Time to divvy up your holiday budget between books and everything else. What’s under the tree? Books! What’s in the Secret Santa pile? Books! What’s in the stockings? Books! And maybe an orange.
There are big piles of the newest, latest, and hottest at the front of the bookstores and top of the rankings but as always here we'll aim to discuss something a bit different. Some came out this year, some two hundred years ago, some two thousand years ago. Together here are The Very Best Books I Read In 2021.
Happy reading!
*. Fauja Singh Keeps Going: The True Story of the Oldest Person to Ever Run A Marathonby Simran Jeet Singh. (L/I/A) Let's start off with a picture book. I’ve always felt there was a weird gap somewhere between fiction and non-fiction picture books. On one hand: Fiction! So much fiction! Goodnight moon from the great green room and running with Thing One and Thing Two. But on the other hand? Non-fiction like The Milky Way or Ant or Mother Theresa or just blow-by-blow of how something works or a biography of someone famous. But where are the books about the everyperson – the Vishwas the Uber Drivers or Shirley the Nurses or Zafar the Hamburger Men of the world. Well, enter Fauja Singh to correct the balance! Fauja is alive and well today at 110 years old – 110 years old! -- and is the oldest person to ever run a marathon. Did he train all his life? No, he began running only a few decades ago ... in his 80s! A wonderful true story about a skinny boy growing up in Punjab with weak legs and a strong spirit. Doubles as a nice introduction to Sikhism which the book calls the fifth largest religion. (Wikipedia says ninth but who's counting?)
Perfect for: children looking for something beyond Dr. Seuss, anyone looking for a reminder it's never to late to start something new, folks looking to actively diversify their bookshelves...
*.Reality Is Broken: Why Games Make Us Better And How They Can Change the Worldby Jane McGonigal. (L/I/A) Before I read this book I was stuck thinking of gamers as slack-jawed teens sitting on stained couches in dark basements on piles of empty Cheetos bags. Play more video games? No! Get outside! Run around! That’s what I’m preaching. Well, this book gave me a splash of cold water and nudged my parenting philosophy from “No video games!” to “Let me help you pick a video game and play it with you!” Jane says some markers of healthy video game use include constantly picking new games (to invite challenge and the learned resilience involved in figuring it out), explaining how to play it to somebody else afterwards (to provoke learning and teaching and understanding), and, finally, inviting a discussion on what the game can help us do better in real life (to avoid replacing reality with games – but rather enhancing it). While I still think we all suffer from Nature Deficit Disorder, I felt my arguments against video games wilting in the face of this illuminating, well-researched tour-de-force. Jane sees games helping increase career satisfaction, helping elderly feel socially connected, and tackling global-scale problems like climate change and poverty. (Her TED Talk is a great overview.) She teaches us what a game is – they all have goals, rules, feedback systems, and voluntary participation – and then shares how they can lead to more satisfying lives.
Perfect for:Educators, parents of young children, anybody feeling guilty about playing too much fantasy football…
*. Team Humanby Douglas Rushkoff. (L/I/A) Fiery, unblinking, culture-shifting manifesto imploring us – Team Human! – to come together in the face of autonomous technologies, runaway markets, and weaponized media. My mind was set ablaze reading this magnificent book organized into 100 short, powerful essays, each of which feels like it’s been simmered down into its most flavorful parts like a pot of all-day spaghetti sauce. Douglas Rushkoff is founder of the Laboratory for Digital Humanism at CUNY/Queens, where he is professor of media theory and digital economics and known for coining terms like ‘viral media’, ‘digital native’, and ‘social currency.’ I found it higher level, more informed, and a lot farther ahead on what’s happening than The Social Dilemma. All backed by well-sourced Notes that constantly sent me scurrying to look up some study or article. As the sub-headline says: “Our technologies, markets, and cultural institutions – once forces for human connection and expression – now isolate and repress us. It’s time to remake society together, not as individual players but as the team we actually are: TEAM HUMAN.”
Perfect for: people who watched The Social Dilemma, people who keep complaining about social media but also keep using social media, activists…
*. The Adventures of Huckleberry Finnby Mark Twain. (L/I/A)This year I travelled down the Mississippi River two hundred years ago in the wonderful company of thirteen year old Huck Finn. The antebellum time period feels grotesque in many ways but the vividness of this rousing coming-of-age adventure featuring endless popping characters sits on a high mantel all its own. Ernest Hemingway said "All modern literature stems from this one book."
