The Story of a New Name by Elena Ferrante was one of my favorite books I read in 2021.
So many books, so little time—part 15.
My son started keeping a reading list in third grade, so I did too. This is the 15th year we’ve done this.
2021 was another weird year (with f-ing COVID still raging) but I finally got my reading mojo back. Between long walks with audio books and nights that were once spent socializing with friends and colleagues now spent curling up with books, I definitely read even more than in previous years.
My favorite books of 2021 were The Story of a New Name by Elena Ferrante (the second book in her excellent My Brilliant Friend series), The Authenticity Project by Clare Pooley and Apples Never Fall by Liane Moriarty (a return to top form after what I thought was a rare miss with Nine Perfect Strangers — though I still binged the whole series on Hulu).
I also really liked White Ivy by Susie Yang, The Turnout by Megan Abbott, Mary Jane by Jessica Anya Blau (I don’t know her personally but she grew up in Santa Barbara and is an excellent writer), Beautiful World, Where Are You by Sally Rooney, Those Who Stay and Those Who Leave by Elena Ferrante (third in the series), The Huntress by Kate Quinn, Good Company by Cynthia D’Aprix Sweeney, The Last Thing He Told Me by Laura Dave, Good Riddance by Elinor Lipman, The Midnight Library by Matt Haigh, Malibu Rising by Taylor Jenkins Reid and The Dutch House by Ann Patchett.
I’d love to hear what else people loved.
Here’s the 2021 list.
| Rules for Being a Girl | Candace | Bushnell & Katie Cotugno |
| The First Mistake | Sandie | Jones |
| The Midnight Library | Matt | Haigh |
| Blackbird Fly (The Bennett Sisters Mysteries #1) | Lise | McClendon |
| Beach Read | Emily | Henry |
| The Dutch House | Ann | Patchett |
| Evidence of the Affair | Taylor | Jenkins Reid |
| Everyone’s a Critic | Jennifer | Weiner |
| The List | Jade | Chang |
| Face: A Memoir | Marcia | Meier |
| You Should See Me In A Crown | Leah | Johnson |
| Love and Death With the in Crowd | Jessica Anya | Blau |
| Self-Help | Lorrie | Moore |
| Members Only | Sameer | Pandya |
| Weightless | Sarah | Bannan |
| The Story of Arthur Truluv | Elizabeth | Berg |
| The People We Hate at the Wedding | Grant | Ginder |
| All We Can Save | Ayana Elizabeth Johnson & Katharine K. | Wilkinson |
| Just Like You | Nick | Hornby |
| The Other Woman | Sandie | Jones |
| The Half Sister | Sandie | Jones |
| Chances Are | Richard | Russo |
| Pretty Things | Janelle | Brown |
| Ready Player Two | Ernest | Cline |
| In a Holidaze | Christina | Lauren |
| The Hating Game | Sally | Thorne |
| Take a Hint, Dani Brown | Talia | Hibbert |
| White Fragility | Robin | DiAngelo |
| One True Loves | Taylor | Jenkins Reid |
| The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo | Taylor | Jenkins Reid |
| All We Ever Wanted Was Everything | Janelle | Brown |
| Jane in Love | Rachel | Givney |
| I Want to Be Where the Normal People Are | Rachel | Bloom |
| The Five-Year Hitch | Melissa | De la Cruz |
| Separation Anxiety | Laura | Zigman |
| The Divines | Ellie | Eaton |
| Dick Pic | Mary H.K. | Choi |
| The Authenticity Project | Clare | Pooley |
| Uncanny Valley: A Memoir | Anna | Wiener |
| The End of Everything | Megan | Abbott |
| The Guest Book | Sarah | Blake |
| The Boy, the mole, the fox and the horse | Charlie | Mackesy |
| Group: How One Therapist and a Circle of Strangers Saved My Life | Christie | Tate |
| While Justice Sleeps | Stacey | Abrams |
| Milkman | Anna | Burns |
| The Soulmate Equation | Christina | Lauren |
| The Chicken Sisters | KJ | Dell’Antonia |
| Malibu Rising | Taylor | Jenkins Reid |
| Get a Life, Chloe Brown | Talia | Hibbert |
| The Singles Game | Lauren | Weisberger |
| The Wedding Gift | Carolyn | Brown |
| Josh and Hazel’s Guide to Not Dating | Christina | Lauren |
| Neighbors | Elizabeth | La Ban and Melissa DePino |
| Adulting | Liz | Talley |
| Midnight at the Bright Ideas Bookstore | Matthew J. | Sullivan |
| Laura Lamont’s Life in Pictures | Emma | Straub |
| Good Riddance | Elinor | Lipman |
| One to Watch | Kate | Stayman-London |
| Inclusive Conversations | Mary-Frances | Winters |
| Royal Holiday | Jasmine | Guillory |
| Everybody Loves Kamau | W. Kamau | Bell |
| Boyfriends of Dorothy | Wednesday | Martin |
| Everyone’s Happy | Rufi | Thorpe |
| The Edge of Falling | Rebecca | Serle |
| Act Your Age Eve Brown | Talia | Hibbert |
| Where the Grass is Green and the Girls are Pretty | Lauren | Weisberger |
| Astrid Sees All | Natalie | Standiford |
| A Promised Land | Barack | Obama |
| That Summer | Jennifer | Weiner |
| The Hunting Party | Lucy | Foley |
| The Story of a New Name | Elena | Ferrante |
| Unsheltered | Barbara | Kingsolver |
| The Last Thing He Told Me | Laura | Dave |
| Good Company | Cynthia | D’Aprix Sweeney |
| Helen of Pasadena | Lian | Dolan |
| When Stars Collide | Susan Elizabeth | Phillips |
| White Ivy | Susie | Yang |
| Untamed | Glennon | Doyle |
| Apples Never Fall | Liane | Moriarty |
| It Had To Be You | Susan Elizabeth | Phillips |
| Nobody’s Baby But Mine | Susan Elizabeth | Phillips |
| Seven Days in June | Tia | Williams |
| Heaven, Texas | Susan Elizabeth | Phillips |
| The Book of Lost and Found | Lucy | Foley |
| Match me if You Can | Susan Elizabeth | Phillips |
| The Rose Code | Kate | Quinn |
| Girl, Woman, Other | Bernardine | Evaristo |
| The President’s Daughter | Bill | Clinton & James Patterson |
| The Heart Principle | Helen | Hoang |
| The Paper Palace | Miranda | Cowley Heller |
| The Huntress | Kate | Quinn |
| Those Who Leave and Those Who Stay | Ferrante | Elena |
| This Heart of Mine | Susan Elizabeth | Phillips |
| The Kiss Quotient | Helen | Hoang |
| Dream a Little Dream | Susan Elizabeth | Phillips |
| Beautiful World, Where are You | Sally | Rooney |
| No Judgements | Meg | Cabot |
| A Bookworm’s Guide to Faking It | Emma | Hart |
| This is Not the End | Chandler | Baker |
| No Offense | Meg | Cabot |
| Mary Jane | Jessica Anya | Blau |
| Bliss | Shay | Mitchell & Michaela Blaney |
| Shipped | Angie | Hockman |
| The Turnout | Megan | Abbott |
| Fake Accounts | Lauren | Oyler |
| If the Shoe Fits | Julie | Murphy |
| The Husbands | Chandler | Baker |
Previous Book Lists
So many books, so little time—part 11.