Baroque Sun
San Giorgio a Cremano, Campania, Italy
Photography by Vittorio Pandolfi, January 2020
the---hermit
the best books I read in 2021
This past year has been an incredible reading year for me, I have never managed to get so much reading done in a year, and I feel like I fell in love with this activity all over again.
I decided to look back at my goodreads account, to see what 5 star ratings I have given during the past year, and I was surprised.(I should mention that not all books I read during the year are included on that list, because I couldn’t find some on the platform, but if you want to check out my goodreads here’s the link to my profile x). I realized that I gave less 5 star readings than I thought, apparently over time I changed my opinion on a pretty big amount of books. For example I though I gave 5 stars to a couple of books by H.G. Wells , but apparently I did not, same thing happened to a few other books.
In my 5 star ratings there’s many re-readings I have done this year, because I have re-read a couple of my favourite books, like Frankenstein by Mary W. Shelly, The Hobbit by J.R.R. Tolkien and The Humans by Matt Haig. In this post I am only considering the books I have read for the first time (I might do a post of my favourite books ever in the future).
I linked all the specific posts and reiews I wrote on here during the year, in case anyone is interested in reading more on some books. Also let me know what your favourite readings of the year were! I am always looking for book reccomendations.
Non Fiction
I normally read quite a bit of non fiction, mainly for university, but it’s a type of book I really enjoy. This year there weren’t a lot of five stars, but here’s a couple books I really reccomend.
This is the book my queer history professor wrote and assigned us for class. It was absolutely one of the best readings I did in all 2021. It’s the perfect introduction to queer history, it explains things clearly, so that anyone could approach and understand the subjects (both those who don’t know much about the queer community and those who do not have a huge historical background). There’s a lot of sources, and it’s overall a great jumping point for further research. I wish everyone around me gave a read to this book, because unfortunately the vast majority of its subjects are not part of a standard school programs.
Life Isn’t Binary: On Being Both, Beyond, and In-Between by Alex Iantaffi and M.J. Barker
This was one of my most annotated books of the year. I have a digital copy, which is a shame because I enjoy annotating physical books much more. Anyway this book was so eye-opening. It’s all about how binary thinking is at the base of the majority of things in our life, not only in the way our society thinks of sexuality and gender, but in every aspect of life. It was illuminating, I have reccomended it to everyone I know, and I will surely re-read this in the future. It also has a lot of prompts for further analysis of the subjects, which I found to be perfect as journaling prompts. There’s also a bunch of further material one could read to know more about the subjects of each chapter, which is always a plus.
This book is stunning. It was illustrated by Chris Riddle, who is an amazing artist, and Gaiman’s writing is gorgeous, as usual. I never though I could get emotional while reading non-fiction, but apparently it can happen. This book is so important, and it deals with a lot of subjects, from the importance of libraries, to making art, and believing in art. It’s such a short read aswell, I think every creative person, or booklover should own this. I found myself re reading small passages now and then just randomly. This book filled me with joy and hope.
Graphic Novels
During 2021 I gave 5 star ratings to a very high number of graphic novels. If you have read a few of my posts in the past, you might know my love for this type of book. This past year I got to read some incredible ones. Here’s a list of a few of my favourites:
This is very high on my list of best books of the year, it quickly became one of my favourite graphic novels of all time, and I am planning a re-reading. This is the graphic novel I would reccomend to someone who has never read Ortolani’s stuff before, because it has everything that makes his works memorable. His humor is perfectly shown here, but at the same time he manages to make you so emotional, and you can’t help but connect to the main character. The plot is very simple, it follows Cinzia, a trans woman, who gets a crush on a guy she randmly meets. This crush will bring her to do crazy things to get close to him, and eventually she will mature on many different levels. It’s really hard not to spoil anything, since the plot is so simple. As I said this graphic novel is humorous, as everything written by this author, but as always it manages to hit you when it wants you to.
Special mention to : Il Grande Ratolik and Bedelia both by Leo Ortolani, again.
I don’t want to rant too much on the same author, but these two graphic novels were also incredible. Il Grande Ratolik, is a brilliant parody of one of my favourite comic series Diabolik by the Giussani sisters, and it’s absolutely hilarious. Bedelia, on the other hand is more on the line of Cinzia. This time the story follows an insanely famous model, who is about to be replaced by a younger girl. The presentation of the book claims you will fall in love with a bitch, and believe me you will. She is mean and heartless, and you will inevitably adore her. There’s also a twist which I did not see comig at all.
In Italia Sono Tutti Maschi by De Santis and Colaone
This graphic novel was an amazing journey in italian queer history, it shows a moment of the history of my country which I didn’t learn in school until I personally seeked a queer history course. The official denial of the very existence of homosexuality in Italy during the fascist regime, and how queer people were sent away as “political enemies”. This subject is amazingly linked to the importance of the few testimonies we have, but also how hard is to get them. This touching story is told through amazing illustrations that just make this book a work of art.
