The Best Books of 2021 (according to the Guardian)

hello hello how are you doing i am continuing on drinking my way through my advent calendar of teas and uh so today's tea is a supreme green matcha tea uh which i love matcha so i'm enjoying that and also there are more best books of the year lists coming out and just this past weekend the guardian finally posted their best books of the year so i've just been looking through the list and you know figuring out which ones i haven't read which ones i have read and agreed with and uh some i really didn't agree with and uh so i'm gonna go through this list and give descriptions of all the books um i'm just focusing on the fiction section because fiction is mainly what i read and this was uh written by justine jordan and i do kind of like it when uh best books of the year list is just authored by a single journalist because then you just get you know one person's perspective on it but then of course that makes it necessarily limited because there's only so much that one person can read in a single year and so i do kind of wish that she'd list how many books she's read this year and um you know be interesting to know what books maybe she didn't have time to get to reading yet and and why that's not on the list but anyway i'll get into all of the books um there she listed 38 different uh books of fiction and uh so i'm going to go through each one i personally have only read 18 of these um which is you know fairly good and i think i have more of a hit rate of reading these books because this is a uk newspaper and um so with uk books just generally i'm a bit more up on them you know than like american publications or or things published elsewhere now a lot of these books um if you keep up with what is being published over the course of the year you'll have probably heard of a lot of these and and so in a way that's slightly disappointing you know that these are the kind of books you would expect to see on a list like this but at the same time there are a number of the books um which uh aren't i don't think you know massively popular books and aren't as you know well known as as other books and um there there are a few books which i hadn't even really heard of yet so um i did find this informative in it interesting uh but to start off um the very first book she mentions is one that you will have almost certainly heard of of sally rooney's new novel beautiful world where are you and i i of course people go on either readers go on either side of the fence of liking sally rooney or disliking sally rooney's fiction and i personally do really enjoy um her fiction and especially this novel which i think is one of our most interesting and complex about a group of four uh young irish people navigating uh modern life and uh class and uh money and uh relationships and the way she handles that i think is really intelligently done and engaging and i did really care about the the characters and um so yeah i think this is a great novel that i would really recommend if you haven't ever tried her and have been a bit nervous about trying her fiction you know give it a try next is a novel which has only just been published recently and um and if you've read it already i'm like good for you because this novel is 928 pages long it is the books of jacob by olga tokorchik who is a nobel prize lauret and a winner of the international booker prize a much lauded polish author who's written this great big epic and which has been years in the making and just years to get it translated into english and uh so this is a book about jacob frank who's a 18th century leader of a heretical jewish splinter group who had also at one point had converted to catholicism and islam and uh so yeah it was quite a controversial mysterious figure and i think it looks at his life from many different angles and looking at different periods of of history um it is a very long novel but it's also uh structured and i think uh quite an experimental way in that it uh it sort of goes forward and then the pages go backwards uh at at some point um so i i'm really interested to get into this but you know it's a question of finding the time for it i did enjoy to kochik's uh novel drive your plow over the bones of the dead uh very much i thought that was like a fascinating but also like kind of like darkly hilarious novel um so you know i am keen to try um this but it's one of those books that i slightly worry that people will just you know almost automatically praise if they'd got to the end of reading it because if they invested that much time in reading a book you know they they want to feel like it was worthwhile and so there is this like issue with um really long novels like this crossroads by jonathan franzen his another great big new epic book in the first part in a trilogy and this is about a family in the 1970s during times of of cultural and social change and uh so following the different points of view of this family and the the arguments and uh the the relationships they they share with each other and i it's another book that i have been interested to get to but it's just a question of finding the time another big publication from this year and another nobel laureate kazuo ishiguro's clara and the sun another book um that uh people are very divided about and there are some really massive fans of uh this novel and then there's some big detractors of it and i am a big fan of it uh the story of an artificial friend and her journey in the near future as she is acquired by a girl and her family and the um slightly sinister reasons behind why she was purchased by this family and following that that storyline and it raises so many issues um to do with modern society and faith and relationships that i found it really meaningful and moving and it's really stuck with me even though i read it early