My 2021 reading list: A year of curiosity in a curious world

The year started with the promise of great renewal after the calamity that was 2020. A vaccine was on the horizon, and there was a lot of life to catch up on. The expectation of a social schedule rebirth and big plans on the personal front all pointed towards little time for books–especially compared to last year. We received our first vaccine dose in March and had a slew of life activities in the second half of the year: weddings (including our own), honeymoon, bachelor parties (including mine in Zion National Park), holiday travel, annual marathon, friend gatherings, and home-buying (which finally happened after 11 months of looking). And－while we managed to squeeze in a lot of living between the Delta, Omicron, and “Coronoa Classic” COVID peaks－we may have been over-optimistic on how quickly we’d be able to return to the sense of normalcy we so deeply missed.

Thus 2021 continued to be a year spent indoors. Reading remained a unifying activity across friends, family, and work and a means to indulge my insatiable curiosity about things. It was through the turn of pages and conversations over Zoom (and restaurants when possible) that my social interactions and personal growth continued to be enriched. I was able to go deeper into specific areas of interest while casting an eye towards the broader world. While I’ll look back on 2021 with a curious sense of what could have been without the continuation of the pandemic, I’ll be thankful that it allowed me to indulge my own curiosity through books a bit longer. Below are my annual reflections on the 60 books that (I hope) made me a more enlightened and well-rounded thinker.

Curiosity for America

The last few years have been a troubling and thought-provoking time as an American who loves his country. The terrible scenes of January 6th’s insurrection on the US Capitol steps capped several years of extreme partisanship and a growing sense of divide amongst US citizens. I’ve been fortunate to experience America from multiple angles throughout my life, with the most pronounced stemming from my current residence in the left-leaning San Francisco Bay Area and my roots in the right-leaning hills of West Virginia. While the rhetoric in each of these places exists within an echo chamber of belief in their own rightness, what strikes me is that underneath all the differences is a lot of what should unite us: a belief in the power of the American people, a love of country, and an optimism for the future.

January 6th spurred me to better answer the questions of “what is America?” and “what does it mean to be an American?” for myself. This included a list of readings from varying political perspectives (liberal and conservative) and different historical periods both in terms of writing date and era covered (Revolutionary War through today). I also combined nonfiction and fiction and to complement the facts of important American moments with the emotional narratives during those times. Mark Twain conjured up life in the antebellum south much as Richard Russo, Charles Yu, and Louise Erdrich covered the experiences of small town Maine, Chinese-American immigrants, and Native Americans respectfully. I particularly enjoyed the epic poetic narrative of The Lehman Trilogy by Stefano Massini (who is actually Italian) which covered the rise and fall of Lehman Brothers from the brothers’ immigration from Germany to Alabama to the financial giant’s collapse during the housing crisis. So much of America in a single family history.

The impetus for reflection on America grew from tragedy, but the space it created for reflection was healthy and timely. And while I don’t think I’ve deconstructed the United States into a unified narrative, I’ve grown more aware of the beauty wrought within its complexity.

American experience via nonfiction

• The Pioneers: The Heroic Story of the Settlers Who Brought the American Ideal West by David McCullough (2019, Non-Fiction, History, US 🇺🇸, 353 pages)
• Undaunted Courage: Meriwether Lewis, Thomas Jefferson, and the Opening of the American West by Stephen Ambrose (1996, Non-Fiction, History, US 🇺🇸, 521 pages)
• Valley Forge by Bob Drury & Tom Clavin (2018, Non-Fiction, History, US 🇺🇸, 432 pages)
• San Fransicko: Why Progressives Ruin Cities by Michael Shellenberger (2021, Non-Fiction, Social Science, US 🇺🇸, 416 pages)
• Robert E. Lee: A Life by Allen C. Guelzo (2021, Non-Fiction, Biography, US 🇺🇸, 608 pages)

