The What List Best Fiction 2021
This year, as the world opened back up, we had less time to sit around savoring books. We raced through stacks even faster than usual and approached our list in a cutthroat manner brandishing a simple question: Would we give this book as a gift? If the answer was “No,” it was tossed into the donation pile for our local library. Books that were fine or pretty good also did not make the cut. However, we tried to pick for every literary palate, not just ours. We gravitate towards weird, dark, and complicated but we also included smarter beach reads, as well as Goldilocks stories (not too heavy or light, just right). At any rate, we constantly update this list throughout the year and welcome your suggestions. And, if you want real-time updates on the books we’re currently reading, please follow us on Insta @thewhathq where we post our favorite things in every category, speaking of which …
FIVE EASY PIECES.
Engrossing page-turners that you won’t struggle to get into or finish.
THE EVERY by Dave Eggers is the dazzling new sequel to The Circle, which was made into a 2017 blockbuster thriller starring Emma Watson and Tom Hanks. Have you ever wondered what would happen if ‘The Big 4’ (Amazon, Google, Facebook, and Apple) merged to become a single data controlling, social marketplace, health monitoring dashboard, rapacious behemoth? THE EVERY brings this terrifying prospect to fictional fruition and plays out on the utopian-styled EVERY campus/fortress on Treasure Island in San Francisco. Led by Delaney Wells, a canny female protagonist who infiltrates the company as a plucky new hire with the secret intent to destroy it, THE EVERY, like The Circle, stirs up the nagging conundrum many have about technology: we hate what it does to us (surveillance, fake news, overconsumption, mental health poisoning, data control) but we can’t seem to live without it. Or can we? The Every plumbs dark questions but is also satirical, hilarious, and entertaining as only Eggers can be. The 32 different book covers are works of art and we love that you’ll never be able to buy the hardcover on Amazon. Ever. BUY IT HERE.
THE PAPER PALACE by Miranda C. Heller is a story about unrequited childhood love, family secrets, and painful decisions that haunt three generations of WASPy wellborn women with dwindling fortunes caused by historically made poor choices. The story unfolds over the course of a day at their deteriorating family summer place on Cape Cod but boomerangs back and forth across eras leading up to a pivotal turning point for a third-generation daughter on vacation with her husband, children, and extended family. BUY IT HERE.
THE PLOT by Jean Hanff Korelitz. From the author who brought us The Undoing and several other novels that were adapted for the big and small screen comes The Plot—a gripping suspense thriller centered on Jacob Finch Bonner, a struggling author who resorts to teaching MFA students at a third-rate liberal arts college in rural Vermont. A cocky student comes to him with a plot he is certain will be a blockbuster bigger than anyone’s ever seen—guaranteed to make millions, land him on Oprah, and be made into a movie. He’s only willing to share a few pages but after being pressed he finally recounts the entire story to his professor who is duly astonished. Years later after discovering the student died without publishing his idea, Jake decides to write the book from memory without attribution to his former student. Sure enough it becomes a global sensation that catapults him to fame, fortune, Oprah, and Spielberg. Everything is going swimmingly until he receives an anonymous email, the first of many, that reads: you are a thief. It’s a fast, fun read that also opens a can of worms about originality, adaptation, and recognition in a digital world that constantly borrows, morphs, memes, and distributes often without attribution. BUY IT HERE.
THE THOUSAND CRIMES OF MING TSU by Tom Lin is an imaginative Western revenge story set in the desolate plains along the Central Pacific Railroad. It follows a lone cowboy of Chinese descent on a cold-blooded rampage to get his wife back. While in pursuit, he encounters a blind prophet followed by a circus troupe with magical powers who become his unlikely traveling companions. What follows is an uncommon tale of friendship, love, mysticism, and what it means to live out of bounds both literally and metaphorically. BUY IT HERE.
THE VIXEN by Francine Prose takes place in the Cold War 50s on the eve of the televised execution of Ethel & Julius Rosenberg. A young Jewish man from Coney Island with a fancy and rarefied college degree (folklore and mythology) lands a coveted spot in a swanky Anglo publishing agency and is tasked with editing a pulp novel about Ethel Rosenberg penned by a mysterious, glamorous vixen who lives in a sanitorium. Part historical fiction part comical spy novel, The Vixen has more twists, turns, and madcap moments than a ride at Coney Island. BUY IT HERE.
