I didn’t think that I read a lot this year, because my reading time has gone down drastically since I started my MBA programme but as it turns out, 2021 was a great year for reading! I reviewed 160 books (and finished rereading The Tale of Genji – more on that later in the post), and of those 160, 7 emerged as my favourites. My favourites category is actually really arbitrary and I make a decision on the book as I write my review, rather than thinking about the types of books that should be highlighted, so I’m pretty pleased that this year’s list is quite diverse.

Favourite Books of 2021

Fiction

A Monster Calls by Patrick Ness

This is a story about grief, truth, and stories and I basically cried while reading it at the ending. The subject matter is tough – bullying and cancer – but it’s beautifully written and I loved it so much. (Full review)

The Short Stories and Radio Plays of S. Rajaratnam

Three cheers for a Singlit book on this list! And it’s an underrated treasure in my opinion – I love how the short stories straddle the sweet spot between story and meaning (short stories tend to lean heavily to one side due to the length issues, in my opinion) and even though I’m not someone who likes plays, I really enjoyed this one! (Full review)

Trial and Error by Anthony Berkeley

Trial and Error is a book where the protagonist tries to prove that he’s guilty a murder, a premise that I can quite honestly say I’ve not seen before. And yet despite what looks like a straightforward book, it’s still got surprises and I found the book to be witty as well! (Full review)

Before the Fact by Francis Iles

es, it’s a two for two when it comes to Berkeley! The second Anthony Berkeley book that I read, I found this book to be extremely clever with flashes of humour. I personally think it’s more of a psychological thriller than a mystery, but either way, it’s a really fun read. (Full review – warning, contains spoilers)

Newcomer by Higashino Keigo

A book in the Detective Kaga series, Newcomer takes a look at the people involved in the periphery of a murder. It excels in balancing both the personal stories of these people while moving the case forward, making it an extremely satisfying read. (Full review)

Nonfiction

Invisible Women by Caroline Criado Perez

This book made me so angry (in a good way) because it really highlighted the ways women have been overlooked and ignored in important decisions – from urban planning to peace negotiations! Perez very convincingly show you how the default human is “male” and why that is dangerous. (Full review)

You’re Not Listening by Kate Murphy

Listening is important, but doing it right is hard. I mean, we like talking about ourselves, or we’re not comfortable with certain subjects (like grief) so it’s easier to just be the one talking. Murphy gives us practical ways to improve our listening skills and this is a book that I definitely want to revisit. (Full review)

Once Iron Girls edited by Hui Wu

“Interestingly, no one uses men’s literature as a special term. // Meanwhile, women’s literature is often considered as being obsessed with career women, family matters, and women’s issues. It is not even regarded as relevant as the literature on insects because the latter, at least, makes contributions to environmental protection.”

Mao Zedong famously said that “women hold up half the sky” but is that really the position of women in China? Once Iron Girls is an eloquent and enlightening collection of essays that explore what it means to be a woman in the post-Mao era. (Full review)

2021 Favourites Wrapped

You might have recognised some of these books from the Skulduggery Pleasant book tag that I just did, and that’s because the best books are the ones that stay with you. As you can see, I had 2 nonfiction books and 5 fiction books on my favourites list. Asian books are fairly well represented, with 1 book from Singapore, 1 book from Japan, and 1 book from China and I’m pretty happy with that.

World of Genji Update

The biggest update about this project to learn more about The Tale of Genji is that I have finally reread the book! It took me over a quarter of the year but it was definitely worth it. The culture of Heian Japan is very different from modern-day culture (Japanese or otherwise), but Murasaki’s gift of characterisation means that the characters in Genji feel startling modern. I wrote a post on three things that I found in Genji that still exist and three months later, found a Japanese thread discussing the exact same thing, so of course, I had to translate some of the answers that I found interesting.

My biggest achievement from all of this is that I’ve finally written the Beginner’s Guide to Genji that I didn’t know I wanted to write until I finished rereading the book. I’m still pretty proud of it and if you haven’t seen it, please check it out!

The next step is to figure out how I can link this to the research I did on Japanese courtesans so that I have something that could be an interesting talk for the hanfugirls.

And this is my year in books! As always, I’d love to hear what your favourite books or reading achievements of 2021 were!