My Top Books of 2021

For the past few years, I've attempted the Goodreads challenge of selecting a goal for the number of books I want to read in a year.   This year I set my goal to 50, which I've actually surpassed, (I'm somewhere in the 80's).

Here are a few of the books that enjoyed this year (not necessarily published in 2021).

When I saw the descriptor that said "Love Actually meets Groundhog Day" I was sold.

In a Holidaze by Lauren, Christina

Maelyn Jones is living with her parents, hates her job, and just messed up her love life. She is dreading the family's last Christmas at their Utah cabin, but one random wish and she may just get a do-over.

Jenny Colgan has become my go-to for comfort reads.   

The Christmas Bookshop 

When she is out of a job just in time for the holidays, Carmen, with little cash and few options, is forced to move in with her perfect sister where she takes a job at a book store that desperately needs her help and helps her in return.

Finding representation in fiction is important. This includes not just having characters with disabilities, but characters who are not put into a role of a victim because of it.

Unbroken: 13 Stories Starring Disabled Teens

An anthology of stories in various genres, each featuring disabled characters and written by disabled creators. The collection includes stories of interstellar war, a journey to Persia, a dating debacle. The teenaged characters reflect diverse colors, genders, and orientations-- without obscuring the realities of their disabilities. -- adapted from jacket

Impatiently waiting for the 2nd book of this series to be released, (April 5, 2022).

The Unkindness of Ravens: a Greer Hogan Mystery by Hilliard, M. E.

Greer Hogan is a librarian and an avid reader of murder mysteries. She also has a habit of stumbling upon murdered bodies. The first was her husband's, and the tragic loss led Greer to leave New York behind for a new start in the Village of Raven Hill. But her new home becomes less idyllic when she discovers her best friend sprawled dead on the floor of the library...

I have to hand it to the main character b/c as much as I love my siblings they can clean their own messes.

My Sister, the Serial Killer by Braithwaite, Oyinkan

Nigeria. Korede's sister, Ayoola, is the favorite child, the beautiful one, possibly sociopathic. And now Ayoola's third boyfriend in a row is dead. Korede knows the best solutions for cleaning blood, the trunk of her car is big enough for a body. Not that she gets any credit. A kind, handsome doctor at the hospital where Korede works is the bright spot in her life. One day Ayoola shows up to the hospital uninvited and he takes notice, asking Korede for Ayoola's phone number. Now Korede must reckon with what she will do about her sister. -- adapted from publisher info

I love the idea of multiple alternate universes and getting to try them on for size.

The Midnight Library by Haig, Matt

"'Between life and death there is a library, and within that library, the shelves go on forever. Every book provides a chance to try another life you could have lived. To see how things would be if you had made other choices... Would you have done anything different, if you had the chance to undo your regrets?' A dazzling novel about all the choices that go into a life well lived, from the internationally bestselling author of Reasons to Stay Alive and How To Stop Time. Somewhere out beyond the edge of the universe there is a library that contains an infinite number of books, each one the story of another reality. One tells the story of your life as it is, along with another book for the other life you could have lived if you had made a different choice at any point in your life. While we all wonder how our lives might have been, what if you had the chance to go to the library and see for yourself? Would any of these other lives truly be better? In The Midnight Library, Matt Haig's enchanting new novel, Nora Seed finds herself faced with this decision. Faced with the possibility of changing her life for a new one, following a different career, undoing old breakups, realizing her dreams of becoming a glaciologist; she must search within herself as she travels through the Midnight Library to decide what is truly fulfilling in life, and what makes it worth living in the first place"--. Provided by publisher.

Fredrik Backman is on my favorite author list.

Beartown  

A "poignant, charming novel about a forgotten town fractured by scandal, and the amateur hockey team that might just change everything ... Fredrik Backman knows that we are forever shaped by the places we call home, and ... explores what can happen when we carry the heavy weight of other people's dreams on our shoulders"--. Provided by publisher.

