In mid-November, the Icelandic book trade sends out a catalogue filled with books to order. People use this catalogue to order gifts for their friends and family to give on Christmas Eve. After the gifts are opened on Christmas Eve, the family grabs a cup of cocoa and cuddles up to spend the rest of the evening reading their new books. This tradition sounds heavenly, doesn’t it?

Selecting a good book is never a problem for me. I have a very long TBR (to be read) list and it grows this time of year as the Best Books of 2021 are published. Let me share five of my favorite books of 2021.

1.  The Last Bus to Wisdom by Ivan Doig.

This book, published in 2015, is my first read of Doig, and won’t be my last. The setting begins in the Montana Rockies where I lived until I was in junior high. The story is about 11-year-old Donal Cameron who lives with his grandmother, the cook on the Double W ranch. When Gram must have surgery, she sends Donal to stay with her sister in Wisconsin. The bus ride to Wisconsin and back to Montana is filled with characters and experiences that teach Donal quickly about the good and bad sides of strangers, and family, along the way.

This is a sweet, laugh out-loud book that is written brilliantly. It’s the last book written by Doig before his death in 2015 and some think his best. I listened to it on audio and then had to go buy it to read again. If I could, I love this book so much, I’d send you all a copy to read when you’re sitting by the fire, drinking hot cocoa (or diet coke).

Doig shared his purpose for writing and I think it’s the perfect definition of a book worth reading:

“If I have any creed that I wish you as readers, necessarily accomplices in this flirtatious ceremony of writing and reading, will take with you from my pages, it’d be this belief of mine that writers of caliber can ground their work in specific land and lingo and yet be writing of that larger country: life.” 

2.  The Thursday Murder Club and The Man Who Died Twice by Richard Osman

Imagine living in a luxury retirement home, located in England, with a group of four, close friends who meet every Thursday to solve murders.  Maybe it’s because I’m committed to being active and vigorous until I die, or because I always wanted to be an FBI agent and could imagine hunting for clues when I’m 70, that I loved both books by Richard Osman.

I listened to this on audio and just laughed and laughed at the freedom that comes with age to do as you please and the endearing friendship between these four souls.

3.  Joyful: The Surprising Power of Ordinary Things to Create Extraordinary Happiness by Ingrid Fetell Lee

“Every human being is born with the capacity for joy and like the pilot light in your stove, it still burns within you even if you haven’t switched on the burners in a while. What you hold in your hands is the key to reigniting those joyful flames, one that promises to radically change the way you look at the world around you. At the heart of this book lies the idea that joy isn’t something we find. It’s also something we can make, for ourselves and for those around us.”

Ingrid Fetell Lee is a designer who shares fascinating research on how our environment can bring us joy. “For example, studies show that people with sunny workspaces sleep better and laugh more than their peers in dimly lit offices, and that flowers improve not only people’s moods but their memories as well.”

This isn’t a decorating book, but rather a “field guide.” I’m sure I’ll read it again because it did change my view of the world around me and explained why I find so much joy in nature, rainbows of colors, Christmas lights, and arranging my fireplace mantle with symmetry.

4.  The Midnight Library, Matt Haig

What if you could go into a library of books, choose one, and immediately enter a different life than the one you now have. And, you can do this as many times as you want. This is the story of a woman who does just that as she desperately seeks relief from depression and thoughts of suicide. The propelling question is whether she finds a life better than the one she has.

All of Haig’s books come from his personal experience with depression and anxiety, which he suffered from the age of 24. While The Midnight Library isn’t a therapeutic book, I appreciate his description of emotional distress and the journey through it. (Of course, any book with “library” in the title will immediately have me.)

5.  The Louise Penny Series

I’m a mystery book lover and when you add a series of books from a great author with very special characters, I’m hooked. If you haven’t discovered Louise Penny and her Inspector Gamache series located in Three Pines, a small village near Quebec, Canada, this will be the most favorite recommendation I’ve ever given you. 

The Challenge to Read More

I challenge you to increase reading in your life by one small step this year. Read one more book than you did in 2021. Take your children or grandchildren to the library one more time and role model the love of reading. Give one book as a gift or reward. Create one reading day or identify your favorite reading space. Discover a hero or a new place in the world. Share what you experience and learn from your reading. Experiment with the difference between spending 20 minutes on social media compared to spending 20 minutes reading a good book. Whatever you choose, I think you’ll discover reading a book is like eating potato chips. You can’t eat just one!