The Cyberlibrarian: Reviews and Views on Current Literature

Welcome to my blog. I am Miriam Downey, the Cyberlibrarian. I am a retired librarian and a lifelong reader. I read and review books in four major genres: fiction, non-fiction, memoir and spiritual. My goal is to relate what I read to my life experience. I read books culled from reviews in The New York Times, The New York Review of Books, Bookmarks, and The New Yorker. I also accept books from authors and publicists. I am having a great time. Hope you will join me on the journey.

Monday, January 3, 2022

The Best of 2021

I read many fewer books this year than I have read since I began writing about books. Is my age catching up with me? On the other hand, I am more proud of my list than I have been some years. And I also made a vow to myself to only read books I want to read, and because I have so many books waiting for me, I have got a lot of reading to do.

So, anyway, here are my favorites of 2021.

Best Fiction of the year

Interior Chinatown by Charles Yu

The Sentence by Louise Erdrich

The Plot by Jean Hanff Korelitz

Historical Fiction

The Book Woman of Troublesome Creek by Kim Michele Richardson

The Paris Library by Janet Skeslien Charles

The Water Dancer by Ta-Nehisi Coates

Memoir

Three Girls from Bronzeville by Dawn Turner

Nonfiction