WHAT I READ IN 2021 AND MY TOP 20 BOOKS

 

With the lockdown rendering normal life impossible, I got stuck into some serious reading this year and had originally hoped to consume an unprecedented 100 books by 2022. In the event, I managed that by July. And so I went on, and on, and on … and by the end of December I’d somehow read 208 books! I assure you that this will never be repeated.

Anyway, in the spirit of literary collegiality, I thought I’d post up my 20 favourite reads of the year, along with the reasons why I consider them thus. There is no rank of merit; this is just the order in which I read them. I’ve split them into three groups: novels; autobiography; and nonfiction. At the end of the post there is a comprehensive list of all the books I read in 2021.

 

NOVELS

Somebody’s Voice, Ramsey Campbell

Another magnificent prose masterclass. Nobody writes in such a tricksy, sinuous and artful way. Totally exhilarating. And the story here is gripping from start to end.

 

Solar, Ian McEwan

Hilarious, cruel and exceedingly insightful on the matter of academics (I’ve known a fair few).

 

Saturday, Ian McEwan

Many people find the end of this novel problematic but not me. I thought it was entirely justified and illustrative of the book’s theme – the sheer weirdness of the human psyche.

 

The End of Everything, Megan Abbott

An extraordinarily sensitive depiction of teen girlhood. The book is billed as crime but it’s as much a literary exploration of a very complex issue.

 

My Dark Vanessa, Kate Elizabeth Russell

A novel on a similar theme as the Abbott and with just as much to say. I applaud both writers for their courage and honesty, particularly their refusal to take ideologically motivated sides.

 

Odd Girl Out, Elizabeth Jane Howard

My greatest revelation of the year? Probably. I could have chosen any one of the three Howard novels I read but I’m going for this one as it was the first. The prose is remarkable and the characterisation tender and true.  

 

Our Little Cruelties, Liz Nugent

Another new author to me and one whose other work I plan to seek out. Nugent’s depiction of three Irish brothers is a brilliant literary analysis of sibling rivalry whose every scene comes to gritty life.

 

The Sky is Everywhere, Jandy Nelson

This is the only YA novel here, though I read a fair few (and enjoyed all). But Nelson comes out top on the strength of her wonderful prose which is packed with striking metaphors and brilliant turns of phrase.

 

Ask Again, Yes, Mary Beth Keane

A delightful literary novel about two US families in conflict, with their Romeo and Juliet offspring seeking to heal the rift. Piercing characterisations and old fashioned third person storytelling make this read like a classic of yesteryear.

 

AUTOBIOGRAPHY

So Anyway… , John Cleese

I’ve been a Cleese fan for 40 years so how could I not read his life story? Although it ends before Python, it’s fascinating to learn how someone with a deep interest in psychology makes sense of his experience. The writing is superb too.

 

NONFICTION

Empireland, Sangnam Sanghera

A passionate polemic encouraging readers to think clearly about the legacy of empire. Even-handed and instructive.

 

The Righteous Mind, Jonathan Haidt

I include this because it illuminates a lot of issues in contemporary culture – voting patterns, religion, etc. A friend of mine has issues with Haidt’s central conceit and I won’t argue with him. But the book remains hugely insight.

 

A Tyranny of Clichés, Jonah Goldberg

Like Haidt, Goldberg is a small-c social conservative but he’s no apologist for any strand of the right, hard or otherwise. In this book he explores the way that “thought cliches” have limited our capacity to think politically.

 

Intellectuals and Society, Thomas Sowell

There’ll be more people of the left along soon, but I couldn’t leave out Sowell’s penetrating study of great thinkers straying outside their disciplines and making a hash of things. Sowell is witty and astute, and unlike some other conservatives, he draws on verifiable data.

 

Testosterone Rex, Cordelia Fine

Okay, here we are with some balance to conservatism. Fine’s highly readable challenge to evolutionary psychology identified several problems I myself have with the discipline and made me think about many more.

 

Proust was a Neuroscientist, Jonah Lehrer

A fascinating exploration into how creative artists often make insights long before empirical science identifies the same.

 

The Broken Ladder, Keith Payne

More from the left. Payne’s passionate account of the perils of economic inequality is about as essential a read at this time as I can think of. Packed with persuasive data.

 

A Brief History of Misogyny, Jack Holland

A humbling history of misogynistic practices from the very inception of human cultures.