on this year a big new novel which hasn't got quite as much attention as some of these other books is palmares by gail jones set in brazil colonial brazil in the 17th century and following the story of a girl that's born into slavery and her journey to a community of freed black slaves and and the troubles of this this community to try to stick together or reform in a number of different ways over a period of time and her individual story of survival as she meets a number of of individuals over the the course of her lifetime one thing i have to point out is the grandmother in this novel is so amazing and wonderful i'm obsessed with her and loved her i think she's she's an incredible character and that just really has stuck with me after finishing this book the women of troy by pat barker this author's sequel to her novel the silence of the girls which i did really enjoy reading so i've been wanting to get to this which is a retelling of a greek mythology immediately following uh the fall of the city of troy and um but through the perspective of a number of women um that was at the heart of this this battle and so sort of reclaiming this mythology from a more feminist perspective another literary sequel is oh william by elizabeth strout this is the third book in her series of novels about her fictional character lucy barton who is a writer and a memorist he's had a very complicated life who's born into extreme poverty and then is sort of raised up to a sort of middle class level and in this novel she's reconnecting with her first husband after the death of her second husband and their complicated relationships with each other but also re-examining her past and her very complicated past i have to admit this isn't my favorite uh novel by elizabeth strout but elizabeth strout's writing is always worth reading and i i really enjoyed and thought um there's there's many thoughtful aspects to this novel the book of form and emptiness by ruth ozeki which has quite a wild storyline about a 13 year old boy whose father has died and who um amidst his grieving starts to hear voices from inanimate objects including books um so it does sound like quite a whimsical story but it is one that i've been really wanting to to read um i really enjoyed uh her previous novel um but again this is another quite long book so i'm just finding the time to read it the magician by calm toybin and i've been meaning to get to this book for for so long it's been sitting in my immediate tbr pile like just over there for uh you know ever since it was first published and this is about the the life of thomas mann and um following him over the course of uh many years and and through the great war and uh yeah just one i've been wanting to read so much because i love his his writing and especially um his his novel about henry james and fictionalizing henry james life so i'm very keen to see what he does with another author's life harlem shuffle by coulson whitehead the story of a furniture salesman in 1960s new york city who gradually gets drawn into a life of crime and this is a novel that's been appearing on a lot of like best books of the year lists but enough people have said to me personally that um they really didn't enjoy this novel um that it's slightly put me off from reading it or at least like put it on made me put it to the side you know for the time being as we do with certain books that we think well i'll probably get to that at some point but actually i'm not sure i will i'm not i bet if i did read this i would really enjoy it because i hear it's a really atmospheric read and i've really enjoyed uh whiteheads fiction um that i've read in the past but uh but yeah it's just a question of when to get to it painting time by mailis de karen gal who's a french author and uh this is such a beautiful cover um this is a story about art students and an an an art student that uh takes up the form of trump lay painting and um through that um looks at sort of the history of art um it sounds like a gorgeous story and it's it is a book that i've been really wanting to get to treckle walker by alan garner i'm sort of surprised i've not heard of this book because this is about an introspective young mind trying to make sense of the world around him and uses a mixture of folklore and mythology and it sort of sounds like a fascinating story and one that i'd really enjoy cloud cuckoo land by anthony dorr which sounds like a truly epic novel uh starting 500 years ago in constantinople and a girl in the city that that is learning to to read and uh skipping forward more to the present day to a library in idaho and then going into the the future and an interstellar uh ship that's traveling through through space um this it sounds like quite a wild story and and one a number of people have asked me if i've read but um but that i haven't got time to yet a shock by keith ridgway this has been one of my great reading joys recently and it was nominated for the goldsmiths prize this year um which is a prize that looks at sort of ex more experimental fiction or fiction that pushes the moulds of of what the novel is and um this is more a collection of interconnected short stories um all centered around a number of people living in south london um but is does so in such like a compelling way and looking at their different psychologies and points of view of lives and how they form their community and their insights into each other's lives or their misunderstandings of each other's lives and it does so in just such a mesmerizing way on that yeah i hope that um more people will read this great book the promise by damon gallagher this year's booker prize winner and another epic story about a white south african family following them in the years before and after apartheid and the inherent racism within this family and how that feeds into a promise