Perfect for: anybody who wasn’t assigned this book in school (guessing most people outside the US?), advanced young readers, anybody looking for a great introduction to Mark Twain…
*. A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens. (L/I/A) Okay, I guess I'm on a classics kick suddenly. But this really is a perfect book to read over the holidays. Do you know the story of A Christmas Carol? How did you learn it? Mickey Mouse on Disney? Alvin and the Chipmunks? I picked it up from a dozen cartoons as a kid and honestly, I wish I’d just read the original. It's so much better. There’s a reason this 178-year-old (and only 89 page!) story is so heavily mimicked, parodied, and referenced. It is gut-punchy, slapstick, and will leave you in tears. Opens with one of my favorite first sentences, too: “Marley was dead: to begin with.”
Perfect for: people who like short books, anyone need a reminder of the Christmas spirit, those looking to add more classics to their pile...
*. Notes by Eleanor Coppola.(L/I/A) Bit of an odd book to include but I really do feel like books are empathy training wheels. This book could be Exhibit A. A non-fiction book that reads like vivid fiction in its daily diary format. You are Eleanor, the artistic, wealthy, humble-yet-high-society wife of Francis Ford Coppola, as well as mother of three young children, and you are living for a few years in the jungles of the Philippines while your husband shoots a gigantic movie that is stressfully running over time and budget and which is both draining and growing your family in a thousand ways. What’s the movie? Apocalypse Now. A formative life experience with Eleanor’s diaries to read throughout. I loved this book. As a sidenote, this is one of Dave Eggers’ three most formative books.
Perfect for: anybody who wants to visit Southeast Asia, fans of Apocalypse Now or Francis Ford Coppola who want a behind-the-scenes look, busy moms of young children…
*. The Practice: Shipping Creative Workby Seth Godin. (L/I/A) Whether it’s through his popular altMBA, podcasting workshop, or daily emails, so many people receive counsel, guidance, and wisdom from Seth. (Here’s a big dollop of wisdom he gave me.) I have long made it a Life Rule to read any new Seth Godin book. The Practice is a wonderful contribution to his massive catalog. Read it if you need a little nudge, big nudge, or giant shove to do it. What it? Your it. That’s the deal: You choose your it and this book lights the path. It’s impossible to read The Practice and not shift your work into a higher gear.
Perfect for: anybody itching to start a business, people thinking about a career change, or anybody wondering if that hobby in the basement could really turn into something…
*. How To Do Nothingby Jenny Odell.(L/I/A) I would like to apologize to Jenny Odell for horribly judging her book by the cover. How to do nothing? On a pile of flowers? I thought the book would have the density of meringue. MY BAD! The book actually is the densest, richest dessert imaginable. “Nothing is harder to do these days than nothing,” it begins gently, before quickly pushing you down a steep mineshaft tunnel. You gain speed as you veer into dark, twisting arguments in favor of using your attention and, really, your entire personhood as a form of resistance against our fitter, happier, more productive society. A distant cousin to Trick Mirror by Jia Tolentino. Here’s a tiny (out of context) taste from Page 137: “When the language of advertising and personal branding enjoins you to ‘be yourself’, what it really means is ‘be more yourself,’ where ‘yourself’ is a consistent and recognizable pattern of habits, desires, and drives that can be more easily advertised to and appropriated, like units of capital. In fact, I don’t know what a personal brand is other than a reliable, unchanging pattern of snap judgements…” A ‘why’ book more than a ‘how’ book, I would put it in Cultural Studies over Self-Improvement.
Perfect for: birders, people who want to turn their ambition down a bit, anybody feeling exhausted by the attention economy and looking to understand how they navigate from here…
*. Tenth of December: Storiesby George Saunders. (L/I/A)The opening story in this book is called Victory Lap. (Here it is.) It’s only 26 pages yet somehow builds from a disorienting opening into a final emotional wallop that might plaster your head back into your pillow while you stare at the ceiling for half an hour. What’s the good version of haunting? That’s what it did to my brain. I have so rarely been this affected by writing. I agree with Junot Diaz (“Few people cut as hard or deep as Saunders does”) and Mary Karr (“For more than a decade, George Saunders has been the best short story writer in English -- not "one of," not "arguably," but the Best.”) In 2013 when this book came out The New York Times Magazine declared that “George Saunders Has Written The Best Book You’ll Read This Year”. The paperback features a wonderful interview between Saunders and David Sedaris which is a must read for all writers. Gorgeous, illuminating, emotionally shaking. And here is Chapter 75 of 3 Books with George.
Perfect for: aspiring writers, New Yorker subscribers, people who want to read more literary fiction but need something shorter and more accessible...
