The Best Books We've Read This Year
Just like last year, we asked our contributors, book clubbers, and readers to share the best books they read this year. We have 18 lists for you, consisting of 89 separate books and a whole bunch that we all loved. These are our favorite novels we read this year, but we’d love to hear about yours in the comments! And if you’re looking for more best of lists, you can find our list of 2020, 2019, 2018, 2017, 2016, 2015 and 2014 right here.
Esmée de Heer
Co-host of Bored to Death book club + owner of this blog
The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue - V.E. Schwab
When the pandemic was hitting me hard, this book felt like a balm for my soul. Walking through all of these cities and all of these time periods with Addie and Henry made me long for a normal world and reminded me of the power of stories. Even though I couldn't sit in a coffee shop and read a book, this book felt like I was doing it anyway. I really like V.E. Schwab, but not all her books hit this hard. It broke me and built me back up during a time where I really needed it.Op Weg Naar het Einde - Gerard Reve
I'm not very well-versed in Dutch literature, but after much praise from two people whose opinion on books I value a lot, I decided to give this one and Nader Tot U a try. Both are great books, works of memoir/fiction in which Reve is such a character. I kept reading him as an ultimate romantic in this book, someone who keeps looking for a love that will sweep him off his feet, but also a man too stubborn and self-loathing to actually believe this can happen. None of this is probably the real Reve, but it's really fun to speculate about what kind of person he was from these essays.The Once and Future Witches - Alix E. Harrow
Another sweep me off my feet novel about witches, suffragettes and sisterhood. I cry easily, but this book together with Addie LaRue and The Song of Achilles had me bawling at some of the conclusions and for once I was thankful to read it at home instead of somewhere in public. I love the worlds Alix E. Harrow creates and the characters that inhibit those worlds. There's a softness to her writing, a hopefulness, that I absolutely adore.The City We Became - N.K. Jemisin
Talking about creating worlds, Jemisin is a master of worldbuilding. Even this story set in somewhat real New York made me fall in love with a city that I don't actually love. The ensemble story was impressive and coherent and her actual skill as a writer continues to baffle me. Add some architectural horror nonsense and it just floats my boat.Flyaway - Kathleen Jennings
I tried the audiobook first, but the prose of this one was too dense. Then I bought the book, an expensive novella because somehow Australian books are expensive, and I'm so glad I gave it a second chance. It's a sort of folk horror story about a small town in Queensland which gave me that real warm outback vibe. It reminds me of We Have Always Lived in the Castle but with the stories of The Starless Sea and then something completely Jennings' own. I still think about this book and really want to read it again.
Sam
Book clubber, find Sam on instagram
1. A Little Life - Hanya Yanigihara
2. The House In The Cerulean Sea - T.J. Klune
3. The Vanishing Half - Britt Bennett
4. Dune - Frank Herbert
5. Piranesi - Susanna Clarke
Carina Pereira
Book clubber, find Carina on instagram and listen to her podcast
Sea Of Tranquility - Emily St. John Mandel
This book is set to be released in April next year, and even though the author has other bestsellers, this was my first book by St. John Mandel. The plot plays with a probability that has been thought of before: what if our world is no more than a computer simulation? Taking us across different eras - past, present, future - with one main character as the center of each time period, it is a study on human emotion and what drives us, independently of the conditions we live in. I cried often with this book, and closed it with a feeling of longing. Because that’s what this book gives you: hope in humanity and what we are doing here on Earth. The reason why I loved it so much is because it has a belief I also share. I could reveal it, but it would be a spoiler and you don’t want that.
Nothing To See Here - Kevin Wilson
Probably one of the most fun books I’ve read in a while. It starts with an insane premise: the main character, in a rut in life, gets called into the house of a woman who was once her best friend, to work as a babysitter for her two step kids, just to find out the kids have one tiny little peculiarity: they accidentally burst into flames. The book explores trauma, the causes for this weird “super power” - a power that is merely an inconvenience - and family relationships. And somehow, in the middle of this whole strangeness, it is hilarious, delightful and endearing. It made me laugh, it made me cry, and I can’t recommend it enough.
Cantoras - Carolina De Robertis
This one is about five queer women who get to know each other during the years of dictatorship in Uruguay in 1970s, and find a place to call their own, where they can be safe with each other and who they are amidst the fear and chaos brought on by the regime. The book takes place across many years, in which the characters grow, change, and grow closer of further apart. Cantoras is the name they called themselves, a term used back in the day to refer to lesbian women. The landscape of Uruguay, the ways in which queer people put themselves in danger by simply being themselves in a world that tries to erase and eradicate them, the power of the friendship between women, makes this historical fiction novel perfect.
