Reading List for 2021

If you’re like me and love the tactile sensation of buying books and reading them physically, where do you buy your books from? A local bookstore in person or online? I currently buy them from the Book Depository with the pandemic reducing my in person shopping trips. Unfortunately, as a mother I am also severely lacking in time or preparation that carrying a book with me requires so I usually end up buying about 15 books in a frenzy of excitement and then start reading five pages before forgetting the story and trying to re-read again. At the same time, I have the local library app on my phone that really helps me get through books faster, as I download audio books to listen to while on a stroller walk or e-books to read while my son is climbing on slides at the playground and I can afford to sneak 10 minutes of distracted reading on my phone. I hate that I’m not present but these tiny snatches of time keep me sane, and at least it’s better than doom scrolling on my phone? Regardless of the nature of reading I end up doing, here are some books on my list that I hope to cross off this year. Send me your recommendations too!

1. Untamed by Glennan Doyle
2. Cobble Hill by Cecily von Zeigesar – This was nowhere near as witty or fast-paced as the Gossip Girl series
3. The Whole Brain Child by Tina Bryson
4. The Explosive Child by Ross W. Greene
5. No Bad Kids by Janet Lansbury
6. The Four Agreements by Don Miguel Ruiz
7. This Is How It Always Is by Laurie Frankel
8. The Guest List by Lucy Foley
9. Finlay Donovan is Kiling It by Elle Cosimano
10. Where the Grass is Green and the Girls are Pretty by Lauren Weisberger

Read List

1. The Midnight Library by Matt Haig – I found the bits in the library and the librarian a bit childish but the different tales of the lives she might have lived to be fascinating and I read this book in 2 days. I loved the message and it was an easy read.
2. The Plot by Jean Hanff Korelitz – OMG this helped me get out of my reading rut. I read this in just 2 days and after the first five chapters it moved so fast. It was light summer thriller and I loved that it was an easy read, if sometimes a bit too simple and obvious.
3. The Maidens by Alex Michaelides – This thriller had a very unsatisfying ending and I feel like the real killer may actually be someone else? Perhaps there is a plan to have a third book? It was a quick read and whilst I didn’t like all the characters and their development I did like reading about Cambridge University and the grounds and the common rooms etc which is just something I’ve personally always enjoyed, loving the worlds of Malory Towers, Harry Potter etc.