A Man’s Skin by Hubert and Zanzim
I found out about this graphic novel online, and I got it without knowing too much about it. I knew it was about the story of a young girl who, before her arranged marriage, wishes to know her future husband. She is then told that the women of her family have a man’s skin, that one can wear to disguise themselves as a man. This is the outline of the plot, but believe me this story touches to many subjects, from arranged marriages, to womanhood, religion obsessivness, and queerness. I don’t want to say too much, because I really enjoyed going into this graphic novel without much informations. The illustrations were stunning, and it’s incredibly engaging, and as an history nerd I saw a few historical references which I really appreciated.
The Sandman by Neil Gaiman
In 2021 I finally read Preludess And Nocturnes the first graphic novel in The Sandman series, and I also listened to the audiobook that was made. I had been interested in finally reading this for years, and I am so happy I finally decided to give it a try. I adored the plot and the characters, Dream is such a fascinating and interesting main character, and this first volume was stunning. The audiobook is extraordinary, it’s perfect. It goes beyond the plot of the first volume, and I cannot wait to read more of this series.
Short Stories
Anyone who knows me, knows how much I love short stories, this year I have read many collections, but here I’ll talk about a couple of short stories I read singularly. If I were to talk about all the five starts I gave inside short stories collections this post would be even longer than it is already. (But if anyone is interested I could do a dedicated post talking only about short stories, so let me know).
When I was looking into my goodreads account what I read this year, I was surpresed that I did not give five stars to other books I read written by H.G. Wells. This is because 2021 was the year in which I fell in love with his writing. I had never read anything by him, and I read quite a few of his works within the san of just a few months. The Star is the perfect short story to get an idea of his writing style. What I love about Wells is the simplicity of his ideas, and the amazing execution, that everytime leaves you wondering whether the things he talks about actually happened or not. I was so captured by all his works, and this one could be a great starting point. The plot is quite simple, on Earth people start realizing that a certain star is seemingly getting closer and closer to our planet.
The Lottery by Shirley Jackson
I’ve been hearing people talk about this author and this short story in particular for so long. I had never read anything of hers before, but I surely will buy one of her short story collections in 2022. I adored this one, it’s a great exaple of the kind of story I love. Very simple, with a nice creepy twist in the end. I cannot wait to read more by this author.
The Sleeper And The Spindle by Neil Gaiman and illustrated by Chris Riddle
Okay, so tecnically this book shouldn’t be on this list. It is a short story, but it has its own stand alone edition. Most importantly this is tecnically a re-reading for me, and at the beginning of this post I said I would talk about those books I read for the first time in 2021. But hear me out, this is possibly my favourite short story by my favourite author, and this year I got this incredible illustrated version, how could I not mention it here? The first time I read it I had read the translated version (in Italian), but this time I got the English edition. The best way I can describe this retelling of Snow White and The Sleeping Beauty is by saying, this is the story I wish I had growing up. I won’t say more, do yourself a favour and read it. The illustrated edition is so worth it, Chris Riddle is an incredibly talented artist, and he did a stunning job with this one.
Fiction
This year I read so much fiction. I have never read as much as I did this year, as I was mentioning, and the majority of it was fiction.
The Song Of Achilles by Madeline Miller
I was dubious about this book before reading it. I am not a lover of YA novels, and I am always a bit scared to approach mythological retellings (and retellings in general), because I fear the new version won’t give justice to the source. I was very wrong. This was a stunning book, with amazing writing, that made me forget I knew the story already. It’s the perfect way to get people interested in myths, and it was a spectacular journey. I cannot wait to reread it and annotate the hell out of it, since my first reading was done with an audiobook.
This novel bewitched me. Ever since I read it, it has been on the back of my mind at all times, I can’t seem to be able to stop thinking about it. I was intrigued by the cover, and when I heard it was about a character living in an infinete house filled with statues, with a single friend called the Other, I had to get it. The writing in this is stunning, it’s absolutely beautiful. I fell in love with the main character, Piranesi is such a pure being, who manages to see beauty and purpuse in everything, and I just adored him. I have been fighting off the urge to reread this all year. I should also mention that this book got me out of a reading slump, and the descriptions of the house are magical, anyone who likes the dark academia aesthetic will adore them. Also everyone I reccomended it to was just as obessed as I was with it after reading it.
The Book Of Lost Things by John Connolly
Possibly one of the easiest five stars of all year. I found this book in a reccomendation video, where it was described as an “horror retelling of fairy tales that will ruin your childhood”. Of course with such a description I was sold on it, and I got it. It was perfection, I loved how the story feels like a sort of fairy tale itself. I loved how the horror was woven into the plot, and it was the perfect autumanl book. I couldn’t reccomend this more.
I had so many thoughts about this before reading it. I thought it was going to be so overrated, but when I found an audiobook I finally decided to give it a try, and I loved everything about it. I really like the classical horror theme of hauntings, and this one was incredible, I now understand why it’s so famous. I didn’t adore the characters but they serverd the plot amazingly, so I wouldn’t even count that as a bad thing. The setting was beautiful, the vibe you feel about this hotel in the middle of nowhere is perfection. I am so happy about how much this book surprised me.