I don't usually read fictionalized versions of historical figures but, this year I read  Lady Clementine by Benedict, Marie

A historical tale inspired by the life of Clementine Churchill that traces her unflinching role in protecting the life and wartime agendas of her husband, Winston Churchill.

and

Adobe Moon: Wyatt Earp, an American odyssey by Warren, Mark

"It is 1862. With his older brothers fighting in the war, Wyatt Earp - at fourteen - is left to manage the family's Iowa farm under his father's iron rule. These years of labor inculcate into him an ambition to seek his fortunes by his wits rather than the sweat of his back. The open territory to the west, he knows, offers that opportunity. When his family treks to California he makes the passing acquaintance of a beguiling Mexican girl, whose philosophy of success and failure will haunt Wyatt for years to come. It is the prophecy of the "adobe moon," a rusty-hued orb that reminds a man: If you do not achieve your dreams, you must settle for what you have. Though rejecting this creed, Wyatt feels the notion dog him like a ghost. After stints as a coach driver, freight-hauler, and grader for the railroad, Wyatt takes his first "respectable" job as a constable in a small Missouri town. There he meets the woman who teaches him the value of settling down with a family. When she dies while with child, Wyatt sinks into a depression where the lines of ethics blur. Wanted by the law he loses himself in the waterfront slums of Peoria working in brothels. Fed up with his self-made squalor, he returns to the West for a second chance at a proper life. In a Kansas cattle town he comes face to face with his salvation . . . and his destiny as a lawman with his own iron rule" -- Provided by publisher.

I loved everything about this book and it's one where as soon as I finished it I wanted a sequel.  

Hench : a novel by Walschots, Natalie Zina

Anna does boring things for terrible people because even criminals need office help and she needs a job... A novel of love, betrayal, revenge, and redemption follows a young woman as she discovers that the greatest superpower--for good or evil--is a properly executed spreadsheet.

Rosaline Palmer takes the cake by Hall, Alexis J. gave me some "laughed till I cried" moments.

"Rosaline Palmer is just barely holding her life together. Her paycheck might as well be parchment paper, her house is falling apart, and help from her parents is always served with a generous slice of disappointment and judgment. And the cherry on top? Now her daughter's school is charging all sorts of outlandish extra fees for trips that Rosaline can't afford. But where there's a whisk there's a way. . . and Rosaline has just landed a place on the nation's favorite baking show. Winning the prize money could change everything, but more than collapsing trifles stand between Rosaline and sweet, sweet victory. Charming and suave Alain Pope is just the type of person her parents planned for her to marry, and better yet, her fellow contestant is doing his best to sweep her off her feet. Yet while he says and bakes all the right things, it's friendly, down-to-earth electrician Harry Dobson who Rosaline finds as tempting as a midnight ice-cream sundae with salted caramel . . . and just as hard to resist. But as the competition -- and the ovens -- heat up, Rosaline starts to realize the most delicious recipes come about when you don't follow the recipe"--. Provided by publisher.

The next 3 books I loved.  going back to the need for disability representation; I could relate in some way to each of these authors and that was something I needed. 

Sitting Pretty: The View from my Ordinary Resilient Disabled Body by Taussig, Rebekah

Disfigured: On Fairy Tales, Disability, and Making Space by Leduc, Amanda

and

What Doesn't Kill You: A Life with Chronic Illness-Lessons from a Body in Revolt by Miller, Tessa

Just Finished:

 

Cultish: The Language of Fanaticism by Montell, Amanda

What causes people to join-- and more importantly, stay in-- extreme groups? The answer, Montell believes, has nothing to do with freaky mind-control wizardry or Kool-Aid. She argues that the key to manufacturing intense ideology, community, and us/them attitudes all comes down to language. In both positive ways and shadowy ones, cultish language is something we hear-- and are influenced by-- every single day. Montell exposes the verbal elements that make a wide spectrum of communities "cultish." In doing so, she reveals how they even pervade our modern start-ups, Peloton leaderboards, and Instagram feeds. -- adapted from jacket. Provided by publisher.