Top Ten Tuesday is a weekly linkup of book bloggers hosted by That Artsy Reader Girl! It’s the last day of the year, so let’s look back on my favorite releases of the year, eh?
Winter of the Witch: I loved the first two books in this trilogy, so I was nervous about whether Katherine Arden could bring it home and give Vasya the ending she deserved. I shouldn’t have worried. This series-closer was amazing and I loved it!
Daisy Jones and the Six: I was a little skeptical at first of this Behind-the-Music-style story about a band who make a best-selling masterpiece and then break up on tour, but I fell in love with Daisy, Billy, and the interplay between all the band members. I just couldn’t put it down!
The Last Romantics: I love a long-running family saga, and Conklin’s tale about siblings that become tightly bonded when their mother falls into a deep depression after their father’s death was a great one. It wasn’t perfect, but I found it deeply compelling.
Polite Society: This retelling of Emma in modern-day upper-crust India was darker than the original, but nicely balanced being an homage to Austen and opening up the narrative so that side characters got fuller development.
Say Nothing: I had virtually no understanding of The Troubles going in to this book, and needed some Wikipedia help at the beginning, but this exploration of that time through the story of a mother of ten being “disappeared” was fascinating and informative.
After the Party: Even the Allies had internal fascist movements during the World War II era, and this book explores the way one woman gets involved with Sir Oswald Mosley’s British Union of Fascists, combining elegant prose and a determinedly unsympathetic protagonist.
First: This is a thorough biography of Sandra Day O’Connor, the first woman to sit on the US Supreme Court and one of my personal heroes. It’s a little dry at points, but overall a well-rounded look at a trailblazing woman.
Death Prefers Blondes: If you’ve ever wondered why heists don’t have more drag queens, this is the book for you! It’s fast-paced and doesn’t forget to slow down for some heartfelt moments among the winky, campy fun. A very entertaining read!
The Club: A teenage German orphan finds himself caught up in a mysterious plot by his aunt, taking him to Cambridge’s most exclusive inner circle and exposing the rot at its core. This was uneven, but grabbed and held my attention.
Without A Prayer: How does a 19 year-old end up being beaten to death by his own parents and sister in church in upstate New York? Because that church has become a cult, in an awful but fascinating true story. It reads more like a very extended piece of reporting than a book with narrative structure and falls very short on the kind of analysis and perspective that would let it take off, but it’s interesting nevertheless.
