Top Ten Books Read in 2021

It was a hell of a year, and my reading took a serious hit during the pandemic. I just couldn't focus as much as usual. I managed to drag myself over the 100 book mark, but that's normally not a hard thing to do. Luckily, there were some bright spots in all of this - so here are my Top Ten Books. Many of them were published in the last two years, but there are a few other books sneaking in, including one SF classic.

Honourable Mention (Series): The October Daye books by Seanan McGuire

Toby Daye has been juggling human and faery worlds for a while and gathered a chosen family around her, but things start changing in a really fundamental way. I finally got to the first huge turning point in this series, and absolutely loved the shakeup, the way plot points had all been set up over a long period of time, and then executed in delightful and surprising ways. Three of the books in this series made it to the round of 16 when I was doing my tournament, and while none of them cracked the Top Ten individually, the accomplishment of this series gives it a much deserved honourable mention.

 10. Black Sun by Rebecca Roanhorse

Epic fantasy in a Mesoamerican world? A city riven by conflict between different factions and different priests, with doom coming on black wings?  Where one group is hellbent on destroying all of the present order of things, and perhaps the world itself in the process? This was not a hard sell for me, and lived up to the promise. The characters were compelling, and the world utterly engrossing. I'm looking forward to seeing where it goes from here.

 

9. Black Water Sister by Zen Cho

I've read Zen Cho's Sorcerer to the Crown, and enjoyed it as a romp, but I think Black Water Sister is even better. Set in present-day Malaysia, main character Jess is trying to figure out who she is and what she should do next. The ghost of her grandmother has some very specific ideas, and they involve taking revenge on a gangster and saving a temple - but Black Water Sister, the goddess of that temple has plans for Jess as well that involve mediumship, death, and destruction. One of the last books I read this year, and one I enjoyed every second of.

 

8. The Witch's Heart by Genevieve Gornichec

You may notice a trend this year that I was kind of a sucker for retellings, whether of Norse myth, Greek myth, or fairy tales. Done well, I love to see what new authors make of old stories. This version of Angrboda and her ill-fated relationship with Loki and her children who were destined to end the world didn't feel like it was bringing anything really revolutionary to the picture, but oh, it did what it was doing so beautifully. The writing sucked me in, and the story of how her marriage shaped her children and their fate was a much needed diversion when the pandemic was at its deepest.

 

7. Little Fires Everywhere by Celeste Ng

Both of Ng's books have just blown me away, and while it took me a couple of years to get to this second one, it was just as good as the first. As a study of conformity vs. non-conformity, and how choices are justified, how actions are carried through, it was incisive. It's easy to make it sound like a popcorn book, if you reduce it to the  inevitable conflicts between a mom who has justified every choice that led to her comfortable, wealthy existence and her photographer tenant who never stays in one place or on one project for too long, but it's the attention to the characters, their children, and why everyone does what they do that makes this so strong. 

6. Relentless Moon by Mary Robinette Kowal

I absolutely loved the first Lady Astronaut book, and very much enjoyed the second, although I thought it wasn't quite as strong. The third book just blew me away. The focus changes to Nicole, astronaut, governor's wife, all-around badass who struggles with arthritis and an eating disorder, as well as a space agency who would love to call her too old to fly and ground her. We get the ongoing political struggles on Earth as well as an epidemic on the Moon. Love Nicole as a main character, love this world, and at times it feels all too reminiscent of the present-day, but in ways that ring true for this version of the 1950s.

5. Circe by Madeline Miller

I'm a little late to the party on this one, and for no good reason, since my deep love of Greek mythology is firmly on the record. It took a friend dropping a care package of books off on the doorstep to finally get me to sit down with this one, and so another retelling of mythology lands on my best-of list. Miller fleshes out the story of Circe in fascinating ways, giving her a real arc and motivation that completely sucked me in. If this sounds like something you'd like, it probably is. It deserves all the attention it got a few years ago.

