The newspapers, magazines, and television programs are full of lists: the best movies of 2021, the best books, the best restaurant meals. I always feel as if presenting a list in lieu of writing an article is like taking the week off, but who am I to buck a trend. And as I am a librarian, here is a select list of the very best books that I read in 2021:
Warlight - Michael Ondaatje -- Fiction -- Uncovering hidden secrets in postwar London
A Killer in King's Cove - Ione Whishaw -- Mystery -- Finding a killer in postwar British Columbia - do you sense a theme here?
M Train - Patty Smith -- Memoir -- Episodes in the singer/songwriter's life tied together with her habitual breakfast of black coffee and brown bread
*The Road from Home - David Kherdian -- Non-fiction -- A story of survival drawn from the author's Armenian family
The Big House - George Howe Colt -- Memoir -- A hundred years in the life of a family's beach house
The Rose Code - Kate Quinn -- Mystery -- Looking for a mole at Bletchley Park
A Long Way from Chicago: A Novel in Stories - Richard Peck -- Fiction -- Episodic, humorous, heart-warming - perfect for all ages
The Thursday Murder Club - Richard Osman -- Mystery -- Geriatric shenanigans in a deluxe retirement community
Mollie Peer: Or the Underground Adventure of the Moosepath League - Van Reed -- Fiction -- Maine, 1896: murderous smugglers on the loose with the incompetent Moosepath League on their trail
Yours Cheerfully - A J Pearce - Fiction - A journalist helps to improve working conditions for women trying to "do their part" for the war effort
*Half Magic - Edward Eager - Juvenile Fiction -- An old favorite I read to my grandson (or reread... see next week's blog article on rereading books)
* Plymouth Library has these books!
And now I am looking forward to reading many more outstanding books in 2022 (and even more good enough ones). What were your favorite books of 2021?