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2021: An Intentional Reading Year In Review

Time spent reading is precious .

In 2021 I resolved to cultivate a more intentional reading life.

I find it very stifling to choose what books I will read in a given period of time - but I also acknowledge that some reading guidelines are helpful as I seek to make the most of the reading time I do have.

Developing 5 guiding principles for my reading life in 2021 seemed to work well, and in my year-end review, I’d like to revisit those principles and highlight my favorite books from the year at the same time.

Full disclosure: I am not naturally an organized person. I am a creative at heart. My 2021 reading life was an exercise in becoming a bit more organized, but allowing myself to explore those “reading rabbit holes” I so desperately love.

2021 Reading Year in Review

Let’s go through the goals I made nearly a year ago - I’ll give a report on how I did with the goal, and then give you some books from that category I enjoyed.

Homegrown Book Picks

Hang on, and get out your TBR list! But first…

Follow Along This Year!

First, if you’d like to see what I’m reading - and everything I read in 2021 - you can connect with me in several ways:

You’ll be noticing more from me this year under “Homegrown Book Picks”, so I hope you follow along!



Including More Nonfiction

A few people who know me well assured me that if I found the RIGHT nonfiction, I would love it, and they were correct. I discovered an entirely new genre to me (or at least I discovered a name for it) - Narrative Nonfiction.

Each month I did try to include at least one nonfiction read - and surprisingly I began to gravitate toward MORE nonfiction. The following five were favorites this year:

Additionally, I had a few other nonfiction favorites. Each of these broadened my mind and inspired me to consider new and interesting ideas.

This Beautiful Truth, by Sarah Clarkson, truly spoke to me this year. My dad passed away in March and her words help me to see God’s beauty in even the most difficult circumstances surrounding my dad’s death.

Make Time for Middle-Grade Novels

I realized that I’ve truly been missing middle grades novels! Now that my youngest is nearly finished with high school we’re not reading middle-grade books aloud (although we do still read aloud!). In 2021 I sought to include middle-grade novels and share about them with the Homegrown Learners community.

One author I continued to fall in love with in 2021 is Michael Morpurgo. I gifted An Elephant in the Garden to a couple of teens I know, who loved it just as much as I did! Morpurgo’s books are poignant and easy to read. I plan to read more of them in 2022.

I read many more middle-grade books in 2021, but these are the standouts:

Give Me All The Historical Fiction

In 2021 I knew I needed to broaden my reading horizons a bit, but I also didn’t want to give up my favorite genre, historical fiction. So, I decided to just embrace the genre and take in as much as I could during the year.

I’m truly a historical fiction nerd, and I embrace that.

Hands down, my favorite book of the year was Once Upon a Wardrobe, by Patti Callahan.

This book was truly a magical escape. I read an advanced copy via Netgalley, and then after the book was published a dear friend purchased a signed copy for me as a gift. What a treasure!

I also seemed to read a lot of books based in Europe during the first half of the 20th century. I learned quite a bit about London society during WWII.

2022 will certainly include a lot of historical fiction, and I’m hoping to find nonfiction match-ups to help me learn more about topics I’m interested in. For example, I just finished reading The Woman Before Wallis this past week and now I’m on a hunt to find nonfiction books about Thelma and Gloria Morgan (Vanderbilt).

Tackle Those Classics

In my post from earlier this year, I wrote about trying to read a classic each month. I didn’t reach that goal, but I will continue to strive to read more classics in 2022.

And, what exactly is the definition of a classic? According to the dictionary, a classic is a work that is:

judged over a period of time to be of the highest quality and outstanding of its kind.

I was delighted to discover Elizabeth Goudge in 2021 - and loved The Bird in the Tree. I copied nearly four pages of quotes into my book journal from that book alone!

Madeleine L’Engle also occupied a place in my heart. Her Crosswick Journals, which are personal reflections on her faith and family, were a balm to my soul. I gifted A Circle of Quiet (the first of the journals) this year because it meant so much to me.

Favorite classics this year:

Allow Room For Escape

From my blog post earlier this year:

I do enjoy reading for escape, so I will be choosing one “escape” book each month.

These books will be “just because” books - but I want to be very careful that they are free of foul language, explicit sex scenes, and social agendas.

This turned out to be an interesting goal. The older I get the more discerning I become. I want the books I read to feed my soul and intrigue me in some way. It’s hard to find “best sellers” that are free of sex scenes and social agendas. I found myself steering away from best sellers in 2021 (although you will see there are a few I really did like).

This last “escape” category was a little bit of a catch-all for me in 2021. There was definitely some fluff in the category, but also some best-selling literary fiction that I did enjoy.

Two authors that stood out for me this year were Sean Dietrich (Sean of the South) and Katherine Reay. I will be reading more of their books in 2022.

A BIG Goal for 2022

I want to continue the intentional reading I pursued in 2021, so those five categories/goals remain the same.

There is, however, one big hairy goal I am making.

Are you ready? (The people closest to me are shouting hooray but doubt I can do it.)

I will not buy a book in 2022.

and just in case I didn’t state that clearly…

I will not buy a book in 2022.

So, how then will I obtain books?

  • Read from my extensive stash at home!

  • Use the library and my Libby app.

  • Borrow from friends or find at The Little Free Library

  • Use my Scribd subscription — which is AMAZING! (If you want to try it you can read for 30 days free using this link. I can have as many audio and eBooks going as I want at one time!)

The Ultimate Book Subscription Service!

