21 Books I Want To Read In 2021

All bibliophiles make a similar list to this, right? I'm dreading if I'm still alive and reading in 2050 as.. that's a lot of planning. I'm not going into the synopsis of each of these books, instead I'm putting in the link to The StoryGraph so you can go over and see if any of these interest you. SPEAKING OF.. I created a StoryGraph account because we all hate Amazon. Come add me!







1. The Shadow of the Wind by Carlos Ruiz Zafon. This is at the top of my TBR as I know I'm going to love it. I desperately want to pick up The Thirteenth Tale by Diane Setterfield after Victoria over at WhatVictoriaRead raved about it, but as this one has been on my TBR longer, I'm trying to prioritize. Welp.
2. The Wife by Meg Wolitzer. This will be my first Meg Wolitzer novel! It intrigues me as it's, well, short, but I'm interested in watching the movie.
3. The First Fifteen Lives of Harry August by Claire North. The trope of someone reliving their life over and over always intrigues me (Yes, The Midnight Library by Matt Haig is my favourite), so this has been on my radar for a few years. However, the length always puts me off. 2021 will hopefully be the year that I stop being intimated by TOMEs.
4. Tangerine by Christine Mangan. I tried to read Rebecca by Daphne du Maurier last year but couldn't get into it, I hear that Tangerine has a similar vibe so I'm hoping that it'll be a stepping stone into my love for gothic fiction.
5. There There by Tommy Orange. I tried to read this last year through Libby as an audiobook, but it was not working for me. Since then, I found it at a used bookstore for $2. So, yay! 
6. Sing, Unburied, Sing by Jesmyn Ward. This sounds like it's going to be a brutal read but with a great pay off. I feel like I've seen many booktubers haul this but not actually read it.
7. The Cactus by Sarah Haywood. It's already known that I'm trash for a Reese's bookclub pick, despite my complicated history with either giving them 2 or 5 stars. This has the means to be a Eleanor Oliphant is Completely Fine for me, so fingers crossed.
8. Life After Life by Kate Atkinson. This has a similar plot to The First Fifteen Lives of Harry August, only far more daunting because of it's intense size. May be the scariest book on this plot.
9. The Butterfly Garden by Dot Hutchison. Have you ever wanted to read a book that you know is going to be terrible, but maybe fun terrible? Yup. This is that for me. I feel like it's going to be fast-paced, over-the-top, ridiculous thriller that will keep me invested. 
10. The Quiet Room: A Journey Out of the Torment of Madness by Lori Schiller and Amanda Bennett. Breaking my own rules by including a non-fiction on this list? Yes. As I've mentioned before, me and my husband have a tradition of buying a new book to kick off the new year with. However, after spending far too long in Barnes & Noble without finding anything, I instead decided to instead read a book that I bought last year. 
11. Erotic Stories for Punjabi Widows by Balli Kaur Jaswal. Another Reese pick? Yes, but this plot would interest me no matter what. It seems a little like a fictional take on Reading Lolita in Tehran: A Memoir in Books by Azar Nafisi, which is also on my TBR. (So many books, too little time.)
12. Verity by Colleen Hoover. I read two Colleen Hoover novels last year and enjoyed myself immensely. I've been recommend Verity as my next book by the author, so here we are.
13. Often I Am Happy by Jens Christian Grøndahl. I'm making an effort to read shorter books this year, so this fits the bill perfectly. It also sounds very interesting. 
14. The Portable Veblen by Elizabeth Mckenzie. Time to shame myself.. I picked this up because I liked the cover. I didn't even read the synopsis. I rarely do that, but yes, shame on me. So I have to read this to soothe my brain and just hope that I will enjoy it enough to warrant keeping it on my shelf. 
15. Elizabeth Is Missing by Emma Healy. The premise of this vaguely reminds of A Man Called Ove by Fredrik Backman, which makes it very appealing to me. 
16. Mrs. Dalloway by Virginia Woolf. The only true classic that makes it on this list. I've never read any Virginia Woolf, so this will be my introduction into her writing.
17. Shanghai Girls by Lisa See. This is a huge risk as I truly haven't seen anyone else talk about it. I solely picked it up from a library sale because the cover was gorgeous. I enjoy historical fiction that focuses on females who were ahead of their time, so as a concept the synopsis of this should be right up my street.
18. One Amazing Thing by Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni. This has sat on my shelves for a few years now, but it was only reading Anxious People by Fredrik Backman last year that bumped it up my TBR list. I'm dubious as to whether it'll be similar, but I crave more of the same so I'm going into this with high hopes.
19. The Shining Girls by Lauren Beunes. After a spell of reading some really bad thrillers in 2020, I fell out of love with the genre. I'm hoping this very original take on a slasher thriller will revive the joy I used to find from the genre. Time hopping serial killer? Final girl who wants revenge? Yes, please.
20. Still Alice by Lisa Genova. I can't put my finger on why this book intrigues me so much, but it's been on my active TBR for literal years now so it's about time that I finally pick it up. 
21. Divine Secrets of the Ya-Ya Sisterhood by Rebecca Wells. I'm trying to tackle the hella daunting Rory Gilmore Reading Challenge and this is the one that's next on my priority list. This modern classic will either become a favourite, or it will not have aged well and I'll end up cringing my way through it. Yup.

What 3 books are you hoping to read in 2021? Do you create a similar list to this? Let me know!