Books of 2021

Another year of books! I kept decent track of the books I read the first half of the year and then I got a full time job and that task went off the to-do list. I did continue to read though! My goal for next year is to keep better track of what I think of each book after I read it. 

I hit 53 (or so, since I may have missed a book or two) this year. Not the 74 of 2020, but still a good haul overall. 

I found this title on a top book list of 2020. As I put it on hold at our local library, I was 574 in line! That was the longest wait I've ever seen and would take years for me to get the book in my hand. Luckily, a friend had a copy for me to borrow!! An interesting read about skin color and family. It wasn't an amazing read overall, but readable. Slightly thought provoking. 

 A friend picked this as a book for us to read and discuss in January. Matthew McConaughey has always intrigued me. I've seen him speak here and there and his thoughts made me go hmmmm. This was truly an enjoyable and enlightening read. I laughed, I shock my head and I pondered. He is a philosopher, think outside of the box, hard worker and family man.  

Allie Beth Stuckey was a podcaster I stumbled upon March of 2020. I had stepped away from the 2 main podcasters I had listened to as they took on a cancel culture attitude along with embracing all things Covid. Allie was a breath of fresh air that I needed in the time when my thoughts were full of confusion. The book was fine. Many of the points were things she has made on her podcast or I've picked up in other places. I think the audience is better fit for high school - young adult girls. Though the message is really important and one that young girls should be reading (and honestly many adults could hear this message, too). 

Apologetics is a brand new idea to me as of 2020. Also, a concept I stumbled upon in the world of podcasts. If you haven't heard of it, in a nutshell, it's the idea that you know and have reasons to back up un-truths being tossed at Christianity. It means, truly understanding why one is a Christian and why one believes in Christianity beyond just faith or just because. It means  you can discern when someone comes at you with the bible says this or that, you can stop and critically think about what you do know is true. This book was heady!! A whole lot of isms in there. It was certainly empowering to start to understand some of those isms and know what they look like so you don't get sucked up in them. Because many a churches out there are preaching isms and they aren't bible driven. 

A truly historical read! So much insight and education filled within this book. If only this could be a required read for all members of our society. Or at the least teach the history in our classrooms. Candace is brave and courageous and doing amazing work. 

I listened to Abigail Shrier on two podcasts in 2020 and was so drawn to her work. Having two teens in my house hold, 1 being a female, I knew I needed to read this. Also, having studied anorexia in college as a psychology major, this transgender trend and the parallels it has from my generations eating disorders was so interesting. Our youth today are drowning and cell phones and social media are taking them down along with their normal teenage angst. Things need to change dramatically before there is no future generation. 

I'd consider this a historical fiction book. It's a YA book and I have no idea how it ended up on my hold list, but I glad to read it. I think it was an author Shane was into for a bit and I got it for him, but I ended up reading it. A very enlightening story about a boy from Syrian that flees his country with his father and gets stranded in Belgium. The author did a fantastic job showing both sides of the situation when it comes to the complicated arena of war, asylum and immigration. 

I'm also not sure where this book came from on my hold list. I often hear of books and just add them and months and months later they show up. This was an interesting suspense novel. With a pretty creepy turn at the very end. 

This is an older book that I remembered someone telling me about. The true stories told are hard to even believe. Mind blowing what horrors kids experience. Quite interesting to see where psychology and therapy has come, though not far enough. 

An eye opening tale of a world so different then mine and one that is even hard to imagine while reading about it. A tale of survival, perseverance, determination, a bit of luck and a happy ending. A read I'd recommend. 

I can barely remember this book even after reading what it was about. I think it was a decent thriller, but clearly not memorable beyond that. But sometimes that's all one needs. 

Another suspense thriller. It was long and slow. It wasn't miserable, but not a favorite. 

A unique story line. I feel like when I read this I really could see it in my head and could completely see this being turned into a movie. 

A fun, easy, silly read full of a whole lot of truth bombs. Written by a social media "star". 

Also written by a social media "star" which I didn't realize when I put the book on hold. She has quite the story to tell and has over come some hurdles. 

I've never been a Sarah Huckabee follower or knew anything about her. For some reason this book perked my interest and I found her story enjoyable to read. I'm not a memoir kind of of girl, but have read a handful over the last year or two. I think what I found most interesting was her closeness to President Trump and her thoughts she had about being on his inner-team for a couple years. Really quite insightful and an image that the world of media doesn't want us to see or hear about. 

This was a weird one! Good enough that I wanted to keep reading it, but mostly because I wanted to try and figure out what the heck was going on. Super far fetched, yet entertaining. 

