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2021 Reading List

I’ve read at least 100 books a year for the past seven years, so it’s fair to say I’m an avid reader. As such, I love giving and receiving book recommendations.

I document all of the books I read each year on my annual reading list. This 2021 reading list is where I will track my monthly reading and give each book I read a grade. An “A” book is one that I consider excellent. It’s a game-changer, something I would recommend to anyone. But please don’t ignore books I give “B” grades. These are really great books, but they just aren’t excellent life-changing books.

Want to see reviews of my favorite books through the years? Visit my bookstore to view and purchase books I’ve given perfect grades.

I hope you find something on my 2021 reading list to read and love. As always, happy reading!

December (10 books read)

1. Built to Belong: Discovering the Power of Community Over Competition – B

2. Baby Teeth – B

3. Eleanor Oliphant is Completely Fine – A

4. The Boyfriend – C

5. Last Girl Ghosted – A

6. Apples Never Fall – B

7. They Never Learn – A

8. What Happened to You? Conversations on Trauma, Resilience, and Healing – A

9. I Know You – B

10. The Last Thing to Burn – C

November (9 books read)

1. The Content Code: Six Essential Strategies to Ignite Your Content, Your Marketing, and Your Business – C

2. The Missing Hours – A

3. White Rage: The Unspoken Truth of Our Racial Divide – B

4. Her Perfect Life – C

5. Don’t Look Now – C

6. Life Will Be the Death of Me… and You Too! – B

7. No Cure for Being Human: And Other Truths I Need to Hear – C

8. The Five Dysfunctions of a Team: A Leadership Fable – A

9. Don’t Look Now – C

October (10 books read)

1. The Perfect Son – C

2. My Grandmother’s Hands: Racialized Trauma and the Mending of Our Bodies and Hearts – D

3. The High 5 Habit: Take Control of Your Life with One Simple Habit – A

4. One Little Mistake – B

5. Chatter: The Voice in Our Head, Why It Matters, and How to Harness It – D

6. Duped: Double Lives, False Identities, and the Con Man I Almost Married – C

7. In My Dreams I Hold a Knife – B

8. Invisible Influence: The Hidden Forces that Shape Behavior – B

9. The Serial Killer’s Wife – C

10. What Doesn’t Kill You: A Life with Chronic Illness – A

September (10 books read)

1. The Therapist – C

2. Our Little Secret – B

3. Stolen – C

4. Tears We Cannot Stop: A Sermon to White America – B

5. Rock Paper Scissors – B

6. To Be Honest – B

7. Identical – B

8. The Ugly Cry – D

9. Chasing the Boogeyman – C

10. My Time Will Come: A Memoir of Crime, Punishment, Hope, and Redemption – A

August (10 books read)

1. The Mother-in-Law – B

2. Between the World and Me – B

3. Work Won’t Love You Back: How Devotion to Our Jobs Keeps Us Exploited, Exhausted, and Alone – B

4. Lies We Tell Ourselves – C

5. The Good Lie – A

6. For Your Own Good – A

7. False Witness – A

8. Dusk, Night, Dawn: On Revival and Courage – C

9. Everyone in This Room Will Someday Be Dead – C

10. Taken at Birth: Stolen Babies, Hidden Lies, and My Journey to Finding Home – C

July (9 books read)

1. The Coroner – B

2. The Butcher – A

3. Did I Say That Out Loud? Midlife Indignities and How to Survive Them – A

4. The Damage – B

5. Group: How One Therapist and a Circle of Strangers Saved My Life – D

6. Harpin Bridge – D

7. People We Meet on Vacation – B

8. No Hiding in Boise – A

9. What Happened to Paula? On the Death of an American Girl – D

June (11 books read)

1. Big Love – B

2. Every Vow You Break – B

3. The Babysitter: My Summers with a Serial Killer – B

4. The Last Thing He Told Me– B

5. Local Woman Missing – A

6. Mine – A

7. The Grownup – B

8. The Bookish Life of Nina Hill – A

9. The Last One Home – A

10. You Love Me – C

11. How It Ends – C

May (11 books read)

1. Remember: the Science of Memory and the Art of Forgetting – B

2. Fly Away – A

3. An American Marriage – A

4. Broken – A

5. Alice’s Island – C

6. The New Corner Office: How the Most Successful People Work from Home – A

7. The Good Sister – A

8. Jar of Hearts – A

9. Digital Body Language: How to Build Trust and Connection, No Matter the Distance – A

10. Sleeping Dogs Lie – A

11. Still House – D

April (5 books read)

1. Is There No Place on Earth for Me? – C

2. The Downstairs Neighbor – A

3. The Midnight Library – A

4. The Lost Village – C

5. Crimson Lake Road – D

March (14 books read)

1. Anti-Diet: Reclaim Your Time, Money, Well-Being, and Happiness Through Intuitive Eating – C

2. The Push – B

3. Girl A – B

4. Caste: The Origins of Our Discontent – B

5. Quiet in Her Bones – C

6. Every Last Fear – A

7. If You Find Me – A

8. The Worthy Project – B

9. All the Things We Never Knew: Chasing the Chaos of Mental Illness – B

10. That’s Mental – A

11. Simplexity – D

12. Firefly Lane – A

13. Crank – D

14. You’re Next – C

February (10 books read)

1. Uncomfortable Conversations With a Black Man – A

2. The Wife Upstairs – A

3. Seven Kinds of People You Find in Bookshops – D

4. The Kindness Method: Changing Habits for Good – D

5. Good Morning, Monster: A Therapist Shares Five Heroic Stories of Emotional Recovery – B

6. Girl Walks Out of a Bar: A Memoir – C

7. Never Look Back – C

8. Monogamy – C

9. The Last Anniversary – A

10. A Prayer for Owen Meany – C

January (16 books read)

1. Content Rules – A

2. The Lies You Told – C

3. A Promised Land – B

4. We’ll Never Be Apart – A

5. Pretty Little Wife – B

6. The Wrong Family – C

7. Laziness Does Not Exist – A

8. Dear Child – A

9. Invisible Girl – A

10. When You Find Me – B

11. Unfuck Your Brain – C

12. The Liar’s Girl – C

13. The Craving Mind – C

14. Dead Before Dark – C

15. Bloodline – D

16. Perfectly Confident: How to Calibrate Your Decisions Wisely – C

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Prof KRG

Prof KRG aims to create an ongoing educational dialogue among media professionals, students and educators.

Please let me know what resources you need or topics you wish you better understood. If I don't know the information, I'm happy to seek out someone who does.

Contact me via email at kennagriffin@gmail.com.

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Whether you think you can or you think you can’t, you’re right.

— Henry Ford

About Kenna Griffin

I am a mass communications professor, journalist and collegiate media adviser. I teach classes including those on writing, reporting, media law, media ethics, social media marketing, and public relations. I am married, have two children and live in Oklahoma. More about this site's purpose

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