Best Books: 2021 Edition
I read 58 books last year! Let’s pick the top five, shall we? From fifth best to best.
#5: East of Eden (Steinbeck)
Y’all probably never thought I’d put a Steinbeck on a Top Five list, eh? Though The Grapes of Wrath is probably his most famous work, I think this is the one that Steinbeck himself said was his magnum opus. I can see why. This is an epic story with so many intricacies and relationships and underlying meanings. It’s very well crafted.
#4: How Green Was My Valley (Llewellyn)
This is a fairly long book that spends a lot of time building up the characters of a tightly-knit, hardworking family. This ultimately makes the ending of the book an even bigger emotional punch than it already would have been by its nature.
#3: Dracula (Stoker)
I think this is on here mainly because it was absolutely not what I was expecting when I started reading. It’s one of those books where you’re like “oh, [subject represented often in common media]. I know all about that!” and then you read the source material and you’re like “ooooooooooh, now I get it!” and it’s so much better. This was a much more engaging story than I thought it would be and played out very differently than I was expecting.
#2: Moby Dick (Melville)
I love stories involving the sea, I’m sorry. And I know Melville gets a bad rap because he loves his fish-related tangents (it’s almost like he was writing a story about fishing and accidentally turned it into a novel), but I love his writing style and I love how one chapter can be all technical and the next can be this beautiful philosophical reflection on life.
#1: The Pickwick Papers (Dickens)
I was never expecting a Dickens tale to be funny, but this was absolutely hysterical in places. The characters are wonderful (except Mr. Winkle, oh my GOD he’s annoying) and you want to keep reading.
Book review: East of Eden (Steinbeck)
Have I read this before: Nope. It’s Steinbeck, who I had avoided up until just recently.
Review: This is a fantastic book. There are a decent number of characters and they’re all very interwoven in their lives and stories. There’s obviously a lot of Biblical analogies and references, but it’s not obnoxious about it. There’s also a lot of depth to the story as a whole and it has a lot of moving parts.
Favorite Part: I liked this interesting conversation amongst Adam, Samuel, and Lee when Adam was trying to name his two sons:
Samuel: “Have you thought of your own name?”
“Mine?”
“Of course. Your first-born – Cain and Abel.”
Adam said, “Oh, no. No, we can’t do that.”
“I know we can’t. That would be tempting whatever fate there is. But isn’t it odd that Cain is maybe the best-known name in the whole world and as far as I know only one man has ever borne it?”
Lee said, “Maybe that’s why the name has never changed its emphasis.”
Just an interesting take.
Rating: 6/10
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