Writers
are readers! One of my personal goals for 2021 was to read 50 books. I ended up reading 76, and I'm halfway through another, as the year comes to a close. (Perhaps this was one silver lining that came with so much social distancing.)
Here's the complete list of titles I read this year. This roster does not include books I wrote or edited, children's books I read (again and again), the Bible, devotionals, Bible studies, cookbooks, reference books, magazines, newspapers, etc.
It's just my full-length, cover-to-cover reads for the past year.
Inclusion in this list does not necessarily imply recommendation or endorsement. It only indicates completion of each read.
- A Church Called Tov, Scot McKnight & Laura Barringer
- A Matter of Life and Death, Philip Margolin
- A Rip in Heaven, Jeanine Cummins
- A Slow Fire Burning, Paula Hawkins
- American Dirt, Jeanine Cummins
- Before She Disappeared, Lisa Gardner
- Behind Closed Doors, B.A. Paris
- Cutting for Stone, Abraham Verghese
- Dark Horses, Susan Mihalic
- Did I Say You Could Go, Melanie Gideon
- Don’t Give the Enemy a Seat at Your Table, Louie Giglio
- Hell of a Book: A Novel, Jason Mott
- Hillbilly Elegy: A Memoir of a Family and Culture in Crisis, J.D. Vance
- Home Front, Kristin Hannah
- How to Fight Racism, Jemar Tisby
- I’m Still Here: Black Dignity in a World Made for Whiteness, Austin Channing Brown
- If I Run, Terri Blackstock
- If You Tell, Gregg Olsen
- In a Dark, Dark Wood, Ruth Ware
- Into the Water, Paula Hawkins
- Jesus and John Wayne, Kristin Kobes Du Mez
- Last Girl Standing, Lisa Jackson and Nancy Bush
- Liar, Liar, Lisa Jackson
- Love Does, Bob Goff
- Miriam: A Treasures of the Nile Novel, Mesu Andrews
- My Dear Hamilton: A Novel of Eliza Schuyler Hamilton, Stephanie Dray and Laura Kamoie
- Nineteen Minutes, Jodi Picoult
- One by One, Ruth Ware
- One Last Breath, Lisa Jackson and Nancy Bush
- Pieces of Her, Karin Slaughter
- Pretty Little Wife, Darby Kane
- Prey Tell, Tiffany Bluhm
- Reading While Black, Esau McCaulley
- Recovering from Biblical Manhood and Womanhood, Aimee Byrd
- Redeeming Power: Understanding Authority and Abuse in the Church, Diane Langberg
- Secrets to the Grave, Tami Hoag
- Sisters Trilogy (The Sea Glass Sisters, The Tidewater Sisters, The Sandcastle Sister), Lisa Wingate
- Somebody’s Daughter: A Memoir, Ashley C. Ford
- Stamped: Racism, Antiracism, and You, Jason Reynolds & Ibram X. Kendi
- Sundown Towns: A Hidden Dimension of American Racism, James W. Loewen
- The Black Book, James Patterson
- The Book of Lost Names, Kristin Harmel
- The Coming Race Wars: A Cry for Justice, from Civil Rights to Black Lives Matter, William Pannell
- The Crooked Branch, Jeanine Cummins
- The Family of Jesus, Karen Kingsbury
- The Family Upstairs, Lisa Jewell
- The Fortunate Ones, Ed Tarkington
- The Four Winds, Kristin Hannah
- The Guest List, Lucy Foley
- The Handmaid’s Tale, Margaret Atwood
- The House of Deep Water, Jeni McFarland
- The Hunting Party, Lucy Foley
- The Invisible Girl, Lisa Jewell
- The Justice Game, Randy Singer
- The Last Bookshop in London, Madeline Martin
- The Orphan’s Tale, Pam Jenoff
- The Other Black Girl, Zakiya Dalila Harris
- The Preacher’s Wife: The Precarious Power of Evangelical Women Celebrities, Kate Bowler
- The Red Book, James Patterson
- The Silent Patient, Alex Michaelides
- The Summer House, James Patterson
- The Talented Miss Farwell, Emily Gray Tedrowe
- The Testaments, Margaret Atwood
- The Vanishing Half, Brit Bennett
- The Woman in the Window, A.J. Finn
- The Woman with the Blue Star, Pam Jenoff
- Tranquility Falls, Davis Bunn
- True Colors, Kristin Hannah
- Uncle Tom’s Cabin, Harriet Beecher Stowe
- Uncomfortable Conversations with a Black Man, Emmanuel Acho
- Watching You, Lisa Jewell
- We Were the Lucky Ones, Georgia Hunter
- When No One Is Watching, Alyssa Cole
- When the Stars Go Dark, Paula McLain
- When You See Me, Lisa Gardner
- You Betrayed Me, Lisa Jackson
Books are listed alphabetically (by title) and unsorted (by genre). Titles are hyperlinked to Amazon. (Disclaimer: I'm an Amazon Affiliate, so I may earn a very small commission from orders placed through links on my sites.)
Have you also read any of these books? What were your thoughts? What books did you read in 2021? Which were your favorites?
And what titles do you recommend for 2022?
Image: public domain photo
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