249. Best Books of 2021 👓
My top picks plus my entire year in reading (50+ books ... and still counting)
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Hi there 👋
If you missed last week’s email or are curious what’s in store for the coming weeks, here’s an agenda of my Best Of 2021 emails happening now through the end of the year.
Last week: Best Articles of 2021 (featuring a dragon internship)
This week: Best Books of 2021
Coming up: Best new marketing tools of 2021 and my ultimate Best Of 2021 (allthethings)
Seen a good Best Of list out there? Let me know. I’d love to read it!
Wishing you a great week,
Kevan
My favorite books from 2021 (plus all 50 books I read)
I’ll get to the list of favorite books here in a minute. But first, if you’ll indulge me in a small reflection …
<misty-eyed, starting out the window>
You don’t really expect a company perk to have a profound impact on your life (although catered lunch does seem magical, should I be lucky enough to get it, remotely, some day). But I can say that Buffer’s Kindle books perk changed my reading trajectory, dramatically.
At Buffer, you get a free Kindle when you join, and you can request any book at any time and Buffer will buy it for you.
(Buffer is hiring great marketers at the moment, too, if this perk seems up your alley.)
I didn’t read very much before I joined Buffer — a book here or there, but mostly magazines and blog posts. But since then, I have picked up the pace: I’ve averaged a new book each week for the past five years (and some years, I’ve read 2x/wk).
I try to read widely across genres and author demographics. Here’s a breakdown of my 2021 in reading:
52% women, 48% men
42% fiction, 58% non-fiction
Genres of Business, Sci-Fi, Memoir, Poetry, Graphic Novels, and more
I also went 23 for 50 on this book challenge, reading categories like microhistory, Indie Press, and main character is BIPOC
But what you’re really interested in is probably my favorite books, right? Well, here they are …
(If you’re interested in previous years, here is 2020, 2019, 2018, 2017, and 2015 — I don’t know what happened to 2016.)
The Sea Wife (amazon, indiebound)
At that hour there’s this closeness I feel to her that I can’t talk about. That I would lose if I talked about. It’s like having an unopened letter in your breast pocket. That’s what being married to someone for a long time feels like.
I’m always intrigued by stories of sailing — probably because it is an adventure I would be terrified to take myself (I’m afraid of deep water) but love to live vicariously through others. This book has plenty of sailing adventure in it, as the narrator sails the Caribbean with her amateur sailor husband and their small child. But it also has some beautiful and honest reflections on love and family. One scene toward the end of the book gave me the most visceral reading experience of my year. I read it in January and have yet to top it. :)
Outlawed (amazon, indiebound)
“Of course you could do it,” the Kid said. “You can do anything, you know that.”
The Kid threw an arm around Texas, too, crowing: “My loves, your powers are limitless.”
Perhaps the only thing I’m more intrigued by than sailing stories is stories of the Old West, USA. It seems I have a Western on my best of list every year. This Western is told from the perspective of a former midwife who was forced into the outlaw life. She joins the Hole in the Wall gang (great name, btw), and adventure ensues. It’s unlike any Western I’ve read, told from a unique perspective with many fresh details.
Klara and the Sun (amazon, indiebound)
A sparse and splendid read, Klara and the Sun is science fiction, technically — Klara is an AI friend/toy — but I found it to be kind of a beautiful reflection on love, parenting, and friendship. The story is told from Klara’s perspective, and it’s so original to see the world through the eyes of a robot who is experiencing for the first time many of the things that we take for granted.
Fooled by Randomness (amazon, indiebound)
This book wins the award for my most Kindle highlights of 2021. It’s not a new release, but just new to me. And it talks eloquently about the role that luck plays in some of the biggest successes we see today … and why balancing your odds may be the best way forward.
All the books I read in 2021
Untamed
Miss Fortune
The Secret Lives of Church Ladies
When You Are Engulfed in Flames
Three-Mile-an-Hour God
This Is Your Mind on Plants
Here Comes Everybody
Klara and the Sun
Fooled by Randomness
The Wreckage of My Presence
Three Rooms
Better Luck Next Time
The Devil You Know
Hail Mary
At Night All Blood Is Black
The End of Everything (Astrophysically Speaking)
The Undoing Project
How Should a Person Be
Transcendent Kingdom
Outlawed
Dusk Night Dawn
No One Is Talking About This
Passing Human
Innumeracy: Mathematical Illiteracy and Its Consequesences
Missionaries
Praying for Sheetrock
Play Bigger
Antifragile
Helping Children Succeed
A Wealth of Pigeons
The Invisible Life of Addie Larue
The Gigantic Beard That Was Evil
Monogamy
Every Good Endeavor
Sapiens
Holy Moly Carry Me
The First 90 Days
The Fifth Risk
Mindhunter
Tokyo Ueno Station
What Can a Body Do?
Oona Out of Order
Bonk
The Guest List
The Truths We Hold
How Much of These Hills Is Gold
Did you read anything great this year?
Please feel free to drop me a note at hello@kevanlee.com and let me know. I’d love to add it to my list!
About this newsletter …
Each week, I share playbooks, case studies, stories, and links from inside the startup marketing world. If you enjoy what’s in this newsletter, you can share some love by hitting the heart button at the top or bottom.💙
About Kevan
I’m a marketing exec who specializes in startup marketing and brand-building. I currently lead the marketing team at Oyster (we’re hiring!). I previously built brands at Buffer, Polly, and Vox.
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