Twenty-Twenty-DONE (aka: a 2021 wrap up)

Well here we are at the start of a new year! I’m a little late on my 2021 wrap up, but oh well. That’s just how it is sometimes! I really like seeing wrap ups of people’s reading years, so I hope you do too since I’m doing it haha. Let’s get to it!

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A General Reading Overview

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I had a pretty good reading year!! Total I read 120 books, and only 11 of those weren’t 4 or 5 star reads for me. I might be a bit less critical than the average reviewer/blogger. But I also think that I’m at a point in my life where I know what I like, and I tend to only pick up books that I’m fairly sure I will enjoy.

Can anyone guess what my most read genre was? Yeah, it was fantasy. No surprise I know haha. I read as much fantasy as science fiction and romance combined! I always think of myself as an equal sci-fi and fantasy reader, but I don’t read as much sci-fi as I think I do. Time to fix that I guess!

In terms of age ranges, I read mostly adult (~60%), with young adult making up almost all of the rest. I read in three different formats: hardcover, paperback, and ebook. Hardcover and ebook were equal (~45% each), with paperbacks making up the rest. Most of the ebooks were ones from my library! Yay for utilizing libraries!

Okay, so now that we have all that info, let’s get to my favorite reads of the year!

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My Top Reads of the Year

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I made a reel on Instagram earlier in December showcasing my top ten reads of 2021 (watch it here). However!! I read A Pale Light in the Black after posting that reel, and I think that book should have been on there haha. And then I also decided that I wanted to include Winterkeep. So here are my top *twelve* reads of last year, in no particular order.

• The Bone Maker by Sarah Beth Durst [adult fantasy standalone] – review
• Iron Widow by Xiran Jay Zhao [young adult sci-fi, first in a series] – review
• Honey Girl by Morgan Rogers [adult contemporary standalone] – review
• Burning Roses by S.L. Huang [adult fantasy novella standalone]
• Velocity Weapon by Megan E. O’Keefe [adult sci-fi, first in a completed trilogy]
• A Memory Called Empire by Arkady Martine [adult sci-fi, first in a completed duology]
• The Bone Shard Daughter by Andrea Stewart [adult fantasy, first in a trilogy]
• A Psalm for the Wild-Built by Becky Chambers [adult sci-fi novella, first in a series]
• Seven Devils by Elizabeth May and Laura Lam [adult sci-fi, first in an almost completed duology]
• A Pale Light in the Black by K.B. Wagers [adult sci-fi, first in a series]
• Legendborn by Tracy Deonn [young adult fantasy, first in a series] – review
• Winterkeep by Kristin Cashore [young adult fantasy, fourth in a series]

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New Favorite Authors

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My top favorite authors remain the same, but a handful of the books I read last year definitely put some authors on my “will buy” list. Here are some of them:

• Xiran Jay Zhao
• Tracy Deonn
• K.B. Wagers
• Arkady Martine
• Morgan Rogers
• Andrea Stewart
• Yoon Ha Lee
• Joan He
• Chloe Gong
• Aliette de Bodard

A lot of these are authors of books found in my top reads. The others are ones whose books I loved!! But obviously when picking a set of top reads you need to cut out some. Otherwise this blog post would be wayyyy too long haha.

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New Genres?

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Though I mostly stuck to my staple genres, I did dip my toes (i.e. read two books) in a new genre. If you’ve read my posts then you know that that genre is horror! I’m not sure it’ll become a favorite of mine haha but I did love the two that I read (Horrid and In the Shadow of Spindrift House). Those are each by authors that I’ve read and loved before, so I felt it was a good way to try a new genre. I think I’ll probably read some more, but it’ll probably always be fantasy horror or sci-fi horror.

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That’s pretty much it for my reading year! It was a good one, and I’m looking forward to another great year of books. What were some of your standout reads? Did you discover any new favorite authors or genres?