2021 has been a year of cautious optimism. Along with the removal of restrictions on weddings, family gatherings and nights out with friends, shops reopened (including our favourite Independent Bookshops), we could take our favourite reads on holiday with us, and Book Award winners could accept their accolades amongst an audience once more.

As always, we must celebrate books that are bestsellers which continue to fly off the shelves many many months after first being published, and this year has been no exception, with 2019 and 2020 hardback titles like Girl, Woman, Other, Hamnet and The Thursday Murder Club still topping the charts and being loved loudly across the bookish world. This year we’ve also seen the rise of BookTok (book related content on social media platform TikTok) responsible for shining a brand new light on brilliant teen fiction like 2017’s They Both Die at the End and One of Us is Lying. And, as always, LoveReading stands by your side, your trusty partner in bookish love and our team of expert book lovers have been reading hundreds of books from the many thousands published to bring you our curated highly recommended titles from right across the genres, month in month out.

I’m sure you’re already familiar with our Books, Debuts and eBooks of the month, as well as the special selection made by our Editorial Expert Liz Robinson, but this year we’ve bolstered our non-fiction category in particular, allowing us to provide more recommendations for readers more intrigued by the world we live in than the realm of fiction. From within each of these monthly highlights we select a precious few books that go on to become our Star Books. These titles are shining examples of truly brilliant books and, when the year is complete, these books become our Books of the Year. 

And so, without further ado, behold our Star Books of 2021. These are our favourite reads of the year and we just know that you’ll love these books as much as we do. If you haven’t read them already, you’re in for a treat. Enjoy!