OOLA’s Ultimate 2021 Reading List

Far beyond social constructs as “navigable” as race, gender, and religion, there lies an even deeper, more pervasive scaffolding off of which our entire American identity hangs: the caste system. Isabel Wilkerson’s #1 New York Times best-selling novel is pegged to be a new American classic, and it’s easy to see why. Wilkerson powerfully and pointedly removes the motes from our eyes so we can better see the convoluted system of America we now consider “normal.”

If you’re looking to be emboldened with the girl power of a thousand Spice Girls world tours, The Once and Future Witches by Alix E. Harrow is the book for you. Set in late 19th-century Salem, Massachusetts, the story follows a group of suffragist sisters who turn to the legacies of the Salem women who came and died before them for inspiration. The Once and Future Witches celebrates the indomitable power and ferocity of women, serving as a “love letter to folklore and the rebellious women of history” (Publishers Weekly).

2020 left us reeling from endlessly spinning news cycles, but Claudia Rankine has found a way to straighten us out in her new novel and finalist of the 2021 Andrew Carnegie Medal for Excellence in Nonfiction, Just Us: An American Conversation. In a time when the nation has never seemed so divided, Rankine gently pushes us to honestly evaluate ourselves, our interactions with others, and the nation at large.

Peaceful, calming, and beautifully tender, Yumi Sakugawa’s illustrated novel offers a hand-drawn path to inner peace. Sakugawa personifies the more complicated aspects of our inner emotions, from tea-drinking inner demons to blazoned anxieties. Enter 2021 with clarity, patience, and forgiveness for yourself and others like with this deeply powerful, yet wonderfully simplistic, short read.

Malcolm Gladwell, the author of #1 New York Times bestseller Outliers, returns to blow our minds yet again with his in-depth assessment of just what it means to be a human. Talking to Strangers points out critical flaws in the tools and strategies used to communicate with and understand people we don’t know. As appealing as it is to stay an antisocial recluse after the year that was 2020, Gladwell’s new release helps you reenter the real world with purpose, confidence, and most importantly — empathy.

Set against a simultaneously dirty and glamorous New York City backdrop, Trouble the Saints tells the harrowing tale of an assassin forced to consider the steadfastness of fate and the consequences of immorality. Lovers of the British dark comedy-thriller Killing Eve will love Johnson’s juxtaposition of gripping high-level crime and the magic of new love, and the dangerous cocktail made when the two mix.

Making (and maintaining) friendships in adulthood can be difficult and disheartening. The emphasis placed on romantic, rather than platonic, relationships causes many friendships to fall short of their full potential. Aminatou Sow helps put into words the emotions we’ve always felt surrounding our platonic relationships, helping us to evaluate, nurture, and maintain them in all of their beautiful complexities.

Writer, historian, and long-time activist Rebecca Solnit blows the lid off of the comfortable cynicism many of us have fallen into as the future grows less and less certain. Solnit celebrates the good that has already come and the good that is yet to be, all while demanding modern radicalism never gives up the true fight. This illuminating novel is recommended by young politicians like Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, who says this book serves as a reminder that “the times of greatest hope are the times of greatest turbulence.”

Simultaneously lighthearted and harrowing, Mark O’Connell’s Notes From an Apocalypse follows a Dublin-based father of two as he travels the globe looking for answers to…pretty much everything. How do we live in the shadows of a grim future? After 2020, what hope is there to be had? What’s the point of raising children in a world seemingly set on a path of self-destruction? O’Connell turns these heavy-hitting musings into an easily-digestible, heartwarming story of love and hope in a world where neither really make all that much sense.

Fierce, funny, and irresistibly weird, And I Do Not Forgive You is a captivating collection of short stories that read like fairy tales — which, Sparks explains, are warnings disguised as wishes. The tragedies, comedies, and everyday stories of women past, present, and future come alive on the page in Sparks’ irreverent feminist prose.

The pandemic locked us indoors as winter was beginning to defrost into a soft, muddy spring, and many of us turned to nature for solace, guidance, or a little bit of both. Aimee Nezhukumatathil has been turning to Mother Nature for that very reason since childhood, and World of Wonders beautifully encapsulates a fraction of what she’s learned. From axolotls to narwhals, World of Wonders helps open the reader’s eyes to the wonders (and lessons) offered by the natural world every day.

“F-ck positivity,” Manson writes. “Let’s be honest, shit is f–ked, and we have to live with it.” Amen. It’s no surprise that over six million copies of this generation-defining self-help guide have been sold, and if you haven’t had the immense pleasure of poring over Manson’s pages of witty, biting, and refreshingly human insights, we highly recommend you get a copy now. This book is the tough love you never knew you needed.

For as long as humans have existed, we’ve been undeniably tethered to the natural world around us—until now. Jo Marchant seeks to solder that broken connection between the human experience and the cosmos in this eye-opening, fascinating work of nonfiction. Award-winning science journalist Marchant takes us back to the basics, reminding us of the revelation that star-gazing is what makes humans, humans.