American experience via fiction

• The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain (1884, Fiction, Novel, US 🇺🇸, 336 pages)
• Interior Chinatown by Charles Yu (2020, Fiction, Satire, US 🇺🇸, 288 pages)
• The Night Watchman by Louise Erdrich (2020, Fiction, Novel, US 🇺🇸, 464 pages)
• The Lehman Trilogy by Stefano Massini (2013, Fiction, Comedy, Italy 🇮🇹, 720 pages)
• Empire Falls by Richard Russo (2001, Fiction, Novel, US 🇺🇸, 483 pages)
• Pudd’nhead Wilson by Mark Twain (1894, Fiction, Novel, US 🇺🇸, 186 pages)

Curiosity for my Chilean roots

In 2020 I started a small book club with my family to better understand my mother’s Chilean roots. This included choosing a book from a South American author and discussing it over Chilean and Argentinian Carménère and Malbec wines. We continued this activity into 2021, and it remained a source of excellent conversation and discovery.

In 2021 we covered 5 books across Chilean, Brazilian, Uruguayan, and Peruvian authors and experiences. I was consistently impressed by the rich history and cultural heritage of the South American people and came to better understand the continent’s development and current mindset. I was particularly delighted to discover the writings of Mario Vargas Llosa, a brilliant author who captured the complex dynamic between native culture and the creep of modernism. We read two books of his, and I expect to add more of his works to my bookshelf in the coming years.

• Near to the Wild Heart by Clarice Lispector (1943, Fiction, Novel, Brazil 🇧🇷, 220 pages)
• The Storyteller by Mario Vargas Llosa (1987, Fiction, Novel, Peru 🇵🇪, 246 pages)
• Open Veins of Latin America: Five Centuries of the Pillage of a Continent by Eduardo Galeano (1971, Non-Fiction, Social Science, Uruguay 🇺🇾, 317 pages)
• Death in the Andes by Mario Vargas Llosa (1993, Fiction, Novel, Peru 🇵🇪, 276 pages)
• The Old Man Who Read Love Stories by Luis Sepúlveda (1989, Fiction, Novel, Chile 🇨🇱, 144 pages)

Curiosity for becoming a better software leader

I’ve always found reading to be one of the best ways to improve myself at work. A great author can help you dive headfirst into new and fascinating subjects or reimagine the ones you think you already know. It’s not surprising that books related to the things I think about at work make up a high percentage of my reading list. As I endeavor to be a better software technologist and leader, new books on product-building, design, user psychology, sales, marketing, venture capital, and leadership will find their way into my bookshelf.

I found particular joy in the books on user psychology and design this year. In product leadership, it’s too easy to get caught up in the verbiage of roadmaps, business value, and revenue generation. Yet business value starts with creating user value–helping and delighting a person who wants to complete a job or task. In 2021 I was asked to lead our design organization at Carta. This energized me to refocus on our users from an anthropological and emotional lens. Carta’s CEO Henry Ward also nudged me in this direction with his reminder that the best companies and products deliver emotional loyalty. My reading list reflected this call to learning/re-learning. Particular standouts for me were my Steve Krug’s Don’t Make Me Think, Rory Sutherland’s Alchemy: The Dark Art and Curious Science of Creating Magic in Brands, Business, and Life, and Dan Heath & Chip Heath’s The Power of Moments: Why Certain Experiences Have Extraordinary Impact.

Design

• Don’t Make Me Think, Revisited: A Common Sense Approach to Web Usability (3rd Edition) by Steve Krug (2013, Non-Fiction, Design, US 🇺🇸, 213 pages)
• How to Make Sense of Any Mess: Information Architecture for Everybody by Abby Covert (2014, Non-Fiction, Design, US 🇺🇸, 174 pages)
• User Friendly: How the Hidden Rules of Design Are Changing the Way We Live, Work, and Play by Cliff Kuang & Robert Fabricant (2020, Non-Fiction, Design, US 🇺🇸, 416 pages)
• Insight Out: Get Ideas Out of Your Head and Into the World by Tina Seelig (2015, Non-Fiction, Design, US 🇺🇸, 256 pages)

