Hello friends! And welcome to our first end of year wrap up! As we have read quite a few books for Shelf Explored Book Club and in our personal lives this year we thought it would be fun to give you guys a peek into our favorites, least favorites, and maybe some surprises we experienced.
A good place to start is how many books did we read this year?
Michaela: I felt this year wasn’t my best year as far as the number of books read but it's way better than it has been compared to the last few years. This year I read a total of 19, as of this post which includes book club reads and personal ones. Hopefully I’ll be able to finish one more before the end of the year but I’m not going to push myself. I had a mix of physical books and audiobooks, but I read mostly physical books this year.
Jacilyn: I’ve never been the best at keeping track of exactly how many books I read, but my best estimation would be about 22, give or take a couple, between book club and my personal reads. Like Michaela, I’ve listened to some as audiobooks, but ALL of my books this year have been accessed digitally. I have found that having access to books on my phone or Kindle has helped me read a lot more than I have in recent years; the convenience is a major factor - I basically always have my phone on me, so it makes it a lot easier to read a little bit here and there throughout the day, and my phone is easier to hold than many books which is really helpful in preventing pain flare ups in my hands and arms.
Some of the books I included in my count are re-reads. I’ve mentioned this before, but I am a notorious re-reader and oftentimes I have to read a book or series at least twice to really pick up on all of the details. I am a firm believer in including re-reads in your total book count - it’s not about the number of new books you read, it’s about the books you read in general. And remember, audiobooks absolutely count as reading!
Our favorite book club reads!
Michaela: I’m really torn between two books for my favorite. So I’m going to cheat and pick two. They’re very different from each other so I’m going to pretend that I can get away with it.
My first favorite of this year was our January book, Trail of Lightning by Rebecca Roanhorse. I loved this book so much. It was dystopian, mythological, supernatural and had a strong female lead. Literally all the things that I love to have in a book. I enjoyed this book so much that after finishing it I immediately went to buy the sequel to read.
My other favorite was House in the Cerulean Sea by TJ Klune. Never before have I felt so much love in one book. This story is the only book I’ve read that has felt like it was actually giving me a hug. It was so cozy while also having some adventure and stakes in it. I would recommend this book to anyone and everyone of every age. It’s the most beautiful story and it's full of magic. Definitely has been added to the top of my cozy re-read stack.
Jacilyn: I have the same two favorite book club reads as Michaela, actually! Like she mentioned, these two books are so different from each other that I can’t decide between the two of them as my favorite. Trail of Lightning by Rebecca Roanhorse was an exciting apocalyptic adventure that spotlighted Navajo culture and mythology and blurred the lines between magic and realism. I was on the edge of my metaphorical seat the entire time, and the ending not only surprised me but also made me want to pick up the next book immediately. As of right now, the series isn’t finished yet, but I’m hopeful we’ll get an end to the series eventually!
My other favorite book was of course The House in the Cerulean Sea by TJ Klune. This book exploded in popularity this year, and I know quite a few people who learned about it from TikTok. This book was so popular that it earned the spot of most checked out Adult fiction book from the library I worked at! And for good reason - this book is basically love in book form, and gods know we all need a little bit of extra love after the last couple of years. I challenge you to read this book and not feel the wholesome vibes! In my opinion, it’s basically impossible. The House in the Cerulean Sea had characters that I wished were real more than any other characters I’ve ever encountered while reading, and their experiences touch on topics and lessons that are very real in our lives right now. This book is so special to me, and I think everyone should give it a read!
Our least favorite book club reads!
Jacilyn: There was really only one book this year that I wished I wouldn’t have wasted the time on, and that is Murder at the Book Club. I didn’t enjoy the way it was written, none of the characters were appealing to me, and frankly the plot just didn’t make much sense to me. This might be right up some people’s alley, but it just missed the mark for me and I don’t see myself reading anything else by the same author anytime soon.
Michaela: Probably not a surprise to anyone but Murder at the Book Club was my least favorite book club read this year. It was not for me. I do enjoy mystery/crime genre novels but this book was not written in the way I enjoy to consume those stories. There were definitely some interesting parts of the story but as a whole I felt a little let down from what I thought I was getting from the synopsis. It was also a little confusing as far as the writing was concerned.
Most Challenging Book Club Read!
Jacilyn: The most challenging book club read for myself was probably both The Parting Glass by Gina Marie Guadagnino and Diana: In Her Own Words by Andrew Morton. Both of these titles are genres that I don’t read as often - historical fiction and biography - so getting in the right mindset to read took some practice. That being said, I was surprised at how much I ended up enjoying The Parting Glass - by the end of it, I found the topics of queer identity, racism, misoginy, jealousy, and revolution to be a fascinating combination, and I’m grateful I read the book.
