2021 reading!

my favourite time of year! i read over 30 books, beating my goal of 15, and really got back into regular reading especially toward the end of the year.

started off the year by winning two poetry books:

i would leave me if i could - halsey (3 stars)
home body - rupi kaur (3 stars)

i liked home body a bit more than i would leave me, and both books had a handful of excellent poems, but it was all a little too tumblr poetry for me and i've definitely grown out of that genre.

the song of achilles - madeline miller (5 stars)

holy shit this is required reading. stunning, heartbreaking, gay as hell and the twist! ugh!

avatar: the rise of kyoshi - f.c. yee (4 stars)

this was a tbf from 2020 and i loved it! perfect for fans of avatar: the last airbender. i love lesbians.

shadow & bone trilogy - leigh bardugo

shadow & bone was great (4 stars), hated the first 50 pages but the rest was fantastic. siege & storm was super action-packed at the start and finish but the majority of the book was boring as hell as all the characters just sat around waiting, so i gave it a 3. pretty sure i gave ruin & rising a 3 or a 4 star rating. overall i enjoyed the trilogy (the netflix show was awesome too) and in 2022 i'll try to read the six of crows duology.

loveboat, taipei - abigail hing-wen (3 stars)

i read this for AAPI book month, it was a cute little contemporary read. what i liked about it most was the main character really surprised me with her choices and decisions and wasn't at all what i was expecting. might pick up the sequel at some stage but idk.

the collectors (short story) - philip pullman (4 stars)

didn't get a book of dust volume or hdm tv show season this year so i was hanging on for anything HDM. short & sweet.

american royals - katharine mcgee (2 stars)

ugh i LOVED the premise of this book so much but it was just so cliche and YA. i would've loved this 10 years ago lol. i can only remember one character's name and she was the only one i sort of liked. disappointed.

clap when you land - elizabeth acevedo (4 stars)

i read this entire book on a flight, which i wouldn't recommend for the anxiety-induced among us as it's literally about two girls who's father's plane falls out of the air lmao. but god it was beautiful, i love women so much.

sweetbitter - stephanie danler (5 stars)

i ate this book up WHOLE and licked the plate afterwards. a new favourite. my god this was so enticing.

greenlights - matthew mcconaughey (4 stars)

this was such a fun read, matthew is a great storyteller. he goes off track a little bit with the profoundness and life lessons, but this book got me into reading more autobiographies this year!

the comeback - ella berman (4 stars)

heavy, depressing, whewww. but so well-written!

know my name - chanel miller (5 stars)

definitely shouldn't have read this and the comeback back-to-back, because that was rough. but this is required reading for every single human on the planet. no words. just,,,, god. this woman is so remarkable.

scythe & thunderhead - neil shusterman (both 4 stars)

best dystopian series since the hunger games, period. can't wait to finish this up!

the parted earth - anjali enjeti (5 stars)

read this in one sitting, i couldn't get enough. god this book is incredible. i learned a lot about the history of india vs pakistan as well!

daisy jones & the six - taylor jenkins reid (4 stars)

worth the hype! such a unique concept, i loved this book.

normal people - sally rooney (3 stars)

sally rooney is a talented writer no doubt but my GOD these two main characters annoyed the shit out of me. learn to communicate you numpties!!!

little girl lost - drew barrymore (3 stars)

this was okay. i think drew is an amazing human and i'm fascinated by her upbringing and this provided a lot of insight into just how fucked up child stars can get in the industry. but it was clearly co-written and there's only so much a 14 year old can say in a book.

a deadly education - naomi novik (3 stars)

hated the first 100 pages of this. absolutely hated it. i put it down and waited 2 weeks, almost DNFed it, but then i picked it up again one afternoon and finished the rest in one sitting. it was such a rollercoaster of a reading journey lmao.

being lolita - allison wood (4 stars)

another rough autobiography but really disturbingly fascinating. i just want to hug these women.

wildflower - drew barrymore (3 stars)

figured i'd give drew's autobiography written later in life another try, and again it was okay. i learned some new things about her, read some of the same stories, and it was cool. nothing groundbreaking, but cool.

next year in havana - chanel cleeton (3 stars)

i joined a book club that one of my favourite booktubers hosts where we read a BIPOC author every month and this was the first title! the story was pretty cool with it's dual timelines. didn't care so much for the present-day storyline as the one set in the 1950s, and the romance was eh, but i loved learning so much about cuban history!

this bright future: a memoir - bobby hall (4 stars)

this was my first & only audiobook! i love logic's music and hearing him narrate his book in his own words was such an entertaining experience. he's risen up through so much adversity and terrible odds stacked against him and it was cool to learn more about that from his perspective.

the great gatsby - f scott fitzgerald (5 stars)

i'm a sucker for this book. hook line and sinker, a new favourite.

hawkeye: kate bishop, volume 1 - kelly thompson (4 stars)

had to get started on the graphic novels before the show came out! love kate, loved this, downloaded the rest of the series onto my kindle app.

natives: race & class in the ruins of empire - akala (5 stars)

magnificent. this is required reading for everyone, particularly white people and fellow white british citizens. a big thank you to kousei for the recommendation on this one, i learned so much about british history that has never been taught to me and found myself subconsciously nodding along as i read. akala is a fantastic narrator.

yolk - mary h.k. choi (4 stars)

the MC was a little whiney but isn't every 20 year old woman? this was such a great read, beautiful and sad and wonderful, a laugh-and-cry kind of book.

sabrina the teenage witch, volume 1 - kelly thompson (4 stars)

another fun graphic novel by miss thompson! again, downloaded the others onto kindle and will finish those i'm sure.

where the crawdads sing - delia owens (5 stars)

i DRANK this book up, read it in two days. this was a book club read with my high school girls and i was utterly intoxicated. stunning writing, and a twist at the end that shook me to my core. masterful, a new favourite!

luster - raven leilani (3 stars)

this was a weird little fave. so well written, the tone was perfection. but such a strange plot!

a little life - hanya yanigahara (4 stars. except 5 stars. except 4 stars.)

jesus fucking christ. that's all i have to say.



ps: if u have goodreads, add a girl!!