*. A Boy Called Batby Elana K. Arnold.(L/I/A)This middle grade story about Bixby Alexander Tam (BAT) is an adult education in autism and neurodiversity, too. BAT lives with his sister and his mom and stays with his dad every other weekend. He doesn’t like to eat leftovers, sliced cheese, and most yogurt flavors. He has oversensitive hearing, flaps his hands, only takes things literally, and wants to call the police when his mom’s a few minutes late from her work as a veterinarian. One night she brings home a newborn skunk orphan. And so the rest of the book tells the story of BAT’s quest to raise, nurture, and keep the skunk against all odds. Short and simple on the surface but a lot floats below.
Perfect for: teachers, middle-grade readers from 10 and up, anyone looking to learn more about autism (while of course still remembering the adage that 'if you know one child with autism you know one child with autism') …
*. The Wonderful Wizard of Oz: A Commemorative Pop-Up Bookby L. Frank Baum and Robert Sabuda. (L/I/A)Hands down the best pop-up book I have ever seen. Whoever you get this book for will kiss you when they open it. Robert Sabuda is an ‘artist and paper engineer’ who created this absolutely stunning pop-up book of The Wizard Of Oz to commemorate the 100th anniversary. A deeply absorbing piece of art using text from the original book and all kinds of surprises including spinning cyclones and gigantic hot air balloons. Check out this YouTube video for the full effects. A pricey, special purchase for somebody who (ideally) won't tear it to shreds...
Perfect for: people who loved the movie The Wizard of Oz, anybody who needs more pop-up books on their shelf (who doesn't?) …
*. Letters from a Stoicby Seneca. (L/I/A) The fact that this book is still in print and Seneca lived two thousand years ago should give some indication to the quality. To give a little aperitif, here are three quotes I just pulled out from the first couple pages: 1) “Nothing, to my way of thinking, is a better proof of a well-ordered mind than a man’s ability to stop just where he is and pass some time in his own company.”, 2) “It is not the man who has too little who is poor, but the one who hankers after more.” and 3) “Similarly, people who never relax and people who are invariably in a relaxed state merit your disapproval – the former as much as the latter. For a delight in bustling about is not industry – it is only the restless energy of a hunted mind. And the state of mind that looks on all activity as tiresome is not true repose, but a spineless inertia … A balanced combination of the two attitudes is what we want; the active man should be able to take things easily, while the man who is inclined towards repose should be capable of action. Ask nature: she will tell you that she made both day and night.” Not bad, right?
Perfect for: anybody curious about Stoicism, anxious people looking for a nice zoom out, philosophical teens…
*. Tell Me About Sex, Grandmaby Anastasia Higginbotham.(L/I/A) Gloria Steinem has a blurb on the back of this book which reads “I love that it’s Grandma giving advice. Some Native Americans say the very young and the very old understand each other best, because each is closest to the unknown.” I feel the truth in that. This non-fiction “sex ed” style book is written as an innocent, curious cut-and-paste conversation between a child (of presumably purposefully unclear age and gender) and their grandmother. Consent, sex positivity, and body curiosity are themes explored with the undercurrent motto that ‘each person’s sexuality is their very own to discover, explore, and share if they choose.” This book hit me in the gut and I think many adults will find the same. I agree with the Kirkus reviewer who wrote: “If I were independently wealthy, I’d buy a small plane, fly across the country, and drop off copies of this book to every elementary-school health and sex educator out there.” Good pairing book with C is for Consent by Eleanor Morrison or How Mamas Love Their Babies by Juniper Fitzgerald.
Perfect for: kids asking questions about their bodies, sex or health educators, people who have body confidence issues (most of us)…
*. Mindset: The New Psychology of Successby Carol S. Dweck.(L/I/A) “The growth mindset is based on the belief that your basic qualities are things you can cultivate through your efforts, your strategies, and help from others.” Want to develop one? Read this book. It'll help nudge you down the path from fixed to growth as it did for me. Here are a few of my favorite pages from inside this book to give you a taste.
Perfect for: people into self-improvement, parents looking to be better coaches to their children, anyone leading a team...
*. The Master and Margaritaby Mikhail Bulgakov. (L/I/A) It was David Mitchell (Cloud Atlas) who told us back in Chapter 58 that The Master and Margarita by Bulgakov is a wonderful stepping stone into the nineteenth century Russians. When I started reading the book I found the first two chapters … thorny. It opens with a provocative scene in a public park in 1930s Moscow but then skips back two thousand years earlier in Chapter 2 where you're suddenly privy to the judge deciding the fate of Jesus of Nazareth. I was thrown. But when the novel settles back into Moscow it gets into its groove and it starts flying. The simple plot summary is something like: “The devil shows up and all hell breaks loose.” No shame in reading the plot summary first.
Perfect for: anyone looking for an entry point into Russian literature, horror or thriller fans, people who want to add a classic to their shelves...