I have a crazy amount of books in my home, and I am looking forward to reading through them. Any whims that I have for reading will have to be satisfied without spending money on books - which my husband assures me will save our family a significant amount of money - and space!

I hope you have enjoyed this 2021 reading wrap-up and recommendation post.

I’d love to know if you had a favorite (s) book in 2021.

Let me know what it was in the comments below!

You might also like:

12 Favorite Books in 2021 (from guest contributor, Allison)

How to Set Reading Goals with Children

All The BOOKS! (A Bookish Update)

I owe you a reading update. It’s been three months since I last posted about my reading life.

(I’ve been too busy reading to write a post - wink.)

All those cliche things you see about book lovers? They are all probably true about me - and I’m guessing if you’re reading this they are probably true about you, too.

My big focus for 2021 has been to cultivate a more intentional reading life. It was helpful to state those 5 goals in January because I look back at them often; they have been guiding principles for the year.

All the Books: A Bookish Update with Recommendations & More! #homeschool

Let’s go through each of those 5 principles and I’ll give you a report on how it’s going - and in the process I hope you can gain book recommendations, inspiration, and maybe some helpful tips for your reading life, too.

Note: If you are on Instagram, come follow my book account, Homegrown Book Picks. I post each book I read and a brief review. I think the #bookstagram community is a wonderful place to find books and connect with other readers. I also truly enjoy The Potato Peel Society Book Community on Facebook.

Include More Non-Fiction

I don’t gravitate towards nonfiction, but I want to be smarter (HA!) - seriously though, I do want to spend more of my reading time to intentionally learn, and I know that can come through nonfiction.

As a percentage of what I read, it still isn’t that much, but I’m getting better.

If you have a great non-fiction title to recommend to me, leave it in the comments of this post!

These are the nonfiction books I’ve read so far this year - I’ve put them in order from what I liked best to least. (I wouldn’t recommend the last three books, FYI.)

Make Time for Middle Grades

I’m loving middle (and high school) reading.

These books are DEFINITELY not just for young people. Many times it is a balm for my soul to read a beautiful middle/upper grades novel.

An author I’ve rediscovered this year is Michael Morpurgo. He has such a beautiful way of approaching difficult topics through story, and I can see his books leading to wonderful discussions with our teens in particular.

Once again - here are the books I’ve read so far this year, in order from best to least loved. There isn’t a book in this list I wouldn’t recommend!

Give Me All the Historical Fiction

Many of the books in the middle/upper grades category are historical fiction. The ones I will list here are just the books I’ve read for adults.

It’s hard for me not to read ONLY historical fiction, but I still want to read what I love. Does that make sense?

Again, they are in descending order. I don’t recommend Kristin Hannah’s The Four Winds - it fell into that category of “authors trying to pander to culture by including a popular agenda in their writing”.

I always love anything by Susan Meissner, so if you want to take an author and read everything by them, she gets my vote.

Allow a Little Room for Escape

Because we’re in the homeschool world maybe I should use the term “twaddle”.

Or, maybe a better heading would be guilty pleasures?

As I’ve gotten older I don’t have much patience for foul language or sex in books, but a couple of these books did have that, and I kept reading anyway because it didn’t outweigh the actual value I was getting from the story - if that makes sense. Almost all of these are books that are (or have been) “popular” in culture. The older I get I also don’t like reading what most of the culture is reading, either.

The only one of these books that I would definitely steer you away from is Mary Jane. I couldn’t get on board with what I considered negligent child-rearing in this book.

A Little Life really impressed me, but it was full of triggers and it was a difficult read. The main character’s life was so very hard - 800 pages of hard to be exact. You have to be in a very good place if you’re going to tackle this book. That being said, I gave it four stars on Goodreads because the writing was excellent.

Tackle Those Classics

I need to get better about reading classics.

It isn’t my go-to genre, but once I am reading a good classic, I wonder why I don’t pick more!

I Capture the Castle has been my favorite, with the books by Elizabeth Goudge (where has she been all my life?) coming in a close second. Actually, I enjoyed all of the books here with the exception of C.S. Lewis’ Out of the Silent Planet (I just have trouble with Science Fiction).

Again, I could use your help with a favorite classic - leave me yours in the comments below!

A Final Confession

Do you think there is a thing as reading too much?

My family teases me that I always have a book with me - and that when everyone sits down to play a board game I would rather be reading.

So, my confession is this: maybe I am compulsive about reading. Maybe I need to put down my book and be present with the people around me. Do you have this problem, too?

Then again, I look at all of the benefits of reading and think I could have much worse habits, right?

Try SCRIBD for free here!

My Favorite Way to Read

Forever and always my favorite way to read will be a physical book.

I spend a lot of time at the library, our local Goodwill, and ordering books online. I am among the legions of people who are obsessed with owning books!

I do enjoy reading at night (and don’t want to keep my husband awake!), so I read a lot on my iPad.

My membership to Scribd has been invaluable to me. There are so many audiobooks and ebooks available, and it is only $9.99/month! So far this has been the most cost-effective (other than the library) way for me to get my hands on a lot of books.

You can try Scribd free for 30 days if you use this link.

I mentioned audiobooks, which I also find on Scribd and through the library. I listen in the car, while I’m doing laundry, and sometimes when it’s quiet at home and I’m just doing chores. There’s something about the audiobook experience I really enjoy, especially if I know the narration is done well.

Until the next reading update, I wish you much enjoyment and pleasure from your books.

And, if you get a chance, would you please recommend a book to me in the comments below?

You might also like:

Reading Widely and Well

Three Reasons to Read