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Favourite Reads of 2021: 15 - 4

 It has been an amazing reading year, with so many amazing and diverse books coming to rescue me from the constant COVID-19 dread. It was really hard to actually pick my favourites ... I had to extend the common top 10 to a top 15 and even then I had to leave out some books that I really enjoyed. So this is really the creme de la creme, the top of a beautiful, long, extensive list. 

I'm keeping my top three for a separate post, but below are my number ten to number seven. Important to know is that these are not in order. I found it impossible to actually make a proper ranking because each of these books was brilliant in its own way. 

Mrs Death Misses Death by Salena Godden

Mrs Death Misses Death was one of those books that I read so much about before I actually gave it a go myself. And I was utterly blown away by Godden's writing. Her experience as a poet really shines through in her prose. 

Mrs Death Misses Death has the feel of a collage, of memories, utterances, glances and stories mixed together to present the complicated portrait of death. We see grief, longing, love, hate, redemption, forgiveness, every aspect of the process of dying and witnessing death. (Source)

Treat yourself and give it a read! 

Beowulf: A New Verse Translation by Maria Dahvana Headley

My translation for Headley's superb, transporting translation of the Old English Beowulf is still coming but I couldn't keep it off this list. Headley completely reinvents Beowulf in a way that still feels deeply authentic to the poem itself. She skillfully matches alliteration and metre with modern-day slang. Witness its beauty in the passage below:

Grendel was the name of this woe-walker,
Unlucky, fucked by Fate. He’d been
living rough for years, ruling the wild:
the mere, the fen, and the fastness,
his kingdom. His creation was cursed
under the line of Cain, the kin-killer.
The Lord, long ago, had taken Abel’s side.
Though none of that was Grendel’s doing,
he’d descended from bloodstains.
From Cain had come a cruel kind,
seen by some as shadow-stalked: monsters,
elves, giants who’d ground against God,
and for that, been banished. (Source)

If ever you wanted to get into medieval literature, here is your chance!

Girl, Woman, Other by Bernardine Evaristo

Girl, Woman, Other was inescapable over the past year or two and yet somehow I had managed not to read it yet. Then fate, in the form of my mother, intervened and she sent me a copy of it. I was caught almost immediately by the various points of view, the complications of gender, sexual attraction and aging, the contrast between lightness and heaviness. 

I have gained a new kind of understanding for different (female) experiences, of the experience of growing up Black in Britain, of the enormous struggle and the small victories. Evaristo writes mostly without punctuation, except for a decisively placed full-stop here or there which I felt, viscerally. The writing ebbs and flows, recalcitrant and then overwhelming. (Source)

Evaristo fully deserves all the praise her novel received and I can't wait to read her Manifesto in the new year. 

The Bass Rock by Evie Wyld

The Bass Rock was on my radar for quite a while, until I actually dedicated to sitting down with it. And then I was riveted, gripped, oddly repulsed, and by the end, somehow lighter.

Reading this book felt like a high-stake situation, it felt like I was on the edge of something. As a reader you have to be aware of this tension and you have to guide yourself through it, take a breath whenever you can. But you will never be able to resist going back to The Bass Rock. (Source)

There is some real horror in the beauty of The Bass Rock, but I would recommend it wholeheartedly anyway. 

The Gloaming by Kirsty Logan

I've adored Kirsty Logan's writing ever since reading The Gracekeepers, which was actually one of my favourite books of 2017. It took me a while to approach The Gloaming, wondering if it would cast a similar spell on me. It did, utterly. I listened to the audiobook, narrated by Logan herself, and it was a magical experience.

 There is so much beauty in The Gloaming, in the depths its willing to explore and the highs it shares with the reader, but just as its characters need to move forward, so do we as readers need to move through this novel and take it to heart. (Source)

Skyward Inn by Aliya Whiteley

Aliya Whiteley is another writer I have adored for quite a few years now and I couldn't have been more excited about Skyward Inn. Around halfway through my ARC I pre-ordered a physical copy because I knew it was a book I'd want to read and re-read in the years to come.

