My Favorite Books of 2021

Better late than never?

(1) Cloud Cuckoo Land by Anthony Doerr

Let me start by admitting that I am one of the few people on the planet who is not a super fan of All The Light We Cannot See, Doerr’s 2015 Pulitzer prize-winning novel. This has little to do with Doerr and a lot to do with my World War II-sad-story-fatigue.

All this to say, I was delighted by the significant departure made in Doerr’s latest novel, Cloud Cuckoo Land, a wildly imaginative paean to the written word that manages to be both serious and fun. This is a feat in…