4. The House in the Cerulean Sea by T.J. Klune

This was just a warm gay hug of a book, and when I read it, I needed that warmth and love more than just about anything in the world. It's about Linus, who lives a very normal grey life in the city, working for the Department in Charge of Magical Youth, who files reports on their living conditions and never much thinks about what might come of it. Until he gets sent to survey the house where the Antichrist lives, along with, among others, a were-Pomeranian, a gelatinous blob who aspires to be a bellhop, a surly girl gnome who threatens him regularly with her shovel, and falls in love with all of the children, as well as their guardian, Arthur. It's about family in a world that fears difference and I was just in love with everyone as Linus ends up being.

 

3. Sorrowland by Rivers Solomon

I just finished this, and holy crap. I've liked everything Solomon has written so far, but with Sorrowland, they've just absolutely knocked my socks off. There were times at the beginning that I wasn't sure how much I was going to like it. The main character, Vern, on the run from a religious Black power commune, was often unlikeable to the point of it being painful, but in the end she squirmed her way under my skin in the same way strange bone structures grow under hers. There is anger here, and love, and fierceness, and it was nothing like what I was expecting. 

2. The Lathe of Heaven by Ursula K. Le Guin

There wasn't ever another SF writer quite like Ursula K. Le Guin, and even now, after her death, she is still blowing me away with how good, how interested, how incisive and smart her science fiction is. This one is just so good, about a man who discovers he can change reality through his dreams, and is terrified, and the shrink who is more than happy to exploit that power for his personal gain (although he tells himself it's for the good of society.) There's a little bit of Buddhism and mysticism in here, a lot of thought, and every page was a delight. 

 

1. The Once and Future Witches by Alix Harrow

I liked but didn't love Harrow's first book, but I loved this one. It's a brilliant scream of rage and love, aimed at early industrialism, but with strong emotional resonance today. It's about fairy tales, it's about three sisters who fight but under that love each other more than anyone in the world, it's about misogyny, the industrial state, and the power of solidarity. Every page made me love the book and my own two sisters more. With a new baby entering the mix, this book had particular resonance for me this year, reminding me of the lengths I'd go to to protect my sisters and my niece.

Top Ten Books Read in 2020

Coming out of book reviewing retirement to post my Top Ten of 2020! Like many people, 2020 hit my reading numbers hard, as I lacked brain power much of the time. Still, I finished 108 books. I felt like there were few books that really set me on fire, but I'm very happy with the Top Ten.

10. A Memory Called Empire by Arkady Martine

 I wasn't entirely in line with Hugo voting this year, as this came about half-way down my ranking for best novel, but that's really a reflection of how strong the category was. This interstellar look at colonialism, peripheries, and belonging (and identity and a bunch of other things) was very intriguing and had great political tension. The main character is sent from her unannexed home to the seat of Empire and finds herself pulled into immediate jockeying for the future in a culture she loves and doesn't quite belong in. 

9. The Vanished Birds by Simon Jimenez

 In a corporate-controlled future that relies on colonized and segregated planets for essential crops, having ships move at light speed to collect the goods at the cost of the years of the lives the crew could have had with their loved ones, the creator of the system tries to remember why she's so dissatisfied with why it's the way it is, a young child has the ability to jump instantaneously between worlds, and a ship captain takes him in and wants to protect him like family. The Vanished Birds is beautifully written and engrossing.

 

 

8. Middlegame by Seanan McGuire

The alchemical tale of separated twins/principles Roger and Dodger and their attempts to find their way back to each other are thwarted by parents, friends, and the master alchemist who created them and wants to sacrifice them on the altar of his power. Seanan McGuire's writing is always entertaining, and this tale is satisfyingly twisty and emotional both. 

 

 

 7. Before Mars by Emma Newman

I read several books from this series this year, and there were almost two on this list. Before Mars was the one that made it through, an examination of memory, amnesia, dissatisfaction with being a parent, art, and corporations that are perfectly willing to sacrifice many to save the members of their boards. The main character is sent to Mars to paint landscapes (and do science), but finds eerie relics that suggest she has been here before. But it could be suspended animation psychosis. Or?

