2021: A Year in Books

Another year of reading done. After doing a summary for the first time in 2020, I have decided to make it an annual thing and share my best reads, my most popular reviews and wrap-up my reading challenges for the year.

Best Reads of 2021

My favourite books this year fell into four broad genres:

• science fiction and fantasy,
• literary fiction,
• popular fiction, and, surprisingly,
• poetry.

Fantasy and Science Fiction

There was some exceptional speculative fiction this year, and one of my favourites was Africanfuturism novella “Remote Control” by Nnedi Okorafor, an explosive story about a radioactive girl ruthless in her quest for survival. I was thrilled to read the third book in “The Daevabad Trilogy”, “The Empire of Gold” by S. A. Chakraborty which was an exceptional finale to a fantastic series. I was also really excited to start two new series with “The Bone Shard Daughter” by Andrea Stewart, with fantastic magic and an even better animal sidekick, and “She Who Became the Sun” by Shelley Parker-Chan which pushes just about every boundary, but especially the boundaries of ambition.

Literary Fiction

First training for a hike, then taking up running, I got through quite a few audiobooks this year and some were just excellent. Gothic novel “We Have Always Lived in the Castle” by Shirley Jackson had me thinking about it and the disturbing protagonist Merricat for weeks afterwards. “The Hate U Give” by Angie Thomas was haunting for a different way with its hyperrealistic exploration of the Black Lives Matter movement. Then, in spite of the controversy surrounding the narrator, “Call Me By Your Name” by André Aciman was the most beautifully written love letter to the male body.

A really surprising novel was “The White Tiger” by Aravind Adiga: one of those incredibly satisfying stories about someone choosing themselves over everything else, no matter the consequences. Then the disturbing but all too realistic “Unsettled Ground” by Claire Fuller had me ruminating for days about how so-called developed societies can collectively fail people so badly.

Popular Fiction

It definitely wasn’t all doom and gloom though, and I really enjoyed a couple of romps. One was “The Dangers of Truffle Hunting” by Sunni Overend which honestly was the right book at the right time, and I enjoyed the fantasy combination of food, wine and romance unashamedly. I also really liked the sheer drama and chaos of “Nine Perfect Strangers” by Liane Moriarty who pushed the promises of the wellness industry to their absolute extreme.

Poetry

I am the first to admit that I am not much of a poetry aficionado, but there were two poetry collections that really resonated with me. The first was “Throat” by Ellen van Neerven which explores the intersection between queer and Aboriginal identity. The second was “The Uncommon Feast” by Eileen Chong that combines poetry, recipes and essays in a thoughtful and delightful way.

Most Popular Reviews of 2021

Interestingly, of my top 10 most viewed reviews this year, only “Remote Control” was actually posted this year. Erotica continues to be, hilariously, my most popular genre with twice as many reviews making it to my top 10!

• (Adults Only) “The Veiled Woman” by Anaïs Nin
• “The Magic Pudding: The Adventures of Bunyip Bluegum” by Norman Lindsay
• (Adults Only) “My Monster Boyfriend” edited by C. Spike Trotman
• “No Friend but the Mountains” by Behrouz Boochani
• (Adults Only) “Letters for Lucardo” by Otava Heikkilä
• “The Strawberry Thief” by Joanne Harris
• “How the Marquis Got His Coat Back” by Neil Gaiman
• “Pemulwuy: The Rainbow Warrior” by Eric Willmot
• “Remote Control” by Nnedi Okorafor
• (Adults Only) “Whisper Grass” by E. K. Weaver

2021 Reading Challenges

I participated in 4 reading challenges this year:

• the 2021 (and final) Australian Women Writers Challenge
• Spells & Spaceships – the 2021 SFF Badge Collections
• the Goodreads 2021 Reading Challenge, and
• the Short Stack Reading Challenge (my own invention!).

I was pretty surprised to have read 23 books by Australian women and non-binary authors, which is a great achievement as the Australian Women Writers Challenge is taking a new direction in 2022.

I had a lot of fun doing the Spells & Spaceships – 2021 SFF Badge Collection, and I was surprised that I almost got all the badges! Although it may have been a little bit of a stretch for one or two (I’m pretty sure dragons made a mention in “The Sleeper and the Spindle“) the only two that I absolutely did not get was the Self-Published Fantasy Blog-Off and the special badge for collecting them all.

I absolutely smashed my Goodreads Reading Challenge this year. I set my annual goal of 80 books but managed to read 90 in total.

A significant part of why I managed to read so many books this year was my inaugural Short Stack Reading Challenge! I got through 14 short books in December which really boosted my stats. It was also really nice not having to commit to any long books during this busy time of year and just move quickly from one to the next.

So that is 2021 in books. A very happy new year to everyone who has stopped by and left comments; here’s to a great year of books and book reviews in 2022!