 

Age of Anger, Panjak Mishra

A long, powerful rant about postcolonialism in the age of globalisation, with rich historical context and erudition aplenty.

 

Who Owns England, Guy Shrubsole

A revealing account of whom the land on which we live truly belongs to. The author has certainly done his research, even though conspicuous gaps remain in the data available.

 

ALL I READ IN 2021

Zone of Interest, Martin Amis

The Abolition of Britain, Peter Hitchens

Talking It Over, Julian Barnes

Love Etc, Julian Barnes

England, England, Julian Barnes

War Against Cliché, Martin Amis

Notes from Underground, Fyodor Dostoevsky

Curious Incident of the Dog at Night-time, Mark Haddon

Adventures of Augie March, Saul Bellow

Confederacy of Dunces, John Kennedy Toole

Unveiled, Yasmine Mohammed

The Blank Slate, Steven Pinker

History of Modern Britain, Andrew Marr

Empireland, Sangnam Sanghera

Memoirs, Kingsley Amis

Madness of Crowds, Douglas Murray

Righteous Mind, Jonathan Haidt

Coddling of American Mind, Jonathan Haidt

Happiness Hypothesis, Jonathan Haidt

Waking Up, Sam Harris

Fools, Frauds and Firebrands, Roger Scruton

Islam and Future of Tolerance, Sam Harris & Maajid Nawaz

God is not Great, Christopher Hitchens

Rage Against God, Peter Hitchens

Liberal Fascism, Jonah Goldberg

Tyranny of Clichés, Jonah Goldberg

Later, Stephen King

War Against Boys, Christina Hoff Sommers

How Britain Really Works, Stig Abnell

Intellectuals and Society, Thomas Sowell

Cosmic Justice, Thomas Sowell

Civilisation, Niall Ferguson

Empire, Niall Ferguson

Dark Money, Jane Mayer

Hayek, Eamonn Butler

Homo Deus, Noah Harari

Poverty Safari, Darren McGarvey

Testosterone Rex, Cordelia Fine

How to be a conservative, Roger Scruton

Difficult Women, Helen Lewis

Identity Crisis, Ben Elton

Road to Unfreedom, Timothy Snyder

Layered Money, Nik Bhatia

Postcolonialism, Robert Young

Give People Money, Anne Lovrey

The Broken Ladder, Keith Payne

Brief History of Misogyny, Jack Holland

Populism, Cas Mudde

Transgender History, Susan Stryker

DNA is not Destiny, Stephen Heine

Suicide of the West, Jonah Goldberg

Primetime Propaganda, Ben Shapiro

Somebody’s Voice, Ramsey Campbell

Perv, Jesse Bering

Orthodox Christianity, Edward Siecienski

Magna Carta, Dan Jones

Secret Societies, Richard Spence

Evolution of Desire, David Buss

Shallows Graves in Siberia, Michael Krupa

The Influence. Ramsey Campbell

Bad Samaritans, Ha-joon Chang

Two Brothers, Ben Elton

First Casualty, Ben Elton

Unmasked, Andrew Lloyd Webber

Utopia for Realists, Rutger Bregman

The New Right, Michael Malice

This Sovereign Isle, Robert Tombs

History of Witchcraft, Lois Martin

Post Truth, Lee McIntyre

The Long March, Roger Timball

Gwendy’s Button Box, King and Chizmar

Kill All Normies, Angela Nagle

Age of Anger, Panjak Mishra

Soul of the World, Roger Scruton

Unit 731, Derek Pua

Everyday Sexism, Laura Bates

Spanish Civil War, Helen Graham

Paul McCartney, Philip Norman

Heaven on Earth, Joshua Muravchik

Elements of Eloquence, Mark Forsyth

Life After Death, Dinesh D’Souza

Why Marx Was Right, Terry Eagleton

Proust was a Neuroscientist, Jonah Lehrer

So Anyway, John Cleese

Something Wonderful, Todd Purdum

Affluenza, Oliver James

Beauty, Roger Scruton

Boomers, Helen Andrews

Who Owns England, Guy Shrubsole

Against the Grain, James Scott

Moon Tiger, Penelope Lively

Extended Mind, Anne Murphy Paul

Bland Fanatics, Panjak Mishra

Firestarter, Stephen King

Obsession, Ramsey Campbell

Solar, Ian McEwan