 

6. In An Absent Dream by Seanan McGuire 

Seanan McGuire was the one author who did manage to appear twice on this list. I've enjoyed all the Wayward Children books, but this is one of my favourites. We follow Lundy, who we met previously as an adult, through her childhood in and out of the Goblin Market, where everything is about giving fair value, and the Market takes any imbalance out of those who try to cheat the system, one way or another. Somehow, this made me feel like curling up in a cozy library and never coming out. 

 

5. The Future of Another Timeline by Annalee Newitz

 Oh fuck, this was good, a glorious angry rampage through a timeline that is under attack, where women and non-binary people fight off time traveller excursions from the worst bros you could imagine, who want to twist the world to a point where women have been robbed of virtually everything you can imagine. (The details are truly terrifying.)  Centered around Comstockery and the Chicago World's Fair, as well as the riot grrls of the 1990s, it's also about the main character seeing how her life became what it is, in the midst of a war where everything is on the line.

 

4. Gideon the Ninth by Tamsyn Muir

What the hell even was this book? Lesbian necromancers in space, in the rotting remains of recognizable technology, holding themselves together by the skin of their...bones. Narrated by an opinionated, profanity-prone narrator. It shouldn't work. It's such a mishmash. And yet somehow it does, held together by sheer force of the author's will. Follow Gideon as she goes with the head of her house and arch-nemesis Harrow to answer the call of the Emperor and try to become one of his Lyctors. Oh yeah, it's part murder mystery as well. I mean, what genre isn't it?

 

3. Catfishing on CatNet by Naomi Kritzer

It's no secret that I'm not that fond of a lot of YA fiction. Well, this year I found one that I wanted everyone to read, no matter their age. It's just plain good science fiction, the teenagers at the centre are believable and face real problems about sexuality, family, and being pursued by a non-custodial parent. Oh, and there's a cat-picture-loving AI who has been keeping tabs on the people who frequent their website. It's just delightful and satisfying, and one of the most interesting examinations of digital sentience I've read, full stop. 

 

2. Gods of Jade and Shadow by Silvia Moreno-Garcia

A young woman takes a road trip with the Lord of the Underworld through Jazz Age Mexico, in search of a way to save herself and him both. Look, if that description doesn't get you on board, I don't know what will. The characters are great, the mythology compelling, and Moreno-Garcia interweaves mythological concerns with real-world ones just beautifully. I want everyone to read this one.

 

 

1. This is How You Lose the Time War by Amal El-Mohtar and Max Gladstone

If you know me in real life, this should cause negative amounts of surprise. I loved this book, I fell in love with this book, I've read it twice this year and both times found the precise point past which I could not put the book down until it was done and could not stop crying. It's beautifully written, it's just everything I want a book to be. Two opponents in a time war, Red and Blue, correspond over multiple strands of the potential timeline, finding more in common than they expected. I want everyone to read it.
 
 
 

Top Ten Books of 2018

It is once again time to compile a list of the top ten books I read this year! As always, very few books on this list came out this year, as I am not that abreast of what's going on. This was the first year in which I voted for the Hugos, so I'm closer to being with it than usual. The one thing that most delighted me about the voting process was how good so many of the nominees were, and you'll see them pop up here several times. As a result, the whole list is even more weighted towards genre fiction, but I feel pretty good about it.

10. Summer in Orcus by T. Kingfisher

This was just so utterly delightful. Only my second venture into Ursula Vernon's oeuvre, and I'll be going back often. We have here a portal fantasy, but with such invention and enthusiasm that every bit of it made me happy. With a werewolf who turns into a house by night, a high society Ton of birds, and the fact that you can't trust antelope women, there's so much to love here.

9. Radiance by Catherynne Valente

Radiance is strange and wonderful, and I'm still not sure I entirely understand it. That doesn't mean it hasn't stayed with me though, and so it enters this list at #9. We dance between planets and genres through a golden age of silver screen moviemaking, with space whales and the mystery of the death of a promising young filmmaker. Absence is presence, and no one can decide what genre this story should be.

