It's been another tremendous year in books. I've read 120, what with still living very quietly and also what with there being nothing I'd rather do. And finally what with spending so much less time browsing and grazing.
Let me explain:
Halfway through 2020, when I discovered I had bought the same book twice (again!), I put my TBR shelves into alphabetical order. Then, for reasons I can't really remember - to take away options paralysis? because some of the TBR had been waiting for years? because the first book looked enticing? - I decided to read them from A-Z too.
Actually, it ended up being from B-Y. I started with Alafair Burke and ended with Ovidia Yu. By the time 2021 came around, I was in the Ds. And last month I started again at A, with Stacey Abrams' WHILE JUSTICE SLEEPS.
There are only three books on this list that I've closed and laid aside after 50 or 100 pages, because I was still counting the pages. (That's my reading rule.) I'm sure this is fewer than when I would sicken myself swithering instead of just reading what was next. (Those three books weren't by anyone I know, who's likely to read this, by the way.)
And there's a book that so very much should be on this list and isn't, it looks like a typo from the Empress of Typos. Or maybe Rachel walked over the keyboard and paused on DEL. But here's the thing: I read Lori Rader-Day's totally brill DEATH AT GREENWAY, last December. Modest cough.
But back to this year. What about a book of the year? Ooft. Impossible. I'd still be here this time next year. Instead I did 13 quickfire BsOTM. I looked at each month's reading (+ the holidays) and picked the one that still made my heart leap. Some months were tough, with multiple books that could have ended up on a BOTY list compiled by another method. November was particualrly awful. I only cheated once. See if you can spot it.
By that method, I ended up with seven crime novels, three general fiction (one historical), two memoirs, a science fiction and a middle-grade mystery.as my favourite baker's dozen of 2021.
Dec 2021
THE VANISHING
HALF, Brit Bennett
MAGGIE AND ME, Damian Barr - coming out and coming of age in 1980s Scotland. I didn't have to come out, and I had a less turbulant childhood by and large, but otherwise this is my world.
PAYBACK, Margaret
Atwood
DJINN PATROL ON
THE PURPLE LINE, Deepa Anaparra
WHILE JUSTICE
SLEEPS, STACEY ABRAMS
THE PAPER BARK
TREE, Ovidia Yu
STRAIGHT UP, Cathi
Stoler
IN FOR A POUND,
S.G.Wong
WE BEGIN AT THE END, Chris Whittaker - a heart-pounding, heart-breaking, heart-healing psychological thriller/police procedural. Rare case of a book being hyped to the heavens and still being better than I expected.
HARLEM SHUFFLE,
Colson Whitehead
THE PROMISE
BETWEEN US, Barbara Claypole White
THE MAN WHO DIED
TWICE, Richard Osman
THE WIFE'S SHADOW,
Cath Weeks
THE LAST HOUSE ON NEEDLESS
STREET, Catriona Ward (couldn't have guessed this wouldn't be the choice, But then came Chris Whittaker)
Oct 2021
WHEN YOU FIND ME,
PJ Vernon
THE CITY WE BECAME, N K Jemisin - an impulse birthday present from my husband, because I love New York. I'm in for the other two in this sci-fi trilogy (and that's not something I say every day.)
THE BANGALORE
DETECTIVES CLUB, Harini Nagendra
BROTHER OF THE
MORE FAMOUS JACK, Barbara Trapido
THE QUEEN AND I,
Sue Townsend
CONCRETE ROSE,
Angie Thomas
WINTER WITNESS,
Tina deBellegarde
A SPELL FOR
TROUBLE, Esme Addison
THE PURIFIED, C.F.
Peterson
JEOFFREY THE
POET'S CAT, Oliver Soden
BLOOD WILL OUT,
Lauren Stoker
THE QUIET SIDE OF
PASSION, Alexander McCall Smith
THE FORTNIGHT IN
SEPTEMBER, R.C. Sherriff
NESSIE QUEST,
Melissa Savage
THE WATER'S
LOVELY, Ruth Rendell
LILIAN BOXFISH
TAKES A WALK, Kathleen Rooney
CITIZEN, Claudia Rankine
MY SALINGER YEAR, Joanna Rakoff - NYC again, this time following an intern at JD Salinger's agent's office in the 90s. Gossipy and gorgeous.
