My Complete 2021 Reading List: Every Book I Read in 2021

Rachel from Booklistqueen asked this question last year - How many books does a book blogger read in a year?

In terms of reading, I would say this year was fabulous for me. I thought I’d put up a tough challenge for myself by setting my goal of 100 books in the year. Because I’ve never before read that many books in a year. My highest number every year being around the 50s. But credit to my planning and execution (not boasting) I surpassed that and completed 124 books. Great right? And 50 of these books became my 5 star reads of the year.

So now are you wondering what I read?

Here today I’ve got my complete 2021 Reading List for you. I loved making this post as I got to go over all my reading through the year along with all the hits and misses.

I’m just going to list the titles here, if you’re interested in my review and rating, please click on the title and read the info.

Inspiration for this layout and format was all from Booklistqueen! Thank you for inspiring so many of us.

Let’s begin, So I read – 124 books

Pages - 32586
Genres covered – Fantasy, Fiction, Horror, Mystery/Thriller, Non-fiction, Romance, Humor-and-comedy, psychological thriller.
Formats covered – Paperbacks, Hardbacks, Ebooks, Audiobooks
Average rating – 4.3
Average Book length – 258 pages
Shortest Book – 9 daily habits of warren buffett
Longest Book – Crooked Kingdom

*As an amazon affiliate I earn from qualifying purchases

Unique Book Recommendations to help you find your next read

Fiction

The Vanishing Half by Brit Bennett

Twin black sisters on different paths and their very unique stories.

The Handmaid’s Tale by Margaret Atwood

The novel that raises a morbidly shattering world where women are imprisoned for pregnancy.

The Boy called Ambi by Srividhya Venkatesan Gayathri Venkatesan

Sweet life story of boy in small town India.

The Midnight Library by Matt Haig

Life after death POV, where you get to choose a way of life you did not opt for in your real life.

Anxious People by Fredrick Backman

Kindness, it’s an important quality in this unique crime gone wrong story.

These Hills Called Homes by Temsula Ao

Living in North East India before they became independent and peaceful states governed by the central government.

Ghachar Ghochar by Vivek Shanbag

The perils faced by a middle class family of becoming wealthy overnight.

That Long Silence by Shashi Deshpande

What does a woman who gave up everything for her husband do after she realizes her husband is a fraud?

Eleanor Oliphant is Completely Fine by Gail Honeyman

It’s okay to be different.

Manto’s selected short stories by Sadat Hasan Manto

Bold, raw and very well written and characterized stories from pre-independence era.

The Bell Jar by Sylvia Plath

A woman’s descent into madness.

Articleship Diaries by Akhil Manuel

A student’s journey from being a student to being a professional.

Kim Ji Young, Born 1982 by Cho Nam Joo

A woman in Korean narrates very vividly what it is to be a woman in Korea.

Em and the Big Hoom by Jerry Pinto

The narrator’s quest to find what led to his mother’s madness and deteriorating mental health.

Roads to Mussoorie Ruskin Bond

Ruskin Bond reminisces about his favorite city and its famed streets.

Interpreter of Maladies by Jhumpa Lahiri

Stories of people living away from their motherland, their difficulties and adjustments.

Bayan by Pramudith Rupasinghe

An old man reminiscing his life in Soviet Russia and discussing his bond with his favorite instrument with a stranger.

The Memory Police by Yoko Ogawa

A dystopian world where things disappear and people lose all memory of it.

Intimacies by Lucy Caldwell

Fascinating and brilliant Stories about women, relating to pregnancy and motherhood.

Romance

Our Love Story by Rohit Sharma

Typical Bollywood Rom-Com, stuff of the movies.

Red, White & Royal Blue by Casey McQuiston

Enemies turned lovers, sons of the first family in the US and the royal prince of the UK. Steamy is an understatement.

The Audacity of Sara Grayson by Joani Elliott

A buddy writer finds herself in a fix when her deceased mother writes in her will for her daughter to write the final book of her bestselling series.

Lifeline by Chetan Maheshwari

The seeds of a business in India growing amidst a love story waiting to happen.

The Meeting Point by Olivia Lara

A betrayed woman falls for the taxi driver her ex was travelling in, only over text messages they exchange. Sounds impossible but feels very real.

Kari by Amruta Patil

India’s exemplary graphic novel of two girls in a lesbian relationship.

