2021 Book List

Hi there. Let’s talk books!

I’m a lifelong bookworm and a freelance reviewer for Shelf Awareness. I read a lot, I read widely (and deeply), and I love talking about what I read. My favorite genres are mystery, young adult, food and travel writing, well-written fiction with heart, compelling nonfiction, memoir, poetry and essays.

I post semi-monthly reading roundups on the blog, which are linked below as they appear. You can also find me on Goodreads.

December, part 2
Peach Blossom Spring, Melissa Fu
25 Days ‘Til Christmas, Poppy Alexander
Swimming with Seals, Victoria Whitworth
All I Want for Christmas, Wendy Loggia
Marvelous Manhattan, Reggie Nadelson
The Body in the Garden, Katharine Schellman
The Twelve Days of Dash and Lily, Rachel Cohn & David Levithan
The Bookshop of Dust and Dreams, Mindy Thompson
Intimations, Zadie Smith
The Last Chance Library, Freya Sampson
These Precious Days, Ann Patchett

December, part 1
The Man Who Died Twice, Richard Osman
God Rest Ye, Royal Gentlemen, Rhys Bowen
The Lincoln Highway, Amor Towles
The People We Keep, Allison Larkin
Shepherds Abiding, Jan Karon
The Bright Side Running Club, Josie Lloyd
It’s a Wonderful Woof, Spencer Quinn

November, part 2
I Came All This Way to Meet You, Jami Attenberg
A Lethal Lesson, Iona Whishaw
Our Woman in Moscow, Beatriz Williams
A Soft Place to Land, Janae Marks

November, part 1
The Whispers of War, Julia Kelly
Our American Friend, Anna Pitoniak
Red is My Heart, Antoine Laurain
The Magnolia Palace, Fiona Davis
Call Us What We Carry, Amanda Gorman
Her Path Forward, ed. Chris Olsen and Julie Burton

October, part 2
Silence in the Library, Katharine Schellman
All You Knead is Love, Tanya Guerrero
Olive Bright, Pigeoneer, Stephanie Graves
Brown Girls, Daphne Palasi Andreades
The Austen Girls, Lucy Worsley
The Garden in Every Sense and Season, Tovah Martin
Miss Kopp Investigates, Amy Stewart

October, part 1
Merci Suarez Can’t Dance, Meg Medina
The Vanderbeekers Make a Wish, Karina Yan Glaser
Sunrise by the Sea, Jenny Colgan
Incense and Sensibility, Sonali Dev
One Night Two Souls Went Walking, Ellen Cooney
Honor, Thrity Umrigar

September, part 3
Tune it Out, Jamie Sumner
Good Apple, Elizabeth Passarella
Summer at Meadow Wood, Amy Rebecca Tan
Every Missing Piece, Melanie Conklin
Rewilding the Urban Soul, Claire Dunn

September, part 2
Fierce Love, Rev. Dr. Jacqui Lewis
Finding Freedom, Erin French
The Parker Inheritance, Varian Johnson
Castle Shade, Laurie R. King
Merci Suarez Changes Gears, Meg Medina
Life is Like a Musical, Tim Federle
The Defiant Middle, Kaya Oakes

September, part 1
Really Truly, Heather Vogel Frederick
The Only Black Girls in Town, Brandy Colbert
The Lord God Made Them All, James Herriot
Instructions for Dancing, Nicola Yoon
A Kind of Paradise, Amy Rebecca Tan
The Last Winter, Porter Fox

August, part 2
Swimming to the Top of the Tide, Patricia Hanlon
Luck of the Titanic, Stacey Lee
The Lost Spells, Robert Macfarlane and Jackie Morris
The Guncle, Steven Rowley
A Match Made for Murder, Iona Whishaw
On Juneteenth, Annette Gordon-Reed
The Shape of Thunder, Jasmine Warga
Letter to a Stranger, ed. Colleen Kinder
Roll with It, Jamie Sumner
Wholehearted Faith, Rachel Held Evans
A Rogue’s Company, Allison Montclair
Eighty Days to Elsewhere, kc dyer

August, part 1
Finlay Donovan is Killing It, Elle Cosimano
Fearless, Mandy Gonzalez
Goldenrod, Maggie Smith
No Memes of Escape, Olivia Blacke
Hooked: How Crafting Saved My Life, Sutton Foster
The Year of the End, Anne Theroux

July, part 2
A Deceptive Devotion, Iona Whishaw
A Most Clever Girl, Stephanie Marie Thornton
New Girl in Little Cove, Damhnait Monaghan
Take Me Home Tonight, Morgan Matson
Solo, Rebecca Seal
A Scone of Contention, Lucy Burdette

July, part 1
These Unlucky Stars, Gillian McDunn
Monsieur Pamplemousse and the French Solution, Michael Bond
Between Two Kingdoms, Suleika Jaouad
The Island Home, Libby Page
The Road Trip, Beth O’Leary
Ways to Grow Love, Renee Watson
Amari and the Night Brothers, B.B. Alston