I also found Diana: In Her Own Words to be a bit challenging, just because I am more used to reading books that are more narrative driven. That being said, the book combined with the podcast You’re Wrong About’s episodes on Diana made me realize why the public loved Diana so much. Being born in 1995, I was alive for her death but since I was so young, I didn’t really experience how the loss of her life impacted people all over the world. I’ve grown to admire Diana, in all her complicated glory, so this was a great first “adult” biography for me to read.
Michaela: The most challenging book to read mental health wise was Big Fat Manifesto by Susan Vaught. This book dealt with disordered eating, mental health, and fatphobia which all hit me in a very personal way. It was really hard for me to read this book because of the topics. The book itself was really wonderful and the writing was great, but if you have struggled with disordered eating I would say this book deserves a trigger warning. In all, it's a book I would recommend but not a re-read for me.
The most challenging book to read as far as reading difficulty was Diana: In Her Own Words by Andrew Morton. I’ve only ever read a couple biographies in my life and this genre is a hard one for me. This book sparked a love of Princess Diana that I didn’t know I had. However, the writing at times felt biased, judgemental, and unreliable. And it also was just so much information thrown at you all the time that I got confused on who was who a lot and had to do a bit of googling to keep everyone straight. Diana had a complex life and has an astounding legacy so I’m sure any book about her would be dense with information. I enjoyed the read even though it was challenging. I’m very happy that I read it and it makes me want to read more biographies about Diana and more books in the biography genre in general.
The Book We Never Finished
Full confession, friends. There was a book we had chosen to read and once we started it we decided to put it down and never return to it. Nothing personal to the book or author but the subject of the story hit a little too close to home for both of us. The book we abandoned was Cold Earth by Sarah Moss. This book was about 6 individuals who were isolated on an archaeological dig in Greenland when a plague pandemic swept across the planet. The book is each character writing a letter to someone at home who they might never see again. From what we read the story sounded interesting and the writing was pretty good. But a book with this subject during these times…not our best choice, friends. I don’t know that either of us will ever want to pick that book back up after the experience of the last two years and however many to come. We’re being more thoughtful about book choices now, we promise!
Top Books from Our Personal Reads of 2021
Jacilyn: My favorite reads from outside of book club are actually a whole series (that is yet to be completed). I read AND re-read Jennifer Armentrout’s From Blood and Ash series this year, and they were definitely my favorites. FBAA is a more adult take on the kinds of YA books I tend to enjoy best - fantasy with a strong female lead, heavy on the spice, in a world with strong lore. FBAA ticks all of those boxes, and adds a unique take on vampires and werewolves on top - but neither in the way you’d expect. You learn about the world through the perspective of the protagonist, who is learning how sheltered she’s truly been, making for a fast-paced and eye-opening storyline.
Perhaps the best thing about FBAA is that the protagonist, Poppy, isn’t the typical picture of a YA heroine. The description of her appearance is purposely open to interpretation but Poppy Balfour is certainly not written as a thin, lithe, conventionally “ideal” body type. She is soft, with creases, and folds, and is heavily scarred across her body. In short, she is a heroine who I can relate to in a way I’ve never been able to before. And on top of her body type, she is strong, and can hold her own with a sword, bow, hand-to-hand.. Basically, she’s a badass, and has become one of my favorite characters.
I’m just about finished with my re-read, and I would say that I highly recommend reading this series at least twice - since it’s not finished yet, there will be great opportunities to re-read! The reason I recommend it is that starting from the beginning with all the knowledge of what comes next has filled in a lot of gaps that I didn’t notice from the get-go and that’s almost made it an even better reading experience. I’ve listened to the book this time around and for the most part, I’ve really enjoyed the narration as well, which is an important consideration for those who enjoy audio.
Michaela: My top reads outside of book club this year were The Evil Queen by Gena Showalter, House of Salt and Sorrow by Erin A. Craig, and Blood of Elves by Andrzej Sapkowski.
The Evil Queen was a young adult genre re-imagining of the Snow White stories. You start off in our current world and then get transported with the main character to a land made up of fairytale characters called Enchantia. In this land there are many prophecies that echo well known fairy tales and those prophecies keep coming true but not in the way you think. I live for fairytale retellings in book, movie, and TV show forms. I really enjoyed this book and how it twisted the story. I think if you’re a fan of things like the ABC show Once Upon a Time, that you will probably love this book.
House of Salt and Sorrow was one of my most recently finished books of this year and it’s another re-telling of a classic story, this time it’s the Twelve Dancing Princesses. If you’re detecting a theme in my personal choices this year with retellings…you’re not wrong, I’m a sucker for them. This story is filled with spookiness and gives me all the fall vibes. It’s magical and haunting. I actually found it to be a bit creepier than I was expecting but I also think I’m a little sensitive to creepiness (I am easily spooked). It had its haunted gore moments for sure though. I enjoyed the writing and loved the magic in the story. There were times in this book when you did not know what was real and what was a trick of magic which was so intriguing. I could not put it down.
