Great Books from your 2021 Reading List?

Question

Did you read any interesting novels or books last year? Please share them with us. Some of my favorites from 2021:* East of Eden by John Steinbeck. Steinbeck beautifully captures and shares the culture of old America through the lives of two families that become interwoven over time.* H is for Hawk by Helen Macdonald. Macdonald's book is part auto-biography (dealing with depression), part biography on T. H. White (of Sword in the Stone's fame), and lightly part guide on caring for hawks.* The Foundation Series by Isaac Asimov. This was actually a repeat read for me after 7+ years of my first read through. Two new foundations are created to save the milky way galaxy from 30,000 years of war and anarchy after the fall of the galactic empire. Their goal is to limit that period to 1,000 years.This post is inspired from 2018: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=17513576

jasone · Accepted Answer

Ah, East of Eden. I'm halfway through it right now, and it is fantastic so far. I've found many good recommendations over the years from HN threads. For example, I've read 7/10 of the Culture novels by Iain M Banks now, and a couple of them were exceptionally good (Use of Weapons, Surface Detail). Most discussion here ranks the books roughly the opposite of how I would, but chances are good you will thoroughly enjoy at least some of them.
Last year I finally got around to reading the Book of the New Sun series by Gene Wolfe (another series recommended more than once on HN). Oh wow. So, so good. Yet I hesitate when recommending these books, because they are challenging to read, both in terms of vocabulary and deeply entangled story. Many times I had, "Wait, what?" moments where I reread entire chapters to make sure I really understood what had just happened. And there are many pieces I won't be able to fit together without at least another reading or two. The prime audience for these books is narrower than most of what I've read, but if the books speak to you, you're in for a huge treat. There are five books, but the first four are commonly published as pairs:
- Shadow & Claw
- Sword & Citadel
- Urth of the New Sun
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Book_of_the_New_Sun
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Urth_of_the_New_Sun

pamoroso · Answer

"The Friendly Orange Glow: The Untold Story of the Rise of Cyberculture" by Brian Dear. The little known history of the PLATO computer system.

genjipress · Answer

The new translation of "Letters To A Young Poet", which restores the half of the conversation that had previously never seen print in English before, is a must-read. (ISBN 978-1-63149-767-4)