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
