Hurt - Adam Kay
Small Pleasures - Clare Chambers
Piranesi - Susannah Clark
The Sealwoman's Gift - Sally Magnusson
The Cat and the City - Nick Bradley
Flowers for Algernon - Daniel Keyes

Honourable mention
Pachinko - Min Jin Lee
The Snow Child - Eowyn Ivy
The Guest List - Lucy Foley
The Familiars - Stacey Halls

Disappointments:
Thursday Murder Club
I Am, I Am, I Am - Maggie O'Farrell
Everything I never told you - Celeste Ng

MaryasBible · 28/12/2021 22:34

@GordievskyF

Fave book of the year: The Spy and the Traitor by Ben McIntyre. Really, really recommend.

Also really enjoyed Bel Canto and The Dutch House by Ann Patchett as well as Transcendent Kingdom by Yaa Gyasi and A Long Petal of the Sea by Isabel Allende.

Tried Beautiful World, Where are You by Sally Rooney and couldn’t really get into it. Also Hamnet - beautifully written but too slow for me.

The spy and the traitor is another one on my list.
RiverSkater · 28/12/2021 22:29

@Ikeameatballs and @ThreeKneeRepeater

I've just read that Small Pleasures has been optioned for TV starring Anna Maxwell Martin. What do you think?

JuneOsborne · 28/12/2021 21:59

Glad to see someone else was disappointed by The Buried Giant, but I should have learned my lesson, I always feel like that after reading Kazuo Ishiguro. I'm currently reading Piranesi and I'm not enjoying it, but persevering.

I loved Hamnet, having never read any Maggie O'Farrel before.

I'll have to go over my list to see what else I've read this year. My memory is getting worse!

Howeverdoyouneedme · 28/12/2021 21:57

Enjoyed:

Names For The Sea. Sarah Moss.
Hamnet.
The Rivers of London series.
Jews Don’t Count. David Baddiel.
Me Talk Pretty One Day. David Sedaris
To the River. Olivia Laing.
Bliss and Sorrow. Meg Mason.
A Short History of Private Life. Bill Bryson.
Bring Up the Bodies. Hilary Mantel.
Quite liked:

The Ophelia Girls. Jane Healey.
Beautiful World, Where Are You? Sally Rooney.
Educated. Tara Westover.

LifeOfBriony · 28/12/2021 21:55

Liked:
Light Perpetual - Francis Spufford
The Girl from the Island - Lorna Cook
Thursday Murder Club- Richard Osman
Hamnet - Maggie O'Farrell
The Forgotten Village - Lorna Cook (read while on holiday in the area where it is set)
Once upon a River - Diane Setterfield
Hiding the Past - Nathan Dylan Goodwin

I didn't read anything I disliked enough to give up on, but I read a few books I've had in my pile for some years, so I could then pass them on to charity shops. In the interests of balance, two I was very glad to finish and put in the charity bag were:
The Making of Minty Malone - Isobel Wolff
A Special Relationship - Douglas Kennedy

GordievskyF · 28/12/2021 21:43

@hivemindneeded I agree on the Midnight Library - great idea but I didn’t feel satisfied when reading it, not great writing.

GordievskyF · 28/12/2021 21:40

Fave book of the year: The Spy and the Traitor by Ben McIntyre. Really, really recommend.

Also really enjoyed Bel Canto and The Dutch House by Ann Patchett as well as Transcendent Kingdom by Yaa Gyasi and A Long Petal of the Sea by Isabel Allende.

Tried Beautiful World, Where are You by Sally Rooney and couldn’t really get into it. Also Hamnet - beautifully written but too slow for me.

Ikeameatballs · 28/12/2021 21:34

I can’t remember now what I read this year and what I read last year! I also doubt that a lot of them will have been released in the year that I read them! Nonetheless I have this list of fiction:

Loved:
The Dutch House
Small Pleasures
William Walker’s First Year of Marriage
The Man who Died Twice

Liked:
Shuggie Bain
The Midnight Library
The Appeal
The Vanishing Half
American Dirt
Hamnet, but I usually love Maggie O’Farrell so this was a disappointment
Mayflies

Disliked
The Last House on Needless Street.