*. Into Thin Airby Jon Krakauer.(L/I/A) Outside magazine sent Jon Krakauer to climb Mount Everest and report on the growing commercialization of the mountain. He ended up being intimately close to one of the greatest Everest disasters of all time with eight people – including the leaders of both tour companies he was following – dying over a dramatic few hours at the summit. Jon wrote a massive 17,000 word article in the September, 1996 issue of Outside (check out thegripping cover) and then expanded it into this book in 1997. An extremely straight-faced thriller with twists and turns and questions around decision-making under stress and leadership in crisis.
Perfect for: action movie fans, mountaineers, corporate leaders looking to assign a book for book club...
*. Hunger: A Memoir of (My) Bodyby Roxane Gay.(L/I/A) An incredible window into a young Haitian-American woman from an upstanding family coming of age in 70s and 80s Omaha, Nebraska ... and feeling many kinds of hunger throughout. In the beginning the book appears to be about food and weight. She opens Chapter 3 by saying "At my heaviest I weighed 577 pounds at six feet, three inches tall” but then we are taken deeply into abuses suffered as a child and many zig-zagging challenges that follow. She has an economical “Hemingway on Twitter” style of writing that reads very fast and addictive once you fall into it. I often talk about research showing that fiction completely absorbs us into another identity and helps grow empathy, compassion, and understanding. This book absolutely does the same.
Perfect for: memoir or biography fans, people struggling with weight or societal perceptions of weight...
*. Once Upon A Time in Hollywoodby Quentin Tarantino.(L/I/A)This is a 400-page drugstore paperback movie novelization of an R-rated movie. So when I read it I felt like a teenager in the 70s reading something exciting and vulgar and thrilling and sultry in the wee hours before turning off the light. Also, the book offers no moralizing. These days we often see morals placed above story. Was the person good? Did they do the right thing? Or can they become good? Can they learn to do the right thing? We live in such a “you must do it like this” society that if you say the wrong thing you’re quickly cancelled. Well, there’s no moralizing here! And it’s so refreshing. Tarantino is a master storyteller writing in service of story alone. Characters say horrible things, characters do horrible things, and they don’t necessarily grow at all – or, at least, in ways you might expect. Some scenes may make you wince, others cause your heart to fly, but if you’re like me you’ll keep flipping because the story is so propulsive. The swerves and curves feel like a waterslide. Last thing: the book is a true geekfest. I always considered myself a movie fan but after reading this book I feel I can elevate that label a notch towards aficionado. Quentin shares a wobbly mirrored mix of factual and revisionist history of cinema and half the fun is trying to spot the difference. Feels like you’re reading Trivial Pursuit questions by Nabokov or something. For those who’ve seen the movie, the book is different. For those who haven’t, you don’t need to. And, for both, I think the book is better. A fun and wild read.
Perfect for: people into plot-based over character-based stories, non-readers looking for a way to get back into books, Tarantino fans…
*. Four Thousand Weeks: Time Management for Mortalsby Oliver Burkeman.(L/I/A)For many years Oliver Burkeman wrote the wise and witty column for The Guardian called “This column will change your life” which examined the wide world of self-help. (He even wrote about me eleven years ago!) Well, he’s stopped the weekly columns now -- his final offering was masterful -- and now he's here, today, with us, offering a wonderfully deep and thoughtful examination of real time management. Not the Inbox Zero whack-more-moles-per-minute variety but the much more intentional month-by-month, year-by-year kind. Wisdom is seeping out of this book like a sponge you just pulled out of deep water. Spending time in Oliver's company made me feel less anxious and more calm. Pairs well with books like How Proust Can Change Your Lifeby Alain de Botton or In Praise of Slowby Carl Honoré.
Perfect for: community leaders, self-help junkies, anybody exhausted by the cult of productivity …
*. Frankensteinby Mary Shelley.(L/I/A) The story is well known: The well-educated Victor Frankenstein spends years away at college passionately building what becomes a monster who escapes and haunts him to his final days. Simple, right? But this book is broken into three and... that’s just book one and three, really. Book two hits something like The Empire Strikes Back with the entire book a 1700s gilded British gentry type monologue from ‘the daemon’ (who isn't named the entire book) to Victor himself when they meet in an incredibly vivid scene on any icy summit high up in the Alps. That flips all the overtrodden narratives about Frankenstein on its head and buries the final book under an infinitely complicated tapestry of emotionally wrenching scenes, moral questions, and scarring moments that hit deep. Heartbreaking. Heartmelting. Heartwrenching. And beautiful.
Perfect for: fans of Shirley Jackson, fans of Stephen King, anyone looking to briefly disappear from the modern world...
