2021 Yearly Recap

This is my tenth yearly recap of my reading on this blog. Amazing! I have lost a lot of steam with blogging over the last year or two, and I haven't done a great job of staying up-to-date with my reading blog. But I love, love, love having this record of the books I've read and I don't want to lose it in any way. So I definitely plan to keep it up and to be better at it in 2022. 

I read significantly less this year than I did in 2020. Probably because I wasn't trying to escape my life and the stress of the pandemic as much? I still read over 120 books (not sure exactly how many--I had 112 blog posts for this year but several of them represented 2-3 books), so it was definitely still a respectable number. I read some really, really good books this year. And some not so good books too. 

Best of the year: The Thursday Murder Club and The Man Who Died Twice

Best fiction: Sparks Like Stars, A Deadly Education, Americanah, Malibu Rising

Best memoir: Crying in HMart, Dancing at the Pity Party

Best romances: Better than the Movies, Love at First, The Countess Conspiracy

Best mystery: The Madness of Crowds

Best read-alouds: By the Great Horn Spoon! and all the Harry Potters

Least favorite: One Hundred Years of Solitude

The Heiress Effect by Courtney Milan

After reading The Countess Conspiracy, I immediately wanted to read the rest of the books in this series. So I blazed through this book in the next day and thoroughly enjoyed it as well. I did feel like so many scenes in these books are so unrecognizable from books of that time period (like the couple is always starting to kiss in a public place, when every book I've read from that time period is so concerned with appearances), but I just ignore that nagging part of my brain so that I can enjoy the story for what it is. I fully enjoyed this one about Jane and Oliver.

The Countess Conspiracy by Courtney Milan

I heard about this book specifically, and the rest of the series, on Modern Mrs. Darcy's podcast What Should I Read Next? The person used this as an example of her favorite romance and one she goes back to again and again. I was feeling like I wanted some fun and delightful reads and since our library had this entire series on e-book, I checked this one out to start with. It's the third book in the series, but they can be read in any order. And I loved this one so much. It was an adorable romance about two friends, where the woman realizes that she actually loves the man after years of avoiding this truth and dealing with her trauma and abuse in her past marriage. I loved how understanding and kind Sebastian was with Violet and how female-centric the whole relationship was (it seemed a little unrealistic for the time, in my mind, but really wonderful to see anyway). I loved how Violet was such an avid scientist and was not defined by her position in society or by her relationships in any way. The romance was a little more open-door than I am used to reading, but I still liked it a lot. 

A Deadly Education by Naomi Novik

I loved this book so much. My friend described it to me as "Harry Potter and the Hunger Games combined" and I instantly checked it out from the library to listen to. And it was fantastic! The story is set in a school for magic where there are monsters who eat the students so they are constantly dying. I was really creeped out by the story at first because it seemed so awful, but then once I understood the parameters of the story I got super invested in it and really loved it. I loved El, the main character, and her snarky and grouchy attitude towards everyone, and how she eventually learns to care for other people throughout the book. I thought the magic in this book was so cool and it all makes so much more sense than Harry Potter (like so much more detail on what they're learning and how they actually can do magic) and it was amazing. I instantly jumped right into the second book of this series. 

One Hundred Years of Solitude by Gabriel Garcia Marquez

I started reading this book in 2011. 2011! A decade ago! I started reading it after I read Love in the Time of Cholera, also by Marquez, and I loved it so much. (I don't remember anything about it, so I should probably re-read it... but I do remember that I loved it so much I cried at some point.) So I wanted to read this one too... but I got a few pages into it and just couldn't get past it. And I tried again multiple times over the years. So I finally decided to see if I could do it on audiobook--and guess what, that did the trick. The only way I was able to get through this was on audio, on double speed--because I did not like this at all. I don't have enough time right now to describe my issues with this book, but I'll just say this. 

1. Incest everywhere. 

2. Everyone's names were the same. Literally every character was named after the other characters so there was no way to tell them apart. 

3. What was even happening?

I read about Marquez's dream reality, where things are supposed to appear dream-like and to not make much sense... and that definitely was happening. I think this was a book I could have gotten more out of if I were reading it for a class and given some introduction to the theory behind it and the movement and what the point of it was--but as it was, listening to it on my own, I just gave up trying to understand and just listened to the story. It was really wild and crazy and not really my cup of tea. But everyone says it's a Very Important Work of Literature so it must be... so I'm glad I finished it and I'm glad I'll never read this again. (The one thing that I was interested in was the fact that the banana plantations coming in and taking over the towns actually happened in Central American countries, so I want to read more about the history of that.)

With the Fire on High by Elizabeth Acevedo

After enjoying Clap When You Land and since I already loved The Poet X, I thought I should check out another one of Elizabeth Acevedo's books. This one had an interesting perspective of a teen mom who wants to be a chef, but first has to graduate high school. I loved the diversity of this perspective because it was so different from the stereotypical narrative we get about teen mothers. I thought Emoni was such a great character and the story was fun. I don't have time to get into more details, but it was definitely a fun read. I loved the cooking aspect of it. 

Clap When You Land by Elizabeth Acevedo

I don't have time to do this book justice, but I really enjoyed it. It was about two sisters who don't know about each other--their dad kept two families secretly, one in the US and one in the DR. But one day when their dad was flying to visit the DR, his plane crashed and everyone died, and they found out about each other. The book was told in alternating perspectives from both sisters, and I really liked both of them. I loved the DR storyline and how interesting that was to see that country and culture, and I was happy with the ending. It was a great, quick book--also basically written in poetry. 

Love Poems for Married People by John Kenney

I feel like this is cheating, because I just somehow happened upon this book as an e-book on my phone, and since it's poetry, it only took me like 20 minutes to read the whole thing. But this short collection of poetry about what it's like being married was hilarious and fun and really true in so many ways. It was a lot of acknowledging the not-romantic truths about being married to someone, and although I feel lucky that I don't relate to many of the stereotypes, many are still true. Haha!

The Man Who Died Twice by Richard Osman

I loved, LOVED The Thursday Murder Club when it came out a year ago, and I was so excited to listen to the sequel, and it did not disappoint. Honestly, how could this go wrong? Four octogenarians solving murder mysteries? This murder mystery was so fun and enjoyable, with all of the same lovable characters and funny hijinks. I still love Bogdan so much and love how he and Elizabeth get along so well. I think half of the reason I love this book so much though is because of the INCREDIBLE narrator. Major points to her because it is so well-done.