EAST OF HOUNSLOW,
Kurrum Rahman
RISE AND SHINE,
Anna Quindlen
I KNOW WHERE YOU
SLEEP, Alan Orloff
LAY YOUR SLEEPING
HEAD, Michael Nava
HOLLY HERNANDEZ
& THE DEATH OF DISCO, Richie Narvaez
THE HUSBAND'S
SECRET, Liane Moriarty
HOW TO BE FAMOUS, Caitlin Moran - one of those books you can't believe you haven't read. A barnstorming and hilarious love letter to teenage girls. I wish I'd had this novel when I was one.
FOGGED OFF,
Wendall Thomas
THE KEEPER,
Jessica Moor
DEVIL'S CHEW TOY,
Rob Olson.
THE SECRET LIFE OF
BOOKS, Tom Mole
ARSENIC AND ADOBO,
Mia Manansala
ONE OF US IS
LYING, Karen M. McManus
July 2021
WHAT'S DONE IN
DARKNESS, Laura McHugh
LITANI, Jess Lourey
LITTLE VOICES,
Vanessa Lillie
RAZORBLADE TEARS, S.A. Cosby - as good as last year's Blacktop Wasteland, with added twists.
RUNNER, Tracy Clark - one of my drop everything and read it the day it comes out books. I love Cass Raines, PI.
PHANTOM LADY:
Hollywood Producer Joan Harrison, the forgotten woman behind Alfred Hitchcock,
by Christina Lane
ME AND BANKSY,
Tanya Lloyd Kyi,
QUEERING AGATHA
CHRISTIE, JC Bernthal
UNSHELTERED,
Barbara Kingsolver
FOUR PAST
MIDNIGHT, Stephen King
CHASER, Dharma Kelleher
DERAILED, Mary Keliikoa
THE THREE MRS
WRIGHTS, Linda Keir
SCABBY QUEEN , Kirsten Innes - back in Scotland again. This book is like How To Be Famous x Maggie and Me x Shuggie Bain (from last year). Incidentally one of the few jackets that doesn't look great on my tomato-red kitchen work-top.
May 2021
FINDING MY VOICE,
Nadiya Hussain
THREADS OF LIFE,
Claire Hunter
THE LONG VIEW,
Elizabeth Jane Howard
ELINOR OLIPHANT IS
COMPLETELY FINE, Gail Honeyman
LIKE A
SISTER, Kellye Garrett (Mar 2022)
EASY MARK, Shannon Baker - I'm a sucker for Shannon's Kate Fox, Nebraska Sandhills sherrif, and this is one of the best. Good news: Books 8,9, and 10 are coming
CIRCLES OF
CONFUSION, April Henry
SUMMER OF THE BIG
BACHI, Naomi Hirahara
THIS IS WHAT
HAPPENED, Mick Herron
BITTER RAIN,
Shannon Baker
PAPER GHOSTS,
Julia Heaberlin
Apr 2021
CHASING JACK
Parnell Hall
KEEPING LUCY, T. Greenwood
THAT AFFAIR NEXT DOOR, Anna Katherine
Green - speaking of books I can't believe I haven't read yet. This is the first female sleuth in series fiction, published in 1897. And it's really really good.
BINTI, Nnedi
Okorafor
MAMBO, MANGO, AND
MURDER, Raquel Reyes (Oct, 2021)
SOMEDAY, SOMEDAY,
MAYBE by Lauren Graham
AFTER ALICE FELL,
Kim Taylor Blakemore
LAST WOMAN
STANDING, Amy Gentry
NEEDFUL THINGS,
Stephen King
Mar 2021
COTTONMOUTHS,
Kelly J. Ford
THE HOLLYWOOD SPY,
Susan Elia MacNeal
WIN, Harlan Coben
THE NINJA
DAUGHTER, Tori Eldridge
THE HIDDEN
STAIRCASE, Carolyn Keene
THE TREASURE
HUNTERS, Enid Blyton.
