Best books I read in 2021 (and also in the 2nd photo, 2020, bc I wanted to do this last year but forgot)--none of which were published in 2020 or 2021, haha!
The Poisonwood Bible by Barbara Kingsolver: This is one of those books where the voices (as the story is told in different first-person perspectives depending on the chapter) are so, so strong! The story follows the sisters and mother in a evangelical Baptist missionary family (there is their awful preacher father too but thankfully we never read anything from his pov) in the Belgian-occupied Congo of the early 1960s.
An Altar in the World by Barbara Brown Taylor: Technically started reading this in Sep. 2020 when the Seattle Service Corps received it as one of our faith formation books. But since I was also reading something else at the time I set it aside and picked it up again during Lent this year. It lays out really fresh ways to think about spirituality and spiritual practices, ways of being grounded and finding God.
A Year of Biblical Womanhood by Rachel Held Evans (by the end of these lists you'll realize yes, I read every single one of RHE's works for the first time only after she passed away--before, I had just followed her on Twitter and had seen her speak at the Evolving Faith Conference): Rachel manages to poke fun at Biblical literalism while also doing seriously good Bible interpretation in her journey of exploring what the Good Book says about womanhood.
For All Who Hunger by Emily Scott: An expertly written memoir with beautiful theology embedded in each moment. It tells the story of how the church Emily helped plant, St. Lydia’s Dinner Church, came to be. It is a book about "gestation," of dreaming and trial and error, and God creating something from nothing.
Inspired by Rachel Held Evans: If you struggle with some stories in the Bible, whether it's because they are horrific (the genocide narratives in the Hebrew Bible) or a little too far-fetched (miracle stories, or the big fish that swallowed Jonah) this book is for you. She doesn't dismiss any questions and doubts but opens up a way to view the Bible with imagination and wonder, alongside the guidance of scholarship.
You're Never Weird on the Internet (Almost) by Felicia Day: Although the memoirs I read are typically spiritual and deal with heavier subject matter (Felicia does talk about depression and gaming addiction, but that isn't the majority of the content), this was a nice change of pace! She is so funny and I could relate to a lot of her struggles as an artist (though she is a filmmaker/actor so the field is different than publishing).
The Face of Water by Sarah Ruden: I don't think I realized just how different Biblical Hebrew and Greek are than English before I read this book. Sarah came from a background of translating Classics (non-Christian Greek and Latin literature), and is also a Quaker, so her perspective on Bible translation is very interesting, and she even puts forth her own translations of several passages that made me think about them in a different way. It's very dense and I didn't always understand everything she was talking about, but I'm glad I read it.
Persepolis, French Edition, by Marjane Satrapi: I read Persepolis in English when I was in 9th grade. When my sister told me the original was in French and that there was also a French film adaptation, I became fascinated with all of Satrapi's work, and even did a project on her my first semester of college. I bought this big lovely French edition when I was studying abroad in Paris in 2018, and finally got to reading it a few weeks ago (got behind on my books-for-fun list when I was in college). It tells the story of Satrapi's life growing up in Iran in the late 70s/early 80s, her adolescence in Austria where her parents sent her to escape the fundamentalist regime, and her return to and young adult life in Iran in the late 80s/early 90s.
Ok, so the books from last year...
Undivided by Vicky Beeching: This tells the story of how Vicky, a prominent Christian singer/songwriter and journalist, came to terms with her lesbian identity, after years of disassociation to the point of her developing health issues. She writes so bravely about what internalized homophobia does to the mind, body, and soul of someone who is LGBTQ+, and how God led her on a journey towards affirming herself.
A Nearly Infallible History of Christianity by Nick Page: I bought this when I was in London in 2018. This book delivers a lot of fascinating facts about the Christian church's history along with a lot of dry British humor (making fun of organ music, for example). Definitely recommend to folks who want to learn church history but don't really want to read a textbook.
Out of Sorts by Sarah Bessey: I can never put anything by this woman down, period. Her style of writing is so inviting, she's just sitting beside me while we drink tea by a fireplace. She is so wise in talking about her winding spiritual journey and I especially loved the chapter "Obey the Sadness" where she states this beautiful truth: "[God's] sovereignty is redemption, it's not causation."
Faith Unraveled by Rachel Held Evans: This is Rachel's first memoir, where she talks about the issues that first kicked off her spiritual evolution-namely, the scientific theory of evolution, and the question of the eternal destiny of the "unsaved." I will never forget how she describes seeing the execution of a Muslim woman named Zarmina on TV. And I'll never forget her metaphor about the "cosmic lottery."
Searching for Sunday by Rachel Held Evans: The experience of reading this memoir about Rachel's church experiences during a pandemic where I had not attended church in months was...interesting. I kind of got to live my greatest longings through her as I read--taking communion, being in community with others. It's so well-written. I definitely want to visit the St. Bernard Abbey in Cullman, Alabama, which she writes about in this and Year of Biblical Womanhood.
The Art of Memoir by Mary Karr: As I face the task of expanding my senior honors thesis into a full memoir, I need all the advice I can get, and Mary Karr knows what she's talking about (has several bestselling memoirs). She offers really practical advice in how to engage more in sensory detail, how to write through a scene when takes a lot of emotional work, and how to cultivate voice (which is what a memoir lives and dies on).
Station Eleven by Emily St. John Mandel: Yes, I read a book about a post-pandemic world during the time in the pandemic where we did not yet even have vaccines. It was actually strangely comforting--their pandemic is a lot worse than ours, with a 99% death rate. And the book isn't really about a pandemic. It's about the possibility that there can be joy and art after destruction, that there is a point to creating art even if no one/not a lot of people will see it. The writing is so detailed and engaging and the characters are so well developed. There's also this interesting element of the plot where there's a cult run by a man who is fascinated by both the book of Revelation and an unpublished science fiction comic strip about a man named Doctor Eleven. I'm watching the TV adaptation of the series as it's been premiering on HBO Max.
