The Books I Read in 2021

As with 2020, I set out to try and read a good number of books in 2021. Due to the business of life, I didn't reach what I have increasingly realised is a very optimistic ambition of reading a book a week (aka 52 books in a year!).

Nonetheless, I managed 18 books in total and tried to keep it varied in theme and thought. Ranging from histories of the world, to an account on the front line of recent protests in Hong Kong; to the story of a Holocaust survivor and the testimony of a devout Muslim who found Jesus.

Looking back, one thing that I want to try and get better at for 2022 is to mix it up a bit more by reading more fiction - as I only managed three novels ('The Lost Colony', 'Tarkin' - Star Wars obsession I know! & 'Red Pill' - which provided a somewhat fascinating social commentary on political ideology and the division between right/left).

Reading autobiographical accounts of former and current US President's - George W. Bush & Joe Biden - helped give some really important perspectives on policy and personality from different parties and people who are ultimately human beings at the end of the day, trying to do what they believe to be right, despite their flaws (sometimes major!).

An area that I found I returned to quite a bit in this past year was that of Afghanistan and Pakistan - with 'Decision Points', 'Pakistan on the Brink', 'The Places in Between' and the 'Atomic Bazaar' - all covering the issues that have faced these countries over the past 30 years in great levels of detail.

I have highlighted in bold my top recommendations (below), but these are most probably tinged by the bias of the moment at which I am writing this blog! Do let me know if you have read any of them and if there are any books that you would recommend I read.

Books I read in 2021:

1. Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind, by Yuval Noah Harari

2. Promise me Dad: A year of Hope, Hardship & Purpose, by Joe Biden

3. The Lost Colony, by A. G. Riddle

4. The Communist Manifesto, by Karl Marx & Friedrich Engels

5. Billion Dollar Whale: The Man who fooled Wall Street, Hollywood & the World, by Tom Wright & Bradley Hope

6. Tarkin, by James Luceno

7. Red Pill, by Hari Kunzru

8. The Choice, by Edith Eger

9. We Need To Talk About Race: Understanding the Black Experience in White Majority Churches, by Ben Lindsey

10. Unfree Speech: The Threat to Global Democracy & Why we must act, Now, by Joshua Wong

11. Seeking Allah, Finding Jesus, by Nabeel Qureshi

12. Decision Points, by George W. Bush

13. The Silk Roads: A New History of the World, by Peter Frankopan

14. The Places in Between, by Rory Stewart

15. Pakistan on the Brink, by Ahmed Rashid

16. The Atomic Bazaar: The Rise of the Nuclear Poor, by William Langewiesche

17. Free Women, Free Men: Sex. Gender. Feminism, by Camille Paglia

18. From Russia with Blood: Putin’s ruthless killing campaign & secret war on the West, by Heidi Blake