HAD I KNOWN,
Barbara Ehrenreich
SQUEEZE ME, Carl
Hiassen
BURNT SUGAR, Avni Doshi
I NEVER PROMISED
YOU A ROSE GARDEN, Joanne Greenberg
FROM THE DESK OF ZOE WASHINGTON, Janae
Marks - another case of "If there had been books like this when I was a girl". This is a sweet and serious middle-grade mystery that I fell in love with.
HOLD ME DOWN, Clea
Simon (Oct 2021)
Feb 2021
THE NIGHT HAWKS,
Elly Griffiths
DEEP INTO THE
DARK, PJ Tracey
WINTER COUNTS,
David Heska Wanbli Weiden
THE POSTSCRIPT
MURDERS, Elly Griffiths
INHERIT THE SHOES,
Jeff Cohen
TRICKY, by Josh Stallings - from one of Criminal Minds' own. Tricky is gritty and honest about disability, corruption and poverty. It tackles a tough subject with a clear eye and a heart the size of, well, Josh Stallings.
SKIN DEEP, Sung J
Woo
A GLIMMER OF
DEATH, Valerie Wilson Wesley
WHEN WE WERE
VIKINGS, by Andrew David MacDonald
Jan 2021
WHEN NO ONE IS WATCHING, Alyssa Cole - starts with gentrification like Rosemary's Baby started with neighbours through the wall. Clever, funny, unsettling and irresisitible.
THE POT THIEF WHO
STUDIED PYTHAGORAS, J Michael Orenduff
THE GREENLEAF
MURDERS, RJ Koreto
ENGLISH PASTORAL,
James Rebanks
BITTERROOT LAKE,
Alicia Beckman
OLIVE AGAIN,
Elizabeth Strout
WHY DIDN'T YOU
JUST DO WHAT YOU WERE TOLD, Jenny Diski.
Xmas Hols
BLOODLINE, Jess Lourey
THE WILD SILENCE,
Raynor Winn
SUCH A FUN AGE,
Kiley Reid
THIS IS
SHAKESPEARE, Emma Smith
HAMNET, Maggie O'Farrell - utter genius. The story of a family in Stratford in the late sixteenth century. Twins fall ill with plague. Judith survives and her brother Hamnet dies. Their mother's life will never be the same again. Oh and the dad's a playwright.
RANDOM COMMENTARY,
Dorothy Whipple
AN ISLAND CHRISTMAS,
Jenny Colgan
PIES AND
PREJUDICE, Stuart Maconie,
PINE, Francine
Toon
THE MUTUAL
ADMIRATION SOCIETY, Mo Moulton
A CHRISTMAS
MEMORY, Truman Capote
THE LANTERN MEN,
Elly Griffiths
THE DARKEST
EVENING, Ann Cleeves
This is my TBR shelf today. I'll pluck some out for Christmas couch time, but I'm a convert to the A-Z reading method overall, so it might be a while before I get to Mohsin Zaidi!
Happy reading if you choose to check out any of my top 13. Happy reading if you don't. Happy Christmas if that's your bag and a Happy New Year when it rolls round,
Cx
4 comments:
I've just ordered from your BOTM list the books I haven't read yet. And I found the first two were already in my stack anyway. I really must sort out that stack soon. Or not.
BTW, THE HOUSE ON THE END OF NEEDLESS STREET is my BOTY choice, period. And a friend sent me a note about this book last week, saying she had never read anything like it and to congratulate my friend Catriona! I told her it was another Catriona.
Thanks for this list, C. xo
I not only buy books twice, I buy classical music CDs twice, and would like to promise myself that I'll do the alpha thing in 2022. This is interesting: We both used the word and concept of "heart" describing what we loved about Josh's TRICKY.
Thank you for growing my already groaning TBR stack. So much great here, We Begin at the End is on my list too. And to find Tricky on this list makes me swell with pride. I love the people in Tricky, and to have other amazing writers embrace them is sweeter than sweet.
Tricky is frabjous
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