My Favorite Books, Movies, & TV Shows from 2021
When it comes to reading books and watching TV and movies, 2021 was pretty much an extension of 2020. I was home a lot, so I consumed a lot, reading and watching more stuff than in previous years.
In 2021 I even let go of my old notion that I shouldn’t bother to reread or rewatch anything. My feeling has been that there’s so much new content to discover, why would I spend time on the same things again? Welp, turns out sometimes you find yourself in the middle of a pandemic, and familiar stories can be comforting! I reread two of my favorite books, Maus I & II and Paul Takes the Form of a Mortal Girl and have zero regrets about it. I even went way back to childhood and reread The Phantom Tollbooth.
My local library continued to be under construction all year. While they were technically and temporarily open in the creepy windowless basement of a university building (poor librarians!), I still found myself borrowing more audiobooks than print books. Of the 57 books I read this year, over half of them were audiobooks from the library that I listened to usually while cooking or exercising or generally trying not to atrophy in front of my computer.
When I did read print books, I usually got them via contactless holds from the library or from my favorite local indie bookstore All She Wrote Books which I finally got to visit a couple times post-vaccine. The new library building is also finally, finally opening on January 3, and that’s giving me a glimmer of hope for 2022!
My 2021 reading was also largely influenced by two classes that I took as part of my grad program — ‘Writing Fairy Tales’ and ‘The Irish Supernatural.’ I read a lot of mythology and folklore including tales from Maria Tatar’s The Classic Fairy Tales and Lady Gregory’s Visions and Beliefs in the West of Ireland. Outside of class, I read Greek mythology, Norse mythology, listened to Joseph Campbell’s The Power of Myth and Clarissa Pinkola Estes’ Women Who Run with the Wolves. At the close of 2021, I can safely say that I’m officially obsessed with fairy changelings. Yup, that’s where I’m at.
Like in 2020, one of my 2021 resolutions was to “watch more movies that don’t suck.” Welp, sorry to say that didn’t happen—yet again! I must have bad luck at picking out movies to watch or something because, woah, there were some bad ones. Of the 41 movies I watched this year, I enjoyed maybe 6 or 7. At one point I gave up trying to watch something good and agreed to watch the second and third Twilight movies with Aisha. We even started watching the Marvel movies in chronological order (pandemic, man), but I got stuck between Avengers 1 and Thor 2 because I simply could not handle any more Asgard.
We did go to the movie theater once over the summer after we were vaccinated and it seemed like the world might open back up again (psych!). We saw In the Heights, which we didn’t love, but it was a treat just to go out. We even saw it at the Dolby Cinema at AMC, just because.
But for what I lacked in movie-watching I totally made up for in TV-watching. For better or worse, TV was often my escape from reality in 2021. Which is funny considering how much “reality” TV I watched — mainly competition shows like RuPaul’s Drag Race, Legendary, The Masked Singer, and The Circle.
Before I start gushing about all the great TV that’s out there, let me jump into the real purpose of this post, which is to share my favorite books that I read and movies and TV shows that I watched this year…
FAVORITE BOOKS
Not counting rereads here.
The Secret to Superhuman Strength by Alison Bechdel (2021)
Sometimes a book just seems like it’s written for you, and the serendipity is both eerie and amazing. And after 8 weeks of a failed physical therapy (ah 2021 strikes again), the timing of Alison Bechdel’s new graphic novel could not have been more perfect.
Deacon King Kong by James McBride (2020)
I hope they give out awards for audiobook narration just so the narrator of Deacon King Kong can win the top prize.
Little Fish by Casey Plett (2018)
Another amazing audiobook that took me by surprise. This wintery “slice-of-life” story has such real, awesomely developed characters who I grew to care about so much.
Such a Fun Age by Kiley Reid (2019)
Completely worth the hype, I loved all the little (and not so little) reveals.
Several People Are Typing by Calvin Kasulke (2021)
After a year-plus of staring into a computer screen for work/life, I needed this book to capture and validate just how absurd all of this feels.
Honorable Mentions:
- The Secret Lives of Church Ladies by Deesha Philyaw (2020)
- Mill Town: Reckoning with What Remains by Kerri Arsenault (2020)
- The Midnight Library by Matt Haig (2020)
- Glitter Up the Dark: How Pop Music Broke the Binary by Sasha Geffen (2020)
- Pet by Akwaeke Emezi (2019)
FAVORITE MOVIES:
Nomadland (2020)
This was such a good movie, it almost makes me mad. Why can’t more movies be like Nomadland? What keywords do I need to use in Google search to find more movies like this one?
The Forty-Year-Old Version (2020)
I’m usually not one for black-and-white movies, but this one was so funny and cathartic.
Little Shop of Horrors (1986)
How have I gone my whole life without seeing this movie before? When Audrey II makes a call on a pay phone and then checks it for loose change— cinematic gold.
Us (2019)
I watched Us two days before the end of 2021 and thank goodness, because otherwise I might not have enough movies to put on this list. This movie was so fun and fed into my changeling obsession.
The Game (1997)
Aisha and I wanted to watch a psychological thriller with a twist and this Michael Douglas movie kept popping up, so we decided to give it a try and it had MULTIPLE twists! Yes!!
(Un)Honorable Mentions:
Here a bunch of movies that I did NOT enjoy…
- The Little Things (2021) — patiently waiting for the twist... oh wait, there’s no twist? Well what was the point of that? Denzel, you let me down.
- Hypnotic (2021) — again, no twist? I’m sorry but it’s 2021 and you can’t have claim something is a “psychological thriller” without some kind of surprise
- Mank (2020) — David Fincher, what happened?
- The Woman in the Window (2021)—so this movie had twists but I was too bored by the time we got to them
- Saturday Night Fever (1977) — only good part was the dancing/disco music and the rest was so unfortunate
- Midsommar (2019) — I’m not scared, I’m just upset
- Who Framed Roger Rabbit? (1988) — now this is a horror film
FAVORITE TV SHOWS:
Bo Burnham: Inside (TV Special)
Thank you Bo for providing me the soundtrack to my 2021, during which I was indeed stuck ‘inside’ most of the time.
Love After Lockup: Life After Lockup (Season 3, Parts 5 & 6)
Ok, listen. I’ve tried 90 Day Fiance and even Married at First Sight and other so-called “trash” reality TV centered around relationships that are set up for spectacular conflict. None have been able to hook me like this WeTV show about former inmates and their partners. I’m fascinated. I’m troubled. I care about what happens to these folks. And yes, there’s a “get a load of these weirdos” factor to the show that problematic, but I do my best to keep that sensationalism in mind while being absolutely riveted. I never know what’s going to happen! There were more plot twists in this show than in all the “psychological thrillers” I watched this year.
Legendary (Season 2)
The dancing! The fashion! The drama! 10s, 10s across the board!
Midnight Mass (Limited Series)
Catholic vampires? I’m into it! This was a fun watch to kick off Halloween-time.
What We Do in the Shadows (Season 1)
And these silly vampires gave me many a much-needed chuckle. :)
Honorable Mentions:
- The Circle (Seasons 2 & 3)
- Pretend It’s a City (Mini Series)
- Only Murders in the Building (Season 1)
- The Masked Singer (Seasons 5 & 6)
- WandaVision (Limited Series)
- Dickinson (Seasons 1 & 2)
- Nine Perfect Strangers (Limited series)
- The L Word: Generation Q (Season 2)
- Ok I’m going to stop there before I become even more disturbed with how much TV I watched in 2021. Phew, what a year! Onward to 2022…