Me Before You by Jojo Moyes

A quadriplegic and his helper’s last ditch efforts to save him from taking his own life, leading to a wonderful light lovable story.

Beach Read by Emily Henry

Two writers, stuck with their next book and broke, decide to switch genres and write each other’s books and bet on who sells their book first.

The Spanish Love Deception by Elena Armas

Enemies to Lovers trope with a Spanish family backdrop, and an American boy.

Mystery/Thriller

AN EYE FOR AN EYE by Carol Wyer

Classic story of revenge and murder solved by DI Kate Young.

Graveyard Fields by Steven Tingle

A victim in hiding trying to run away from his attackers.

If She Dies by Erik Therme

Into The Water by Paula Hawkins

When an elder sister does not answer her little sister’s call, little does she know that it could be her last one.

Silence in the Library by Katharine Schellman

Accidentally caught up in a murder mystery, the characters in this book portray the perfect combination of old world British charm and whodunit vibe.

The Stalker by Sarah Alderson

So a couple is celebrating their honeymoon on a remote island with no way contact or travel accept by boat. And then they realize they aren’t alone on the island.

The Wife Upstairs by Rachel Hawkins

Rich people problems. A retelling of Jane Eyre.

A Cut for a Cut by Carol Wyer

Another compelling DI Kate young mystery.

Sadie by Courtney Summers

A teenage girl in search of her missing sister lands up in all the wrong places.

We Were Liars by E.Lockhart

A wealthy family hiding a secret so dark that it will destroy everyone.

The Sanatorium by Sarah Pearse

Gothic atmosphere with a sanatorium turned resort with a horrific past.

Faith and Beloved by Shibu

Mafia style thriller with plenty of blood, sex and gore.

The Perfect Murder by Ruskin Bond

Classic case of murder gone awry.

When Things Get Dark: Stories inspired by Shirley Jackson

Collection of horror stories by authors inspired by Shirley Jackson.

Rebecca by Daphne Du Maurier

A young wife haunted by her wealthy husband’s first wife.

The Husband's Secret by Liane Moriarty

A chance reading of a letter, that was never meant to be read, turns catastrophic.

Evil Eye by Madhuri Shekhar

Spooky creepy paranormal story based on rebirth.

The Thursday Murder Club by Richard Osman

A gang of senior citizens playing detective and doing a great job at it along with having some fun.

The Village of Eight Graves by Seishi Yokomizo

Japanese myths and legends in their full gore and glory.

The Last Thing He Told Me by Laura Dave

Step-mother and step-daughter hunt for the husband/father who’s been missing and is not who he claims to be.

Historical Fiction

The Nightingale Kristin Hannah

How did women brave the World War II? Did they stay at home taking care of the kids or did they fight alongside men, leaving them astonished?

The Palace of Illusions by Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni

The epic Indian story of the Mahabharata through the mind of the woman most important to it – Draupadi aka Panchali.

Memoirs of a Geisha by Arthur Golden

Young orphan girls in Japan sold for entertainment to their highest bidders, look for something forbidden – love

Where The Crawdads Sing by Delia Owens

A little girl abandoned, by her mother and then her entire family learns to live alone in the swamps and marshes, but as she grows up her mystery attracts many and then all is doomed.

The Help by Kathryn Stockett

Black maids, white mistresses and a very good story of being brave and just.

The Bluest Eye by Toni Morrison

A little girl left alone to mother a child born through her father’s abuse.

All The Light We Cannot See by Anthony Doerr

Two sides to a war and two sides to truth. A blind girl seeking her father but finding something else.

The Lost Apothecary by Sarah Penner

An apothecary selling poisonous potions to women who want to get rid of their lying cheating husbands.

Malibu Rising by Taylor Jenkins Reid

The story of a dysfunctional family whose secrets bubble to the surface and threaten to destroy their clan.

Fantasy

The Descent of the Drowned by Ana Lal Din

An impossible love between warring castes and social hierarchies.

A Deadly Education by Naomi Novik

A school for the magically gifted and its rules, ways and students. Also the school is trying to kill its students.

Six of Crows by Leigh Bardugo

A magical heist of the century where bad guys play for a good deed.

Crooked Kingdom by Leigh Bardugo

Continuation of the heist this time to rescue their aide.