which is broken year after year it is such a compelling and and thoughtful story um that uses a very unique structure but is is also very confrontational to the reader to to make them think and question their own values and points of view the fortune men by narifah muhammad which is a fictional reimagining of a great historical injustice when a merchant a somali-born merchant seaman named mahmoud in 1960s in wales was tried and convicted and sentenced to death for a murder which he didn't commit and it explores his life as well as the um very diverse community in uh cardiff at at that time and uh it is such a meaningful and impactful story light perpetual by francis spufford another novel that's set in south london and uh but this is a historical novel that begins uh during the blitz in world war ii and a bomb that lands in south london killing a number of of people and this is you know based on a real bombing from that time in a memorial that the author saw to this bombing and just a sort of list of names and he fictionally reimagines what if uh a number of the children that died in this bombing hadn't died and it follows their lives over the course of a number of years and in quite a compelling way um but is a novel that i didn't fully love because um i think some of the the story lines are more interesting than than other ones um but overall it is quite an effective historical novel china room by sanjeev sahoda this is such a moving and powerful novel with a dual narrative one side of which is set in rural punjab in in the early 20th century and a woman who who marries a man who's has two other brothers and she doesn't know which of these men she's actually married and following her storyline but also the storyline of one of her descendants much later in the century when he travels from england back to this area of punjab to um to this farm and to explore that history and so you see this physical landscape in this house through these two different perspectives and the way this this builds over time is is so emotional and effective i i think this is an incredible novel second place by rachel cusk no one is talking about this by patricia lockwood yes make the joke everyone is talking about this lester by raven leilani i loved this novel i i read it early on this year and i'm still thinking about it on the story of a young black woman that gets involved in a relationship with an older married white man and his wife and their adopted daughter how she sort of infiltrates their their lives and uh the very complicated relationships between all of them um what this says about modern america and uh racial relations is so moving and impactful and uh and the story is just so juicy and delicious assembly by natasha brown a a novel which is quite short but you know talking about like all big novels it shows that you don't need uh hundreds of pages in order to to make a really impactful and moving story um so this is about a young black woman in england who works in the banking sector and following her life and her relationship um with a a privileged white man and how she goes um to the the family estate um to attend a party there and following her perspective is is so moving and insightful and this is written in such a beautiful and poetic style that i i was just completely drawn into this story the manning tree witches by ak blakemore which is a novel uh set in the the witch trials in mid 17th century um england and uh following on the perspective of of a girl whose mother is accused of being witch and other members female members of the community that are accused of being a witch and and some uh men in the community as well and uh so uh there's a witch finder general it's all very sinister and creepy and eerie it's it's a very effective historical novel i i didn't wholly love it but um but i found it uh really impactful and and enjoyed reading it keeping the house by taja sin which is a novel about the heroin trade in north london and a family of turkish origins i'm following their their story um it is a book that i have been really meaning to get to open water by caleb zuma nelson uh one of another one of the great debut uh novels of of this year and another very short but very effective novel about a young black couple living in london in the present day and um who are both artists and the the struggle of their relationship and um there's a lot in this novel about masculinity and um social relationships and uh yeah it's it's a very effective and moving novel that's written in a really unique way it's written in the second person which you don't often get many novels that are written in that style but it's really effective um how it does so mrs death misses death by selena garden a novel with a trixie title and that has a really beautiful just gorgeous cover it's the story of a troubled young writer who strikes up a relationship with death that takes a physical form of of a woman and so yeah it sounds like such a fantastical story and one that i've been really wanting to get to a burning by mega mujamdar a novel which is about a firebombing that occurs on a train in india and uh how hundreds of people are killed in this and a young woman working-class woman who is on that train that is accused of being part of this act of terrorism and follows her trial as well as the perspectives of a couple of the other people that are um associated with her and uh following their their different storylines and perspectives and this is such a heartbreaking novel um i thought it was well done um but it is one that is really difficult um to read because what happens is is so terrible um that yeah and it's all the more heartbreaking because you grow to feel real affection with some of the the characters but then those characters act in a way um which is uh really immoral and and horrible and um so it