Book Recommendations/Reading List 2021
I thought I'd account for the books that I read this year. Many of these are part of our family reading in the evenings, but I also have a large stack of books I am planning on reading this year too. I love reading, but haven't made it a priority for a few years. I am changing that this year. (Note, I am using affiliate links)
Updated: I’m so glad I did this, and I will continue it into 2022. I read so much more this year than I have in many years. We read as a family and I read personally. I really enjoyed the family reading.
My overall favorites for the year were (in no particular order):
Run Away Home - Patt McKissack
Angel on the Square - Gloria Whelan
The War that Saved my Life - Kimberly Bradley
The Green Ember Series - S.D. Smith
Ghost Soldiers - Hampton Sides
The Ballads of Songbirds and Snakes - Suzanne Collins (favorite)
One Second After Series - William Forstchen (runner up)
Chaos Walking - Patrick Ness (second runner up)
I think I’d have to say that The Ballads of Songbirds and Snakes takes the cake though. I don’t think I’ve ready any this year that I wouldn’t recommend, but you can see my thoughts in each of the reviews.
Family Reading
Historical Fiction, Recommend for Ages 6+
This book lined up with our history timeline around reconstruction. We've read Roll of Thunder Hear My Cry, but our youngest was struggling to follow it. So we wanted to find something to connect the kids with the struggle for African Americans in the south during reconstruction. I highly recommend Roll of Thunder Hear My Cry, but Run Away Home nailed it as well. Our youngest daughter really connected with the characters, and the book not only brings the reader into a family's experience during reconstruction, but also what the American government did to the native Americans, and specifically the Apache.
Angel on the Square - Gloria Whelan
Historical Fiction, Recommend for Ages 6+
Our current history lessons are on the early 1900s, things like the Romanovs, WW1, the Bolshevik Revolution, Austro-Hungarian empire, etc. As such, we look for books to use in literature and for our 'family reading time' in the evenings where we read aloud as a family. We found this series (there are two other books, and we just started the second). This book was a take on the last days of the Romanovs by account of the daughter of the lady in waiting to the empress. The story does a good job of connecting the reader with Katya, and creating conflict between sympathy for the aristocrats and sympathy for the commoners. This generated a lot of class disparity discussions while we read. The kids are excited as we start the next one to see what happens.
The War that Saved my Life - Kimberly Bradley
Historical Fiction, Recommend for Ages 6+
I'll start with our family couldn't put this book down. All of us couldn't wait until evening to read this together. It was so captivating. This book is a very historically accurate account of WWII that can give kids a small perspective on the war. However, that is the secondary value of the narrative. The primary piece that hooked us was the author's extremely accurate picture into the mind of a traumatized child in a foster/adoption situation. You can easily replace Ada's ailment with any form trauma, and the relationship with her and Susan is incredibly accurate. Our family knows this first hand, and so that could feed into our attachment to the book. Either way, I highly recommend this book for everyone to read at some point.
Where the Mountain Meets the Moon and Starry River of the Sky by Grace Lin
Fantasy based on Myth for all ages
If you have ever read The Land of Stories (or if you haven't you should), these books remind of a Chinese version of this. I told my wife that these books would be an English teacher's dream for examples of imagery and allegory. Basically Grace Lin took and created an overlapping world of characters and spun them into a tale that originated with Chinese myths. The family really enjoyed these. I didn't connect quite as well with the characters as the others, but they books were enjoyable for sure.
The Vanderbeeker Series - In Progress
The Green Ember Series - Complete
This is a great series about the personification of a rabbit race that is at war. It’s a young reader level, but I read it with my youngest daughter and we’ve really enjoyed it. It has action, suspense, love, drama, and lots of character development around confidence and forgiving ones self. It is a quick read, but worth the few days it will take.
The Wingfeather Saga - Complete
This series is a fantastical epic tale of a family in another worlds that have been removed from their home (their kingdom) and their struggle to overthrow a tyrant. If you can get past the names and creatures that seem like a fourth grader named, the story is pretty good. They are large books and take a minute to read. Reading them out loud was weird too because of the names, but the enjoyed them and I ultimately did too.
Harry Potter Series - In Progress
Personal Reading
The Great Influenza - John M. Barry - Completed 3/2021
Analysis of the 1918 Pandemic, what led to it and how it impacted the world. Recommended for Adults
This was an incredibly enlightening book. It was very dense. The first half was very easy to read, but the latter half became more and more difficult to read quickly. There was a lot of information and lot to take in. Overall, this book shed light on things from the US president, the impact the flu had on the war, the world and US, and the last legacy it had on that generation. It brought up things that were never even hinted at in my history studies in school (though I didn't focus on history, I did have more history classes than default). I definitely recommend this book, but be prepared to take your time to ingest it.
