This year, I read 34 books and here's a roundup of my four favorites. Below you'll see a list of ten honorable mentions that were also excellent. I only finish a book if I like it, so these fourteen books are all great!
My list this year includes
- Two novels, one nonfiction book, & one art collection
- One female author & three male authors
- Authors who are African American, Dutch American, Thai, and Chinese Malaysian.
Here are my four best reads of 2021 in the order I finished them.
Genre: fiction
Year published: 2019
Awards & Accolades: Pulitzer Prize for Fiction; New York Times bestseller; and lots more awards
Why I liked it: Colson Whitehead ranks among only four authors who have ever won the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction more than once. This is the book that won one of them (his other winning book: The Underground Railroad which I also recommend). Compact, devastating, with a powerful though subtle ring of hope at the end, The Nickel Boys is about two Black boys unjustly sentenced to a hellish reform school that is based off a real life reformatory that operated in Florida for over 100 years. I walked away with a deeper understanding of the high cost of hope and peaceful protest in the face of violent injustice. A must re-read for me.
Genre: nonfiction
Year published: 2015
Why I liked it: I had been hearing about this book everywhere for a few years. Dr. van der Kolk, psychiatrist and trauma expert, lays out how trauma reshapes the brain and affects the body and how embodied therapies (drama, yoga, sports) can be used to heal the brain and body. This book is a bit of a deep dive, I'm sure they are assigning it in college courses these days, but the effort is well worth it. I walked away with a changed perspective on the deep connections between our minds and bodies.
Genre: art
Year published: 2000
Why I liked it: Sawai Chinnawong portrays Christianity through traditional Thai drawing and painting. In his own words, "I believe Jesus Christ is present in every culture, and I have chosen to celebrate his presence in our lives through Thai traditional cultural forms." Over the summer, I feasted daily on this book, gazing on one image and reading its description every day. Gorgeous. (I think the only place to get a copy is through OMSC at Princeton Theological Seminary.)
Genre: fiction
Year published: 2019
Awards & Accolades: New York Times Bestseller; Reese Witherspoon's book club
Why I liked it: Choo's novel is set in 1930s Malaysia and follows the interlocking adventures of a young woman struggling against societal and familial expectations for her and the story of a young boy on a mission to fulfill his master's dying wish. This coming of age story is full of mystery, magic, and superstition with a sweet love story woven throughout. I loved the lush descriptions of the culture and place that feel familiar from our years in Southeast Asia. I lost sleep over the page turning suspense. Mesmerizing.
Other great reads of 2021:
Becoming Brave by Brenda Salter McNeil - I love the way this veteran in racial reconciliation uses her own journey and the story of Esther to guide the reader in anti-racism work.
Developing Female Leaders by Kadi Cole - A practical guide on unleashing women as leaders in Christian ministry contexts.
Roots by Alex Haley - This epic story follows multiple generations of a single family and deepened my understanding of the way slavery abruptly severs the identity of family and place for so many.
Interior Chinatown by Charles Wu - It took me a bit to figure out what this quirky book was doing, but in the end I loved the originality and the humorous and biting ways it portrayed some of the Asian-American experience.
Where the Crawdads Sing by Delia Owens - Murder mystery, coming of age story, and love story - I loved how the characters paralleled possibilities in our relationship to the natural world.
Shalom and the Community of Creation by Randy Woodley - This theologian deepened my appreciation of the Biblical concept of shalom through his Native American cultural lens.
How to Fight Racism by Jemar Tisby - I thought I knew a lot already and this book showed that I still have so much to learn.
Prayer by Richard Foster - This book expanded both my knowledge and practice of many different types of prayer.
In the Woods and The Likeness both by Tana French - I had trouble setting down these two beautifully written, page-turner murder mysteries set near Dublin.
