2021 eclipses 2020 and ends up EVEN weirder
I wrote for this blog in 2021 exactly two times. TWICE. I don’t even have any excuses. Well, I DO have one.
Every time I think about something I want to write or say, I feel incredibly inauthentic. I am on again, off again with social media and writing my blog because I am having intense moments of self-doubt.
I started this blog by linking it to my social media (dumb) where many people that know me in real life have access to anything I write. All of those people have probably seen me do something incredibly stupid, were with me when I did something incredibly stupid, or heard about something I did that was incredibly stupid.
Did that ever bother me before? NOPE. Then the pandemic happened and I actually contracted Covid. Now my Dad thinks Covid ate my brain and made some space for anxiety to creep in. Sounds scientific.
BUT I have deduced my inability to figure out what to write and when to this: writing anything that might be controversial (newsflash…. everything is controversial right now) to be read by people who actually know you in the real world is like going out in public in your underwear. I have never felt like this before and never thought I experienced anxiety until the pandemic.
Weird. Sometimes I wonder why I started in the first place. Then I write something and like how I feel after and I remember.
In case you couldn’t tell, I sucked at a lot this year. AAAA lot. My family can attest. I faked it and didn’t make it and tried to love them the best I could while feeling not so hot. It should not be a spoiler that I also did not make my goal of reading 40 books this year. I did read 32 books. Kind of. Number 31 and number 32 are a stretch because I didn’t quite finish those and number 17 was “All Quiet on the Western Front” which I read to a student so that they could comprehend.
Anyway, here are the 10 books I loved for 2021, and to be honest, I am not as cracked up as I usually am about my list. It’s a sign of the times and my attitude, ya’ll. Don’t let my lack of enthusiasm on the descriptions bring you down. I’m the problem here, not the books.
10. The Woman in Cabin 10- Ruth Ware
A young woman is aboard a luxury ship, hoping to climb the ranks at the publication where she works by covering the ships’, Aurora, maiden voyage. When she awakes on the first night to noise and the sound of someone being thrown overboard she vows to figure out what happened. But everyone thinks she is crazy. Will she figure out the mystery before something happens to her? I am a fan of Ruth Ware and I read one of her suspense books last year that made my top 10. I liked this one but not as much as some of her others.
9. Sunburn- Laura Lippman
A woman named Polly decides to leave her husband and small child and start over in a tiny town. She is followed by a private investigator, who was not hired by the husband she left but someone else that wants to keep tabs on Polly. As the private investigator gets closer to Polly to find out why she doesn’t want to be found, he finds himself entranced by her charms. The game of cat and mouse that ensues, and the secrets that unfold were worth the read. I stole this from my Mother’s personal library and was pleasantly surprised at the punch that it packed since I had never heard anything about it.
8. The Last Flight- Julie Clark
Claire Cook is married to high profile, wealthy Rory Cook. Rory is abusive and Claire has a foolproof plan, to escape to Puerto Rico on a business trip, retrieve her forged identification and money she sent in preparation. At the last minute, Rory switches up their travel plans and tells her he needs to handle business in Puerto Rico and she will go handle his duties in Detroit. Claire is forced to fly to a different state without any of the money she had set aside or new identity documents. She heads to the airport knowing that she has hours until her husband finds out her plans and comes after her. She meets Eva, a woman who is also desperate to flee her life and they decide to switch places. Eva heads to Puerto Rico and Claire to Oakland. When Claire lands in Oakland and sees that the Puerto Rico flight has crashed, she knows she has escaped death twice. This thriller kept me guessing on what would happen next and I enjoyed the ride.
