• "Hamnet" by Maggie O'Farrell*
• "Somebody's Daughter" by Ashley C. Ford*
• "Untangled" by Lisa Damour*
• "Finding Mother God" by Carol Lynn Pearson*
• "One Thousand Ships" by Natalie Haynes
• "Restoration" by Patrick Q. Mason
• "Hitting a Straight Lick with a Crooked Stick" by Zora Neale Hurston*
• "Salvage the Bones" by Jesmyn Ward*
• "The Gift" by Edith Eva Eger
• "The Care and Feeding of Ravenously Hungry Girls" by Anissa Gray
• "Caste: The Origins of Our Discontent" by Isabel Wilkerson*
• "We Are Not Like Them" by Christine Pride and Jo Piazza*
• "The Midnight Library" by Matt Haig*
• "Smile" by Sarah Ruhl
• "Cloud Cuckoo Land" by Anthony Doerr*
• "We Run The Tides" by Vendela Vida
• "Sankofa" by Chibundu Onuzo*
• "Braiding Sweetgrass" by Robin Wall Kimmerer*
• "Smoke Gets in Your Eyes" by Caitlin Doughty*
• "We Should All Be Feminists" by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie*
• "The Book of Form and Emptiness" by Ruth Ozeki

Looking forward to 2022 and my ever expanding list of books I'd like to read! Books marked with an asterisk (*) are the ones I recommend most, which on the list seems to be most of them!

• Dear Edward by Ann Napolitano
• The Book of Lost Names by Kristin Harmel
• Leave the World Behind by Rumaan Alam
• Hood Feminism by Mikki Kendall
• Mexican Gothic by Silvia Moreno-Garcia
• Sing, Unburied, Sing by Jesmyn Ward *
• Memorial Drive by Natasha Trethewey
• I Know Why The Caged Bird Sings by Maya Angelou *
• Mating in Captivity by Esther Parel
• Klara and the Sun by Kazuo Ishiguro *
• The Space Between Worlds by Micaiah Johnson
• His Only Wife by Peace Adzo Media *
• A Burning by Megha Majumdar *
• Daughter of Moloka'i by Alan Brennert
• The House in the Cerulean Sea by TJ Klune *
• Searching for Sylvie Lee by Jean Kwok
• The Tea Girl of Hummingbird Lane by Lisa See *
• Interior Chinatown by Charles Yu *
• Crazy Brave by Joy Harjo *
• Hidden Valley Road by Robert Kolker *
• Afterlife by Julia Alvarez
• Deacon King Kong by James McBride
• The Mercies by Kiran Millwood Hargrave

I'm happy with the number of books I was able to read in the first half of 2021! Some of the books I listened to on audio. My most recommended are marked with an asterisk.

2020 may have been one of my best reading years. I read so many books that I thoroughly enjoyed. As the BLM movement picked up, I decided to adjust what I read and really focus in on reading outside of my norm, outside of my culture, outside of my skin color. I found it to be an especially profound experience and what I read helped to keep racial equity in the forefront of my mind.

• Such a Fun Age by Kiley Reid
• All The Light We Cannot See by Anthony Doerr

• Olive, Again by Elizabeth Strout
• Next Year in Havana by Chanel Cleeton
• Between Sisters by Kristin Hannah
• The Huntress by Kate Quinn
• Winter Garden by Kristin Hannah
• The Dutch House by Ann Patchett*
• Eleanor Oliphant is Completely Fine by Gail Honeyman
• Normal People by Sally Rooney
• The Water Dancer by Ta-Nehisi Coates*
• Night Road by Kristin Hannah
• A Gentleman in Moscow by Amor Towles
• The Giver of Stars by Jojo Moyes
• Americanah by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie*
• This Tender Land by William Kent Krueger
• Before We Were Yours by Lisa Wingate
• Homegoing by Yaa Gyasi*
• The Scent Keeper by Erica Bauermeister
• How to be Antiracist by Ibram X. Kendi
• The Family Upstairs by Lisa Jewell
• The Color Purple by Alice Walker
• What Alice Forgot by Liane Moriarty
• American Dirt by Jeanine Cummins*
• The Girl You Left Behind by Jojo Moyes
• The Girl With The Louding Voice by Abi Daré*
• The Vanishing Half by Brit Bennett*
• A Long Petal of the Sea by Isabel Allende
• Purple Hibiscus by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie
• Beloved by Toni Morrison (didn't finish, I want to try to understand this one better)
• Things Fall Apart by Chinua Achebe
• The Last Letter From Your Lover by Jojo Moyes
• The Book of Longings by Sue Monk Kidd*
• Olive Kitteridge by Elizabeth Strout
• The Secret Life of Bees by Sue Monk Kidd
• The Revisioners by Margaret Wilkerson Sexton
• The Book Woman of Troublesome Creek by Kim Michele Richardson
• The House on Mango Street by Sandra Cisneros
• The Round House by Louise Erdrich*
• Gods of Jade and Shadow by Silvia Moreno-Garcia
• An American Marriage by Tayari Jones*
• The Other Americans by Laila Lalami*
• I Am Not Your Perfect Mexican Daughter by Erika L. Sánchez*
• Educated by Tara Westover
• The Leavers by Lisa Ko
• The Night Watchman by Louise Erdrich
• Transcendent Kingdom by Yaa Gyasi

That's almost 50 books in one year!! I've marked my top choices just in case anyone reading this post would like to know what I'd choose first.