Then the last one I’ll talk about is Blood of Elves by Andrzej Sapkowski which is the first book in the Witcher series. This one is the last book I’ve finished reading as of writing this post and I loved it. I chose to read this book because I watched the first season of Netflix The Witcher adaptation and really enjoyed it. This book actually starts off just after the first season of the show ends which was really nice for me. I liked having the background information for this book because, honestly, I think I might have gotten confused without it. This is the first book written in the series but because it is a high fantasy there is a ton of information given to you all at once which can sometimes be challenging for me. The writing sucks you right in, as does the world and the characters. It's adventurous and fantastical while also having really enjoyable relationships between the characters. This is also the first book I’ve read that was originally published in a different language from my own, which doesn’t really change anything about the book itself but it’s so cool that stories can travel the world and I’m always excited for that.
Book that Surprised You the Most
Michaela. The book that surprised me the most was either Practical Magic by Alice Hoffman or Malice by Heather Walter. Both of these started out too slow for me but by the end I found that I loved them.
Practical Magic, our December book club read, was a character-driven story about a family of women discovering love for each other, themselves, and magic. I was obsessed with how magic worked in this world and the characters felt so real even with the magic influencing their lives. I’m interested in reading the rest of the series so that I can read more about the Owens women throughout the generations. It truly was a magical read and I got so much more out of it than I ever expected.
Malice was a personal read and it is a queer retelling of the story of Sleeping Beauty from the point of view of the “villain” (I told you there was a theme to my personal reads this year). We follow Alyce, the “evil sorceress” of the story, as she falls in love with the Briar princess, Aurora.
It started out slow but it was still really interesting which kept me going. I am passionate about stories from the “villain's” point of view. I love villains; they always have the best stories! Overall I liked this book a lot but it was a little slow. However, I can’t wait for the sequel to come out.
Jacilyn: The book that surprised me the most was The Parting Glass. Like I mentioned in a previous question, I often have a hard time getting into historical fiction, but there was so much drama and so many complicated, fascinating characters that I couldn’t wait to keep reading to see what happened next. On top of the story elements, the backdrop of 19th century New York brought out bits of intrigue that painted a much more interesting picture than I was anticipating. Frankly, it was a bit of a humbling experience to realize I was counting out an entire genre of literature based on a few experiences of bland historical fiction. The LGBTQ aspect of the story, that I was reading around the same time that I was grappling with my own sexual identification, was another aspect of the book that was appealing, particularly with the historical context.
Book Lesson of the Year to Keep in Mind
Michaela: While reviews can be helpful sometimes, I’ve learned not to trust them too much when I’m interested in a story. Which can be hard with the internet and if any of you experience the grandness of #BookTok or even book blogs like ours, opinions are constantly contradicting each other. There’s so many opinions out there. Usually for my personal reads I only read good reviews before starting a book and bad ones I leave until I’ve finished it. So no review has really affected whether or not I read a book this year but in the past I can’t say the same.
Some of the books I read this year that I absolutely loved had some pretty bad or mixed reviews from some people on the internet. Many instances were about YA novels. I’ve noticed that some people review YA novels as if they’re supposed to be written at an adult novel level which is not realistic and doesn’t do the book justice for what it is. My best lesson from this year is to trust my initial interest in a book based on the synopsis and not what people expected from the book. And that goes for everything we’ve said in this post as well. Just because we didn’t like something doesn’t mean you won’t. Everyone has different tastes, even Jac and I differ on books we like even though we have really similar reading interests. Keep your own preferences and likes in mind. While reviews can be helpful, don’t rely on everyone else's opinions too much, your opinion is what matters most.
Jacilyn: Mine is simple. Read what you enjoy. Read what makes you happy, and let others read what makes them happy without judgement. There’s no place for that here!
Favorite Book Accessory of the Year
Jac: This might catch me some slack….. But mine is my phone! When I embraced using my phone as a reading device on a regular basis, my reading has increased significantly. It’s honestly been a great tool this whole time that I could have taken advantage of a lot earlier!
Michaela: My favorite accessory for reading this year was an app called StoryGraph. This app is a place where you can track all the books you’ve read. You can keep track of your progress while reading by pages or percentages, date started, date finished and the way you’re consuming the book (i.e. physical copy, audiobook, or ebook). You can also set reading goals for yourself and keep track of them there. Then once you’ve finished a book you can rate it and leave a review if you wish. It will also suggest new books to you based on your reading history. You can follow other people on the app as well, just by searching their name.
But my favorite part about this app is that it keeps stats of all your reading habits. You can look at charts of your reading information such as how many pages you read, the moods of your reads, the pace, genre, and even a line graph of your month to month book vs pages stats. I find all of this fascinating and I love being able to see such a visual representation of what I’ve accomplished with reading. In a weird way I think this app helps inspire me to read more often and to read different things. Here are some examples of what my stats page looks like:
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