The House in the Cerulean Sea by T J Klune

A feel good book. A house with magical children who are threatened with abolishment.

House of Hollow by Krystal Sutherland

Three sisters disappear one day only to come back to parents who believe their girls are not the same.

Norse Mythology by Neil Gaiman

Folk tales about Odin, Thor and Loki.

Saga Volume 1 and 2 by Brian K. Vaughan

The horned world and the winged worlds are at war. A love struck copule from these worlds is trying to escape the death sentence against them.

Valmiki's Women by Anand Neelkantan

Unknown stories about Shanta, Bhoomija, Manthara and Meenakshi and Tataka.

Classics

Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen

Ageless story of the classic romance between an independent woman and the most eligible bachelor.

Train to Pakistan by Khushwant Singh

Shocking Story set in the era of partition between India and Pakistan.

Untouchable by Mulk Raj Anand

A touching story of a Dalit who wanted to have a good day doing his menial job honestly.

The Little Prince by Antoine de Saint-Exupéry

A visitor from another planet, sharing lessons of loneliness, meaning and love.

Alice’s adventures in Wonderland by Lewis Caroll

The word Fantasy was probably invented from this classic.

Of Mice and Men by John Steinbeck

Story of a friendship with an end so poignant your heart will melt.

Mother of 1084 by Mahasweta Devi

A mother’s struggle for her son’s body after he was killed. He was reduced to a number his corpse was give – 1084.

The Metamorphosis by Franz Kafka

A man wakes living a nightmare, he has turned into a giant bug and his family cannot stand the sight of him.

Siddhartha by Herman Hesse

How did Gautama Buddha become what he is today?

Malgudi Days by R.K.Narayan

Short stories about a fictional town called Malgudi that are light, easy and thoroughly entertaining.

Little Women by Louisa May Alcott

A story of sisters looking out for each other that can never get old.

The Chronicle of Death Foretold by Gabriel Garcia Marquez

A man’s murder is inevitable. Everyone knows the place, the murderer and the victim, except the victim. And no one is able to stop it from happening.

Animal Farm by George Orwell

A shockingly accurate account of bureaucracy and how politics works in the simple to understand story of animals living on a farm.

Non-Fiction – Self Help

Life Unknown – A Passage through India by Kartikeya Ladha

Karthikeya Ladha’s journey through Dharamshala and his lessons and travelogues.

Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind by Yuval Noah Harari

Human species and their birth and growth demystified through story form

Letters from a Father to his daughter by Jawaharlal Nehru

Pandit Nehru’s letters to his daughter Indira teaching her about life, the planet and so many more things.

Zen – The Art of Simple Living by Shunmyo Masuno

100 ways to live a simpler fuller filling and restive life.

The Four Agreements by Don Miguel

The four pillars that build a good person.

A Room of One’s Own by Virginia Woolf

What it means to write as a woman in older times. Very relevant even today.

Think Again by Adam Grant

Rethinking and its importance.

The Good Girls: An Ordinary Killing by Sonia Faleiro

True crime story that happened in Up India, where two young girls were found hanging on tree.

The Killing of Aarushi and The Murder of Justice by Rajesh Talwar

Another true crime story that shook the nation because the accused were the girls parents.

7 simple rules: How to live peacefully despite everything by Sam Sadar

The Psychology of Money by Morgan Housel

What is the formula to wealth, happiness and success? Find out in this brilliant book.

Dear Stranger, I Know How You Feel by Ashish Bagrecha

Instagram poet, a social media sensation came out with his first book of lyrics.

We Should All be Feminists By Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie

What does it mean to be a feminist?

The Rudest Book Ever by Gangwar

No shit advice about relationships, heartbreaks and more.

Richest Man in Babylon by George Calson

Timeless advice for creating wealth.

Drive To Thrive by Sharad Bajaj

Speed Reading by Justin Hammond

How to read 3 times faster than your current speed? Tried and tested by me. it works.

Atomic Habits by James Clear

How to fall into good habits and stock to them and how to fall out of bad habits and stay away.

9 habits of warren Buffet by Isaac Fox

What do billionaires do differently?

Unlimited Memory by Kevin Horsley

Unlike common perception that people are born with photographic memory, Horsley insists that it is an art that can be mastered through discipline and dedication and techniques he offers.