Top TBR Books for 2021
The beautiful interior of Slightly Foxed bookshop in Berwick-upon-Tweed
I never thought that I’d turn into someone who would plan my reading in advance at the beginning of each year, but two things happened:
I discovered that my reading life was more enjoyable when I didn’t have to stress about what I was going to read next
I was listening to the Hi-Lo Podcast (now sadly finished) when they were talking about the number of books that an individual could read in a lifetime. As morbid as that sounds, it gave me the impetus to pick up, or at least plan to pick up, books that I’ve been wanting to or meaning to read for some time
One of January’s more enjoyable tasks now is plotting out the books that I want to try and get to for that year. I know roughly how many books I read in a year and for 50-60% of those, I’ll formulate a list of books that are already sitting on my shelves (or to be honest books that I wish were sitting on my shelves!) That then leaves me space to read new releases and also to manage my mood and seasonal-reading tendencies!
For 2021, I wanted to have a focus on some, what I’ve termed, quiet classics. Books that have been sitting on my shelf for too long as I’ve reached over them for the next shiny new read. They are mainly by female authors predominantly from the 20th Century.
Some of the #quietclassics2021 that are lined up for this year
Interspersed with these classics are backlist books by some of my favourite authors or books that have been recommended to me by family, friends and my online book community. Here are ten of my top planned TBR (to be read) picks for 2021 and I’d love to know if you share any of these.
Death on the Nile Agatha Christie
I have never read any Agatha Christie. I’ve probably seen every episode of Poirot going and watched Miss Marple being played by everyone from Margaret Rutherford to Joan Hickson and Angela Lansbury, but I’ve never read one of her books. Well 2021 is the year, and I’m starting with Death on the Nile, the seventeenth book featuring Hercule Poriot and an unfortunate murder whilst on a cruise on the Nile.
Homegoing Yaa Gyasi
A sweeping saga that encompasses three hundred years of history through the stories of two half-sisters, Effia in Ghana and Esi who is sold into slavery and sent to America. Described by Penguin as “epic in its canvas and intimate in its portraits” this is a book that I want to take time to completely immerse myself in.
Black Narcissus Rumer Godden
Having recently read and absolutely loved The Greengage Summer, I wanted to dive into some more of Godden’s work. This is the story of a small group of Nuns led by Sister Clodagh. They travel to the Himalayas to establish a convent in a palace that once housed a General’s harem. I watched the recent BBC adaptation and now want to read the original work to see if that heady cocktail of sexual tension and impending doom is more potent on the screen or in the book.
Beartown Fredrik Backman
A Man Called Ove is one of my favourite books, a book about an elderly curmudgeon who sees no point to continuing his life after the death of his wife. New neighbours, a cat and a growing community around him save him from himself, but not in a sickly saccharine sort of a way. More in a profound, make-the-reader sob sort of a way. Since Ove, I am here for anything Backman chooses to write even when it’s ostensibly about a teenage ice-hockey team with the hopes of a small town resting on their shoulders.
Bel Canto Ann Patchett
Ann Patchett seems to be one of those writers who can weave a tale out of very disparate subjects from a house in the Dutch style to a large pharmaceutical company developing an infertility drug deep in the Amazon jungle. I think that’s because at their heart, her stories are all about people dealing with love, loss and adversity and she’s a very good judge of character. In Bel Canto, a birthday party at the home of the Vice President of a South American country, turns into a hostage situation. What follows is what happens when humans are forced to live together in close proximity for a several weeks.
Afakasi Woman Lani Wendt Young
This collection of short stories was shortlisted for the 2020 New Zealand Book Awards for Children and Young Adults. Written by a Samoan author who was named the ACP Pacific Laureate in 2018, the stories examine the lives of women in Samoa encompassing themes of religion, social conformity and the effects of climate change.
Gullstruck Island Frances Hardinge
Frances Hardinge is one of my favourite middle-grade/ young-adult authors. She can create beautiful sentences, come up with twenty names for a homicidal goose and build worlds from historical fact that shine with her own peculiar brand of fantasy. My favourite works of hers so far are A Face Like Glass and Fly by Night. Gullstruck Island is the tale of two sisters, one of whom is born for glory and one forever destined to be the side-kick, who need to save their volcanic home.
Their Eyes Were Watching God Zora Neale Hurston
First published in 1937, Their Eyes Were Watching God chronicles the life of Janie Crawford, a black woman who survives three marriages and financial hardship, but is determined to retain her independence throughout. Described by Alice Walker as the most important book in her life, when Zora died in 1960, none of her books were in print. Walker led her literary revival, but also found her unmarked grave and placed a stone there to honour Zora and her revolutionary body of work.
Faces in the Water Janet Frame
A New Zealand author, Janet Frame experienced repeated admissions to psychiatric hospitals over a decade from 1945. Faces in the Water is her fictionalised account of the inpatient psychiatric treatment of a young teacher called Istina Mavet. It was Frame’s writing, she won the Hubert Church Memorial Award in 1952 for The Lagoon, that saved her from a planned frontal lobotomy.
The Grey King (The Dark is Rising #4) Susan Cooper
I’ve been slowly making my way through Susan Cooper’s The Dark is Rising sequence. An epic tale of good versus evil in a cyclical war fought over centuries. In The Grey King, Will Stanton, the youngest and the last of the Old Ones, is on a quest to find a harp hidden in the hills of Wales that has the power to wake the Sleepers, six warriors of the light who have been asleep for centuries.