Top books we want to read this year! (2021!)

/ Duckie's Pick, Everything Jane Austen, Fun Stuff, Jessie's Pick, Kathy's Pick, Katie's Pick, Kellie's Pick, Non-Fiction, recommend herself to strangers

January is a time for fresh starts and looking forward. In addition to our resolutions, we’re celebrating starting our reading lists anew with our most anticipated books of the year. Some are new, some are old and some should have been read long ago. Here are each of our top five books (or so…) that we’re looking forward to sitting down with in 2021.

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Katie: 

  1.  “All We Can Save: Truth, Courage and Solutions for the Climate Crisis” by Ayana Elizabeth Johnson.  I have always believed in climate change and the importance of being environmentally friendly, but becoming a mom and current events have made stopping climate change more urgent for me.  May this book give me courage and solutions for doing my part.
  2. “The Keeper Chronicles: The Complete Trilogy” by JA Andrews.  Last year I was craving a good new fantasy series and came across this one.  The story sounds interesting and the reviews were great.  Almost a year later, I still haven’t read it, but am looking forward to it.  
  3. (Re-read) “Little House on the Prairie” book series by Laura Ingalls Wilder.  Writing this blog and the first post about what book made us fall in love with reading reminded me how much I love this series.  I want to read it again.  I have a feeling some of it will take on new meaning for me now that I live on an acreage/homestead/small farm.  
  4. “The Whole Brain Child” by Daniel Siegel and Tine Payne Bryson. I loved the book “A Whole New Mind” by Daniel Pink when I first read it and even though they are slightly different topics and authors, this book reminded me of that book.  The truth is that the world we grew up in is so different than the world our children will grow up in.  I am looking forward to reading this book and learning any tips for helping my daughter grow happy and resilient. 
  5. “Picnic in Provence” by Elizabeth Bard  I’m not sure when I got this book (maybe Duckie gave it to me?), but the description is so lovely.  This is going to be the year I read it! 

Jessie:

I’m working on my own coming-of-age story for my life. I started in 2020 and plan on continuing my journey of self growth in 2021. All these books are right up my alley and I can’t wait to get into them! 

  1. “WorkParty: How to Create & Cultivate the Career of Your Dreams” by Jaclyn Johnson
  2. “Style Your Mind For Success” by Cara Alwill Leyba 
  3. “Girl Code: Unlocking the Secrets to Success, Sanity, and Happiness for the Female Entrepreneur” by Cara Alwill Leyba
  4. “How to be an Overnight Success: Making it in Business” by Maria Hatzistefanis
  5. “How to Make it Happen: Turning Failure into Success” by Maria Hatzistefanis
  6. “Rich as F*ck: More Money Than You Know What to Do With” by Amanda Frances -the reviews on this book are crazy positive!

Duckie:

  1. (Re-read) “Dune” by Frank Herbert: I first read Dune only two years ago but there are several reasons why it’s at the top of my list for 2021. First of all, the movie is coming out at the end of the year (hopefully)! I’m bummed it was delayed from this past year but it honestly gives me a bit more time to dive back into the world and refresh my memory on all things spice-related. I enjoyed my first read of the book but feel it deserves a second go because it was the first book I read coming off the epic journey through the 14-book-long Wheel of Time series. I just wasn’t in the right headspace to give Dune everything it deserves. I also just picked up copies of “Dune Messiah” and “Children of Dune” and would like to add those to my list for 2021. 
  2. “The Man Who Ate Too Much: The Life of James Beard” by John Birdsall: Working in a culinary-adjacent industry means I hear James Beard’s name a lot. But other than a vague understanding that he helped set the foundation for a new culinary landscape in American cuisine (and reading a set of very wonderful but very fictional letters from him), I don’t really know anything about James Beard. Also in choosing this book, I can start sticking to my reading resolution–more nonfiction. It might be a bit on the cheating side to read wine and food nonfiction, but I think it still counts. And in a similar vein I would also like to read “The Widow Clicquot” by Tilar J. Mazzeo (which I’ve had forever and just never read despite the fact that everyone raves about it), “The Physiology of Taste” by Jean Anthelme Brillat-Savarin (only half spurred by the fact that my favorite cheese is named after the author) and “Wine Girl” by Victoria James (who I both admire and am admittedly jealous of for her success as both a young sommelier and a writer but in this book she delves into her struggles being sexualized and sexually harassed in a male-dominated field and I expect the admiration will soon far outweigh the jealousy after reading it). 
  3. “Wolf Hall” by Hilary Mantel: One of my favorite places to get book recommendations is a podcast called Jam Session, a once-weekly show that falls under the Ringer Dish umbrella. It’s not technically a book podcast but more of a cultural catchall with a celebrity gossip bent. But hosts Juliet Litman and Amanda Dobbins both love to read and love to discuss books so it shows up fairly regularly in their content. I haven’t kept track of all their recommendations but I’ve really enjoyed a few books that I wouldn’t have normally chosen myself (“The Royal We” and its sequel “The Heir Affair” by Heather Cocks and Jessica Morgan), some that I probably would have picked up on my own but was doubly encouraged by their thoughts (like “Conversations with Friends” by Sally Rooney) and a few that I’ve already read but helped me confirm that we share similar book taste (like “A Year in Provence” by Peter Mayle). I’m not sure why “Wolf Hall” stuck out among their other numerous recommendations but it did, and so it’s here, looming large on my list of books to read for 2021. Thanks, Juliet and Amanda! 
  4. “The Midnight Library” by Matt Haig: I hadn’t heard of this book until Kellie mentioned it in mid-November and then it seemingly popped up everywhere. It was on all the lists of the top books of 2020 but also numerous people I know gushed about it on social media. I was slightly disheartened that Kellie started it and didn’t immediately get into the book, but that almost makes it more intriguing to me.  
  5. “A People’s History of the United States” by Howard Zinn: Ok, so this is a real go at my reading resolution. This is a book that my husband has been trying to get me to read for years, probably since he read it in college over a decade ago. I’m not sure why I’ve resisted so long (well, yes I do, I just much prefer to read novels) but now is the time. 2021 is the year. 
  6. “The Doors of Stone” by Patrick Rothfuss and “The Winds of Winter” by George R.R. Martin: Something I don’t realistically think is going to happen in 2021 but this is a wishlist of what we want to read this year and there is no greater wish than the releases of the next installment of The Kingkiller Chronicles trilogy and the next A Song of Ice and Fire book. Years of waiting and whispers have given me a more realistic outlook but, hey, a girl can wish. And I wish for wind in 2021.