Pachinko - Min Jin Lee
This is a story of immigration across generations, and what immigration brings with it: prosperity, sometimes, but also all other sacrifices and difficulties of being the odd one out in a country that is not their own. Focused on Korean people immigrating to Japan, it tells the tale of one family of immigrants, and the prose is poised and enthralling. Although it is a long book, words are not wasted: there was not a minute of this story that I found to be of less importance, or would rather it not have been included. I loved it, and it gave me a perspective on a time in history I knew nothing about.
Tender Is The Flesh - Augustina Bazterrica
I feel that horror isn’t enough of a genre to label this book. The trigger warnings are so many, and while readers usually look for scary stuff in horror books, this one isn’t scary: it is absolutely horrifying. The premise feels an exaggeration, and yet: in a world where all animals contracted a fatal virus and had to be put down, humans start creating other humans for consumption, the same way they used to create cattle. Humanity has been desensitized to the atrocities happening in slaughter houses, and human meat is now wildly consumed. The story follows one main guy, who is grieving the loss of a child, and works at a slaughter house to pay for the bills of a disabled father, even while being completely against this new form of being human. We get to see from his thoughts the same horror we feel as we imagine a world like this, and the irony in the way they claim to kill humans in a “more humane fashion” is not lost on the reader. The ending is at the same time terrible and extremely on point, so I would really recommend this one for those who are searching for the kind of horror that really knocks you off your feet and makes you consider the way we consume meat and treat animals.
GetLitBookclub
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Homebaked - Alia Volz
Cleopatra and Frankenstein - Coco Mellors
Detransition, Baby - Torrey Peters
Cultish - Amanda Montell
The Days of Afrekete - Asali Solomon
Corina Maduro aka Boekencurator
Find Corina on instagram
My five favorite books read in 2021, in random order:
Matrix - Lauren Groff
This was a thrilling read! The story is a reconstruction of the life of a 12th century nun (Marie de France) and it’s full of conflict, drama and queer undercurrents. Marie finds the monastery in terribly state when she first arrives, but succeeds in turning it into a thriving abbey, an island of an abbey where the nuns provide each-other with everything they need. This book made me think about ambition and growth.
Open Water - Caleb Azumah Nelson
Open Water is an intense love story about two young black people: a photographer and a dancer. The story is interspersed with references to black culture (art, films, books, music) and I particularly loves the scenes where they go out, paint the town and feel free dancing to great music somewhere in a bar or a club, experiencing freedom and joy for at least a moment. The book is written in the second person, which might feel a bit unusual at the beginning, but you’ll get used to it fast enough, promise. It’s brilliant actually, it creates an emotional intensity that makes you feel very close to the protagonist.
Detransition, Baby - Torrey Peters
This book is centered (with great love and humor) around three characters with different gender identities. The bug question is: what is (queer) motherhood? It is more than the biological bond between a cis female and her offspring. It stands for the need to care and be cared for, for comforting and wanting to be comforted, for transferring knowledge and being able to grow. Also: motherhood is a role that the whole community should bear together. Hear, hear!
Bear - Marian Engel
‘Bear, make me feel at ease in the world at last. Give me your skin.’ This classic and controversial book was first published in the 70s. Its a story about a lonely librarian’s relationship with a bear. And, spoiler, they get really really intimate. But of-course there is more to this story about a woman having sex with a bear. It’s an interrogation of boundaries between men and women, humans and animals, it's thrilling for sure!
The Promise - Damon Galgut
This novel charts the decline of a white family during South Africa’s transition out of apartheid. The drama of the novel turns on a promise made by the white mother of the family to her black maid. The youngest daughter overhears this and wants to keep that promise, but her bigoted family doesn’t agree. The book's omniscient narrator darts between characters, including some who play minor roles—like a vain, half-blind pastor and a bum named Bob. Lines of dialogue can appear next to each other, separated by slashes, as if there are more pressing matters. ‘You get the idea,’ the narrator says, almost impatiently. Well-deserved Booker Prize winner!
