Top books I read in 2021

I mentioned last week in my blog post that I'd passed 100 books read during the year. A friend asked me for my top reads. This is really hard for me to judge, but I'll see if I can pull some out. As I said to her, much of my reading is for relaxation and I relax best with fiction, especially mystery/thriller/crime, but that isn't all I've read. I periodically have a work-related book that I read during some of my lunchtimes (given that I work from home and usually eat lunch on my own).

I keep track of my reading using an app called Goodreads.com, it's really helpful when you read a lot and don't like to re-read books, to have a record of what you've read so you don't accidentally pick up a book twice. It also makes it easier to find new books to read—you can easily look up authors, series, etc. When I've finished a book, I give it a star rating out of five. I've also created a "didn't finish" shelf in Goodreads, this year. Some of the books on that shelf I ditched after reading as many as 100 pages! All the books mentioned below I gave a five out of five rating. Most of these books I read on my Kindle and from a library. My reading is thus limited by what ebooks the library holds.

Here's a sample of the best of what I saw. I'll readily admit I am picky (I am an editor after all)—I discarded nearly two dozen books that I started. Part of that is because the elibrary app that I use unfortunately doesn't allow you to read sample portions of a book. Sometimes the author just couldn't make me care about the character or the plot, at other times they were poorly written, or a different genre than I was interested in.

Some of the books I've read that I gave a five star
rating to.

Fiction

I tend to read "by author" or "by series". So here are some authors I've enjoyed this year (though not all all books by all these authors, some found their way into my "books I didn't finish" list). Many of these are in my favourite genre:

J. A Jance. Joanna Brady series. I read up to #17 of this series. About half of that was 2021. This is about a sheriff who has real-life problems that make her very relatable. It's been great to read, not just about the murders and other mysteries she solves, but how she deals with the challenges in her daily life. Her J.P Beaumont series is also enjoyable.

Dee Henderson. At times this year I've felt delicate and exhausted emotionally. Dee Henderson writes about characters that make you feel safe. It's also been a year I've struggled with being isolated from others. Henderson's stories somehow helped to relieve some of that. I reread the O'Malley series as well as others including Full Disclosure, Traces of Guilt, and Undetected.

Lee Child. One of my sons like to talk about Jack Reacher, the main character in many of Child's books. I can't take too many of them in a short period, but they are a good, action-packed read.

Sue Grafton, the Kinsey Millhone series. I'd read more of these if they were in my elibrary. Alas I'm still waiting.

Fiona McIntosh. I've enjoyed a couple of her books, eg. Bye Bye Baby and Beautiful Death, both part of the Jack Hawksworth series. Many of her books are too romantic for me, though. I don't mind a little bit of realistic romance, but not as the main plot.

Christine Dillon and her Grace series. #6 is coming out this month, and I'm looking forward to it.

A couple of Australian authors I've enjoyed discovering: Sarah Bailey and Jane Harper.

Other authors I enjoyed: David Baldacci, James Patterson, Michael Connelly, Jonathan Kellerman, Jeffery Deaver, Mary Higgins Clark, and Elizabeth Breck.

A Most Clever Girl by Stephanie Thornton is a fictionalised story about a famous American spy during WW2.

Non-fiction

Anne Bogel, Don't Overthink it: Make Easier Decisions, Stop Second-Guessing, and Bring More Joy to Your Life. This easy-to-read book gave me plenty of food for thought.

Khaled Hosseini, A Thousand Splendid Suns. Splendid book that shows the plight of Afghani women. Author of The Kite Runner. [This actually qualifies as creative non-fiction, the characters and situations are fiction, but it's all based on what real like is like in Afghanistan.]

Melissa Fleming, A Hope More Powerful Than the Sea: One Refugee's Incredible Story of Love, Loss, and Survival. Wonderful true story that, like the one above, opens one's eyes to the issues that face refugees.

Carol Fisher Salter, The Subversive Copy Editor. Obviously related to my work, but I think that I'll get around to writing a whole blog post on it, because she has a lot of good advice for people who don't even think of themselves as editors.

Roger Lowther, Aroma of Beauty. A short book about the 2011 disaster in Japan. Moving and profound.

I hope that these are helpful thoughts for someone out there!