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.