June, part 3
Very Sincerely Yours, Kerry Winfrey
The Tumbling Turner Sisters, Juliette Fay
The Amelia Six, Kristin L. Gray
Braiding Sweetgrass, Robin Wall Kimmerer
A Sorrowful Sanctuary, Iona Whishaw

June, part 2
Dear Highlights, Christine French Cully
Musical Chairs, Amy Poeppel
It Begins in Betrayal, Iona Whishaw
Three Keys, Kelly Yang
Yours Cheerfully, AJ Pearce
Amina’s Song, Hena Khan

June, part 1
City of Flickering Light, Juliette Fay
Dear Martin, Nic Stone
An Old, Cold Grave, Iona Whishaw
The Queen Bee and Me, Gillian McDunn
Fortune Favors the Dead, Stephen Spotswood
Dial A for Aunties, Jesse Q. Sutanto
Lookout, Trina Moyles
The Memory Keeper, Jennifer Camiccia
The Paris Connection, Lorraine Brown
All Things Wise and Wonderful, James Herriot

May, part 2
The Rehearsals, Annette Christie
Death in a Darkening Mist, Iona Whishaw
All the Little Hopes, Leah Weiss
The Windsor Knot, S.J. Bennett
In All Good Faith, Liza Nash Taylor
Caterpillar Summer, Gillian McDunn
Shadow of the Batgirl, Sarah Kuhn & Nicole Goux
The Bookshop of Second Chances, Jackie Fraser

May, part 1
The Great Belonging, Charlotte Donlon
The Rose Code, Kate Quinn
Of Bears and Ballots, Heather Lende
The Color of Life, Cara Meredith
The Consequences of Fear, Jacqueline Winspear
A Quantum Life, Hakeem Oluseyi
The Kitchen Front, Jennifer Ryan
Jane of Lantern Hill, L.M. Montgomery

April, part 2
The 24-Hour Cafe, Libby Page
God Spare the Girls, Kelsey McKinney
A Woman of Intelligence, Karin Tanabe
How to Love the World, ed. James Crews
Made in China, Anna Qu
All Things Bright and Beautiful, James Herriot
You Have a Match, Emma Lord
A Killer in King’s Cove, Iona Whishaw
Blue Horses, Mary Oliver

April, part 1
All Creatures Great and Small, James Herriot
Flygirl, Sherri L. Smith
Marathon Woman, Kathrine Switzer
The Cake Therapist, Judith Fertig
Home Made, Liz Hauck
My Inner Sky, Mari Andrew
The Secret Keeper of Jaipur, Alka Joshi

March, part 2
How the Word is Passed, Clint Smith III
This Time Next Year We’ll Be Laughing, Jacqueline Winspear
84 Charing Cross Road, Helene Hanff
You Go First, Erin Entrada Kelly
A Deadly Inside Scoop, Abby Collette
Murder-on-Sea, Julie Wassmer
Perestroika in Paris, Jane Smiley

March, part 1
The Transatlantic Book Club, Felicity Hayes-McCoy
A Writer’s Paris, Eric Maisel
Smile: The Story of a Face, Sarah Ruhl
The Summer Seekers, Sarah Morgan
Diana and the Island of No Return, Aisha Saeed
A Peculiar Combination, Ashley Weaver
The Parted Earth, Anjali Enjeti
The Whitstable Pearl Mystery, Julie Wassmer

February, part 2
The Reluctant Midwife, Patricia Harman
Arsenic and Adobo, Mia P. Manansala
The School I Deserve, Jo Napolitano
The Thursday Murder Club, Richard Osman
All-American Muslim Girl, Nadine Jolie Courtney
The Beauty in Breaking, Michele Harper
The Voting Booth, Brandy Colbert
The Blue Castle, L.M. Montgomery

February, part 1
A Cuban Girl’s Guide to Tea and Tomorrow, Laura Taylor Namey
New Yorkers, Craig Taylor
All the Greys on Greene Street, Laura Tucker
Trace, Lauret Savoy
Wintering, Katherine May
In a Book Club Far Away, Tif Marcelo
The Love Story of Missy Carmichael, Beth Morrey
Mergers and Acquisitions, Cate Doty
The Last Bookshop in London, Madeline Martin

January, part 2
Homegoing, Yaa Gyasi
Pride, Prejudice, and Other Flavors, Sonali Dev
March Sisters, Kate Bolick et al.
Hope Rides Again, Andrew Shaffer
The Fixed Stars, Molly Wizenberg
Recipe for Persuasion, Sonali Dev

January, part 1
Once a Midwife, Patricia Harman
Mimi Lee Reads Between the Lines, Jennifer J. Chow
Cozy: The Art of Arranging Yourself in the World, Isabel Gillies
The Enigma Game, Elizabeth Wein
Dash & Lily’s Book of Dares, Rachel Cohn & David Levithan
The Light in the Dark, Horatio Clare
The Midwife of Hope River, Patricia Harman