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Saturday, January 1, 2022

Reading Year in Review 2021

The end of 2021 was an eerie, unwelcome sense of deja vu, in that it reminded me too much of the final months of 2020.  Which is to say my work life sucked harder than a Hoover.  I completely fell off the reading wagon the final two months of the year, which means my goal of reading 100 books in 2021 fell short at 97.  Look, that's nothing to sneeze at (at least for me) and I guess I could be disappointed, but honestly? I'm still standing. And while I know the current work crisis I'm dealing with will still be there come Monday, I'm taking the New Year's weekend to be kind to myself.  So yeah, I was three short but I still read 97 books! Here's how my grading broke down:

A Grades = 6
B Grades = 35
C Grades = 35
D Grades = 10
F Grades = 5
DNF = 6

Six A grades is very good for me (and consistent). I'm less pleased that my B and C reads were in a dead heat and that F and DNFs totaled 11.  For the record, 4 of the 5 F graded books were contest reads. I judged several this year and while it was a pile of mediocre with a few dreadfuls, one contest read is represented on this Best Of. So yeah, that's why I keep judging contests in case you're curious. Now, enough set-up! On to the important part of this blog post: Wendy's Best Reads of 2021!

(Title links will take you to reviews)

Romance:


Forbidden by Beverly Jenkins (Historical romance, 2016) - Jenkins writes great heroines as a rule, but Eddy Carmichael might be my new favorite. There's a quiet determination in her that I found vastly appealing and there's a scene early on in the book between Eddy and her sister which is simply perfection. The hero is passing as white and our Black heroine has ambitions of her own, albeit she's temporarily derailed in Nevada. Meaty, compelling conflict and a fantastic array of secondary characters - including other residents at the boardinghouse where Eddy lives. 

Lord of Scoundrels by Loretta Chase (Historical romance, 1995) - Yes, this was my first time reading it and while the second half floundered a bit for me, the first 40% of this book is the most perfect romance novel I've ever read - entirely due to the heroine. What I loved is that she always (ALWAYS) came out ahead. Even when you think the jackass hero has finally backed her into a corner?  Nope. Jessica comes out swinging.  And for the record, she was totally justified in shooting him.

The Secret by Julie Garwood (Historical romance, 1992) - This book makes the list for everything other than the romance. The women in this book are amazing. Anytime two female characters were on the page together I positively wallowed in it. I also liked that this was a light historical with humor but it never descended into twee cutesy. Great female friendships and the romance smacks you upside the head in the second half.  

The Billionaire's Christmas Baby by Marion Lennox (Harlequin Romance, 2017) - A cozy bon-bon of a holiday read by a real pro in the category format.  A working class heroine with a history of caregiving bails out the hero when his infant half-sister is dropped unceremoniously into his lap.  Cinderella without the rescue fantasy.

Gingerbread and Jingle Bells by Caro Carson (Novella, 2021) - The shining beacon in this year's round of contest judging. Set between 1970 and 1985, childhood friends reunite in the tiny Texas town where they grew up - he's now the town veterinarian, and she's on break from a corporate job to help grandma with her bakery over the holidays. A sweet treat of a holiday read. Warm, cozy, delightful.

A Place Called Home by Elizabeth Grayson (Historical Romance, 1995) - A sweeping colonial epic about a newly widowed heroine making her way to a Kentucky homestead with two small children, where she hooks up with her dead husband's BFF (whom she despises). I stayed way up past my bedtime, sucked into this epic, sweeping tale - but fair warning, it has a TON of problematic elements.  Read the review before taking the plunge.

Mystery/Suspense:


What You Don't See (2020) and Runner (2021) by Tracy Clark - This is hands-down my new favorite mystery series! Cass Raines is former Chicago PD, now a private detective. There's a heaping helping of Found Family, compelling storylines, and Cass is smart, savvy and so capable I get a heavy dose Competence Porn.  These are books three and four in the series, with What You Don't See holding the slight edge.

