[WATCH] Top Nine Books Read in 2021 (with Mini Reviews and Ratings).

Hiya besties,

What it do? It's been a minute.

2021 has been quite a great reading year for me—from staying true to my TBRs, being consistent-ish with the reviews and blog, I find that I've done better this year than any and I love that. I started off wanting to read 24 books and ended up reading 36 😻💥.. What?? Some were good, some great and most were misses I DNF'd, but the experience stays with me.

Below I've shared my favourite reads for the year, and a reel on Instagram, with mini reviews and ratings. I read so many good books and I learnt so much from them. I hope you find something in them, too.

1) Passing, by Nella Larsen

"About her there was some quality, hard and persistent, with the strength and endurance of rock, that would not be beaten or ignored."

4⭐

An interesting, haunting, look at the culture of passing, and the longing and displacement we do not see usually see in stories of people who leave one thing in pursuit of another.

In her review of Passing, both the book and the Netflix adaptation, Nylah Burton writes: "In Passing, the “tragic mulatto” trope is complicated. It is Blackness that each character covets or prizes above all, not whiteness, whether they are passing or not. And it is the desire and pursuit of Blackness — not of whiteness — that ultimately leads to Clare’s death. In stories about passing, the interloper into white society is usually punished because they tried to be white. In Passing, Clare is punished because she longed to return. But no one, not even her own people, long for her."

2) Freshwater, by Akwaeke Emezi "We're afraid for you, they said. It's like you're on this thin line between being alive and being dead, like one small shift could send you either direction."

5⭐

A haunting, mesmerising and utterly confounding book that delves into the realm of surrealism and psychology, all the while telling a story that's gutting. Freshwater beckons the reader to feel things, to question things and invokes this desire to destroy things in the process. It's a lot. Read this book. Read other Akwaeke Emezi books. Fuck, I am in awe of Emezi's mind!!!

3) The Poet X, by Elizabeth Acevedo

"I only know that learning to believe in the power of my own words has been the most freeing experience of my life. It has brought me the most light. And isn't that what a poem is? A lantern glowing in the dark."

5⭐

The following review is courtesy of the National Book Foundation, which I've linked here.

A young girl in Harlem discovers slam poetry as a way to understand her mother’s religion and her own relationship to the world.

With plenty of things she wants to say, she pours all her frustration and passion onto the pages of a leather notebook, reciting the words to herself like prayers—especially after she catches feelings for a boy in her bio class named Aman, who her family can never know about. With Mami’s determination to force her daughter to obey the laws of the church, Xiomara understands that her thoughts are best kept to herself.

So when she is invited to join her school’s slam poetry club, she doesn’t know how she could ever attend without her mami finding out, much less speak her words out loud. But still, she can’t stop thinking about performing her poems.

Because in the face of a world that may not want to hear her, Xiomara refuses to be silent.

I have an important blogpost about this coming this week, so keep an eye out for it. I promise you'll love it.

4) Here Comes the Miracle, by Anna Beecher

"Each gift was a little wish. As if we could persuade you, or some unknown entity, that you were important enough to live."

4⭐

A lyrical exploration of love, family, loss and grief, and the power of memory. Best read of the year.

There is something incredible in the poetic and lyrical way that Anna Beecher weaves this story of terminal illness, family and love, of loss and the lingering clutches of grief in all its guises; the prose is sickening and undeniable.

In hindsight, you might believe this to be Joe’s story, about his sickness and the tumultuous journey his family is plunged into as they navigate their new normal. The author manages to provide background on four key characters; Joe and Emily, and their grandparents, Edward and Eleanor—a story that surpasses the infringements of time and space, bringing together the past and present, one finds themself at a crossroad trying to understand just what emotion to feel and how we’re meant to move forward.

5) The Vanishing Half, by Brit Bennett "You didn't just find a self out there waiting. You had to make one. You had to create who you wanted to be."

4⭐

On the surface you might think it's a book on sisterhood, but God once you go deep; what beauty. The depth is the key.

In ‘The Vanishing Half’, Brit Bennett invites us to a conversation on identity, on metamorphosis and the factors that intersect our lives as we pursue that journey of self-discovery. With themes like colourism, race and gender, the author weaves a story of twin sisters on different sides of the racial coin each trying to make sense of a life they chose but can no longer contain.

6) On Earth We're Briefly Gorgeous, by Ocean Vuong

"I am writing because they told me to never start a sentence with because. But I wasn't trying to make a sentence—I was trying to break free. Because freedom, I am told, is nothing but the distance between the hunter and its prey."

5⭐

This is undoubtedly the best book I have read this year. It's poignant. It's poetic, and very eye-opening. Like Freshwater, I found the book to be autobiographical, written from the perspective of a son to his mother who cannot read. Little Dog, the narrator and protagonist, like Vuong, is a writer and the child of secondary pain and trauma from his mother and grandmother escaping a war-torn country for America.

There was a bit of a disconnect at times when it comes to the emotions I attributed to some parts of the book, and I believe that's because of the disjointed and convoluted nature of the author's writing style—the story isn't told in a linear manner, but one that moves and disrupts sense of time and space, as though a stream-of-consciousness. It did not, however, take away from the whole reading experience.

7) I'm a Therapist, and My Patient is Going to Be the Next School Shooter, by Dr. Elliot Harper

"Who needs an abuser when you have a big book telling kids that an omniscient deity thinks they’re defective."

4⭐

Thoroughly enjoyed this. Witty, engaging and outright messy.

Despite being terribly-rated online 🤣, I found Dr. Harper's patient files to be very engaging, witty and dramatic; and I appreciated how the book doesn't take itself too seriously even though from the title people actually expected literal case files from an actual therapist. This is fiction, and should be read as such.

From dealing with the likes of deranged cult leaders, school shooters and narcissists, Dr. Elliot Harper chooses to work with dangerous and broken patients because he used to be one of them, but loses the plot entirely with his outlandish and irresponsible decisions. For a therapist, he is too flawed, too manipulative and the absolute worst - which were qualities I found myself stanning him for. His methods are too out there, which leads to terrible consequences and that's when the drama ensues.

8) Black Girl, Call Home, by Jasmine Mans

"Daughters have questions for their mothers, questions made up of no words: we host these variables."

5⭐

I wish every Black girl would read this book. To hold on to these words and find warmth, and feel seen. You're gorgeous.

Told in a language so accessible and relevant, Mans weaves in one collection a story that I believe every young Black person should read. It reads like a meditation on many elements that play a crucial part in one’s experience and how such weaves our identityfeminism, queerness and queer love, police brutality, religion and belief, race, wo/manhood and familial relations. So, I would suggest going into this book, as important and beautyful as it is, with this trigger warnings in tow.

9) One of Us is Lying, by Karen M. McManus

"I know what it's like to tell yourself a lie so often that it becomes the ."

3½⭐

Gripping from the first to the last page. The book is what I needed to reintroduce me to the YA genre that's always eluded me.

Without divulging much, the author weaved a beautyful tale of one unlikely group's journey into unlearning and rediscovering things about themselves amidst a crisis–it is an intelligent account of the lives that young people live and the variedness of their experiences in this space in which they are put to navigate most of their young adult life with only the secrets that shape their self-awareness in common. It's a dog-eat-dog world.

I hope that you had a good year, too, my bestie. Did you spot any fave from this list? Any book you intend to read, perhaps? Let's talk about it in the comments section below.

As always, I love you.

—Nkeshyy 💋