I read a bunch of books in 2021. Not as many as last year, but probably more than next year (as I now have a baby, a book out in January, and two more to write). I also read advance copies of novels by Heather Parry, Camilla Grudova and Julia Armfield: all due out in 2022, and all highly recommended. Here are my top 25 books of 2021: Books out in 2021: Best book that was so beautifully written I…
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July-August 2021 Reads
It’s a (very) small but perfectly-formed list this time. I’m struggling to focus on reading lately, and I’ve started many more books than I’ve finished. Thankfully I found these few beauties, all of which have a short page length but a huge breadth of imagination and ambition. If you’re also struggling to get into big chunky books, try one of these small wonders: Orfeia, Joanne M. Harris –I can’t get enough of these folklore-inspired novellas (I also loved A Pocketful…
May-June 2021 Reads
Well, pals, it’s been a great few months of reading. I’ve spent several long afternoons lying out in the shade of my back garden, getting lost in books. And summer is just beginning, so I’m hoping for many more days like that. My top 8 of May and June covers novels, non-fiction, poetry, graphic novels: Year of Wonders, Geraldine Brooks – I bought this years ago as research for a novel I planned to write about medieval witches in a…
March-April 2021 Reads
I don’t know about you, but I’ve been struggling to get my reading groove back. This is partly due to bad reasons (pandemic stress) and partly due to good ones (finishing final edits on a new novel). Thankfully I still read some absolute brilliance, and I highly recommend my top six of March and April: On Immunity, Eula Biss – It’s a strange experience reading this during a pandemic, surrounded by vaccine news. It’s a thoughtful, informative exploration, and I’m…
January/February 2021 Reads
It’s been a slow reading year for me so far, and I only read about half as many books as I usually would. I’m chalking this up to general 2021 blues as I’ve struggled to focus on reading, which has been frustrating as books have always been my refuge, my joy, my education and my inspiration. Still, the books I did read were basically all killer, and if you’re also in a bit of a reading slump, I highly recommend…
Best Books of 2020
Well, friends, it’s been a year! I don’t know about you, but my reading habits really changed in 2020. I started off reading a lot, as I was travelling and researching a novel, and then – well, you know what happened. For a few months I found it hard to focus on reading at all, and then I flipped around and was entirely losing myself in books, chain-reading novels as a way to escape from reality. That settled down as…