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: The Pickwick Papers (Dickens)
Have I read this before: Nope. I reread Great Expectations earlier this month and that’s the only Dickens I’ve ever read, so I figured I’d go with the next Dickens book when I hit it alphabetically.
Review: This was a great book! I was not expecting this level of humor from a Dickens book, but that’s just because my only experience with Dickens is Great Expectations AND if you’re a guy who’s written a book called Bleak House you’re not going to automatically be seen as someone who injects humor into your writing.
But this was great.
Mr. Pickwick had waaaaaay more patience with Winkle than I ever would.
Favorite Part: There were a lot, but this quote is great:
“There are very few moments in a man’s existence, when he experiences so much ludicrous distress, or meets with so little charitable commiseration, as when he is in pursuit of his own hat.”
Rating: 7/10
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