COMING OF AGE STORIES
WE RUN THE TIDES by Vendela Vida is a coming-of-age tale set in the halcyon days of the 80s. It illuminates the fleeting twilight between teen and adulthood and the way we make friends as girls—the secrets, lies, conditional love, betrayal, envy, and fantastical mischievous fun that comes from knowing who’s on your side and most importantly knowing thyself. Britney Spears once sang, “I’m not a girl, not yet a woman. All I need is time, a moment that is mine while I’m in between. I’m not a girl.” (Yes, we did just quote Britney). This describes part of the conundrum our protagonist, an almost 14-year-old Eulabee, grapples with along with her Gang of Four besties who attend a posh girls school in San Francicso’s Sea Cliff neighborhood. Eulabee’s jaunty narrative is a mix of witty self-confidence and wincing teen angst brought on by real and surreal circumstances. Her keen observation (of the whos and whats) is fully formed but her comprehension of the hows and whys hasn’t yet solidified, much like the craggy rocks they nimbly run around while racing against the tides. BUY IT HERE.
GREAT CIRCLE by Maggie Shipstead. The soaring saga of a Prohibition-era aviatrix who defies the limitations set upon her by society and her own tragic beginnings (she and her twin brother were orphaned survivors of a sunken ocean liner) juxtaposed with the tribulations of a 20th century celebrity actress (also grappling with her past as an orphan-turned-child actor) who plays her in a movie. Both women are daredevils of their own time, navigating through harrowing trauma, heartache, and obstacles to reach new heights. BUY IT HERE.
MARY JANE by Jessica Anya Blau. Looking for a charming beach read? This is it! Set in the mid 70s it’s a coming of age story of a 14-year-old lonely girl, the only child of a conservative WASPy Baltimore family, who yearns for a real connection to herself and the world around her. An awakening happens when she spends the summer babysitting for a Bohemian family with secret celebrity houseguests. Mary Jane becomes transformed and in turn transforms everyone around her. BUY IT HERE.
JUSTINE by Forsyth Harmon. Forsyth Harmon (whose illustrations helped launch The What), has a unique piece of fiction out this month (set in the 90s) called Justine. It's not an illustrated novel per se but her chic, edgy illustrations are sprinkled throughout—a delightful juxtaposition to her razor-sharp, canny prose about older teen girls on the cusp of womanhood and all its perplexing, dangerous, and alluring pitfalls. BUY IT HERE.
GREAT STORYTELLING.
Substantial reading about things that matter.
BEWILDERMENT by Richard Powers is a slim novel about a widowed astrobiologist who struggles with the loss of his wife and the task of finding the best way to raise his ten-year-old autistic son in a world threatened by climate change, nationalism, and technology. In other words, our world today. Powers who is a Pulitzer winner for his sweeping saga Overstory, turns his gaze upward from the hidden communication of trees and their complex root systems underground to searching for life in the heavens, as well as looking inward at the mysteries of the human mind as a metaphor for the undiscovered universe. BUY IT HERE.
DOUBLE BLIND by Edward St. Aubyn can be read like a romantic dramedy about two accomplished best friends and the men in their lives, one a biologist working on rewilding and biodiversity; the other a billionaire developing the latest brain mapping AI technology. It’s not exactly a serious book but it stirs up serious questions about the natural world, genetics, family dynamics, philosophy, technology, psychiatry, ecology—what’s inherited (be it traits or wealth) and essentially what we do with it. BUY IT HERE.
HARROW by Joy Williams. In the first novel since her Pulitzer-nominated, The Quick and the Dead Williams is back after a 20-year break with Harrow, a brilliantly conceived Dystopian novel with just the right amount of gripping abysmal despair. Slim as a novella so you can read it in an afternoon but with a potency that will spark perpetual rumination. BUY IT HERE.
THE MORNING STAR by Karl Ove Knausgård. Known for his six autobiographical novels titled, My Struggle, Knausgård is making a foray back into the fiction realm and it is just as curiously riveting as his previous books. Narrated in first person by nine characters, all of whom experience strange events that coincide with the sudden appearance of a large brilliant star in the sky. Knausgård’s writing is intimate, intellectual, and detailed but also plain and easily understood. He has the ability to make placing empties in a recycling bin sound fascinating. In a recent interview, he said that Morningstar is the start of a new series. We can’t wait to see where this cliffhanger goes. BUY IT HERE.
MARRIAGE, FAMILY & RELATIONSHIPS.
Family sagas, friendship, and the intricacies of marriage and relationships.
CROSSROADS by Jonathan Franzen is the first in a trilogy of a family saga that centers on the Hildebrandts, a family of five, headed by Associate Pastor Russ of a small town church in Illinois, who lives with his wife Marion and his three children (two in high school, one in elementary school). Their older son Clem is in college. Set in the 70s while counterculture and the Viet Nam War rages around them, Russ tries to hold on to Christian values while he grapples with his own envious and covetous nature. Both Russ and his wife Marion have unreconciled pasts. Russ defected from a Mennonite upbringing and Marion left a dark, buried past in California marred by mental illness. Each of their children grapple with their own unique set of problems regarding faith, identity, addiction, desertion, morality, and salvation. If you’re a Franzen fan, you will not be disappointed. BUY IT HERE.