A Madness of Sunshine (2019) and Quiet in Her Bones (2021) by Nalini Singh - These were both quiet, slow-build suspense novels and both of them had me sucked in almost immediately.  They're both domestic thrillers, where small towns or quiet neighborhoods are hiding dark and sinister secrets.  While both stand-alones, they're similar in that Singh slowly builds her suspense using a wide cast of characters trapped in insular communities.  They have the feel of a "locked room" mystery without the actual locked room. 

A Spy in the Struggle (2020) by Aya de Leon - A domestic espionage thriller with a Black woman as the lead and a heaping helping of current events.  I loved the feel of this story, a heroine who turns whistleblower when the SEC raids her corporate law firm and soon finds herself back in the town where she attended college infiltrating a Black Lives Matter / environmental group making too much noise for a biotech firm with a juicy government contract. This is a great blend of current events, suspense and romance (a fairly spicy one!). Also, my vote for best cover art of the year (this book was published at the very tail-end of 2020, so honestly I think it should count as 2021!)

Young Adult:


The Obsession by Jesse Q. Sutanto (2021) - Adult Wendy thought this book was great, but the ghostly memory of Teenage Wendy that still lives in my brain frickin' loved this! Teen heroine with a dark secret accidentally (uh, maybe?) kills her Mom's abusive boyfriend - who just so happens to be a cop.  There's a witness to this crime - a boy in school that, unbeknownst to the heroine, is stalking her.  When she figures that last bit out? Yeah, he starts blackmailing her into a relationship.  How will our heroine untangle this tricky web?  Oooooh, boy.

Monday's Not Coming by Tiffany D. Jackson (2018) - Charlotte comes home from a summer visit at grandma's to discover her best friend, Monday, is missing.  Worse still?  Nobody seems alarmed by this development except for Charlotte. If there is criticism of this book is that it's tragedy porn featuring young Black girls, but I felt Jackson did a good job of providing a multi-layered story with multi-layered characters. It's also one hell of a gut-punch and I ugly-cried through the last 25%.  All the trigger warnings - so I encourage you to read reviews.

Nonfiction:


Just as I Am by Cicely Tyson (2021) - An absolute triumph of a memoir. What a gift Tyson gave to all of us, finally writing her memoirs before her passing. She covers everything from her New York City childhood, her break into modelling, then acting, her turbulent marriage to Miles Davis, and her numerous famous friends. The audiobook is great and if it's not nominated for all the awards I will literally burn sh*t down.

All the Young Men by Ruth Coker Burks (2020) - The memoir of a single mother who became an unlikely AIDS activist in Hot Spring, Arkansas in the early days of the epidemic. I was a child when HIV/AIDS was known as "the gay cancer," and nobody knew what it was or how it was transmitted. It's amazing how the passage of time, and new treatments, has made it easy to forget these scary, dark, early days.  Burks life experiences up to that point made her the ideal ally, she'd spent most of her life taking care of somebody (relatives, her child, her best friend). She helped these men navigate a confusing and cumbersome social services network, found doctors and pharmacies willing to treat them, and  confronted the "fine, upstanding" citizens when it was called for (which was, sadly, often). She also hit road-blocks from other allies and activists in large, urban areas (New York, San Francisco) who didn't have the first clue about the epidemic in Arkansas.

Empire of Pain: The Secret History of the Sackler Dynasty by Patrick Radden Keefe (2021) - Details three generations of the Sacklers, the family behind Purdue Pharma and the unleashing of OxyContin on to the world. As they reaped billions by creating a nation of opioid addicts, the family hid behind a series of philanthropic donations like they were 19th century robber barons. It's shocking. It'll make you angry as hell - and yet? Another part of you will wonder just how much hubris one family can own stock in. Turns out?  Quite a lot.  This will be on damn near every Best Of List for 2021 and it deserves every single one of those accolades. 

Like 2020 before it, my reading recollections of 2021 were colored in my mind by the sheer vastness of Real Life fatigue that came down like a weighted blanket trying to smother me to death. As I went tripping through GoodReads and took a closer look however, I realized I had a really remarkable year in terms of quality, memorable reads.  So yeah, missing my goal by three books hardly seems a point worth niggling over now, does it?