Hackable - Ted Harrington - Completed 4/2021
A great overview of application security done right. Easily translates to any risk related program. I fully endorse this book for security leadership at any level to help understand the bigger picture of security, and break through the fallacy that security is this deeply specialized domain that only the brave few can understand.
I will say first that I actually struggled through some parts of the book because I kept saying to myself, "yes yes, I agree, I say this all the time." So it wasn't that the content was bad, that it was hard to read or that I didn't like it. It was just tough for me read things that I'm already very passionate and vocal about. That being said, Ted does an incredible job of taking what many perceive as the 'specialized skills needed in security' and makes them easily consumable, quantifiable, and and explains them in a way that can be presented to anyone at any level in an organization. This will be a book that I keep close by when I need to help make a business justification for some effort that I am pushing in security. He provides great examples to use as to why we need more and, in some cases, less security. Overall, this is a good book that any technologist should not only read, but keep handy.
The Greatest Generation - Tom Brokaw - Completed 6/2021
I'm a student of WW2. I love learning about the era, about the war, about the people, about the changes in the world. I was excited about reading this book. The anecdotal stories about different lives and experiences was incredible. I learned quite a bit from this book about the aspects of the war effort that were not military. The book started out strong and was hard to put down, but about half way through I started losing interest. I think it was hard to read or it might have been that the stories were somewhat repetitive. I'm glad I read it, but it was tough to finish.
Ghost Soldiers - Hampton Sides - Completed 6/2021
As I mentioned in The Greatest Generation summary, I love learning about WW2. My grandfather was on Corregidor when it fell, and he was a POW for 42 months. Specifically, he spent time in Cabanatuan, the main focal point of this book. Everything in this book about the life in the prison camps was something my grandfather described as something he experienced. There were things he said he saw that weren't in the book as well. My grandfather, missed the Bataan death march because he was one of the last two units ordered to retreat from Bataan to Corregidor. He rode trains to Cabanatuan. This book described what it was like when the 'death marchers' made it to Cabanatuan and saw the much healthier (its all relative) state of those from Corregidor. But once they made it to Cabanatuan, it all evened up. My grandfather, being one of the 'healthier' prisoners was taken to Japan to salve in the copper mines. This tale was of those who were left behind, who were primarily ambulatory, and who were slated to be executed. It's the tale of that rescue. I loved this book. I couldn't put it down. There was quite a bit of research, including first hand accounts. I highly recommend this book as both a fascinating story, a less in history, and an account of an often forgotten part of WW2.
Hunger Game Series - Complete
I think everyone probably knows what these were about :)
plus The Ballads of Song Birds and Snakes - Complete
But this one, is actually a prequel to the Hunger Games and about the ‘coming of age’ so to speak of President Snow. The story is fascinating and captivating. I kind of connected it to the movie the Joker with Joaquin Phoenix if you have seen it. This was by far my favorite book of the year. Suzanne Collins forced you to connect so deeply to the characters that, at least I, became so conflicted on how to feel about Snow. Highly recommend.
Divergent Series - Complete
This one was ok. The books are better than the movies. I could have done without the sexual undertones and if not for those would let my oldest two read them. They were completely unnecessary. The concept is intriguing and thought provoking, but the character development is quite lacking in this. Pretty much a teen novel.
One Second After Series - Complete
The closest runner up to my favorite for the year. This series is centered around an EMP attack on the US and the events that unfold in its aftermath. It is not for the faint of heart. It is graphic in a realistic sense of what would likely happen, and the author doesn’t hold back on this. But its not overly gruesome for the sake of it. The character development, the geopolitics, the strategy, and research in this one drew me to it the most. I highly recommend this series.
Mortality Doctrine Series - In Progress
Chaos Walking - Complete
I just finished this one at the end of the year. The character development is amazing and I connected with the characters well. You are constantly rooting for them only to have your hopes dashed over and over. I couldn’t put the book down. It wasn’t overly complex, but I loved the concept and the story.
A Hacker, I Am - Craig Ford - On The List
Thinking in Bets and Probabilities - On the List
Thinking Fast and Slow - On the List
Signal and the Noise - On the List
An Elegant Puzzle - Systems of Engineering Management - Will Larson - In Progress
Everything is F*cked - A Book About Hope - Mark Manson - In Progress
More to Come....