Currently reading The Song of Achilles

hivemindneeded · 28/12/2021 21:25

@StColumbofNavron

It’s interesting to see The Midnight Library not working for people given it seemed to be everywhere and everyone was reading it. Perhaps that is in fact it’s downfall?!
The things about The Midnight Library is - it was such a brilliant idea but written in such a basic way, as if he hoped six year olds would pick it up. I was longing for a bit more flair with the language to match the wonderful idea.
Keladrythesaviour · 28/12/2021 21:24

Loved:
Hamnet by Maggie O'Farrell
Metamorphosis by Kafka (I'd put off reading this for ages, but loved it)
A Watermelon, A Fish and A Bible by Christi Lefteri

Glad I read:
Bury My Heart At Wounded Knee by Dee Brown
The Dutch House by Ann Patchett

Hated/couldn't finish:
The Burning Chambers by Kate Moss
A Burning by Megha Majumda
The Pillars of the Earth by Ken Fillet

Disappointed by:
The Buried Giant by Kazuo Ishiguro

RiverSkater · 28/12/2021 21:15

Best
Small Pleasures Clare Chambers
A beautifully written story with well written engaging characters who you care about

Worst
Conversations with friends Sally Rooney
Self indulgent trash with one dimensional horrendous characters I wished the worst for

ExquisitelyDecorated · 28/12/2021 21:14

Hits

Troubled Blood - in fact all the Strike books, I've read them in the last 18 months or so for the first time.
Shuggie Bain
A Single Thread - Tracy Chevalier.
Silver Sparrow - Tayari Jones.
American Dirt

OK.

Thursday Murder Club - didn't finish, got bored
Midnight Library - haven't quite finished yet though, nearly there
A Narrow Door - Joanne Harris
My Brilliant Friend - Elena Ferrante

Total Misses.

Crawdads
Away with the Penguins
Miriam Margolyes - This Much is True

Alltheprettyseahorses · 28/12/2021 21:09

Best:
My Sister The Serial Killer by Oyinkan Braithwaite

Honourable mentions:
10 Minutes 38 Seconds In This Strange World by Elif Shafak
Career Of Evil by Robert Galbraith
A Slip Of The Keyboard by Terry Pratchett
Black Narcissus by Rumer Godden

Worst:
Blackpool Sisters, can't remember who wrote it, I picked it because I like really Blackpool. It got more and more idiotic with every paragraph and I somehow lasted about 80 pages before it got binnned.

Dishonourable mentions:
Last House On Needless Street by Catriona Ward
The Obsession by Catherine Cookson
The Recovery Of Rose Gold by Stephanie Wrobel

MaryasBible · 28/12/2021 21:06

@dementedma

Best: Shuggie Bain Mythos - Stephen Fry His Dark Vanessa Tsarina - Ellen Alpsten

Worst:
Piranesi

I’ve got Tsarina to read next and I’m looking forward to it. Glad to see it rated.
TheAnswerIsCake · 28/12/2021 20:55

@Curioushorse

Oh my goodness *@TheAnswerIsCake* I didn't know anybody was admitting to having enjoyed the Kate Clanchy! Especially after her publishers have issued their apology statement and it's been withdrawn from print. She's had an horrific year and I feel really sorry for her, because she's clearly well-meaning and sweet. But it does show weirdly racist/ablist attitudes.....
@curioushorse Oh dear. I had, in fact, completely missed this (although I know I am not the only one on MN who has rated it highly this year). Perhaps it is a symptom of my own white privilege that I did not pick up on the negative elements. I do still respect the work that she has done, and many of the points that she was trying to make - the idea of teachers learning from students is hugely important. The racist attitude seem strangely at odds with the aim of giving a voice to all of her students, especially those that traditionally struggle.

I feel bad that I may have missed this aspect to it. Ironically, this is why I often struggle to share my thoughts about books, in case I “get it wrong”. I’ve been trying to tell myself recently that that’s ridiculous, but as it turns out, perhaps not...

Original poster
StColumbofNavron · 28/12/2021 20:54

@dementedma Tsarina is on my list. I keep picking it up in bookshops.

OP posts:
Cyberworrier · 28/12/2021 20:51

Curioushorse, I find it interesting you're so surprised someone liked and admitted to liking Kate Clanchy's book. Thank goodness we are allowed to read whatever books we like, including ones that provoke controversy!

( FYI for anyone who missed it www.theguardian.com/books/2021/aug/10/kate-clanchy-to-rewrite-memoir-after-criticism-of-racist-and-ableist-tropes )

My favourite novel was Claire Fuller's Unsettled Ground.
Also really enjoyed Ghost Wall by Sarah Moss.

Least favourite book was Sally Rooney's Beautiful World, Where are You? Found it self satisfied and dull and gave up after a few chapters.

Hummingbirdcake · 28/12/2021 20:36

Some of these were re reads:

There There - Tommy Orange
Telex from Cuba - Rachel Kushner
The Last Day - Andrew Hunter Murray
Robot Universe - Ana Matronic
And Away - Bob Mortimer
Passing - Nella Larson
Breakfast of Champions - Kurt Vonnegut

I liked Hamnett apart from the supernatural witchy stuff which seemed unnecessary.

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