Despite a few “schmeh” moments, it’s been a good year for reading. (When is it not? Because books are best.) I started out the year with Stephen Graham Jones’ remarkable The Only Good Indians and since then have wound my way through everything from poetry to essays, reimaginings of myths to new stories that feel like fairy tales, speculative fiction to unapologetic fantasy.

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This year I have been spending more time savoring poetry, which has been a delight. Shout-outs to An American Sunrise by Joy Harjo (birthday gift from Megan – holla!), Pilgrim by David Whyte, and the heart-morphing The Carrying by Ada Limón.

Some of my current favorites have been redoing or building upon stories you’ve heard before. The Other Bennet Sister by Janice Hadlow extends the story of Austen’s Pride and Prejudice by focusing on the experiences of sidestepped middle sister Mary. The Mere Wife by Maria Dahvana Headley brings Beowulf into the contemporary moment in one of the most beautifully written yet compulsively readable things I’ve read ever. Last, expect to hear again about Maggie O’Farrell’s absolutely magnificent Hamnet: A Novel of the Plague at year’s end.

I’ve had fun with speculative fiction, including the eerily ordinary Leave the World Behind by Rumaan Alam and the surprising The Echo Wife by Sarah Gailey. And I’ve really enjoyed leaning into my love for non-traditional fantasy worlds or the sub-genre of “magic in a version of the real world,” including Black Sun by Rebecca Roanhorse, The Beautiful Ones by Silvia Morena-Garcia, the excellent Ring Shout by P. Djèli Clark, and The Midnight Library by Matt Haig.

Plus I want to give an “Honorable Mention” to Such a Fun Age by Kiley Reid. I don’t read a ton of contemporary realist fiction but this one was well worth the time. And also Minor Feelings: An Asian America Reckoning by Cathy Park Hong, which pushed me in vital ways and is a truly important, thought-provoking book.

There are longer posts for many of these on the blog as well. What are your favorites so far in the year and/or what should I try to get to in the second half of 2021?

A reminder, a * = I really liked it; a ** = I really, really liked it.

Title	Author	Pages
*1. The Only Good Indians	Stephen Graham Jones	303
2. This is My America	Kim Johnson	398
*3. Black Sun	Rebecca Roanhorse	464
4. Plain Bad Heroines	Emily M. Danforth	623
5. Down Among the Sticks and Bones	Seanan McGuire	187
**6. Hamnet: A Novel of the Plague	Maggie O’Farrell	305
**7. All We Can Save: Truth, Courage, and Solutions to the Climate Crisis	Edited by Ayana Elizabeth Johnson and Katharine K. Wilkinson	419
*8. Leave the World Behind	Rumaan Alam	241
9. Flora and Ulysses	Kate DiCamillo. Illustrations by K. G. Campbell	231
10. Shit, Actually	Lindy West	243
11. A Deadly Education	Naomi Novik	320
*12. The Other Bennet Sister	Janice E. Hadlow	463
**13. An American Sunrise: Poems	Joy Harjo	109
*14. So Big	Edna Ferber	140
15. Come As You Are: The Surprising New Science That Will Transform Your Sex Life	Emily Nagoski, PhD	335
**16. The Mere Wife	Maria Dahvana Headley	305
*17. The Disordered Cosmos: A Journey into Dark Matter, Spacetime, and Dreams Deferred	Chanda Prescodd-Weinstein	286
18. Beach Read	Emily Henry	358
*19. Untamed	Glennon Doyle	328
20. The Fourth Island	Sarah Tolmie	109
21. The Magicians	Lev Grossman	Audio
22. The Beautiful Ones	Silvia Moreno-Garcia	323
23. The Glass House	Beatrice Colin	259
24. Emily of New Moon	L. M. Montgomery	339
25. The Eyes of the Queen: An Agents of the Crown Novel	Oliver Clements	289
26. Good Omens, or The Nice and Accurate Prophecies of Agnes Nutter, Witch	Neil Gaiman and Terry Pratchett	369
*27. Ring Shout	P. Djèli Clark	183
28. Klara and the Sun	Kazuo Ishiguro	303
*29. Pilgrim	David Whyte	95
30. Come Tumbling Down	Seanan McGuire	206
*31. Such a Fun Age	Kiley Reid	305
32. The Blue Castle	L. M. Montgomery	218
**33. The Midnight Library	Matt Haig	288
**34. The Carrying, Poems	Ada Limón	91
35. The Memory Theater	Karin Tidbeck	221
36. Fever Dream	Samantha Schweblin	183
*37. The Echo Wife	Sarah Gailey	254
38. Braiding Sweetgrass: Indigenous Wisdom, Scientific Knowledge, and the Teaching of Plants	Robin Wall Kimmerer	388
39. The Heart: Frida Kahlo in Paris	Marc Petitjean	187
*40. Minor Feelings: An Asian American Reckoning	Cathy Park Hong	206
41. The Empress of Salt and Fortune	Nghi Vo	121
42. Transcendent Kingdom	Yaa Gyasi	264