Books I Read (or Listened to) in 2021

Here’s my (mostly) spoiler-free list of books I read (or listened to) in 2021! I was able to really fall back in love with reading towards the end of this year, so I hope to have more books on my list for 2022 :) In the meantime, please enjoy this short article.

Also, if you’d like to watch me talk through these thoughts, you can check out my accompanying YouTube video here.

Spoilers are prefaced with a warning (and there are only spoilers written for “If I Had Your Face” and “Verity”)!!

1. “Present Over Perfect” by Shauna Niequist

• Listened to this on Libby after my good friend Amanda recommended it to me and I LOVED it
• I felt myself relating to every. single. chapter.
• Was really helpful to listen to as I walked my dog, drove my car, or did the dishes because it helped ground me and remember to live as present of a life as possible
• Would love to read more of Niequist’s other books!

2. “If I Had Your Face” by Frances Cha

• Listened to on Libby, random find
• Really enjoyed this and I wasn’t sure if I would!
• It’s very much a slice-of-life book, and without any spoilers, the book doesn’t really end with anything resolved (I actually was shocked after the last chapter ended to hear my audiobook announce that the reading ended)… I wasn’t sure if it needed to end the way it did
• Talks about pressures as a Korean woman to be married, to be beautiful / to get plastic surgery, to be successful, to be disabled, to have children, etc.
• About four women who are all connected to each other in Seoul, Korea and each chapter is told by one of the women, in a rotating fashion; really enjoyed hearing a different voice actress play each main character
• Beautifully-written and relatable and funny and sad

SPOILERS AHEAD FOR THE REST OF THIS BOOK REVIEW

• Two of the saddest parts of the book for me both had to do with Ara: the first was when Cherry sabotaged Ara’s plan to leave work early and then Ara sobbing after attacking Cherry, and the other was when Ara finally got to meet the K-Pop star she was obsessed with and it was extremely disappointing
• One of the most memorable lines for me is when Wonna describes marrying her husband specifically because his mother has already died, so that she wouldn’t have to worry about a mother-in-law
• I also found it heartbreaking to know that Miho actually fell in love with Bruce… and then all that stuff that happens, happens

3. “One Thousand Gifts” by Ann Voskamp

• This was a lovely Christmas present from my friend, Amanda
• It took me a long time to finish just because I was busy, but it was a great read
• Ann writes SO beautifully and poetically, unlike any other author I’ve read works from
• It met me during a dry season (that I’m honestly still kind of in) of my faith and it was really beautiful
• There were so, so, so many great quotes from this but one that really met me was: “I am blessed. I can bless. So this is happiness.”
• I can’t believe Ann has gone through so much and was able to write this book, and she has just gone through even more this past year but I’m sure she would still consider the words in this book to be true

4. “Lead From the Outside” by Stacey Abrams

• Looooooved this
• I listened to this on Libby and felt so encouraged any time I listened to it while I was walking my dogs or doing the dishes
• No matter your political background, I recommend this book, especially if you are a woman of color
• Stacey made me feel so empowered with her words, and the anecdotes she included in this book gave invaluable advice on how to learn from mentors/disciples, how to mentor/disciple younger people, how to make sure your voice is heard when you’re the minority in a room, etc.
• Side note: I got to see Stacey speak live a few months ago and it was also incredible

5. “Crying in H Mart” by Michelle Zauner

• Read this in one morning and was sobbing the whole time
• So beautifully written and so heart-wrenching
• Michelle captures so much about what it’s like to lose someone you love but have a complicated relationship with
• She also does a great job capturing the Asian American experience and what a typical Asian American child’s relationship with their parents is generally like
• Gosh I can’t recommend this book enough—but don’t read it in a public place unless you’re okay with inevitably surrounding yourself with used Kleenex from crying so much

6. “Verity” by Colleen Hoover

• PHEWWWWWWW
• I was not reading much for most of the year, but then I decided that I wanted to pick up some books to read from the library before a trip I took to LA (to see BTS—here’s the vlog lollll)
• I have not been so engrossed in a book for a LONG time, mainly because I was usually reading books that I thought I should read, and not necessarily “fun” ones.. this book got me back into reading fun fiction again

SPOILERS AHEAD FOR THE REST OF THIS BOOK REVIEW

• I thought to myself for most of the book that there was A LOT OF SEX, so much that I ended up skimming a lot of it, but then after reading the letter at the end, it makes sense (I love when Verity goes, “Did you really think that women think about sex THAT much??” or something along those lines, hahaha)
• Are you team letter or team manuscript?? I think that I’m team manuscript (in that I believe that that’s the truth and not the letter), and I feel like the addition of the letter at the end of the book was sort of an unnecessary twist
• It’s just hard for me to believe that the letter is real or compelling when I’ve spent so much time with the manuscript already
• But I did find myself going “oh my god oh mY GOD OH MY GOD NO ARE YOU KIDDING ME CRAP” when Lowen is reading the letter and realizes that if they had just let Verity explain herself then maybe they wouldn’t have felt like they needed to KILL HER
• YIKES

7. “They Wish They Were Us” by Jessica Goodman

• This was a really fun read!
• The high school drama immediately gave me Pretty Little Liars / Riverdale vibes but some fun twists and turns
• If you’re looking for a light murder mystery with some high school drama (a la Riverdale S1), this is the book for you

SPOILERS AHEAD FOR THE REST OF THIS BOOK REVIEW

• I could kind of see the final twist from a mile away BUT I enjoyed the journey it took me on to get there—I feel bad though that Jill was so in love with Adam for so long and OF COURSE he had to be the person to kill her best friend
• I appreciate that there was some commentary here and there about like… sort of what Greek life culture is like (but the high school version) and how women who participate are often treated worse than the men, how the hazing can get to be too intense, etc.
• I also liked that Jill’s parents weren’t rich, and that the book talked about the pressures that Jill faced regarding success and making it into Brown / getting the full ride scholarship she would need to go, AND THEN finding out that Griffin was in a similar situation—the different layers that were uncovered about the different Players just reinforced the idea that the idea of perfect, rich, popular, straight-A students, is just a lie

Thanks for reading and looking forward to reading (hopefully) lots more books in 2022 :)