Kellie:

1. “Outlawed” by Anna North. My parents bought me a subscription for the Book of the Month club for Christmas. One of the January book options was “Outlawed”. I’m so excited to read it! It is a historical fiction about a  fugitive woman who joins a band of outlaws.

2. “The Count of Monte Cristo” by Alexander Dumas. I have been looking at my bookshelf and realizing I have a lot of books that I want to read, but have not yet. I think I might take them all off my bookshelf and only allow them to return if I have read them. The most prevalent of these books is “The Count of Monte Cristo” by Alexander Dumas. I loved the movie by the same name growing up. I just rewatched it with Franc(roommate). I have never read it and I want to change that in 2021! 

3. I have really wanted to read the Rainbow Rowell series that started in “FanGirl”. The character Cather Avery writes fanfiction. She writes about Simon Snow, a wizard who in her world is in love with Baz, his vampire wizard roommate. The story she writes is Carry On Simon and Rainbow Rowell actually ended up writing the book. It is another one that I  have had on my shelf for some time. Now that the third book of the series is out I really want to read them all! “Carry On”, “Wayward Son”, and “Any Way the Wind Blows” this is the year for me to get to know Simon Snow better! 

4.I typically reread a Jane Austen novel every once and awhile. I just reread “Pride and Prejudice” in November. I feel like it has been too long since I have read “Emma”. I think that will be my next Austen reread. I love rereading Austen. It makes me feel at peace, kind of like talking to a friend you know really well. I have been reading Jane Austen since before I understood her. I wanted to be like my older sisters. So when Kate read her in high school I picked her up too. Besides my family, hers is the voice that has been with me the longest. Very similar to Duckie’s palate cleaners I like rereading Austen to realign myself and my reading. I also really like Elizabeth Gaskell and have not read all of her novels like I have with Austen so maybe I will pick up one of those instead.  Maybe “Moorland Cottage” I have never read that. 

5. “When the Tiger Came Down the Mountain” by Nghi Vo is the last of my top five books. I really love the blurbs I have read about it. Three clerics are on a journey but instead of finishing their travels they have a  night full of storytelling to keep the tigers at bay until help arrives. Only problem is the tigers know a different version of the same story. It is all about perspective. It might be the same story, but with different ears you hear different things. 

Kathy:  

Oh girls! You shame me! Such lofty ambitions! Such great recommendations! Truthfully, my reads just seem to find me, I don’t really plan them!! I keep a list of books that people have recommended, I go through the Libby App, or I pick them up through book site recommendations, like OPL or the Bookworm. Let’s see what I find!

  1. “Stay Gold” by Tobly McSmith (found through the Bookworm)
  2. “Yes I Can, the story of Sammy Davis, Jr.” (my husband highly recommended this one)
  3. “A Year in Provence” by Peter Mayle and “Cheeky” by Arielle Elovic (both daughter recommendations)
  4. “Milton’s Marilyn” by James Kotsilibas-Davis (this one has been on my bookshelf for a while)
  5. “The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo” by Taylor Jenkins Reid (an author I have read before and liked)