User Psychology

• Predictably Irrational, Revised and Expanded Edition: The Hidden Forces That Shape Our Decisions by Dr. Dan Ariely (2010, Non-Fiction, Social Science, Israel 🇮🇱 — US 🇺🇸, 384 pages)
• Alchemy: The Dark Art and Curious Science of Creating Magic in Brands, Business, and Life by Rory Sutherland (2019, Non-Fiction, Business / Management, UK 🇬🇧, 384 pages)
• Switch: How to Change Things When Change Is Hard by Dan Heath & Chip Heath (2010, Non-Fiction, Business / Management, US 🇺🇸, 320 pages)
• The Power of Moments: Why Certain Experiences Have Extraordinary Impact by Dan Heath & Chip Heath (2017, Non-Fiction, Business / Management, US 🇺🇸, 320 pages)

Sales and Marketing

• To Sell Is Human: The Surprising Truth About Moving Others by Daniel H. Pink (2012, Non-Fiction, Business / Management, US 🇺🇸, 274 pages)

Leadership & Management

• The Hard Thing About Hard Things: Building a Business When There Are No Easy Answers by Ben Horowitz (2014, Non-Fiction, Business / Management, US 🇺🇸, 304 pages)
• The Contrarian’s Guide to Leadership by Steven B. Sample (2003, Non-Fiction, Business / Management, US 🇺🇸, 224 pages)
• High Conflict: Why We Get Trapped and How We Get Out by Amanda Ripley (2021, Non-Fiction, Social Science, US 🇺🇸, 268 pages)

Curiosity for the world

The world continued to fascinate me in 2021. In addition to learning more about the pandemic and our response to it via Michael Lewis’ The Premonition, there were other current events worth understanding better: CRISPR gene editing, physics, gender equity, Germany’s political transition, and Facebook’s ethics problems. There were other non-current events that also caught my eye spanning the Enlightenment, WWII, tea, game theory, and Chinese politics.

I continued to find biographies an excellent conduit into new subjects. They provide a protagonist who helps you connect the history of an event with its human impact and interpretation. This was especially true of Walter Isaacson’s latest book which combined the biography of the 2020 Nobel Prize Laureate Jennifer Doudna with the scientific explanations of CRISPR technology and the moral issues of gene editing. The other subjects to complete my biographical quartet for the year included the strange bedfellows of Deng Xiaoping, Angela Merkel, and Robert E. Lee.

Biographies

• Deng Xiaoping and the Transformation of China by Ezra F. Vogel (2011, Non-Fiction, Biography, US 🇺🇸, 928 pages)
• The Chancellor: The Remarkable Odyssey of Angela Merkel by Kati Marton (2021, Non-Fiction, Biography, Hungary🇭🇺 — US 🇺🇸, 368 pages)
• Robert E. Lee: A Life by Allen C. Guelzo (2021, Non-Fiction, Biography, US 🇺🇸, 608 pages) — mentioned above in the American reading section too.
• The Code Breaker: Jennifer Doudna, Gene Editing, and the Future of the Human Race by Walter Isaacson (2021, Non-Fiction, Biography, US 🇺🇸, 560 pages)

Current events

• Seven Brief Lessons on Physics by Carlo Rovelli (2014, Non-Fiction, Physics, Italy 🇮🇹, 86 pages)
• The Premonition: A Pandemic Story by Michael Lewis (2021, Non-Fiction, Social Science, US 🇺🇸, 320 pages)
• An Ugly Truth: Inside Facebook’s Battle for Domination by Sheera Frenkel & Cecilia Kang (2021, Non-Fiction, Technology, US 🇺🇸, 352 pages)
• Entitled: How Male Privilege Hurts Women by Kate Manne (2020, Non-Fiction, Social Science, Australia 🇦🇺, 279 pages)

