Books of the Year, Part Two
Sometimes I think I have not, ah, read the room when I start my year-end recommendations with the darker, more violent, harsher reads (that description notwithstanding, make sure you check out last week’s Part One so you know what we’re doing here.)
Because, like, here’s what we need more of at the end of the year:
Kindness
Free time
About an inch more of wrapping paper for that one present
Grace, for ourselves and others
Clean proteins and leafy greens
Here’s what we don’t need more of:
Hard things
For some reason, many of the best books I read this year are harder. Topics. Outcomes. Truths. But stay strong, cupcakes, because we do have a couple of many-lambers in the mix. And there’s always next year!
So read on for Part Two of my books of the year, and share your favorite read of the year in the comments. But mostly - remember how grateful I am for you reading every or even one newsletter this year! Books are magic! And so are you.
Chain-Gang All-Stars is set in a fictionalized reality where incarcerated people fight to the death in popular televised, reality-show style arena matches. It’s imaginative, audacious, unsettling, heartbreaking. A little on the nose, but still a great read. For fans of The Trees.
Code Name Verity is another WW2 spy novel — when a British spy plane crashes in Nazi-occupied France, two women go down. One is captured and interrogated by the Nazis, forced to reveal her story or be killed.
Dangerous, clever, tense, well-voiced, both wry and wrenching. This was such a good spy novel.
Funny that this has not been nominated for any awards, because it really felt like the summer of The Covenant of Water, didn’t it? Maybe critics couldn’t get through all 736 pages?!? But trust me - this sweeping saga of many generations of family in Kerala, India, revolving around one matriarch, is beautiful, luscious, big-hearted, and - yes! - very fast-paced and easy to read. It’s worth it! (Read more of why I loved it here.)
I don’t know a single person who read Identitti but it might be the book I’ve thought the most about this entire year. It’s a weird and challenging book following blogger and grad student Nivedita, when she learns in a public scandal that her beloved mentor and South Asian professor Saraswati is, in fact, a white woman.
It’s provocative, idiosyncratic, heady, frustrating, creative. Read more about why I liked it here.
Mrs. Nash’s Ashes, where Millicent is on a mission to return her elderly neighbor’s ashes to her long-lost love and meets cute/maddening Hollis on the way, is the best romcom I read this year by a mile. It’s sweet, hilarious, moving, stuffed with action and stakes while feeling totally contained. Like a great Emily Henry. Loved it so hard.
The Eyre Affair and subsequent books in the series follow Thursday Next, a literary detective in an alternate Britain where books reign supreme, time travel and cloning are common, and someone is trying to kidnap Jane Eyre from her own book.
I j’adore a “fun mystery” and this one is quirky, head-spinning, delightfully punny, and just a charm from start to finish. Kind of oddball but if you like it, you’ll really like it.
Still More Book Recommendations: The Honorable Mentions
Honestly, I really deliberated over books this year, and basically every book in my Honorable Mentions list could have made the top. So head on over there if you want more suggestions! (“Yes, Kerry,” you’re thinking. “Right now, what I want after this endless newsletter is still more books.” FINE it’s THERE when you WANT it.)
Final Words of the Year’s Final Newsletter
As with last week, all links go to The Best Bookstore in Palm Springs, whose text-to-buy concierge is maybe my favorite thing of the year.
Long time readers will know that my mailings are very sporadic in January and February due to work commitments. So they may not be every week, but I’ll see you sometime. And of course, there’s always the archive with tons of book recommendations!
Please share this with a friend if you’re so inclined, but either way - I am grateful whether you’ve read one newsletter or all 139 (thanks, Karen!)