I love the idea of this tag! What a great way to both track your progress and keep in mind what you have read. I was surprised to learn, going through what I’ve read this year, that I’m over halfway to my usual 50-book-a-year goal, which is nice!

Best book you’ve read so far in 2021

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Legendborn – Tracy Deonn

A Deadly Education – Naomi Novik

Transcendent Kingdom – Yaa Gyasi

How does one choose a single book, exactly? These three, however, are some of my faves that I have not included in answer to any of the prompts below!

Best sequel you’ve read so far in 2021

A Desolation Called Peace – Arkady Martine

I mean, was I ever going to choose anything other than this? This sequel 100% lived up to the first book, in my opinion, and worked really well both as the follow-up and the conclusion to A Memory Called Empire. It felt like a very well-compacted and summarising read, but still with enough new events to excite.

(I have a whole review, if you’re curious.)

New release you haven’t read yet, but want to

Black Water Sister – Zen Cho

This fantasy novel in set in Malaysia, where the main character travels to after her grandmother’s death, and is promptly blackmailed by said dead grandmother to complete her quest of vengeance. What, exactly, does not sound riveting about that?

This book only came out recently but it’s definitely on my TBR!

Most anticipated release for the second half of the year

Redemptor – Jordan Ifuenko

I read the first book, Raybearer, recently. It was such a fun read: excellent worldbuilding, characters with believable motivation and fast-paced, too. This sequel is out next month, so there’s not long to wait!

Biggest surprise

Piranesi – Susanna Clarke

Simply because of how inscrutable the summary for this book is, I really didn’t know what to expect (except that it contains some fantasy element because of it’s Hugo shortlist nomination), and I was very pleasantly surprised. It’s lyrical, brilliantly paced and so imaginative.

Read my review!

Fave new author

I have to say, I finally read Little Fires Everywhere this year, and I was really sleeping on Celeste Ng!

Newest favourite character

Ropa from The Library of the Dead – T. L. Huchu

The main character of this book, Ropa, is a fifteen-year old girl who works sort of as a spirit medium to support her grandma and younger sister. She’s empathetic, badass and hilarious – all of the traits that make an MC instantly likeable, tbh – and her character voice is so well-written, too. I highly recommend this book!

A book that made you cry

Blood and Sugar – Laura Shepherd-Robinson

There were a lot of moments in this book, which is a mystery set in London in the 1780s, i.e. during slavery, that were alternately heartbreaking and horrifying.

A book that made you happy

The Rage of Dragons – Evan Winters

I mean, you couldn’t exactly call what happens in this book happy, but I was just so excited at the actual book I was reading that I was very happy reader.

Read my review!

The most beautiful book you’ve bought so far this year

Mansfield Park – Jane Austen

I purchased a special edition of this book which is literally gorgeous. You can see it here!

What books do you need to read by the end of 2021?

What do I not need to read? Perhaps the books I’ve listed here, or here… or here… (I guess this is just a callout post for myself now).

I skipped some of the prompts I didn’t have answers for, but most of them are here. This was a fun tag to do! It’s nice to look back at the reading I’ve done. I did try to use a different book for each question, so I hope there was some variety there too!

This is, it turns out, my 100th post on this blog! I am both startled I’ve reached 100 and wondering why it took me so long. This seems a fun post to give me a centenary celebration, however! 🎉

Thank you to everyone who has engaged with me on this blog through comments, follows, likes. It’s been brilliant so far – maybe I’ll be quicker on the next 100!