I read 198 books this year in a split of: 39 ARCs, 59 audiobooks, 85 manga volumes, 9 physical copies, 2 light novels, and 6 eBooks. As my boyfriend said, “That’s a lot of things, Jo.” It is that time of year where I want to share my favorites, so please enjoy my top 20 2021 books, top 20 books from before 2021, and, a new feature, 5 manga.
I realize that I make lists for books I’m excited for and book I want to read, and failed on both those lists. So, my lists for 2022 books is mostly about boosting others works regardless of if I personally get around to reading them. That’s just how it is when you’re employed and vastly mis-measure what kind of focus you’ll have as the year goes on. Moving also robbed me of a bunch of my focus, which should not have been as surprising as it is. On top of working full time. On top of being in a relationship and trying to participate in the communities I’m a part of.
“That’s a lot of things,” indeed, self.
Top 20 Lists
Books are in alphabetical order. Any book marked with an * means that it was featured in the 2021 Bookish Hype Train Post.
Books That Came Out in 2021
- A Psalm for the Wild-Built by Becky Chambers
- Robot and monk stop to discuss the meaning of life in a decayed world
- The only book I’d truly consider kind
- A Swim in a Pond in the Rain by George Saunders
- Incredible set of case studies of Russian short stories
- New favorite craft book
- Amari and the Night Brothers by B.B. Alston
- Girl goes to a magical summer camp to follow in her missing brother’s footsteps
- Scratched that Artemis Fowl itch for me
- Butcherbird by Cassie Hart
- Haunted house is also haunted by collective family drama
- Birds are hecking terrifying
- Empire of Pain: The Secret History of the Sackler Dynasty by Patrick Radden Keefe
- The intersection of marketing and pharmaceuticals telling the origins of valium and oxycontin
- Big Succession vibes, except with very real-world consequences
- Fireheart Tiger by Aliette de Bodard
- A young woman befriends a fire spirit to save herself from her mother and girlfriend
- Heart-wrenching with gorgeous, dense prose
- Folklorn by Angela Mi Young Hur
- A physicist is haunted by folktales both real and metaphorical
- Oscar Gantelius is the greatest love interest
- House of Hollow by Krystal Sutherland
- Two sisters seek out their third sister after she randomly disappears
- Features everything horrifying about fairy tales
- Leather & Lace by Magen Cubed
- Thick-bottomed cowboy and nonbinary vampire monster hunters
- Best friends to lovers with a compelling murder mystery
- Madhouse at the End of the Earth: The Belgica’s Journey Into the Dark Antarctic Night by Julian Sancton
- Belgian expedition to find the South Pole that also includes Frederick Cooke for reasons
- The madhouse starts way before the get to Antarctica
- Muted by Tami Charles
- Novel-in-verse about a girl getting caught up in the manipulative trappings of a fictional famous R&B star
- Pulls no punches in the ways it exposes the dark side of the music industry
- Rise of the Red Hand by Olivia Chadha
- Dystopian sci-fi about the kids fighting back to save themselves, not so much the world around them
- Crisp prose with sharp characters
- She Who Became the Sun by Shelley Parker-Chan*
- Genderqueer girl monk becomes an emperor
- Features so many epic scenes and tropes I enjoy
- The Chosen and the Beautiful by Nghi Vo*
- Jordan Baker is a queer Vietnamese adoptee socialite having a disaster summer
- The only version of The Great Gatsby anyone should ever read ever
- The Girls Are All So Nice Here by Elizabeth Laurie Flynn
- Woman goes back to college reunion and the flashbacks tell of a terrible thing that happened during her time at school
- Spoiler alert: the girls are quite nasty
- The Midnight Girls by Alicia Jasinska
- Three servants of three witches go to hunt a pure prince for his heart
- Sapphic rivals to lovers that was too much fun to read
- The Mirror Season by Anna-Marie McLemore*
- Two students were assaulted at the same party and one of them arrives as the new transfer student
- Beautifully honest in its depiction of recovery, survival, and healing
- The Project by Courtney Summers
- One sister who escaped a cult is searching for the other who is still indoctrinated
- Brutally true-to-life and clearly well-researched
- What Beauty There Is by Cory Anderson
- A boy’s mother dies and he wants to keep it so that he and his brother do not go into foster care; a scoundrel has a different idea
- Who people are and what they need to do to survive might be uglier than initially expected
- Year of the Nurse by Cassandra Alexander, RN
- A harrowing, honest memoir about being a nurse during the COVID pandemic
- Necessary, but difficult to read
Books That Came Out Before 2021
Just like last year (and probably moving forward), I will be featuring books I really enjoyed in a separate list that came before 2021. Here they are:
- Braiding Sweetgrass: Indigenous Wisdom, Scientific Knowledge, and the Teachings of Plants by Robin Wall Kimmerer (2016)
- Phenomenal blend of ethnography, botany, and linguistics
- Steeped in patience and passion
- The Good Girls by Claire Eliza Bartlett (2020)
- Satisfying mystery with even greater catharsis
- Complex, compelling, and complicated in the best way
- What Girls Are Made Of by Elana K. Arnold (2017)*
- This book is a case study of repetition to great effect
- Mothers and girlhood are complicated and intricate
- Fathoms: The World in the Whale by Rebecca Giggs (2020)
- Captivating, funny, and anecdotal telling of the world in relation to whales
