Books of 2021
It was a weird year for reading. (Well, it was a weird year for everything, as a matter of fact.) There were periods when reading fostered self-care, inward reflection, and a much-needed recharge for me, but there were also times when my mind was so preoccupied with the stress of the pandemic and all the unknowns that I couldn't concentrate on reading a real book, and I found myself having to go back and re-read entire chapters. I was in a funk for a while when nothing I read was really outstanding, but then I finished the year with a few incredible and heartfelt stories that left me feeling invigorated. I read more poetry than I ever have before, and I looked for stories told from a different perspective than my own. Sometimes nonfiction was exactly what I needed to feel grounded, while other times I was looking for an escape, like fantastical realism or a novel set in a completely different place and time. Historical fiction still seems to be the genre I gravitate toward th