Tag Archives: 2021

The most anticipated books of 2021

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by Daniela Elizarraras Acitores

Here are just a few of the most exciting books of 2021. Add your recommendations in the comments below…and be sure to shop independent if you can!

Malibu Rising by Taylor Jenkins Reid

PUB DATE: May 27, 2021

New York Times bestselling author of Daisy Jones & The Six and The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo is making a fast return.  After nearly two years since her last novel got released, Taylor Jenkins Reid is making our quarantine period a bit more exciting with her new novel coming out.  

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Sunflower Sisters: A Novel by Martha Hall Kelly

PUB DATE: March 30, 2021

After selling over a million copies of Lilac Girls, a novel about an American philanthropist who helped young girls be released from Ravensbruck concentration camp.  A heartbreaking story incredibly well written, that left us wanting more of Martha’s magic…the waiting is soon to be over.  Sunflower Sisters will be her third book, all based on true events- like her past novels, this third book promises an emotional journey, but one that cannot be missed. 

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The Prophets by Robert Jones Jr.

PUB DATE: January 5, 2021

After reading James Baldwin’s 1985 essay, which included topics such as sexuality, hyper-masculinity, and racialized violence, Robert Jones Jr. felt relief and with that seed he created his first novel The Prophets.  It might be his first book but it fast became a New York Times Instant Bestselling novel.  The Prophets is said to be a deeply profound, unsettling, but moving story rotating around a forbidden union between two enslaved young men and the shattering but poetic story they created.  

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A Swim in a Pond in the Rain: In Which Four Russians Give A Master Class on Writing, Reading, and Life by George Saunders 

PUB DATE: January 12, 2021

After twenty years of teaching, New York Times Bestseller and Booker Prize winner, George Saunders is sharing with us what he and his students have discovered over the years.  This book will take the reader on an exploration of great writing but also it will take one inside the mind of a brilliant writer.  Glennon Doyle, author of Untamed, has been reading Sauders’s masterpiece nonstop and called it exceptional reading.  

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The Good Sister by Sally Hepworth

PUB DATE: April 13, 2021

Goodreads announced The Good Sister to be one of the “Most Anticipated Books of 2021” and “The Big Mysteries and Thrillers of 2021.”  After her very entertaining and twisty novel The-Mother-in-Law Sally is making a return with her psychological thriller/ domestic drama about two twin sisters who seem perfect on the outside but what is perfect always breaks.  

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The Other Black Girl by Zakiya Dalila Harris

PUB DATE: June 1, 2021

The Other Black Girl seems like what everyone has been waiting for, it was named the most anticipated book of 2021 by The Washington Post, Harper’s Bazaar, Goodreads, and about seven other sources.  A novel about the tension between two young Black women in the publishing industry, described to be “shars as a knife.”

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The Four Winds by Kristin Hannah

PUB DATE: January 27, 2021

A very busy year for the brilliant Kristin Hannah.  Author of twenty four books, including two that are being turned into screen productions this year: Firefly Lane, release date February 3, and The Nightingale, December 22.  With a busy schedule her new book The Four Winds is a testament of hope, a deeply moving story about the strength and bond between a mother and daughter.  Delia Owens, author of Where The Crawdads Sing stated that this novel is, “Powerful and compelling.”  

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Klara and The Sun by Kazuo Ishiguro 

PUB DATE: March 2, 2021

Kazuo Ishiguro, the meticulous author of The Remains of the Day and Never Let Me Go, which were both made into acclaimed films and have each sold more than two million copies, is publishing a new novel this year.  Klara and the Sun, is the first publication by Kazuo Ishiguro since he was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature.  It is said to be a thrilling feat of world-building, and a heartbreaking novel of tenderness and humanity. 

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For our YA lovers!

A Pho Love Story by Loan Le

PUB DATE: February 9, 2021

Loan Le might be a newbie at writing novels, this being her first one, but as she works in the publishing world she knows what she’s doing.  Le’s novel has reached many Most Anticipated 2021 Books lists and it seems like it is a book worth keeping an eye out for.  A romcom in which two Vietnamese-American teens fall in love but must navigate their new relationship and families’ feud.    

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Fat Chance, Charlie Vega by Crystal Maldonado

PUB DATE: February 2, 2021

Crystal’s debut novel, but a powerful one.  A sensitive, funny, and painful coming-of-age story, which focuses on social issues and has been the book many readers have been waiting for.  Mason Deaver,  bestselling author of I Wish You All the Best praised this bool as: “This book feels like your best friend giving you a hug—it’s warm and sweet and healing.”

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Missing out?

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by Katie Biddle

Starting University, you have big plans and dreams of what’s to come. You’re going to meet your best friends in week one, by week two you’ll have a local pub where you know the bartender by name, and by week three you’ll be completely settled in your tiny, overpriced accommodation and will have finished the excruciating reading list before your first official lecture.

But what if you haven’t met the group of people you fit in with yet, or if you haven’t found a pub which plays the right music all night long. What if you haven’t even started reading Dracula for your first class. What if a pandemic shuts the whole country down just as you were starting to settle in your new city? Are we missing out on these crucial years of university culture? 

University culture might mean drinking till you pass out, sexual freedom found through living on your own for the first time, or maybe like most people it’s an opportunity to engage with a new landscape and be independent. Six months to adapt is a short time before you’re locked down and can curate enough banana bread to feed all the mouths in your building, but we had to do it. Perhaps you went home and felt robbed of your rent. Maybe you stayed in the city but got sick of the four walls that suffocated you Every. Single. Day. Is this the university experience we signed up for? I feel like I’m missing out. Missing the insufferable commute, missing sushi between classes, missing the nights out that remind me why I chose London over my small seaside town.

I feel like I’m missing out, but I also feel like I’ve gained from this time. I’m more creative, less anxious and actually have time to finish Dracula (even though I hate it)! Lockdown has taken so much from us, some an immeasurable amount, but for those who it has only taken their freedom to walk outside, maybe, like me, you have gained what you wouldn’t have before. Online university allows you to cook your breakfast and hug your cat whilst you learn how powerfully important the 60s teenager was to sexual liberation. If you’re on furlough, like me, you might have the extra undivided attention you needed for your assignments to get your first First. Maybe you now have common ground with your flatmates who are going through the same thing, so understand why you’ve eaten beans on toast every day for the past week. Lockdown has taken so much from us where we feel like we are missing out, but how nice will it be when we look back at this time to see that we have gained something: gained perspective on the fragility of life, gained better work habits, gained an online friend, gained half a stone. Missing out is an intense emotion that makes us feel like we are being cheated, in some cases we have been, but to find a positive in an overwhelming space of negatives makes you feel like you’re much less than missing out, rather looking forward to a new future.