- Every sea monster was a trapped whale or a dork
- Lakewood by Megan Giddings (2020)
- It’s like if A Cure for Wellness came with millennial-focused social commentary
- Terrifying in deeply realistic ways
- The Lost Children Archive by Valeria Luiselli (2019)
- Phenomenal use of multi-media to tell a story
- Perspectives shifts to greatly impact the tension
- The Road to Jonestown: Jim Jones and the People’s Temple by Jeff Guinn (2017)
- Required reading for anyone interested in cults in their fiction
- Starts off with the massacre and contextualizes everything working backwards
- Endurance: Shackleton’s Incredible Voyage by Alfred Lansing (1959)
- Traveling down south to the Antarctic is more terrifying than the Arctic
- Everyone survived this one
- The Rage of Dragons by Evan Winter (2019)
- Metal as fuck with complicatedly angry characters and a parallel demon dimension
- Found myself squealing with each new, intense action sequence
- The Ice Man: Confessions of a Mafia Contract Killer by Philip Carlo (2006)
- Fascinating account of the shitshow that was New York City in the 1980’s from the perspective of one hitman
- Not necessarily the best book craft-wise, but it did inspire me to write an entire novella so on the list it goes
- Social Creature by Tara Isabella Burton (2018)
- Everyone sucks in this one but you can’t stop looking away
- Glittering, glamorous, absolutely harrowing
- The Resurrection of Fulgencio Ramirez by Rudy Ruiz (2020)
- Death is not the end as Fulgencio Ramirez tries to win back the girl he loves
- Romantic, bittersweet, and playful, a really fun read
- God’s Playground: A History of Poland, Vol. 1: The Origins to 1795 by Norman Davies (1981)
- Forget everything you think you know about Europe, Poland is different
- Full of maps, anecdotes, family lines, absolutely fascinating
- Rasputin: Faith, Power, and the Twilight of the Romanovs by Douglas Smith (2016)
- The longest book I read this year covers way more than just Rasputin’s biography
- I’m not saying he did nothing wrong, but he certainly wasn’t the antichrist
- Boogiepop and Others by Kouhei Kadono & Kouji Ogata (2006)
- Slipstreamy as students disappear from school and no one is sure if the gender-fuck phantom is the book guy
- Scary and engrossing
- Erebus: One Ship, Two Epic Voyages, and the Greatest Naval Mystery of All Time by Michael Palin (2018)
- Palin’s enthusiasm for the subject matter leaps off the words
- This ship went everywhere and I’m glad they found it eventually
- In the Heart of the Sea: The Tragedy of the Whaleship Essex by Nathaniel Philbrick (2000)
- Herman Melville heard this story and went on the write Moby Dick and I totally get it
- Captivating account where not a whole lot of people survive after it feels like a whale gets its revenge
- Small Spaces by Katherine Arden (2018)
- Middle grade horror about kids disappearing in new and inventive ways
- The whole trilogy is a delight
- Moon of the Crusted Snow by Waubgeshig Rice (2018)
- All about returning to tradition when the modern world fails
- Scary in ways that feel true to life
- Tender is the Flesh by Agustina Bazterrica (2020)
- Still thinking about the use of language and dehumanization in this one
- Society turned to human meat thanks to a virus
Top 5 Manga
This is a new list, as I’ve rekindled my love of manga and want to share my top 5 faves that I’ve read this year (in various degrees of progress).
- Dai Dark Vol 1-3 by Q Hayashida (2021)
- Skeletons in space
- Hilarious and body-horrifying
- Happiness Vol 1-10 by Shūzō Oshimi (2015-2019)
- Vampires a la Let the Right One In
- Made me feel many things with the hopeful ending
- Made in Abyss Vol 1-9 by Akihito Tsukushi (2018-2021)
- Kids go on an adventure down a really deep hole to find her mom
- Upsetting on a whole variety of fronts
- Mieruko-Chan Vol 1-4 by Tomoki Izumi (2020-2021)
- Local school sees scary ghosts and would very much not like to see scary ghosts
- The ghosts are absolutely terrifying, but it’s also hilarious
- No. 6 Vol 1-5 by Atsuko Asano & Hinoki Kino (2013-2014)
- Dystopia where every disease is cured (or is it?)
- The boys kiss and are very angsty
Authors I’ve Interviewed This Year
Here’s a recap of all the Blog Interviews I did, listed alphabetical by author name.
- C.L. Clark debuted with The Unbroken
- Cadwell Turnbull released his sophomore novel, No Gods, No Monsters
- Caitlin Starling released her sophomore novel, The Death of Jane Lawrence
- Cassandra Khaw debuted with The All-Consuming World
- Charles Payseur released short story collection, The Burning Day and Other Strange Stories
- Elsa Sjunneson released her memoir, Being Seen: One Deafblind Woman’s Fight to End Ableism
- Emmie Mears re-released Look to the Sun
- Fran Wilde released The Ship of Stolen Words
- Genevieve Gornichec released The Witch’s Heart
- Jason Sanford debuted with Plague Birds
- Jen Karner debuted with Cinders of Yesterday
- Juliet Kemp released the third entry into the Marek Series, The Rising Flood
- Karin Tidbeck released The Memory Theater
- Lee Mandelo debuted with Summer Sons
- Merc Wolf Fenmoor released The Wolf Among the Wild Hunt
- Neon Yang released the omnibus of The Tensorate Series
- Nino Cipri followed up Finna with Defekt
- Rivers Solomon released Sorrowland
- Ryan Douglass debuted with The Taking of Jake Livingston
- S.T. Gibson released A Dowry of Blood
- Sarah Gailey released The Echo Wife
What are some of your favorite reads? Tell me about your year in reading.
Happy reading and Happy New Year,
Jo
Jo Writes Fantasy 