The year 2021 was fantastic in terms of all the books I could get my hands on without having to lug a suitcase full of them from one of my trips abroad. Suddenly, there were a lot more titles coming in than ever before. One of the proprietors of Pilgrims Book House told me that this was because publishers were taking pre-orders and books were being published in India alongside their release in the US and European countries. Apparently, before Covid-19, they used to release in India a few months after the initial publication and since Nepali suppliers ordered books from India that put us back further.

But in 2021, I would read about a book on Goodreads or hear some of my favorite booktubers talk about certain titles and voila, they would be on the shelves during my next trip to one of the bookstores in Kathmandu. It was amazing. My TBR pile got higher by the day and I read more than I ever thought I could. So, without further ado, here are some books that I read and fell in love with in 2021.

The Giver of Stars by Jojo Moyes

Set in small-town 1930’s Kentucky, the book is based on the real-life Pack Horse Librarians of Kentucky, or the Horseback Librarian program as it was called then. The program delivered books as part of Eleanor Roosevelt’s traveling library and ran from 1935 to 1943, making books accessible to over 100,000 rural inhabitants. It’s a lovely, albeit thick, book that has conflict, drama, purpose, friendship, and love. The story is tender, heartbreaking and funny at the same time. Best, it reads like a thriller.

The Stationery Shop in Tehran by Marjan Kamali

I have gifted and re-read this book multiple times since reading it earlier this year. It’s a beautiful story about how love can mark you for life and a celebration of unbreakable family bonds. Roya and Bahman meet as teenagers in Tehran during a politically charged time and fall in love. But fate (or a certain someone) tears them apart and Roya spends her life wondering what went wrong till she ultimately finds the answers, and it breaks her heart. The book, with its elaborate descriptions of Persian delicacies and cooking techniques, awakens all your senses besides tugging at your heartstrings.

The Secret Keeper by Alka Joshi

‘The Secret Keeper of Jaipur’ is the second part of a planned trilogy but it doesn’t matter if you haven’t read the first book, ‘The Henna Artist’. Though Lakshmi, the protagonist of The Henna Artist, is an integral part of the story, not knowing what happened to her previously doesn’t ruin things. Instead, you get to put the pieces together through the little snippets of information Joshi provides throughout the book. What I loved most about it, apart from historical elements, is that there are two different settings—Jaipur and Shimla—and shuttling from one world to another is super fun and engaging.

The Promise by Damon Galgut

Winner of The Booker Prize 2021, ‘The Promise’ is about this house where there are strict markers of race. It’s, you could say, a miniature of apartheid South Africa. The Blacks were promised so much when the apartheid ended but they were never fulfilled and this is the theme that runs throughout the book. There is a lot of South Africa’s complicated history and issues arising from the dismantling of apartheid. The prose is choppy and slow but Damot knows what he is doing and raptures the readers with the content. As a white South African writer, Damot’s writing feels like insider information.

The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo by Taylor Jenkins Reid

A historical fiction set in old Hollywood, ‘The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo’ opens with rookie reporter Monique Grant being asked to interview a Hollywood star who has led a scandalous life. Monique goes to meet Evelyn to get her story for the magazine she works for but Evelyn tells her she isn’t interested in a magazine cover. Rather, she wants to tell her life story that Monique is free to publish as an authorized biography once Evelyn is no longer around. What follows is an intriguing story that addresses the issues of homophobia, racism, and sexism.

Transcendent Kingdom by Yaa Gyasi

‘Transcendent Kingdom’ was probably the most awaited book of 2020. After the success of ‘Homegoing’ in 2016, the world wanted more of this phenomenal writer. Gyasi’s second work of fiction is an excellent meditation on life and how we are sometimes consumed by our losses. Through the novel’s protagonist Gifty, a PhD candidate at Stanford University, Gyasi explores the complex parents-children relationship. Can you love your parents but not like them? How do we figure out who we are and what we are capable of when our foundations are shaky? It’s a sad but beautiful book that haunts you for a long, long time.

Girl in White Cotton by Avni Doshi

‘I would be lying if I said my mother’s misery has never given me pleasure’ is perhaps the best opening line I have read in a while. I knew I would love this book the minute I read that sentence but I wasn’t prepared for the emotional rollercoaster I was about to embark on. The story about love and obligations among many other things is beautifully written. It is sharp and witty and the characters are so relatable. Alternatively published as ‘Burnt Sugar’ in the UK (after it was originally published in India as ‘Girl in White Cotton’ in 2019), the novel was shortlisted for The Booker Prize 2020 and named NPR’s Best Book of 2020.

Anxious People by Fredrik Backman

I’m going to cheat a little and include a book I bought but haven’t read. Don’t get me wrong, I love Fredrik Backman. ‘A Man Called Ove’ is one of my absolute favorites. I have read all his other works too. I’m so excited about ‘Anxious People’ that I just can’t bring myself to read it because then it will be over and I won’t have anything to look forward to. Right now, I look at its spine daily, sometimes pick it up and read the blurb or a random paragraph and put it back and that makes me happy—knowing I have something awesome to read when I (eventually) hit a reading slump.  

We Are Okay by Nina LaCour

‘We Are Okay’ is the story of a college freshman named Marin who runs away after the sudden death of her grandfather. But her best friend, Mabel, is intent on reconnecting with her and so she visits Marin at her college in New York during winter break when the latter is alone in her dorm. The narrative alternates between present day and flashbacks to Marin’s life with her grandfather. Slowly you get the idea of what happened in Marin’s life for her to cut ties with everyone. LaCour is a celebrated LGBTQIA+ novelist and she explores the relationship between Marin and Mabel in that context as well.

Aristotle and Dante Dive into the Waters of the World by Benjamin Alire Saenz

The much-awaited sequel to ‘Aristotle and Dante Discover the Secrets of the World’, this book picks up roughly where the first left off. The sequel begins with Ari and Dante in the summer before their senior year. It’s a precious bubble in time before they are forced to grow up and deal with life’s many curveballs. The first part had left me wanting a little more of these two fascinating boys and Saenz delivered, and how. If you loved the first book, you will gobble this up. Trigger warning though, it has mentions of transphobia.