top books 2021

i read a whopping 11 books this year. obviously, you can tell what my resolution will be for 2022.

What is that place, different from home, different from community, the place you thrive in creatively. What happens when it’s disturbed? In some ways this reminds me of The End of the Story by Lydia Davis, and works just a well.

I hated this book at first. But then realized that I hated it so much because it was the very ennui of 2021. And good riddance.

I remember The History of Love. I remember that time period, 2008, an awakening of sorts, but Krauss, long ago, taught me how to perceive the world from the innards of others that very much felt like a secret. We see it again here, a little more refined, a little more adultish, and it’s beautiful.

Perhaps the most important book you’ll read on the struggles of Asian Americans. Required reading.

What does it mean to be a minority? In New York? In a world changing? Politics and words, moods and money. How does white menace? A surprising favorite.