Other deep dives

• The Enlightenment: The Pursuit of Happiness, 1680–1790 by Ritchie Robertson (2021, Non-Fiction, History, UK 🇬🇧, 1008 pages)
• Gladiators, Pirates and Games of Trust: How Game Theory, Strategy and Probability Rule Our Lives by Haim Shapira (2017, Non-Fiction, Mathematics, Israel 🇮🇱, 176 pages)
• The Art and Craft of Tea: An Enthusiast’s Guide to Selecting, Brewing, and Serving Exquisite Tea by Joseph Wesley Uhl (2015, Non-Fiction, Culture, US 🇺🇸, 160 pages)
• Ivan’s War: Life and Death in the Red Army, 1939–1945 by Catherine Merridale (2006, Non-Fiction, History, UK 🇬🇧, 462 pages)

Curiosity for becoming a more thoughtful person

In addition to learning about the United States, South American culture, work topics, and the world, I also find reading to be one of the best times to reflect on what it means to be human — including complex questions around justice, morality, ethics, and personal philosophy. Readings of this ilk tend to happen when I’m in the right mindset — generally during a rainy weekend morning over a cup of hot tea where I have the mental space to ponder questions deeply and re-read passages leisurely.

The books below spanned fiction/non fiction, centuries, and country borders and aided in asking the tough questions of the human experience. A particular standout was Harvard ethics professor Michael J. Sandel’s The Tyranny of Merit: What’s Become of the Common Good? He was also the author of one of my standout books in 2020.

• The Caine Mutiny by Herman Wouk (1951, Fiction, Novel, US 🇺🇸, 560 pages)
• Nathan the Wise by Gotthold Ephraim Lessing (1779, Fiction, Play, Germany 🇩🇪, 192 pages)
• The Tyranny of Merit: What’s Become of the Common Good? by Michael J. Sandel (2021, Non-Fiction, Philosophy, US 🇺🇸, 288 pages)
• The Courage to Be Disliked: The Japanese Phenomenon That Shows You How to Change Your Life and Achieve Real Happiness by Ichiro Kishimi & Fumitake Koga (2018, Non-Fiction, Psychology, Japan 🇯🇵, 288 pages)

Just looking for a good time

Reading in 2021 wasn’t all about learning. Another aim of reading is simply to have fun for its own sake (not that learning isn’t its own form of fun). What better way to pass the long hours indoors during the pandemic than with a compelling story not delivered via Netflix? I especially appreciated the entertainment value of reading during 10 days spent in a French Polynesian COVID quarantine facility without reliable internet access. Good old books (particularly crime novels) are always a welcome distraction. It was during this stay that I went on a Tana French murder mystery binge (I was introduced to French last year with her novel The Stranger). During my time in Tahiti and after I managed to finish the rest of her oeuvre.

Other novels ranged the spectrum of entertainment value. Andy Weir delivered another amazing science fiction classic with Project Hail Mary. I explored more of Octavia Butler’s writings with Parable of the Sower and Parable of the Talents. I also discovered a quirky and memorable little psychological novel Lemon from South Korean author Kwon Yeo-sun. And, of course, there was always time for some classics too: Shakespeare, Turgenev, and Hemingway.

Tana French rabbit hole

• In the Woods (Dublin Murder Squad #1) by Tana French (2007, Fiction, Mystery, US 🇺🇸 — Ireland 🇮🇪, 429 pages)
• The Likeness (Dublin Murder Squad #2) by Tana French (2008, Fiction, Mystery, US 🇺🇸 — Ireland 🇮🇪, 492 pages)
• Faithful Place (Dublin Murder Squad #3) by Tana French (2010, Fiction, Mystery, US 🇺🇸 — Ireland 🇮🇪, 449 pages)
• Broken Harbor (Dublin Murder Squad #4) by Tana French (2012, Fiction, Mystery, US 🇺🇸 — Ireland 🇮🇪, 450 pages)
• The Secret Place (Dublin Murder Squad #5) by Tana French (2014, Fiction, Mystery, US 🇺🇸 — Ireland 🇮🇪, 452 pages)
• The Trespasser (Dublin Murder Squad #6) by Tana French (2016, Fiction, Mystery, US 🇺🇸 — Ireland 🇮🇪, 464 pages)
• The Witch Elm by Tana French (2018, Fiction, Mystery, US 🇺🇸 — Ireland 🇮🇪, 528 pages)

