the books I read in 2021

I was about halfway through The overstory by Richard Powers when 2021 began. David Brooks called 2021 "shapeless" on the PBS NewsHour yesterday and I'll agree. With the pandemic limiting travel, you would think that one would get more books read. Not me, in 2021. But these are the books I read, with some comments. A mix of fiction and nonfiction, as usual.

• Zami: a new spelling of my name, by Audre Lorde (1982). Selected by Eric Cervini for his reading group. I read the book but didn't participate in the discussion group.
• The ministry of utmost happiness, by Arundhati Roy (2017). It took me quite a while to get through this book even though I am intrigued by India.
• The girl of his dreams, by Donna Leon (2008). Folks tell me I should read Donna Leon mysteries since I am so in love with Italy. This one didn't grab me. I have read several Camilleri mysteries set in Sicily and enjoyed them much more. It's not that I don't like Venice but Leon's style is more name-dropping than deeply place-centric.
• A legacy by Sybille Bedford (1956, NYRB Classics 2015)
• I have something to tell you, by Chasten Buttigieg (2020). Pretty enjoyable, a quick read.
• Flights, by Olga Tokarczuk (published in Polish in 2007, U.S. paperback 2018)
• On the red hill: where four lives fell into place, by Mike Parker (2019). Listed in one of the brief reviews in the NYTBR. Older gay couple, younger gay couple, mentoring in life.
• Villa of delirium, by Adrien Goetz (published in French in 2017, paperback in English 2020). Read about this in my indexing and quite enjoyed it. Good sense of the soul of a dwelling.
• Invisible man by Ralph Ellison (1952, still in print). Compelling.
• The yellow house by Sarah M. Broom (2019). Set in New Orleans, always a draw for me.
• The Dutch house by Ann Patchett (2019). Another house book. Not my favorite Patchett but good enough.
• When Brooklyn was queer by Hugh Ryan (2019). Quite a treat.
• Becoming Duchess Goldblatt: a memoir (2020). The premise is intriguing and the story well told.
• Italian journey by Johann Wolfgang von Goethe (published in German in 1816, Penguin classics 1982). Journal based on his letters from Italy. I really enjoyed this book, especially when he was traveling, not so much when he was arguing with his editor/publisher.
• Alec by William di Canzio (2021). Inspired by Maurice by E.M. Forster, continues the story focusing on Alec Scudder, the gamekeeper that Maurice falls in love with.
• Gay bar: why we went out by Jeremy Atherton Lin (2021). Enjoyable but more of a memoir than a sociological study. I was expecting the latter.
• The bright lands by John Fram (2020). Gripping story that goes a little crazy at the end.
• Art as therapy by Alain de Botton and John Armstrong (2013). This came highly recommended but I found it annoying. The authors emphasized (the title should have clued me in) how art can specifically work therapeutically. Yes, but their approach was specific in saying that such and such an art work could cure or ease a specific condition. Too explicit for me. It reminded me of iconographers who describe every object in a medieval painting and ignore the aesthetics.
• Lights on--clothes off: confessions of an unabashed exhibitionist by Stuart Schwartz (2021)

And now it's a week from the beginning of 2022. I am reading Some reasons for travelling to Italy by Australian architect Peter Wilson. Another book that came up in my indexing. The cover illustration is a riff on the Tischbein painting of Goethe in the Campagna. The unriffed-upon painting appears on the cover of the Penguin edition of Italian journey that I read earlier in the year. The Wilson book is full of small illustrations, perhaps a reference to the original 1966 edition of Complexity and contradiction in architecture by Robert Venturi. The book is a real joy to hold and read. And it's Italy.