Memorable Reads of 2021

The year 2021 comes to a close. To reflect on this year, we’ll look at what reads library found to be mem­o­rable dur­ing this year:

A mem­o­rable book that I read in 2021 was Searching for and Maintaining Peace: A Small Treatise on Peace of Heart by Fr. Jacques Philippe.  Being some­one that can have a ten­den­cy to wor­ry about things I can­not con­trol, I found this book to be a mem­o­rable reminder of the things that tru­ly do mat­ter and ways to keep peace in my heart.  It is a book that I will have to revis­it often because the med­i­ta­tions were very profound.

I recent­ly read the book Midnight Crossroad by Charlaine Harris. I want­ed to try a dif­fer­ent genre, some­thing mod­ern day with a bit of fan­ta­sy. I thor­ough­ly enjoyed the way she brought each char­ac­ter to life with just enough descrip­tions to allow your mind to cre­ate a pic­ture but not too much detail to make you wade/sort through.  And try as I may, I did­n’t solve the mys­tery before any of the char­ac­ters. I had to read it through to its conclusion.

The Songcatcher by Sharyn McCrumb:  A song­catch­er is some­one who tracks down a piece of the past, a song that has been almost for­got­ten, and writes it down so it won’t be lost for­ev­er. Sharyn McCrumb is her­self a song­catch­er. She picks up the thread of a sto­ry in Scotland and weaves it through gen­er­a­tions of the McCourry fam­i­ly to present day North Carolina. And always, through past and present, the old bal­lad song, almost for­got­ten, winds its way through each one’s story.

One of the mem­o­rable books I read from this year is called Sabriel by Garth Nix. It’s about a young woman who grows up in an all girls board­ing school but when her father does­n’t show up for his month­ly meet­ing with his daugh­ter, she goes look­ing for him. What makes this book so mem­o­rable is that yes she goes look­ing for him, but she has mag­ic to help her. She is the Abhorsen in Waiting which means she stands against necro­mancers and returns the risen dead back to Death. Along her jour­ney she meets her fam­i­ly’s assis­tant, Mogget, a free mag­ic crea­ture that appears to her in the shape of a cat, and she meets an ille­git­i­mate prince that has been impris­oned as a wood­en mast­head on ship for the past 500 years as well as mem­bers of the Clayr, who are clair­voy­ant and see visions in water. She finds her father and has his brief help before she has to defeat the biggest threat to the Old Kingdom in the past 500 years, Kerrigor. 

Over the sum­mer, I read a book call Sherwood.” As you can tell by the title, the book is about the all famous Robin Hood. But aside from the names of the char­ac­ters and places, there is lit­tle that stays the same.
Megan Spooner real­ly took this great nov­el, and rearranged it into a strange­ly greater ver­sion of itself. I high­ly rec­om­mend it. 

The book I have cho­sen this month is An Innocent Traitor: A Novel of Jane Grey. It is writ­ten by Alison Weir, who man­ages to meld his­tor­i­cal facts with imag­i­na­tive fic­tion to pro­duce a com­pelling por­trait of a young woman in a time full of polit­i­cal intrigue and upheaval, an intel­li­gent woman who want­ed noth­ing to do with the dra­ma of the Tudor court. Lady Jane Grey was the great niece of King Henry IIV, and after the death of his heir, Edward VI, was placed on the throne for only nine days. 

This year I was unable to go to con­ven­tions.  It was a real shame as it is a real bond­ing moment with my friends when we go.  Reading Zoe Rosenthal is not Lawfully Good real­ly brought back the feel­ing of being at a con though.  It real­ly felt like a pick me up and the char­ac­ters had me very invest­ed in the sto­ry.  The plot is that main char­ac­ter, Zoe, goes to her first con (and what she thinks is only) con.  She meets friends and starts going to more, in secret.  The book is good at por­tray­ing what it is like being a teenage nerd, both good and cringey parts to it.  It is also good at show­ing the com­radery between nerd friends.