Books I’ve read in 2021

When I was a little kid, my mom used to always say, “Get your nose out of that book!”. My siblings and I laugh about that phrase now, because you would absolutely never hear a parent discouraging a child from reading a book in today’s world. I guess completing chores and developing a work ethic were more top-of-mind in my childhood days!

I’ve kept track of the books I’ve read in 2021, after being inspired by my cousin. Without further ado, here they are, in the order completed:

The Sweeney Sisters. A fun, light-hearted read set on the east coast about family secrets with some unexpected plot turns. Fun ending.

Valentine. A sad story with a lot of profanity that helped me to think more about issues that are real and relevant to life everywhere. It is set in a small Texas oil town. I read it as we flew back and forth to Cincinnati for an appointment for Ava — Joe was perplexed whenever he would glance over my shoulder. It had more strange language than anything I’ve ever read.

Book of Lost Names. It’s a WW II book, and I’m always surprised how much these draw me in. It is about a lady who finds great purpose in her days using her talent of forgery to help Jewish children escape. It was incredibly well-written and I highly recommend it.

Dutch House. I think I read this because the cover caught my eye and I married a Dutch man? I’m not really sure! It was recently written and tells about the lifetime (or at least 50 years) of a brother and sister. It made me think a lot about how we get to write our own stories and we aren’t forced to always be who we were in the past.

Last Time I Was Me. This book was hilarious. The story line was nothing that relates to my real life but it was enjoyable to read and a page turner.

The Girl on the Train. This was one of those books that I read in 2 days while I accomplished very little and lost sleep to get to the end of it. Do not pick this book up if you want to be productive. It was a story about love and murder and mystery.

Imagine Heaven. The book relays story after story of near-death-experiences, and finds similarities and repeating themes of what those people experienced as they entered in and out of heaven, and even hell. It made me think of love and light in a new, great, different way.

Printed Letter Bookshop. This book was about unexpected friendships and triumphs. It is set in Chicago and, with the main focus being a book store, the author continuously was dropping titles of great books that I would love to read some day. It even had a complete list at the end to make it easy to reference.

New Testament. All 260 chapters!! This is my biggest accomplishment for the year. It was a “challenge” brought forth by our church, the Worthington Christian Reformed Church. I received a text reminder every morning at 7:00 and to make sure I wouldn’t miss a chapter, I would never open the text message until I had the 5 minutes to read it. Our pastor writes some “dig deeper” paragraphs that help me to actually understand what is being said. There’s always a prayer at the end, as well as an Old Testament reference. New jazzy things are being added for the upcoming year like audio links so people can get it done on their commute too. In any case, I would love to have you join me as I am excited to do it again this upcoming year. To sign up, just tap here and it will ask you if you want the link texted to you in the morning or at night, or if you prefer email.

Our pastor used to work in agriculture sales before his current role in our church, and in one of his sermons he mentioned that a good salesman ALWAYS asks for the sale after explaining the product — so, there it was — that is the pushiest I have ever gotten. I ask you to join me and read along!

I hope you take lots of time to read in the upcoming year. It is good to be choosy because we have so many choices of what information we can be consuming. Get your nose in that book!