Other recreational non-fiction

• The Day the Sun Died by Yan Lianke (2015, Fiction, Satire, China 🇨🇳, 320 pages)
• So Long, See You Tomorrow by William Maxwell (1980, Fiction, Novel, US 🇺🇸, 144 pages)
• Parable of the Sower by Octavia Butler (1993, Fiction, Novel, US 🇺🇸, 352 pages)
• Parable of the Talents by Octavia Butler (1998, Fiction, Novel, US 🇺🇸, 448 pages)
• An Extravagant Death (Charles Lenox Mysteries, Book 14) by Charles Finch (2021, Fiction, Mystery, US 🇺🇸, 288 pages)
• Project Hail Mary by Andy Weir (2021, Fiction, Sci-Fi, US 🇺🇸, 496 pages)
• Lemon by Kwon Yeo-sun (2021, Fiction, Novel, South Korea 🇰🇷, 160 pages)

Classics

• The Tempest by William Shakespeare (1611, Fiction, Play, UK 🇬🇧, 96 pages)
• Fathers and Sons by Ivan Turgenev (1862, Fiction, Novel, Russia 🇷🇺, 304 pages)
• The Short Stories: The First Forty-Nine Stories by Ernest Hemingway (1936, Fiction, Short Stories, US 🇺🇸, 499 pages)

2021 Reading Data

Just like 2019 and 2020, I like to put a little data behind my reading habits for the year for the books listed above. I hope this helps me identify trends as well as new opportunities for exploration next year.

• 60 books read with a nearly even split between fiction and nonfiction: 29 fiction (48.3%) vs. 31 nonfiction (51.7%).
• Authors hailed from 16 countries: Australia 🇦🇺, Brazil 🇧🇷, Chile 🇨🇱, China 🇨🇳, Germany 🇩🇪, Hungary🇭🇺, Ireland 🇮🇪, Israel 🇮🇱 , Italy 🇮🇹, Japan 🇯🇵, Peru 🇵🇪, Russia 🇷🇺, South Korea 🇰🇷, Uruguay 🇺🇾, US 🇺🇸, and UK 🇬🇧.
• Gender of author skewed male with 41 books by men (68.3%) and 19 by women (31.7%)
• Books indexed heavily towards recent years with 19 from the 2020s and 23 from the 2010s. Twelve books came out in 2021, while the oldest book was William Shakespeare’s The Tempest from 1611.
• Median length of books was 328 pages.

2021 Top 5 Books

Despite the pain and anxiety happening all around us, I found myself smiling while reflecting on my reading for the year. I hope others find joy as well with their own reading adventures. For those interested in recommendations, below are 5 books that topped my list for the year and you may consider adding to yours next year. I’m always happy to receive suggestions as well.

• The Storyteller by Mario Vargas Llosa (1987, Fiction, Novel, Peru 🇵🇪, 246 pages)
• The Tyranny of Merit: What’s Become of the Common Good? by Michael J Sandel (2021, Non-Fiction, Philosophy, US 🇺🇸, 288 pages)
• Alchemy: The Dark Art and Curious Science of Creating Magic in Brands, Business, and Life by Rory Sutherland (2019, Non-Fiction, Business / Management, UK 🇬🇧, 384 pages)
• The Lehman Trilogy by Stefano Massini (2013, Fiction, Comedy, Italy 🇮🇹, 720 pages)
• The Caine Mutiny by Herman Wouk (1951, Fiction, Novel, US 🇺🇸, 560 pages)

Looking ahead to 2022

Next year, I think I will change up my approach. Rather than focus on reading, I hope to focus on writing. Wish me luck.