OH WILLIAM! by Elizabeth Strout is a wonderfully written book about an ex-husband and the connected, comfortable relationship he has with his ex-wife, Lucy who still adores him decades after they’ve divorced. Now in their seventies, they take an unexpected road trip through rural Maine where they end up uncovering a secret to the past but also gain self-knowledge for ways in which they both contributed to their loneliness and isolation. Strout has a gift for writing with clarity that feels so deeply intimate and true while at the same time exposing major flaws in her characters’ realizations about themselves and others. Like many long-term relationships, there’s a tendency to pathologize and ascribe blame (“You’re self-absorbed!” “No, you’re self-absorbed!). Just when we think we have William pegged as a narcissist and Lucy as his enabler, we begin to see the other side of the coin as the story unfolds. BUY IT HERE.
OF WOMEN AND SALT by Gabriela Garcia. Exotic Cuba the way it’s depicted in movies—Buena Vista Social Club, sugarcane empires, and Che Guevara on a motorcycle—overlooks the women on whose bodies, brains, and sacrifices birthed movements both ideological and migratory. The story begins with the great great grandmother in the 1880s, a progenitor of a long line of struggling women (some who survive, another living in denial, and another who succumbs to addiction)—all in exile of one type or another from their homeland, detached and yet never able to fully break the chains though they might try with drink, drugs, revenge, and delusion. Each struggling to find a foothold in a foreign land, as well as their no longer native Cuba. Beautifully written, heart-rending, and raw. BUY IT HERE.
SECOND PLACE by Rachel Cusk is a beautifully written novel about a sophisticated middle-aged woman who retires to an isolated marshland refuge with her husband. He is a quiet man of simple needs. He fishes. He farms. He’s a loving and gentle partner. His wife, on the other hand, has a looping internal dialogue. She’s an anguished writer with shrinking self-confidence who transforms her guest cottage into an inspiring space for artists. But after luring an enigmatic painter she’s obsessed with, a man who is similar in age, and he shows up with his sexy, much younger companion her dream starts to fall apart. This book raises many fascinating questions about the meaning and value of art, what it means to be an artist, and how male-female dynamics play out time after time. BUY IT HERE.
ST. IVO by Joanna Hershon explores friendship, trauma, family, loss, and the assumptions (most often wrong) we have about other people. It’s a story of two artistic couples who meet as young neighbors in Brooklyn and become best friends. One childless couple moves to Los Angeles and finds stardom in Hollywood while the other stays in New York and eventually struggles with their daughter’s addiction, which has put a dent in their creative careers. When the two couples reunite a decade later in upstate New York to meet their friend’s new baby, long-repressed secrets and resentments start to unravel. BUY IT HERE.
WHAT COULD BE SAVED by Liese O’Halloran Schwarz is the story of a 50s-proper American expat family who moves to Bangkok in the 60s during the Vietnam War. Their lives get turned upside down permanently when their 8 year old brother Phillip goes missing. More than 40 years later (while his two sisters who are struggling with their mom’s Alzheimer’s and their own sibling tension) Phillip resurfaces. Beautiful writing, filmic settings. BUY IT HERE.
SUSPENSE MYSTERY
THE GUIDE by Peter Heller is a follow-up to The River, a novel about two college friends on a fishing trip that goes catastrophically awry. Years later our stoic protagonist Jake takes a job as a flyfishing guide in Montana at an elite resort that caters to billionaires and celebrities. While out fishing with his sultry and surprisingly down-to-earth pop star client they stumble on to a dark side of the resort that lands them in a heap of trouble. Heller who is a real-life adventurist and ecowarrior has a talent for capturing the dichotomous elements in both nature and human nature, which range from sinister to serene. The result is a fast-paced thriller that has you rooting for Jake and his songbird fisherwoman interspersed with moments of tranquility on the river. BUY HERE.
RAZORBLADE TEARS by S.A. Cosby Two ex-cons in a small Southern town—Randolph is Black, Buddy Lee is a good ol’ boy—join forces to investigate the violent deaths of their married gay sons. These two are an unlikely duo with ties to criminals on opposite turfs who are warring enemies. Estranged from their sons because of their lifestyle, the two eventually develop a tolerance and love for each other, as well as their dead boys. The whole time we were reading this book we kept thinking what a great movie it would make. Good thing Jerry Bruckheimer has optioned it already. BUY IT HERE.
OTHER GREAT 2021 READS
CLOUD CUCKOO LAND by Anthony Doerr
HARLEM SHUFFLE by Colson Whitehead
INTIMACIES by Katie Kitamura
NIGHTBITCH by Rachel Yoder
NO ONE IS TALKING ABOUT THIS by Patricia Lockwood
PROJECT HAIL MARY by Andy Weir
WE ARE NOT LIKE THEM by Christine Pride and Jo Piazza
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