I read a lot in 2021. My initial goal was to read at least 1 book a week. I blew that number out of the water. Did I reread some books? Hell yea I did. Did I read new books? Double hell yea. So seeing as I read these things and I’m totally a legitimate book expert and not some drug-addled fool desperate for his next hit, here are my top 5 series/books/whatever the heck it's called that I read last year in alphabetical order. Uh, as spoiler-free as possible but you’ve been warned
Note: I don’t do drugs, I’m just into reading books. And let's be clear books are far more expensive than drugs. I mean, I’m looking into buying new shelves for the books I’ve bought and my wallet just goes hnnngggggh and cries.
I’m going to start with probably my favorite author: Jim Butcher. Now, he would easily top the list if this list had a numerical value, but it's hard to simply choose one book/series over another since all of them are so good. So lucky for me I’m going alphabetical so I get to start with Butcher regardless of this list’s order of favorability. I’ve been a fan of Butcher since before I graduated high school, so at least over ten years now. I’m pretty sure I wrote a report about him back when I was a senior. As a reader and wannabe author, he ticks off all the boxes I could want.
Magic? Check.
Expansive lore? Check.
Mystery? Check.
Strong, well-written characters of all genders and backgrounds? Check.
Wiseassery? Check.
Butcher has 3 series that he has written and is writing, so there’s bound to be one for you. He’s got a wizard private investigator in Chicago going off against every supernatural power imaginable. He’s got Romans with avatar powers (let’s be clear, Avatar the Last Airbender style of powers, not the blue aliens) in political and military strife. He’s got a steampunk ship captain kicking ass and taking names both in flying cities and in naval battles.
Each one of his stories feels fresh and unique. Each character had its own distinct voice. Nothing feels rehashed or reused or cliche. This is both what I aspire to write and to read. And because his series takes place over numerous books, we get to grow with the characters and evolve with them. A side character from book 2 might grow to become someone very important in book 10. That’s because the worlds Butcher writes about are living and breathing and as magical as they are grounded. Because though the setting may be fantastical, the people within are real and act just like you or I would.
I literally can’t recommend Butcher and his stories enough and I hope my clumsy attempts at communicating how awesome his stories are don’t dissuade you of the worlds he has created.
Next down the list is poet Rudy Francisco and his books I’ll Fly Away and Helium. Francisco has become probably my favorite poet. I bought a lot of Button Poetry poetry books a few years back and I finally had a chance to read a chunk of them last year. I think I read like a solid dozen different poetry books, from poets whom I’ve watched speak on Youtube or Instagram, but never really had a chance to fully explore their poems.
So, going into it I knew I’d like Francisco’s work, but I didn’t know just how much id like it.
My copies of his two books are liberally inked as I took notes and scribbled thoughts and underlined and all sorts of markings as I read through his collections. It’s because his words are beautiful and poignant and delivers what it means to be vulnerable and human.
Like, gah it’s so freaking good.
The major thing which I loved when reading his collections are these series of poems where Francisco creates new words to describe what we cannot name and then delivers the words to us in poems which makes that definition that much more impactful.
It’s like a spelling bee, only, I want to be there and hear every word, every note, as it comes off the page.
Next on this list is The House in the Cerulean Sea by TJ Klune. this is a new author for me and I didn’t know what to expect. I legit picked it up and bought it because booktok/gram/tube said so. And boy am I glad I did. It’s absolutely beautiful and wonderful I wanted to live in the world for much longer than what the pages gave me.
It’s as one person put it: "like being wrapped up in a big gay blanket."
That’s 100% true, for both meanings of the word.
The characters are vibrant and complex. Our main character Linus Baker is frustrating and lovable and there were times I was shouting (mentally mind you cause it was late at night while I read this) for him to stop hesitating and to just do it.
This story very much feels like coming home to family and being loved by that family and learning to love yourself. Because if your found family loves you for you then you can love you for you too.
I highly recommend this book if you want to feel all warm and fuzzy on the inside and see the boundless extents of human love.
The next is the memoir Life of Miracles along the Yangtze and Mississippi by Wang Ping. It's a wonderfully complex memoir that braids together Ping's life and how it's all connected by rivers.
There’s a lot to unpack that Ping puts into her memoir, which makes reading it a slow and deliberate process. This sucks because I was also entranced while reading her story, so while I wanted to read on and learn more I had to pause and sit with the story that I had just read.
It’s beautiful and uncomfortable and it resonated with me in ways I never thought it would. Maybe that's because I am Asian American, and I am missing that part of my heritage that I want to grow closer to. Maybe it's because Ping weaves in stories from her childhood in China, to her adulthood in the states, her travels abroad, and her subsequent return to china all without missing a beat or making any single individual story feel useless or uninteresting.
It feels rich, yet scarily familiar, like a new place you’ve never been to before but feels unerringly like home.
It’s a question of culture and tradition and how a person is more than just one or the other.
It’s how a river system can be so complex and beautiful and wonderful just like each individual, and how both are equally important to the Eco-Cultural systems they rest in. And how, even when you think you know everything there is to know about it, the river (or person) can surprise you in ways unimaginable.
Rick Riordan is the best at writing stories for youth and weaving mythology into them.
That's a fact.
Source. Me
I finished the Trials of Apollo series this past year and I was once again surprised and satisfied with how a man could be like 15 books into this world and his system and have it still feel great to read. And yes, I say system. Riordan’s novels are geared for youth, after all, and each story feels similar. It rises and falls and surprises you on recognizable beats. Which isn’t a bad thing, it means that Riordan has a way of crafting stories and he sticks with it and it works really well
Now, I was hesitant about this series because this is the 3rd series with a primarily Greek/Roman pantheon. That and, mild spoiler, Apollo is kind of a dick as the main character. However, I’m glad I grew to like Apollo as the series continued; and that's not because I became comfortable or lax about Apollo's dicky-ness.
We get to see new cast members interacting with older ones and how the old cast members evolved over the series length. It’s this character growth and the well-thought-out mythological stories included and woven into the story makes me coming back to Riordan’s books again and again.
That and Riordan has made these books geared for kids and being as inclusive as possible. Characters struggle with mental illnesses and disabilities and parent problems and gender and relationship problems and everything under the sun, by including such a wide cast of characters of all sorts of backgrounds and strengths and weaknesses, Riordan has made it possible for any kid to pick up one of his books and find themselves in there.
This is quite frankly the most powerful thing an author can do: write stories that resonate with the reader.
That’s my top 5 for 2021. Read these books. It’ll make you a better person.
Or don’t read these books. I can’t tell you what to do.
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