Onward, upward, here's hoping for great reads ahead in 2022!

12 comments:

Keira Soleore said...

The Secret is one of my favorite Garwoods. So glad you loved it as well. Lord of Scoundrels is a book at which I sit poles apart from Romancelandia. While I find Devil's Cub very romantic, I do not find LoS romantic. The only thing that made is redeable for me was the heroine.

azteclady said...

JESSICA WAS ABSOLUTELY JUSTIFIED IN SHOOTING THE FUCKER, erm. hero, Dain.

Wendy said...

Keira: I had heard for years that Garwood's heroine's were "ditzy" so I simply just stayed away. Who told me this now? Who can remember! But yeah, I did not find the heroine in The Secret ditzy at all. It was certainly a lighter medieval than I normally read (I typically like my medievals dark and angsty) but I loved the female friendship. The romance took some time for me, but once it gained some traction I couldn't put the book down. Also, thank the heavens it was light but never descended into cutesy.

LOL - and honestly my enjoyment of Lord of Scoundrels is like, 99.9% because of the heroine. I loved her.

AztecLady: OMG, I knew going in that she shoots him so the scene shouldn't have been a surprise but it was EVER SO DELICIOUS!

azteclady said...

I enjoyed the second half of the book a lot more than you did, but honestly, that scene, and Jessica's reasoning for doing so, would've been enough to give the novel high marks.

willaful said...

Quality over quantity, for sure!

I had an instant allergy to Garwood, but maybe I'll give this one a try.

Lover Of Romance said...

The Secret is one of the BEST books ever. I just adore how Garwood wrote that book. Just so well balanced. So happy you enjoyed that one so.

Wendy said...

Willaful: Holly @ Book Binge LOVES The Secret and when she heard I'd never read Garwood before she threw down the gauntlet. I'm glad I liked it - because honestly I think she would have shived me on the Romancelandia playground if I didn't LOL

LoR: The romance was a little slow to start for me, but I really loved the female friendship at the heart of that book. So well done.

Whiskeyinthejar said...

Beverly Jenkins never fails to have family dynamic scenes that get me, this scene from Forbidden between the sisters is what got me and was a nominee for best scene in my 2016 awards:"I told you years ago, you'd make more money down here than you'd ever make uptown. You had the bosoms and the looks, but no, you thought you were too good."
"No, I didn't want to become a whore, Corinne."
"Yet here you are begging help from a whore."
"I'm here begging help from my sister."


So gutpunchy!

Ooh, adding Gingerbread and Jinglebells to the tbr.

A Madness of Sunshine had some of the best setting writing and was on my best list too the year I read it, I need to get to Quiet in her Bones.

I think I missed my reading goal by about 14 books and read the least amount since 2011 but, I'm with you, the ones I did read had some great quiet moments.

Looking forward to chatting and discovering new books with you in the New Year, happy reading!

willaful said...

Hmm, maybe I'd better not try _The Secret_. It might be dangerous. ;-)

Wendy said...

Whiskey: YES! OMG, that scene with her sister in Forbidden was just amazing. And you are so right - the setting writing in Madness of Sunshine was a big reason I liked it so much. So good.

Willaful: Just be prepared to go into witness protection if you don't like it - otherwise Holly might go into Terminator-mode LOL

Vassiliki said...

I am so sorry that you are having work troubles. I hope they don't linger and that a resolution is close by.

As for the books you mentioned, I adored Forbidden. I remember how heart in throat I was all the way through it. And you have far surpassed my efforts. 97 books is pretty amazing!

Wendy said...

Vassiliki: This too shall pass - it's just going to be a while since it involves a building repair project. What's grinding me down right now is the "go from one crisis to the next" state we've all been in for the past 2 years. It's exhausting.

I told myself I was going to read the next two books in the Jenkins series "soon" - and yeah, here we are. 2022 is a new year however!