8. Spoonbenders by Daryl Gregory

This is a weird and awesome mix of conventional family drama and sort-of science fiction, as we're drawn into the family life of a group of formerly famous psychics - or were they always just con artists? And does it really matter, if the CIA wants to continue to do experiments on you?

7. Underground Railroad by Colson Whitehead

I loved this twist on a literal Underground Railroad, with stops in all sorts of forms of historical (and present) racism. Like a lot of books this year, difficult at times, but so worth it. A lot of my top books this year are interesting twists that use some aspect of genre fiction to great and unusual effect, and that helps brings the ring of truth to something entirely metaphorical in this case.

6. The Black Tides of Heaven by JY Yang

I was utterly astounded by this book when I reaad it as part of my Hugo voting this year. Just blown away. Silkpunk, power struggles, revolution, twins, and a whole lot more. If you want good fantasy that is a little bit unlike anything you've read, start here. And then go on to the other books. (I haven't taken my own advice yet, but I will!)

5. The Obelisk Gate by N.K. Jemisin 

I am not sure how my heart made it through the last two-thirds of this trilogy this year, but I am grateful that it did. (You'll be seeing more of Jemisin a few books from now.) The Obelisk Gate occupies that middle spot in a trilogy with such power that it knocked me off my feet with its depiction of community forming even under the worst of pressures.

4. Lincoln in the Bardo by George Saunders

It made me so happy that the big book from last year was one that I thoroughly and unreservedly enjoyed. As soon as the book clicked for me, I was in no matter where it went from there. And where it went was a lot of enjoyable places meditating on the core of identity, the power of grief, and the fallacies of memory.

3. The Calculating Stars by Mary Robinette Kowal

It might be impossible to craft a book that hits more of my personal buttons and to do it with such grace and aplomb that I started crying in the first few chapters? I'm blown away. This was a page turner and something more thoughtful, all at the same time.

2. All My Puny Sorrows by Miriam Toews

Will it sound weird if I say that I hope I never read another book this devastating again? This book broke me, over and over. Some of what she wrote I hadn't experienced and appreciated, and some of it I had, or versions of grief close enough to feel the truth underlying every word, phrased directly and without obfuscation. This is wondrous and traumatizing. 

1. The Stone Sky by N.K. Jemisin 

The choice for the best book I read this year was not easy, but it should come as no surprise. I do not think you can overstate how important, and even more, how good these books are. The Stone Sky brings it all home in such a way that it hurt to read, but wrapped everything up in a way that did service to all the history that had brought these characters to that place. Astounding.






Honourable Mentions: (AKA Books It Hurt Me To Cut From The Top Ten:

Under the Pendulum Sun by Jeannette Ng
An Unkindness of Ghosts by Rivers Solomon
Down Among the Sticks and Bones by Seanan McGuire

Two Books That Got Screwed Over by Chance and the Tournament Format:

All the Birds in the Sky by Charlie Jane Anders
The Stars Are Legion by Kameron Hurley

Top Ten of 2017!

Even though I didn't do the full Dust Cover Dust-Up this year, I still came up with a Top Ten list. As with every year, very few if any of the books on the list came out in the last year - since I get most of my books from the library, I'm always at least a few years behind. Still, no matter when they came out, these books are worth your time and attention. There are links to the full reviews if you want to read more of my thoughts on the matter.

10. World of Trouble by Ben Winters

I read this whole trilogy last year, and I enjoyed it from start to finish. But of the three, I think it was the last that struck me the most. It didn't flinch as the trilogy ended off, but Winters strung interesting ideas throughout about how the  world would react to an imminent end, and peppered through bits of hope and conspiracy that were powerful. It's the last few pages, though, that really elevate the whole damn thing.

9. Moby Dick by Herman Melville

This was the big classic I read this last year, after trying and failing to get through Don Quixote and The Brothers Karamazov. Moby Dick was the book I responded to, with all the varieties of obsession on display, including encyclopedic whale lore. I'd read it again, I really would.