does say something quite powerful about like the layers of society and the way that that power and influence work um but uh but yeah it's just so heartbreaking how to kidnap the rich by rahul reyna this is a novel i've been really wanting to get to because it sounds like such a thrilling story about blackmail and grotesque wealth and reality television um so i think this would be a really enjoyable um read to get to over the winter period pity the beast by robin mclean this is a novel which i hadn't heard of before this list and it's been very strongly compared to cormac mccarthy's work and that's it's a um a feminist western um that includes uh sexual violence and vengeance and it's a story which stretches back to pre-history sorrow and bliss by meg mason i know a lot of people have been talking about this this novel about a couple and a woman who feels like there's something wrong in her life but her husband assures her that everything is fine and so following their their story um so yeah this is a book that i have been really wanting to get to the hummingbird by sandro veronese a novel that i absolutely hated and i made a whole video talking about why i disliked this novel so much i think there there are so many things wrong with it and it just completely missed the mark for me my phantoms by gwendolyn riley this novel which i i consciously haven't read um because gwendo and riley's novel first love i i hated so much that it just put me off from reading this author ever again though i know she's been much acclaimed and um so so a lot of people love her writing but i i just uh yeah i had such an issue with that book that i haven't picked this up um but it it's a story about a mother and daughter and the mother is terminally ill and it follows the story of their relationship and and the the last dregs of their relationship towards the end of the mother's life dark neighborhood by vanessa anwar messi and this is a book of short stories um and it's a very short book uh but i haven't got to reading it yet i did pick it up and start reading it but i just found the the style so alienating that i just didn't feel like i was in quite the right mood for it um i think these stories are like a bit fantastical and um so yeah they'll just and quite experimental in their their storytelling um but so many people have been praising this that i do want to give another try to these stories english magic by ushi gatward which is another a book of short stories and that has been getting a lot of praise sort of looking at modern day england from a number of different perspectives and some of the stories are more surreal some are looking more at the the mundane details of everyday life but is a writer that i'd like to explore sterling carrot gold by isabelle weidner this novel is so imaginative and playful and fun both in its structure and style of writing it's kind of a modern day retelling of franz kafka's the trial but involving queer individuals in north london and bullfights and uh the histories of uh gay footballers in england and uh and it's it's just such a joy to to read and it was the winner of this year's goldsmith's prize for fiction uh which i i was discussing earlier burnt coat by sarah hall another novel with a gorgeous cover and a story that i've been really wanting to get to as it is a very strong reaction to our current times as it's about a sculptor who retreats inside while a virus is spreading outside um so yeah a story which um is really reacting to our current preoccupations the passenger by ulrich alexander boschwitz and this is a novel that's being hailed as a great literary rediscovery because it was written in 1938 by a jewish man in germany and it follows the the story of a jewish businessman as he tries to flee uh the nazis in germany um but finds himself entrapped in bureaucracy and uh so you know every once in a while there's um these these novels uh older novels that are republished and then just sort of rediscovered and and this is one of those books and finally there is matrix by lauren groff which is set in 12th century in an abbey in england and a woman that is uh sort of born as a bastard in french nobility is uh sent here um in kind of exile but there she makes a new life for herself and i was just immediately drawn into uh the the wonder and pleasure of this story as it follows uh queer nuns in in this medieval time period uh but then it the story gets much more complex as her life goes on and we follow her as um she establishes herself in in the community and um the the uh the price of that power that she gains there and uh it's it's yeah just such a joy to read and uh so it's such a great novel so those are all the books on the list i'd love to know if you've read any of these or if you have any thoughts about them or if they're any of these books that you want to read and that you've been planning to get to please let me know about that in the the comments below or if you have any other books that you'd like to add as some of the best books of the year that haven't been talked about on these lists and you think that they deserve to be talked about i'd i'd love to hear about those as well but thank you for watching this and i will speak to you again soon bye

Channel: Eric Karl Anderson

Views: 5,641

Keywords: booktube, best books of the year 2021, best fiction of 2021, must read books 2021, fiction reviews, guardian best books 2021, Beautiful World Where Are You, The Books of Jacob, Crossroads – Jonathan Franzen, Klara and the Sun, Palmares – Gayl Jones, The Women of Troy, Oh William!, The Book of Form and Emptiness, The Magician – Colm Toibin, Harlem Shuffle, Painting Time – Maylis de Kerangal, Treacle Walker – Alan Garner, Cloud Cuckoo Land, A Shock – Keith Ridgway, Damon Galgut

Id: k86es6dgmss

Length: 26min 27sec (1587 seconds)

Published: Tue Dec 07 2021