7. Radium Girls- Kate Moore
My one and only non-fiction book for the year that made the list. Near the beginning of the 20th century, young women were employed in radium factories where radium-infused paint was used to make brand new glow-in-the-dark watches and instrument panels for soldiers and machinery during the war. The business was booming and the young, teenage dial painters were glowing. The radium powder settled on their clothes, their lunches, and under their fingernails. Even worse, young women ingested a great deal of radium when they used their lips to get the paintbrush bristles in a perfect point for swift and accurate dial painting. The young girls are beautiful and glowing and have coveted well-paid jobs. All is well, or is it? When many healthy and vibrant girls start falling mysteriously ill, will they get the justice they deserve? I loved the history in this one and learning about these women and the fight against their former employer as they fought for their lives. Random fact: One of the bigger radium plants was in Ottawa, Illinois and there are is a statue for a Radium Girl that is still standing.
6. The Lost Man- Jane Harper
Cameron Bright is found dead on his vast property without explanation except that he died from being exposed to high temperatures in the Australian desert. His brothers, Nathan and Bub Bright can’t make sense of why he was out by himself without supplies. His car is found miles away full of cold water and food. Nathan is on a mission to find out what happened and whether a murderer is to blame. I am a fan of Jane Harper and how she is able to weave such tight stories with characters that you can picture. I really liked the details about the Australian landscape and the family ranch. I was shocked at the ending and how the story unfolded. This book kept me in the dark until the very last page.
5. Ordinary Grace- William Kent Krueger
It feels like there is definitely a pattern lately with a William Kent Krueger and a Charles Martin book in my top 10. These writers have such vibrant stories with amazing detail of scenes and characters. In the summer of 1961, 13-year-old Frank Drum recalls living in a small town with his family and what happens to all of them as they endure a series of mysterious deaths in their small town. I had no idea what was happening and how all the characters fit together until the very last chapter.
4. Send Down the Rain- Charles Martin
Here I am with another Charles Martin read. I am such a fan. This one is a quick read and an incredible story about a war hero who tries to help a young immigrant woman and her two children escape an abusive drug-dealing boyfriend. As he is driving them to safety, he hears about the tragic passing of his childhood friend’s husband and decides to stop and check on her. What happens next is a heck of a story that I could not put down. This one has many good elements of a good book; rehabbing a beachside restaurant to its former glory, an old family secret, a romance, and finding a home and a family, even if that family is not blood.
3. The Push- Ashley Audrain
This one was on good reads as a favorite of 2021 as a debut novel for a new author. I downloaded it and devoured it. Blythe is a new mother who wants nothing else than to give her child, Violet, all the warm love and attention that she never had. When her daughter doesn’t connect as Blythe would like, Blythe has a sneaking suspicion that Violet is not normal. Is it all in her head? Is she experiencing post partum depression? This pychological thriller had me on the edge trying to figure out who I didn’t trust, an overworked and exhausted Mother or a child who was maybe a little more mischevious than most. This author left the suspsense running until the very last page. The very last sentence, even.
2. American Dirt-Jeanine Cummins
A Mexican woman and her 8-year-old son have to leave Mexico
and enter America illegally while on the run from a dangerous drug cartel. This book is an unputdownable tale of what it might be like to live in a country where even the good guys are bad guys too. This was a heart wrencher. I could not imagine having to endure the trials and tribulations of trying to cross a border to another country by myself, much less with my offspring in tow. I realize that border issues are hot topics and this one might have you questioning your beliefs.
1. The Ugly and Wonderful Things- Bryn Greenwood
Wavonna has had a hard life. Her parents are drug addicts and leave much to be desired in the way of supportive parenting. Her Mom leaves her alone to fend for herself while she sleeps all day and her Dad runs a meth lab and controls a lot of people who earn a living by helping him run the drugs. “Wavy” finds comfort and solace from a giant man that is paid to run drugs and be security for the family business. He supports her, cares for her, gives her rides to school. He is like a Dad. Until he isn’t. This is another book that really had me second guess what I belive to be “right”. Bryn did such a wonderful job of character developement that I had a hard time disliking someone that I should have disliked. I needed someone to button it up for me, in order for my brain to not feel like it was being split open. I made my Mother read this one and then tell me how to feel. She couldn’t.
Chuck it? Love it? That is why is was my number 1.
Happy reading in 2022. It HAS to be better than 2021.
Love,
Stef