Skyward Inn is a beautiful story, with stunning imagery and big questions which never feel forced but always come naturally. ... With her  eyes aimed at the stars and her feet solidly rooted on Earth, Whiteley has done it once again! (Source)

The Jasmine Throne (The Burning Kingdoms #1) by Tasha Suri

If a set of books got quite as much hype this summer as the Sapphic Trifecta, I missed it. I had been following Tasha Suri on Twitter for quite a while and couldn't wait to get into her writing. And despite all the preparation, I was not ready. I was utterly swept away by the reach and the daring of The Jasmine Throne, as well as its extensive worldbuilding that never came at the cost of detail and character.

Tasha Suri also uses [her novel] to discuss the issue of empire, something India's history has been deeply marked by and which many Western authors take for granted. ... Fantasy is not just an escape, it is also meant to address the world we live in. Suri does so brilliantly, while weaving a beautiful and lush story. (Source)

The Essex Serpent by Sarah Perry, narr. by Juanita MacMahon

Another recent bestseller I had been meaning to get into and yet never got around to. It was the perfect book for me to listen to, however, and I found myself deeply moved and entranced throughout. I couldn't have adored Cora Seaborne more.

The novel meanders through 1980's London and Essex, rests its eyes on beautiful nature and then delves head first into the turmoil of the human soul. It is honestly something of a tour de force, a novel that recognizes the magic of the everyday and holds up a mirror to its characters.(Source)

We Keep the Dead Close by Becky Cooper

As the only non-fiction book on this list, We Keep the Dead Close is a stand out. I was absolutely fascinated by its story from the beginning, drawn in by the masterful way in which Becky Cooper mixed her investigation into Jane Britton's murder with her own search for meaning.

With this book she has written a True Crime whodunnit, a coming-of-age story, an investigation of sexism and misogyny at universities, an ode to the joys and disappointments of archaeology, and a touching portrait of two women,  different yet alike. How Cooper managed to do all of this without losing her reader, I have no idea. (Source)

Possession: A Romance by A.S. Byatt

This is the most "classic" of books I've read this year, but it is far from staid and stuffy, despite its cast of poets and academics. I had no idea I would fall in love with this novel the way I did, but I fell hard. Possession is equal parts tender and harsh, kind and cruel, magical and deeply real. I wish I could read/hear it again for the first time.

There is something so lush about this novel, about the way Byatt interweaves past and present, poetry and prose. It is quite honestly masterful. While it is a novel that requires your focus and attention, it rewards it in innumerable ways. (Source)

Jonathan Strange & Mr. Norrell by Susanna Clarke & Piranesi by Susanna Clarke  

Am I cheating? Yes. Should I be allowed to get away with it just this once? Also yes! I listened to Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell at the beginning of 2021 and it was as if it was written just for me. It had everything I love, from magic to historical cameos to evil fairies.

JS&MR is the kind of book I couldn't wait to get back to, hurrying up other tasks to continue listening and often rewinding passages to make sure I squeezed all the enjoyment and detail out of it that I could. ...  JS&MR is a marathon, not a sprint. If you race from page to page you will miss the beauty of it. Treat this book like a country walk. Let it take as long as it needs to, but stop at every flower. (Source)

Instead of spurring me on, my deep love for Jonathan Strange & Mr. Norrell actually made me hesitant to read Piranesi. But who could resist an audiobook by Chiwetel Ejiofor? I loved Piranesi in a completely different way than Clarke's previous book, but no less deeply. So human, so hopeful, yet so sad, Piranesi was a perfect novel for our second year under COVID-19.

Avoiding the thrills of in-your-face magic and action, Clarke has crafted a quiet but powerful narrative that eludes immediate explanation. (Source)

Honorable mentions:

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