Thoughts on reading in 2021

It wasn’t a book, but an author I fell in love with in 2021.

S.A. Cosby is the author of Blacktop Wasteland and Razorblade Tears; two

powerful works of noir that received both critical and popular acclaim.  In Razorblade Tears two men — one black, one white — reluctantly team up to avenge the death of their sons, a gay couple.  

Without abandoning the tropes of noir, Cosby deftly explores themes of homophobia and racism.  It is a remarkable literary high-wire act resulting in one of the most satisfying reads in years.  Razorblade Tears is an instant classic. 

Here's my highest praise: I will purchase Cosby's next book without hesitation and it will immediately find its way to the top of my reading list.

(Otto Penzler on noir in literature: “The people in noir fiction are dark and doomed— they are losers, they are pessimistic, they are hopeless.”)

Two other books worth exploring: Harlem Shuffle by the genre-busting Colson Whitehead and The Long Way to a Small, Angry Planet by Becky Chambers.  

In Harlem Shuffle, Whitehead dips into crime fiction with just a tinge of noir. 

Chambers makes science fiction fun again with a space opera featuring an entertaining multi-species crew. The aliens are fully drawn and not mere sketches.  Chambers’ skill in developing credible aliens rivals that of sci-fi grandmaster Larry Niven.

In the final three months of 2021 a wallet-stretching number of novels by notable authors hit the bookstores.  Many of those books ran to 600 pages or more, and, sadly, most of those books fell short of my expectations.

The best of the bunch -- Crossroads by Jonathan Franzen.  

Worth exploring:

The Lamplighters, Emma Stone

Matrix, Lauren Groff

Great Circle, Maggie Shipstead

The Lincoln Highway, Amor Towles

Bewilderment, Richard Powers

Oh William!, Elizabeth Strout

Silverview, John Le Carré

Billy Summers, Stephen King

Cloud Cuckoo Land, Anthony Doerr

The Magician, Colm Tóibín

The Sentence, Louise Erdrich

Much of my reading in 2021 was devoted to crime novels, which, like my grandmother’s homemade candy, I find irresistible; graphic novels; and non-fiction on the subject of comic books, comic strips and cartoons.  

Finished the year with 112 books read. That’s the lowest total for me since reading 114 books in 2010.