During the pandemic, I have found my love of reading and honestly, probably taken it too far. So I have collated the top 5 books of 2021 in different genres; thriller, non fiction psychology, fantasy, contemporary fiction and nonfiction clinical. They are all linked below if any take your fancy, hopefully you enjoy them as much as I do.
Home Before Dark- Riley Sager
From New York Times bestseller Riley Sager, a woman returns to the house made famous by her father’s bestselling horror memoir. Is the place really haunted by evil forces, as her father claimed? Or are there more earthbound—and dangerous—secrets hidden within its walls?
I love Riley Sager books, and this was his latest book suring 2021, since there have been 2 new releases. He usually picks a traditional thriller or horror genre and turns it on its head, and this book happened to be my favourite thriller theme and Disneyland ride, a haunted house! It is neither supernatural or not supernatural. It is very much up to the reader to come to their own conclusions. It very fast paced and twisty and turny. My only complaint is the book cover. You can get it here.
The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue-V.E. Schwab
When Addie La Rue makes a pact with the devil, she trades her soul for immortality. But there’s always a price – the devil takes away her place in the world, cursing her to be forgotten by everyone.
Addie flees her tiny home town in 18th-Century France, beginning a journey that takes her across the world, learning to live a life where no one remembers her and everything she owns is lost and broken. Existing only as a muse for artists throughout history, she learns to fall in love anew every single day.
Until one day, in a second hand bookshop in Manhattan, Addie meets someone who remembers her. Suddenly thrust back into a real, normal life, Addie realises she can’t escape her fate forever.
I generally do not love fantasy, Harry Potter the obvious exception. But this book is what I would call ‘Light fantasy’. It has elements of wishes and magic, but not an entire political system and historic wars you need to learn in the first 5 pages. This book was my biggest surprise of 2021, I truly loved every minute of it. It is such a rare gem of a book that are hard to find. You get to experience moving through time through Addies eyes and the impossible situations, that arise from not being remembered. I don’t want to spoil it anymore by discussing the plot, but is is truly and adventure; and bonus points for a stunning cover. You can get it here
The Boy Who Was Raised as a Dog: And Other Stories from a Child Psychiatrist’s Notebook – Dr Bruce Perry
What happens when a young brain is traumatized? How does terror, abuse, or disaster affect a child’s mind–and how can that mind recover? Child psychiatrist Bruce Perry has helped children faced with unimaginable horror: genocide survivors, murder witnesses, kidnapped teenagers, and victims of family violence. In The Boy Who Was Raised as a Dog, he tells their stories of trauma and transformation through the lens of science, revealing the brain’s astonishing capacity for healing. Deftly combining unforgettable case histories with his own compassionate, insightful strategies for rehabilitation, Perry explains what exactly happens to the brain when a child is exposed to extreme stress-and reveals the unexpected measures that can be taken to ease a child’s pain and help him grow into a healthy adult. Through the stories of children who recover-physically, mentally, and emotionally-from the most devastating circumstances, Perry shows how simple things like surroundings, affection, language, and touch can deeply impact the developing brain, for better or for worse. In this deeply informed and moving book, Bruce Perry dramatically demonstrates that only when we understand the science of the mind can we hope to heal the spirit of even the most wounded child.
Firstly, I want to put all the trigger warnings possible on this book. While fascinating, it is very very dark. I do find early childhood development very fascinating. Understanding what small, and not so small, behaviours we have with children, go on to have profound impacts on them as adults. As I said, not for the faint hearted, but was an amazing read nonetheless. If you like psychology books, this is the one for you. You can get it here
If We Were Villains- M.L. Rio
Oliver Marks has just served ten years in jail – for a murder he may or may not have committed. On the day he’s released, he’s greeted by the man who put him in prison. Detective Colborne is retiring, but before he does, he wants to know what really happened a decade ago.
As one of seven young actors studying Shakespeare at an elite arts college, Oliver and his friends play the same roles onstage and off: hero, villain, tyrant, temptress, ingenue, extra. But when the casting changes, and the secondary characters usurp the stars, the plays spill dangerously over into life, and one of them is found dead. The rest face their greatest acting challenge yet: convincing the police, and themselves, that they are blameless.
I don’t know why, but I just love a group of rich pretentious teens whose lives fall apart due to their inherent inability to be empathetic and rational. This is a cornerstone book in the dark academia genre and deservedly so. You feel apart of the story and it’s ongoing retelling of a fateful winter at boarding school. Often with stories like this, I feel as though they fail to stick the ending, but this one tragically delivers. It has become my favourite dark academia book. You can get it here
Zero Degrees of Empathy: A New Theory of Human – Cruelty- Simon Baron-Cohen
In Zero Degrees of Empathy: A New Theory of Human Cruelty and Kindness Simon Baron-Cohen takes fascinating and challenging new look at what exactly makes our behaviour uniquely human.
How can we ever explain human cruelty?
We have always struggled to understand why some people behave in the most evil way imaginable, while others are completely self-sacrificing. Is it possible that – rather than thinking in terms of ‘good’ and ‘evil’ – all of us instead lie somewhere on the empathy spectrum, and our position on that spectrum can be affected by both genes and our environments?
Why do some people treat others as objects? Why is empathy our most precious resource? And does a lack of it always mean a negative outcome?
From the Nazi concentration camps of World War Two to the playgrounds of today, Simon Baron-Cohen examines empathy, cruelty and understanding in a groundbreaking study of what it means to be human.
As you can tell from my recommendations, I tend to like dark stories, fiction or not, and I like understanding the human mind. As someone who works in the healthcare industry, an industry full of hard ethical questions, I found this book to be very enlightening and understand those who I work with. It is a much more clinical approach to sociopaths and psychopaths, understanding exactly how their brains operate and what manifests into. It is a fascinating look into the human condition and you can get it here.