Anne Céline Sikma
Find Anne on instagram
Where Reasons End - Yiyun Li
The White Book - Han Kang
Sorrow and Bliss - Meg Mason
Transcendent Kingdom - Yaa Gyasi
Beautiful World, Where Are You - Sally Rooney
Jochem F. Melis
Book clubber, find Jochem on Goodreads
Cliënt E. Busken - Jeroens Brouwers
Read it twice in about 3 months, loved it twice. A internal-monologue / rant by an old confused and very unreliable narrator, like a contemporary Beckett. The language was just such a joy to read, especially all the half made-up words and neologisms. Incredibly creative. The anger, sadness, bitterness and confusing really hit, but most of all it was absolutely hilarious.Circe - Madeline Miller
The best adventure / myth re-telling / fantasy / whatever I have ever read. To my great surprise too! I imagined I was gonna read some YA type thing. Maybe it actually was!? Anyway, it got me hooked from start to finish. Wonderful world and character building too!Die Welt von Gestern - Stefan Zweig
A melancholic look back at the wonderful fin de siècle in Austria-Hungaria and Western-Europe in general, leading up to the horrors of both World Wars. It made me feel all the feels.Der Zauberberg - Thomas Mann
One off the biggest and all-compassing works of literature I have ever read. Funny, overly smart, profound and beautiful, and also looooong. It's kind of the point about a novel about time, but still, some passages were just painfully boring, especially near the end. Without them this would probably be my book of the year.The Seasonal Quartet - Ali Smith
Read the whole quartet this year and thought it was very impressive, albeit somewhat inconsistent. Her unique voice and style is what made it for me. The way she mix prose bordering poetry with themes of existentialism and politics is something I had never read before.
Sarah Snoei
Find Sarah on Instagram
Wuthering Heights - Emily Brontë
A Thousand Splendid Suns - Khaled Hosseini
The Song of Achilles - Madeline Miller
The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue - V.E. Schwab
Het Pad van de Gele Slippers - Kader Abdollah
Lily Tzimoulis
Book clubber
2021 being marked by restrictions due to the pandemic was a prolific year for me as a reader. I’ve set my personal reading record - 105 books! - which makes it difficult to choose the best. I’m going to go with the five that left the most indelible impression on me.
The Mermaid of Black Conch - Monique Roffey
This polyphonic novel is a magical tale of forbidden love, womanhood, jealousy and greed intertwined with never healing pain inflicted by colonialism and indigenous population genocide, racism and simple refusal to accept someone who is different. Being set in the Caribbean made it a perfect getaway.The Woman in the Dunes - Kobo Abe
A shimmering and mesmerizing example of the Japanese existentialist novel. It’s a macabre and endlessly thought provoking exploration of the lunacy of an entire community and the art of enslavement in the name of the fore-mentioned community.Chevengur - Andrey Platonov
A communist dystopia, a poetic extravaganza of violence and a quixotic hero. Written in 1920s it was not published until 1972, well after Platonov’s death. The Four Books by Yan Lianke is a powerful and daring novel of dog-eat-dog psychology inside a labour camp for intellectuals in Mao’s China during the disastrous Great Leap Forward.Hurricane Season -Fernanda Melchor
Utterly destroyed me but was absolutely worth it. It is brutal, relentless, graphic novel takes place in contemporary Mexico and focused on femicide, poverty, prejudice and homophobia.
Marjolein
Find Marjolein on Instagram
Wolf by Wolf - Ryan Graudin
The Terror - Dan Simmons
Uprooted - Naomi Novak
Bear Town - Fredrik Backman
Danny Scheurwater
The Name Of The Rose - Umberto Eco
A part murder mystery part historical novel part philosophical work that takes place in a late medieval abbey. Several bizarre deaths lead to an investigation were reason and superstition meet each other in the form of an well educated monk and the head of the inquisition.
The Sundial - Shirley Jackson
A very darkly comic, gothic story of a family in an large house where the peculiar aunt believes that the world will end and only the people that remain within the walls of the house will survive.Utopia Avenue - David Mitchell
A really cool novel about a band in the late sixties who enjoy a short period of success.Wise Blood - Flannery O'Connor
In the deep south of the 1950s, a war veteran starts an anti-church, the Church Without Christ. The story is both darkly funny and really disturbing and unlike anything I've ever read.Deep Water - Patricia Highsmith
A psychological thriller that takes its time but is worth the wait and a admirable character study. A quiet man living in a small town has an open relationship with his wife, who openly has affairs. When one of her lovers is violently killed, he surprises everyone around him by taking credit for the murder.
Silvana Sodde
Owner of Writer's Guide to the Galaxy
Charlatans - Daphne Huisden
Hoe de Eerste Vonken Zichtbaar Waren - Simone Atangana Bekono
Exciting Times - Naoise Dolan
Rebecca - Daphne du Maurier (het was een goed jaar voor Daphne’s 😊)
Love Letters - Virginia Woolf & Vita Sackville-West
Suzanne Peet
Find Suzanne on instagram
The Master and Margarita - Mikhail Bulgakov
What a ROLLERCOASTER of a book. I was so confused half the time and delighted the other half of the time. Loved it.Word by Word - Kory Stamper
A delightful, wonderful book describing how dictionaries are made, while also talking about what it is like working for Merriam-Webster, using specific words as examples. What more can a lexicography lover want? NOTHING.Nevermoor (1-3) - Jessica Townsend
A middlegrade magical book series that sadly only has three parts out so far. It is wonderful, delightful, funny and heartwarming. It may sound a little like you-know-what, but it is more diverse, more of 'this time' and I just loved it.Ik ben er niet - Lize Spit
I wrote a longform review of this over on De Reactor and it was one of those books that just left me feeling hollow and sad. (in the best book way)Confrontaties - Simone Atangana Bekono
Another Dutch book on the list and another I reviewed for De Reactor (I was very lucky in my picks). This was so raw and I loved how at the end it becomes more and more poetry. A must-read for any Dutchie and I hope it will be on many literature lists for high schoolers.