A page turning thriller! This one kept me reading and had quite the surprise ending. 

I'd been hearing about this book in a few different places. It had my interested peeked and I was really excited to read it. It didn't disappoint. A interesting take on a dystopian world. Weird time to read it in the midst of our own chaos of 2020-21. 

I grabbed this at one of the free little libraries near our house. I thought it would be a great summer cheesy read. It turned out to be a great read, but it wasn't even that cheesy. I really like the characters and the journey they went on. 

Another free little library book. That seemed interesting enough. It was odd! But in a good way. The main character can taste feelings! A very unique idea and storyline. What bothered me the most was the family dynamics and their lack of communication! 

Free little library for the win! This was a great read, but sad! Two girls go missing and it's the parents journey of years and years of looking for them. Could be a really hard read for some. 

Summer read...I have zero memories of it. 

What sounded like a nice fun light read was really quite miserable. Don't read this book. 

A total suspense thriller. A bit long and took way to many pages to get to the point where you wanted to be. The end got wrapped up a bit fast and wonky. Overall, a decent thriller. 

Not a ton of rocket science here. An ok read though I didn't agree with all of what he had to say. 

A book pick from the new book club I'm in. I loved the historical aspect of this and the history presented with the Dust Bowl. The similarities it showed to todays world with the migrants from the east to California, the discrimination and how hard it was for them to get a foot up. How they were truly slaves to the big cotton corporation and government. 

I'm always captivated by WWII novels. Every time I learn something new about the horrors that happened to so many people during that time frame. This was story came from a different angle. I enjoyed it. 

I hadn't read this author before, but after reading The Forest of Vanishing Stars, I began reading more of her books. This is another WWII book with a very different spin. I really liked this and the twist and turns. It's not a happy ending kind of tale. 

This was quite the read! Very different story that leaves you to ponder a whole bunch. 

Straight up cheesy fun read. 

I think I enjoyed this book, but can't recall much of it. I think maybe I wanted them to all just communicate with each other! I read this during our summer road trip. 

A book club pick. I wouldn't have picked this up otherwise. It was dense and hearty. A little much for me, but when I waded through that, it was really a good read. It was written 2005-ish I think but totally lends itself to now still and even more so then when it was written. Great information especially if you are raising a boy or have a boy in your life. 

A pick from my new book club. I enjoyed the read and reading her struggles and her journey through her healing. It was long and the 1st half is very different from the 2nd half. I'd say if you are interesting in someone's journey through cancer it's worth the read. 

I really liked this book. It's a romance novel, but the main character did something I can't even imagine (sailing alone in the open ocean!) and I enjoyed being on that journey with her as I read. 

A great suspense thriller! 

A little long and drawn out, but I enjoyed the read overall. 

Though it's thought provoking on the concept of gentrification, I really didn't enjoy this book. The characters annoyed me badly. I did finish it so there is that. 

Another solid suspense thriller. 

I LOVED this book. It gave me such a warm fuzzy feeling and I didn't want it to end. 

Another really good read with a very unusual story to tell. 

A cheesy, light, easy summer read. 

A book club pick. This has an interesting storyline. It took me a little bit to get into it and I didn't love the way it ended. Overall though I liked the book. 

A book club pick. More Kristin Harmel and WWII. This focused on POW and interment camps. Lots of interesting information. A bit on the long side and drawn out a little, but still a good read. 

For the 3rd year in a row, I dedicated myself to good old Christmas books for the month of December. Remember this is where Hallmark gets it's scripts from. Some sort of problem, romance and it gets solved. Check, check and check for this book. 

More Christmas cheer! 

I hadn't read any books by this author before and this year she was kind of what I was digging. This book was so stinking adorable. I wanted to jump into it and live in it forever and ever. 

Cute Christmas read. 

This ended up having two short stories in it which made me bummed. I clearly didn't read the front cover well enough. 

I had been saving this one for my December reading. It had very little to do with Christmas it turns out. Though a fun mystery novel. 

I didn't have any more Christmas books to read so I had to end the year with some teen reading. This was another dense research based read, but as you can see I'm all about the teenager right now. I wasn't sure how this one would go either, but in the end I took a few important nuggets with me. Also written 10+ years ago, it's solid information if you are raising teenager. 

A super easy read with helpful ways to remember to communicate with teens. I even had my teen read a couple of the chapters. 

This year I read through the bible! I'm beyond excited about that accomplishment and have already started it over again. I learned so much and love reading it every day.