It’s time for The Stacks’ annual Best Books of 2021 episode. To help put together this list, we’re joined by professional readers Lupita Aquino (@lupita.reads) and Morgan Hoit (@nycbookgirl). In addition to sharing our top 10 books of the year, we also discuss the trends we saw in 2021, reading for work, and the books we’re excited about in 2022.
The Stacks Book Club selection for December is A Little Devil in America: Notes in Praise of Black Performance by Hanif Abdurraqib, we will discuss the book on December 29th with Andrew Ti.
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Everything we talk about on today’s episode can be found below in the show notes. You can also find everything we talked about on Amazon.
- @NYCBookGirl
- @Lupita.Reads
- Random House Books
- Aspen Words Literary Prize
- Avid Reader Press
- Seven Days in June by Tia Williams
- Hell of a Book by Jason Mott
- Cloud Cuckoo Land by Anthony Doerr
- The Book of Form and Emptiness by Ruth Ozeki
- The Final Revival of Opal and Nev by Dawnie Walton
- Crying in H Mart by Michelle Zauner
- Japanese Breakfast
- Barack Obama’s Favorite Books of 2021
- The Arosnists’ City by Hala Alyan
- Salt Houses by Hala Alyan
- How the Word is Passed by Clint Smith
- Thomas Jefferson’s Monticello
- Blandford Cemetery
- “Ep. 168 Embodying History with Clint Smith” (The Stacks)
- Barack Obama’s Summer Book List 2021
- Intimacies by Katie Kitamura
- A Separation by Katie Kitamura
- Seek You by Kristen Radtke
- White Tears by Hari Kunzru
- Danzy Senna
- The Trees by Percival Everett
- The Kissing Bug by Daisy Hernádez
- Lupita’s Review of The Kissing Bug
- Empire of Pain by Patrick Radden Keefe
- The Sackler Family
- The New Yorker
- Empire of Pain by Patrick Radden Keefe (Audiobook)
- “Met Museum Removes Sackler Name From Wing Over Opioid Ties” (Robin Pogrebin, The New York Times)
- “Judge rejects Purdue Pharma’s opioid settlement that would protect the Sackler family” (The Associated Press)
- While Justice Sleeps by Stacey Abrams
- Dan Brown
- Doubleday Books
- Skye Falling by Mia McKenzie
- With Teeth by Kristen Arnett
- A Little Devil in America by Hanif Abdurraqib
- Trayvon Martin
- Michael P. Anderson
- Labelle
- Whitney Houston
- “Ep. 160 Black People Doing Spectacular Things with Hanif Abdurraqib” (The Stacks)
- “Ep. Breaking a Story with Patrick Radden Keefe” (The Stacks)
- Detransition, Baby by Torrey Peters
- Yolk by Mary H. K. Choi
- The Morning Show (Apple TV)
- Succession (HBO)
- Insecure (HBO)
- Grey’s Anatomy (Season 17, ABC)
- The Prophets by Robert Jones, Jr.
- Yonder by Jabari Asim
- The Water Dancer by Ta-Nehisi Coates
- Deesha Philyaw
- What My Bones Know by Stephanie Foo
- Funny You Should Ask by Elissa Sussman
- Woman of Light by Kali Fajardo-Anstine
- Sabrina and Corina by Kali Fajardo-Anstine
- Four Hundred Souls by Ibram X. Kendi and Keisha N. Blain
- Neruda on the Park by Cleyvis Natera
- South to America by Imani Perry
- Good Grief by Kiese Laymon
- Sandy Hook by Elizabeth Williamson
- In Sensorium by Tanaïs
- The Movement Made Us by David J. Dennis Jr. and David J. Dennis Sr.
- You Gotta Be You by Brandon Kyle Goodman
- Nightcrawling by Leila Mottley
- Yerba Buena by Nina Lacour
- How High We Go in the Dark by Sequoia Nagamatsu
- Duende District Bookstore (Washington D.C. and Albuquerque, NM)
- Station 11 by Emily St. John Mandel
- Ted Chiang
- Cloud Atlas by David Mitchell
- Moon Witch, Spider King by Marlon James
- Black Leopard, Red Wolf by Marlon James
- “Bookstore workers across the country are organizing. D.C.’s Politics and Prose employees are among them.” (Karina Elwood, The Washington Post)
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Connect with Morgan: Instagram | Twitter | Website
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