Amsterdam, Ian McEwan

Patchwork Planet, Anne Tyler

The Driver’s Seat, Muriel Spark

Girl at the Lion D’Or, Sebastian Faulks

Sweet Tooth, Ian McEwan

Nutshell, Ian McEwan

Course of Love, Alain de Botton

Normal People, Sally Rooney

Saturday, Ian McEwan

Practical Magic, Alice Hoffman

Half of a Yellow Sun, Chimamanda Adiche

Runaway, Alice Munro

Piranesi, Susanna Clarke

Left Hand of Darkness, Ursula le Guin

Bel Canto, Ann Patchett

If I Had Your Face, Frances Cha

Swing Time, Zadie Smith

Eva Luna, Isabel Allende

Mother May I, Joshilyn Jackson

The Village Killings, Ramsey Campbell

End of Everything, Megan Abbott

Billy Summers, Stephen King

The Fever, Megan Abbott

Possession, A S Byatt

The Lie Tree, Frances Hardinge

The Wildling Sisters, Eve Chase

Station Eleven, Emily St John Mandel

Confessions, Kanae Minato

The Hole, Hye-Young Pyun

The Sky is Everywhere, Jandy Nelson

Frankisstein, Jeanette Winterson

Leaving Time, Jodi Picoult

The Pact, Sharon Bolton

Mr Fox, Helen Oyeyemi

A Good Man is Hard to Find, Flannery O’Conner

Radio Silence, Alice Oseman

What to Say Next, Julie Buxbaum

Ghosts, Dolly Alderton

Animal Dreams, Barbara Kingsolver

The Party, Elizabeth Day

Hamnet, Maggie O’Farrell

Heaven’s Prisoners, James Lee Burke

Cockroach, Ian McEwan

The Innocent, Ian McEwan

The Silent Land, Graham Joyce

Klara and the Sun, Kazuo Ishiguro

Excellent Women, Barbara Pym

Restless, William Boyd

Night After Day, Anita Diamant

Everything I Never Told You, Celeste Ng

Visit from the Goon Squad, Jennifer Egan

Anxious People, Fredrick Backman

The Survivors, Jane Harper

Eleanor Oliphant is Completely Fine, Gail Honeyman

Place Called Winter, Patrick Gale

The Reddening, Adam Nevill

Mrs England, Stacey Halls

The Bees, Laline Paull

Dolly, Susan Hill

The Travelling Bag, Susan Hill

When We Were Orphans, Kazuo Ishiguro

Mist in the Mirror, Susan Hill

Sweet Sorrow, David Nicholls

Slade House, David Mitchell

Rest of Us Just Live Here, Patrick Ness

My Dark Vanessa, Kate Elizabeth Russell

Silverview, John le Carre

Sailor Who Fell From Grace, Yukio Mishima

Light Years, James Salter

Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao, Junot Diaz

Artist of the Floating World, Kazuo Ishiguro

Rotters’ Club, Jonathan Coe

Oh What a Carve Up, Jonathan Coe

Enduring Love, Ian McEwan

Lying Life of Adults, Elena Ferrante

The Wall, John Lanchester

Warlight, Michael Ondaatje

I Let You Go, Clare Mackintosh

Billy Bathgate, E L Doctorow

Paradise City, Elizabeth Day

The Three, Sarah Lotz

Little Girls, Ronald Malfi

Rushing to Paradise, J G Ballard

Odd Girl Out, Elizabeth Jane Howard

Remarkable Creatures, Tracy Chevalier

Spy in the House of Love, Anais Nin

The Stars are Fire, Anita Shreve

Secret Life of Bees, Sue Monk Kidd

Flowers for Algernon, Daniel Keyes

I’ll Take you There, Wally Lamb

Invisible, Paul Auster

Everything is Illuminated, Jonathan Safran Foer

The Shadow Year, Jeffrey Ford

Fault Lines, Emily Itami

Man in the Dark, Paul Auster

Last Days, Brian Evenson

Something in Disguise, Elizabeth Jane Howard

The Long View, Elizabeth Jane Howard

Pnin, Vladimir Nabokov

Miss Lonelyhearts, Nathanael West

The Green Road, Anne Enright

Town Called Solace, Mary Lawson

Cunning Folk, Adam Nevill

Family Upstairs, Lisa Jewell

Our Little Cruelties, Liz Nugent

Red at the Bone, Jacqueline Woodson

Ask Again Yes, Mary Beth Keane

Summerwater, Sarah Moss

The Stars My Destination, Alfred Bester

Last Thing He Told Me, Laura Dave

Hello Sunshine, Laura Dave