Maarten Grotholt
Find Maarten on Instagram
Swimming in the Dark - Tomasz Jedrowski
Killing Commendantore 2- Haruki Murukami
Dune - Frank Herbert
Mission Economy - Mariana Mazzucato
If Mayors Ruled the World - Benjamin R. Barber
Laura Overheul
Find Laura on Instagram and Goodreads
Giovanni's Room - James Baldwin
This year I went on a sort of queer classics binge, so I couldn’t skip this one, and I am really glad I read it. It is very moving with some of the most beautiful writing I’ve ever read.Bewilderment - Richard Powers
Aside from the queer classics binge, I also found an interest in books dealing with the environmental crisis. This was definitely one of the best ones. It deals with a father who is the single parent of an autistic son who takes great interest in the environment (Greta Thunberg anyone?). Very sweet, very sad.The Housekeeper and The Professor - Yōko Ogawa
Luckily I didn’t just read sad and serious books, but also one about a single mom, her son and the professor that she’s a housekeeper for. The three of them form a strong bond and it’s just really sweet.Swimming in The Dark - Tomasz Jedrowski
A coming-of-age story of a gay man in 1980’s (communist) Poland. The writing was so beautiful I wanted to cry.The High House - Jessie Greengrass
Again an environmental story about a small group of people surviving the culmination of the environmental crisis in a hidden house on top of a hill. Very eerie, very nice.
Gina Vulpes
Book clubber, find Gina on Instagram
The Tunnel - Ernesto Sabato
My Brilliant Friend - Elena Ferrante
Beloved - Toni Morrison
Gilead - Marilynne Robinson
The Parable of the Sower - Octavia Butler
Roy den Boer
Book clubber, find Roy on instagram
The Stand - Stephen King
I got The Stand from the library when I was about eleven or so, and got a few hundred pages in before giving up and returning the book - more out of restlessness than anything else. I figured I was due to finally give it another shot after hearing a lot of discussion of it the past few years. I enjoyed it a great deal. Stephen King’s writing is incredibly readable and he is able to switch back and forth between so many characters and make all their perspectives distinct and believable with the smallest touches.A Good Man Is Hard to Find - Flannery O’Connor
A collection of short stories that really just packs a punch. O’Connor just has a gift for imbuing her rather miserable view of humanity with so much sincerity and depth that it never comes across as grimness just for the sake of edginess.Zo Hadden We Het Niet Bedoeld - Jesse Frederik
A non-fiction deep dive into the ‘toeslagen affaire’ that really provides a great deal of insight into how thoroughly broken every single part of our government, media and entire justice system is. A fun time for all.What Are You Going Through - Sigrid Nunez
I enjoyed her previous book The Friend a great deal, and Nunez provides more of the same here though circling around different themes. The book is about sickness, death and climate change - so it’s not exactly a light read, but if she continues writing books like this every few years, I will keep reading them.The Nutmeg Tree - Margery Sharp
I picked this up blind from De Leeszaal some years ago. It’s a very light comedy full of charm that I had never heard of before. It’s an Austen-esque comedy of manners about a broke, bombastic woman with a wild streak in her that is drawn back into the quiet, uptight life of the daughter she abandoned many years before. The main event here is the main character, Julia Packett, who just pops off the page right from the start. I can’t think of a character quite like her, and she still feels incredibly modern despite the book being first published in 1937.
Anne Ahlmann Kristensen
Book clubber, find Anne on Instagram
The Morning Star - Karl Ove Knausgård
A new star appears on the sky a day in august. Over two days we follow the lives of nine people in Bergen, Norway. Though I thought that the novel had too many characters I loved the uncanny atmosphere, the strangeness, the Norwegian forests and how some characters almost turn the novel into a philosophical essay.The Inseparables - Simone de Beauvoir
The most beautiful little book about friendship and falling in love.Hunger - Knut Hamsun
A great classic about poverty, hunger, anarchism, dreams of becoming a writer, fiasco, pride, madness and decency. I loved it!Why I’m No Longer Talking to White People About Race - Reni Eddo-Lodge
Interesting book about the race and racism discussion in UK. I especially enjoyed the historical perspective that this book contains.Exciting Times - Naoise Dolan
A modern love novel about non-committal love set in Hong Kong. It was page turner and the perfect summer read.