Top Staff Picks of 2021

Top Staff Picks of 2021

We put the call out to our fantastically well-read librarians to gather a list of their top picks from 2021 and boy oh boy did our team deliver!

Below is a list, in no particular order, of the recommended fiction and non-fiction books that your library team read in 2021. Enjoy!

Fiction

• Breasts and Eggs by Mieko Kawakami
• The Shut Ins by Katherine Brabon
• Hotel du Lac by Anita Brookner
• The Flight Attendant by Chris Bohjalian
• Hour of the Witch by Chris Bohjalian
• Force of Nature by Jane Harper
• The Survivors by Jane Harper
• A Long Petal of the Sea by Isabel Allende
• The Goldfinch by Donna Tartt
• Precious You by Helen Monks Takhar
• The Benefactor by Sebastian Hampson
• The Larnachs by Owen Marshall
• Who is Maud Dixon by Alexandra Andrews
• The Night Circus by Erin Morgenstern
• The Southern Book Club’s Guide to Slaying Vampires by Grady Henrix
• Where the Crawdads Sing by Delia Owens
• The Boy, the Mole, the Fox and the Horse by Charlie Mackesy
• Auē by Becky Manawatu
• Love After Love by Ingrid Persaud
• One Hundred Days by Alice Pung
• The Midnight Library by Matt Haig
• The 7 Husbands of Evelyn Hugo by Taylor Jenkins Reid
• The Bloody Chamber by Angela Carter
• The Turning by Tim Winton
• A Children’s Bible by Lydia Millet
• A Memory Called Empire by Arkady Martine
• Death in Her Hands by Ottessa Moshfegh
• Less by Andrew Sean Greer
• The First Fifteen Lives of Harry August by Claire North
• Doggerland by Ben Smith
• Night Boat to Tangier by Kevin Barry
• Reservoir 13 by Jon McGregor
• Weather by Jenny Offill
• Early Morning Riser by Katherine Heiny
• Last one at the Party by Bethany Cliff
• The Great Alone by Kristin Hannah
• The Four Winds by Kristin Hannah
• The House in the Cerulean Sea by TJ Klune
• The Thursday Murder Club by Richard Osman
• Before You Knew My Name by Jacqueline Bublitz
• How to Stop Time by Matt Haig
• Call Me by your Name by André Aciman
• Normal People by Sally Rooney
• Mexican Gothic by Silvia Moreno-Garcia
• Northern Lights by Philip Pullman
• Girl, Woman, Other by Bernadine Evaristo
• Wake of Vultures by Lila Bowen
• Little Eyes by Samanta Schweblin
• Barn 8 by Deb Olin Unferth
• Fantastic Beasts and where to find them by J. K. Rowling
• Enola Holmes Mystery Series by Serena Blasco
• Six of Crows Duology by Leigh Bardugo
• Grisha Trilogy by Leigh Bardugo
• Simon Snow trilogy by Rainbow Rowells
• Dragon Defenders series by James Russell
• Elementals trilogy by Amie Kaufman
• Circe by Madeline Miller

Non-Fiction

• Cast a diva: The hidden life of Maria Callas by Lyndsy Spence
• House of Kwa by Mimi Kwa
• Impossible: My Story by Stan Walker
• Jackie, Janet & Lee: The secret lives of Janet Auchincloss and her daughters, Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis and Lee Radziwill by Randy J. Taraborrelli
• Geisha of Gion: The true story of Japan’s greatest geisha by Mineko Iwasaki
• Empire of Pain: The secret history of the Sackler dynasty by Patrick Radden Keefe
• Big sister, little sister, red sister: three women at the heart of twentieth century China by Jung Chang
• A Sheep in My Eye: The story of Queenstown’s founder William Gilbert Rees by Rosemary Grace Maryatt
• Reaching for the Moon by Katherine Johnson
• Becoming by Michelle Obama
• Gmorning, Gnight!: Little Pep Talks for Me & You by Lin Manuel Miranda and Jonny Sun
• Educated by Tara Westover
• This Pākehā Life: An Unsettled Memoir by Alison Jones
• Pruning Fruit Trees, A Beginner’s Guide by Kath Irvine
• Know My Name by Channel Miller
• The Rise and Fall of the Dinosaurs: A New History of a Lost World by Stephen Brusatte
• I Am, I Am, I Am: Seventeen Brushes with Death by Maggie O’Farrell
• Under a White Sky: The Nature of the Future by Elizabeth Kolbert
• The Truth About Stories: A Native Narrative by Thomas King
• Entangled Life: How Fungi Make Our Worlds, Change Our Minds & Shape Our Futures by Merlin Sheldrake
• War: How Conflict Shaped Us by Margaret MacMillan
• The Abundant Garden by Niva Kay
• Group: How one therapist and circle of strangers saved my life by Christie Tate
• Somebody I Used to Know by Wendy Mitchell
• From a Mountain in Tibet by Lama Yeshe Losal Rinpoche
• Not that I’d Kiss a Girl by Lil O’Brien
• Faking It by Kyle Mewburn
• The Trauma Cleaner: One Woman's Extraordinary Life in Death, Decay & Disaster by Sarah Krasnostein
• Is it Bed Time Yet? by Emily Writes
• The Menopause Manifesto: Own your health with facts and feminism by Jen Gunter
• The Diary of Anne Frank
• The 5am Club by Robin Sharma
• Ms. Gloria Steinem: A Life by Winifred Conkling
• Come as You Are by Emily Nagasaki
• Attached – The New Science of Adult Attachment and How It Can Help You Find – and Keep – Love by Amir Levine and Rachel Heller
• Wild by Cheryl Strayed
• The Ethical Carnivore: My year killing to eat by Louise Gray
• How to Tell Depression to Piss Off: 40 ways to get your life back by James Withey
• The Future we Choose: Surviving the Climate Crisis by Christiana Figueres and Tom Rivett-Carnac
• Vesper Flights by Helen Macdonald
• Ego is the Enemy by Ryan Holiday