The Five Best Books I Read in 2021

Yes, I know it's now June 2022... At least I got to it...

In 2021, I set a reading goal of 12 books. As always, it’s hard to know what the year will bring, but I figure a book a month for the rest of my life is a pretty good goal. I read/listened to 12 books this year, so that was awesome. I know audiobooks are controversial for “reading” goals but listening to literature is still as rich as reading it, and allows me to get through more books in the year. Another thing of note is that a few of the books are from my Humanities Masters program and I didn’t necessarily want to read them. Anyway, the full list is at the bottom if you're curious.

1. Anxious People by Fredrik Backman.

If you haven’t read anything by Fredrik Backman, find something and read it. He’s brilliant. He’s a Swedish writer and yes, some credit has to go to his translator for making the humor not feeling translated, but Backman’s writing is just approachable and full of charm. This book particularly is an entertaining read based around a bank robbery gone bad. The characters are so intriguing and the twists and turns are clever and make you put the book down and audibly say “wow”. So go, get this book, and read it.

2. Say Nothing by Patrick Radden Keefe

This is a book about the Troubles in Northern Ireland (a country most Americans don’t know exists outside of regular Ireland). It is wildly well done and a great (if very intense) account of various events during a civil war that lasted decades. It also makes for a great audio experience as most of the book is based on oral accounts by the actual people. These oral histories are controversial themselves as Boston College refused to relinquish them to the British government and kept to their promise that the stories would not be released until all named people passed away. Not only is this a great story of a part of Western European history that seems to have been wiped from memory (even though parts of it happened during our lifetime), it’s also a prime example of why oral histories are important to our culture and humanity. While I’m sure this is a great read, I’d recommend listening to it.

3. No Shortcuts to the Top by Ed Viesters

To be fair to the other books, this is so high up on my list because I like mountaineering. The writing is approachable, if not award-worthy, but the stories are great. Ed Viesters was the first American to climb all 14 8,000m peaks, and he did them all without oxygen. Another interesting fact, and the reason for the title of the book, is that he came very close (within 100 meters) of the summits a few times before having to turn around and head back. Rather than pretend that that was close enough, he would go back and re-climb to make it to the summit. Respectable.

He also recounts a different (and complimentary) perspective of the 1996 Everest catastrophe that was also well-documented by Jon Krakaeur in his book Into Thin Air. Ed Viesters had climbed with some of the people who died that day and was on the mountain when it occurred. He spoke with Robb Hall over radio during Robb’s final hours. If you like adventure writing, this is great. .

4. Endurance by Alfred Lansing

Endurance is the story of Ernest Shackleton’s incredible feat of spending a year stranded on Antarctica and somehow not losing a single crew member. Similar to Say Nothing, it is composed of first-hand accounts via journals and interviews with the crew members compiled as soon as they got to England (see, oral history is important). Perhaps even more incredible is that the accounts from the crew members seem to maintain a general admiration for Shackleton the entire time. This is a book every man should read, especially those who want to be in leadership.

5. The Iliad by Homer

This seems like a cop-out as it’s a classic adventure/war novel. I’ll admit, it was just alright while I was reading it the first time. I wrote a paper for grad-school about how Diomedes is the better warrior than Achilles and how the story is more about Diomedes than Achilles and this seemed to illuminate more of the details for me. It ultimately is on this list because it has stuck with me for the past year and half. I literally can’t get away from it. I dream about being on the beach outside of Troy watching the two armies attack and banter. The reason it is a classic is for that reason - it resonates. Perhaps when you read it, it is just “ok”, but months later, you’ll find yourself pulling it off someone’s shelf and beginning a conversation about how they really should make a better film version of this story, because the characters are just so dang perfect. If you haven’t read it, this is a book worth reading; even more so than The Odyssey.

Honorable Mention: The Archer’s Tale by Bernard Cornwell.

I know I said my five favorites and now I'm adding a sixth, but I’ve read this book before… twice. It’s one of my favorite books and just restarts my passion for reading. In grad school for humanities, you read so many books and stories that are so dull that you forget that you actually like to read. This book has no slow chapters. Bernard Cornwell is also the creator of the story that the Last Kingdom television show is based on, which in my opinion, is better than Game of Thrones. It’s more serious and more realistic. The Archer’s Tale is a great fictional story of an English archer running through different historically accurate battles during the 100 Years War between England and France. This time period was the High Middle Ages and essentially ended in the Renaissance.

Other books I read in 2021:

The Road by Jack London - Super cool book in which Jack London writes about his true adventures being a hobo and riding around on train cars. It should be read in schools, as it's a great view of the grittier side of American history.

Gargantua and Pantagruel by Francois Rabelais - A terrible book, though it's a classic, about a giant who learns to become an aristocrat. It's super crass and should be forgotten in Humanities classes, especially when other great Renaissance French literature abounds (say, Le Morte D'Arthur).

How to Read a Book by Mortimer J Adler and Charles Van Doren - I had to read this for my Humanities program. I hated it. They are pretentious and if you don't read like they say you should read, you're wrong. They say you have to read a book 5 times to understand it.

Homage to Catalonia by George Orwell - Another great memoir by an author known for his fiction writing. This really made me understand Orwell's political fiction novels. This is a memoir of his time as a British volunteer in the Spanish Civil War and how WWII played a huge role in the conflict.

American Traitor by Brad Taylor - This was a book about a virus from Wuhan, China being created and then released, the politicians who made it possible, and the team of people trying to stop it... it was originally a fiction novel but turned into a prophesy.

The Book of the Duchess by Geoffrey Chaucer - Chaucer is up there with Shakespeare as some of the greatest British authors. I love his writing, even reading it now. His writing gives a good idea of how things were in Medieval England and also how so many things are the same.