 



8. A God in Ruins by Kate Atkinson

I think of the two books in these companion novels, I liked Life After Life the best, but it got knocked out of a previous Dust-Up due to an unlucky matchup. Still, I have no problem putting A God In Ruins in my top ten this year. The story of Teddy, the brother of Ursula, and the parts of his life told all out of order, always circles back to the war and his experiences as a pilot. It is riveting, and the end is brutal.

 
7. Planetfall by Emma Newman

Wow, I did not see this book coming. For some reason, I thought it was YA - probably because it was in and amongst a bunch of other YA books on my library list. What it is instead is really insanely good science fiction, paired with an unsettling look at trauma and mental illness. It's set on another planet in the shadow of a huge building that the settlers below think was made by God. I can't even begin to explain why it is so good, but this book haunts me.

 
6. Ancillary Mercy by Ann Leckie

I just loved this whole series, and can't wait to read the related book. Of course, a language with only one gender, and that one translated into English as feminine, is interesting, but the books are so much more - about power, empire, inequality, and identity. We keep on following the ship in the body of a person as she tries to stay alive and fight off the woman who's trying to kill her.

5. The Yiddish Policeman's Union by Michael Chabon

I am sort of a sucker for noir mysteries paired with science fiction, although I'm not convinced this is science fiction. Alt-history, absolutely, and I guess the two tend to get lumped together. Either way, this is a mix of a detective trying to solve a murder in the last days before Sitka gets returned to Alaska from its time as a temporary Jewish homeland, to a conspiracy around the return, family drama, and a whole bunch more. It was so up my alley it wasn't funny.

4. My Real Children by Jo Walton

Oh dear, this was a year for books that just about destroyed me, and Jo Walton's My Real Children left me with tears running down my face. I guess we're sort of in alt-history again, as we follow a woman through two versions of her life. But this avoids the trap of the "good life" and the "bad life," and gives us something nuanced and difficult about individual action, and the way we live.

 

3. The Accursed by Joyce Carol Oates

This was the first Oates book I have ever read, and it won't be the last. On the surface, it's a Gothic horror, set in Princeton against a backdrop of familiar historical figures. Underneath that, though, lie the horrors of gender, of race, of class, and violences done in the name of each. I was enthralled. It's another book I want someone to read just so I can discuss it with them.

2. The Parable of the Talents by Octavia Butler

Octavia Butler just about always knocks me on my ass, with her skill at delving into deeply uncomfortable power dynamics without ever being didactic. In fact, I've found that I disagree with some people on interpretations in ways that creep me out. In this second Parables book, we see the continued story of Lauren through the lens of her estranged daughter, as she struggles against the worst that fundamentalist Christianity can throw against her and Earthseed, her fledgling religion, both.

And that brings us to the book that knocked my socks off this last year, the book I have run out and buttonholed everyone I know to tell them to read it right freaking now. You should do the same.

1. The Fifth Season by N.K. Jemisin

Just...read it. This is so good and so complex and so difficult. We are in another world where frequent cataclysms have created groups that are more or less protected during unstable periods, and many are cast out. In and among them are the orogenes, able to control seismic activity, potentially dangerous and therefore tightly controlled. This is all about power, of many sorts, and women who navigate tightly restricted worlds. It's so, so amazingly good. 

Dust Cover Dust-Up Top 10 of 2015

I made it! It took an ungodly long time, but here we are. The end of the 2015 Dust Cover Dust-Up. It's been a long road, but here we are. After I announce the totally unsurprising book of the year, I'll put down my top ten. We're down to two books:

The Magicians by Lev Grossman vs. Written on the Body by Jeanette Winterson

I loved both of these books a lot, and recommend that you should read both. Like, right now. In the end, though, it's not really that hard a choice. Jeanette Winterson's book knocked my socks off in a way no other book this year has, and I've been telling everyone I meet to read it. (And next month, making my book club read it.) So, there you go. The winner of the 2015 Dust Cover Dust-Up.

The Top 10 of 2015 are after the cut: