Markon reads in 2021

Hi, I'm Ardene, and I plan to read in five categories this year.

• Fantasy


• Literary fiction


• Mystery


• Nonfiction


• Science fiction

Favorite 2020 Reads
Lost children archive by Valeria Luisellil
Dreamsnake by Vonda McIntyre
Just Us: an American conversation by Claudia Rankine
An American Sunrise by Joy Harjo

I found I read a lot more 3-star comfort reads this year than usual.

Photo credit Stefan Keller from Pixabay

Fantasy

1. The girl who chased the moon by Sarah Addison Allen


2. Ghost hawk by Susan Cooper (Cooper calls this a fantasy set in a historical time; I would probably classify it as historical fiction with a ghost.) for juvenile audience


3. Castle waiting, volume 1 by Linda Medley


4. Across the green grass fields by Seanan McGuire


5. reread of The dark is rising series by Susan Cooper


6. The winged histories by Sofia Samatar


7. Citadel of weeping pearls by Aliette de Bodard


8. All the murmuring bones by A.G. Slatter


9. Deal with the devil by Kit Rocha


10. Wild sign by Patricia Briggs


11. A leaf on the wind of all hallow by Diana Gabaldon


12. Black water sister by Zen Cho


13. Hands of the emperor by Victoria Goddard


14. A master of djinn by P. Djeli Clark


15. The Inheritance of Orquídea Divina by Zoraida Cordova


16. insert title


17. insert title

Photo credit Image by Comfreak from Pixabay

Literary fiction
perhaps I should call this historical fiction?
*Starred items are books in translation

1. Leo Africanus* by Amin Maalouf


2. And every day the way home gets longer and longer by Frederick Bachman


3. Kintu by Jennifer Nansubugua Makumbi



4. The mountains sing by Phan Qué̂ Mai Nguyẽ̂n


5. Indelicacy by Amina Cain


6. When all is said by Anne Griffin


7. Yearning for the sea by Esther Seligson*


8. The theory of flight by Siphiwe Gloria Ndlovu


9. Letters to Hermengardo (“Cartas a Hermengardo”) by Clarice Lispector*


10. The secret lives of church ladies by Deesha Philyaw


11. The seed keeper by Diane Wilson
    
12. insert title

*Translated

I am doing a year+ buddy read of The complete stories: Clarice Lispector* with settings in the Category Challenge 2021. Please feel free to drop by to say hello or join in.

Photo credit Image by Zigmars Berzins from Pixabay

Mystery

1. Drawing conclusions by Donna Leon


2. Murder on the Brittany shores by Jean-Luc Bannalec*


3. Silent Voices by Ann Cleeves


4. Blood grove by Walter Mosley


5. The ruin by Dervl McTiernan


6. The scholar by Dervla Mctiernan


7. The lost boys by Faye Kellerman


8. Out of hounds by Rita Mae Brown


9. Death of an artist by Kate Wilhelm


10. Next to last stand by Craig Johnson


11. Blanche passes go by Barbara Neely


12. The darkest evening by Ann Cleeves insert title


13. One last lie by Paul Doiron


14. The consequences of fear by Jacqueline Winspear


15. Revolver Road by Christi Daugherty


16. Not dark yetby Peter Robinson


17. Castle shade by Laurie King


18. The secret book and scone society by Ellery Adams


19. Penny for your secrets by Anna Lee Huberin


20. Many rivers to cross by Peter Robinson


21. One of our own by Jane Haddam


22. In the Galway silence by Ken Bruen


23. The book of candlelight by Ellery Adams


24. Stargazer by Anne Hillerman


25. insert title


26. insert title

* translated

Photo credit Image by Sven Lachmann from Pixabay

Nonfiction (minimum 4/year, but I'd like to hit 12)

1. Unorthodox by Deborah Feldman


2. Black in Selma: the uncommon life of J. L. Chestnut by J. L. Chestnut and Julia Cass


3. Sometimes you have to lie by Leslie Brody


4. The royal kingdoms of Ghana, Mali, and Songhay
   by Patricia McKissack and Frederick McKissack


5. How to survive a plague by David France


6. She come by it natural: Dolly Parton, the great unifier by Sarah Smarsh


7. The old ways: a journey on foot by Robert MacFarlane


8. Wine girl by Victoria James


9. She said: breaking the harrassment story that helped ignite a movement by Jodi Kantor and Megan Twohey


10. insert title

Need to add a category for anything that doesn't fit in my other categories: good old miscellaneous.

1. The flatshare by Beth O'Leary


2. We are water protectors by Carol Lindstrom
   
3. The switch by Beth O'Leary
   
4. The long secret by Louise Fitzhugh


5. Rules for visiting by Jessica Francis Kane


6. insert title


7. insert title

Photo credit Image by 愚木混株 Cdd20 from Pixabay

Science fiction

1. Octvia Butler: Kindred, Fledgling, and collected stories and essays


2. The doors of Eden by Adrian Tchaikovsky


3. A desolation called peace by Arkady Martine


4. Ancestral night by Elizabeth Bear


5. Fugitive telemetry by Martha Wells


6. A psalm for the wild-built by Becky Chambers


7. Ammonnite by Nicola Griffith (reread)


8. Unicorn mountain by Michael Bishop


9. Cuckoo's egg by C. J. Cherryh


10. Serpent's reach by C. J. Cherryh


11. The fifth season by N. K. Jemisin

Bingo Dog



I really enjoy doing this challenge and appreciate the work that goes into picking the categories and getting the cards ready. And I always get at least one bingo.

Cat or kit: history cat January - medieval - Amin Maalouf Leo
Africanus
1. One-word title: Kintu by Jennifer Nansubugua Makumbi
2. About marginalized group: Unorthodox by Deborah Feldman
3. Dark or light word in title: The girl who chased the moon by Sarah Addison Allen
4. Character you'd be friends with: Meg Attaway in Rules for visiting by Jessica Francis Kane
5. Arts and recreation: Black food by Terry Bryant
6. Title describes you: How to by survive a plague by David France
7. You heartily recommend: Hands of the emperor by Victoria Goddard
8. Natural world: The old ways: by Robert Macfarlane
9. Classical element in the title: We are water protectors by Carol Lindstrom.
10. Two or more authors: Black in Selma: the uncommon life of J. L. Chestnut by J. L. Chestnut and Julia Cass
11. Wine girl by Victoria James
12. Contains a love story: The flatshare by Beth O'Leary
14. Southern hemisphere: The girl and the ghost by Hanna Alkaf
17. New to you author: Diane Wilson, The seed keeper
18. Set some place you'd like to visit: A psalm for the wild built by Becky Chambers
19. About history or alternate history: The doors of Eden by Adrian Tchaikovsky
21. Less than 200 pages: The royal kingdoms of Ghana, Mali, and Songhay by Patricia McKissack and Frederick McKissack
22. Senior citizen protagonist: The switch by Beth O'Leary
23. Building in title: Castle waiting, volume 1 by Linda Medley
24. About time: And every day the way home gets longer and longer by Frederick Bachman
25. About or contains magic: reread of The dark is rising by Susan Cooper

Link to the Bingo planning thread

Possible titles to read:
1. Circe by Madeline Miller
3. To keep the sun alive by Rabeah Gaffari
5. Optic Nerve by Maria Gainza
8. The book of eels by Patrik Svensson or Ring of bright water or Eager beavers?
9. earth, water, fire, air, aether
14. Finish the solar punk story collection from South America I bought this year or Optic nerve. (See #5.)
17 or 20. Sacred wilderness by Susan Power (buy) or 2. buy Nervous conditions or This mournable body by Tsitsi Dangarembga

Good set up and lovely pictures - good luck in 2021!

Some great categories!

Interesting pictures. I'm not much for sci-fi but I'll be watching to see if I find some interesting books to stretch myself.

Great categories! I too am looking forward to the Bingo being set up :) It's going to be a great card!

>1 markon:
I love this picture. Those categories should be fun.

You found some amazing pictures for your categories. Happy reading in 2021!

Love all the dog pictures! Looking forward to seeing what you read for your mystery and non-fiction categories.

Great setup! Love the dog pictures.

>9 DeltaQueen50: & >10 Tess_W: Thanks. I'm glad to have a little time to think and put some photos in the thread.

>11 dudes22: Hope you find something that piques your interst.

>12 rabbitprincess: I also love the Bingo cards. I've been putting mine in my Club Read thread, but may link over there this year.

>13 hailelib: I like this one lots too, so I put it at the top.

>14 MissWatson: & >15 LittleTaiko: & >17 VivienneR: Yes, I had fun choosing the pictures. Hope you find something of interest in this thread.

>16 This-n-That: Yes, it seemed like a fun choice

Thanks for the good wishes everyone!

I can see how MysteryKIT will help with your categories in 2021. I hope we can get it going.

Interested to see what non-fiction you come across in 2021. Happy reading.

>19 LadyoftheLodge: Looking forward to the mystery kit. I've already started my list of recommendations for mysteries featuring water in January.

>20 pamelad: Yes, I'm currently reading Just Us: An American Converesation by Claudia Rankine, which is really making me think.

Welcome back!

>22 thornton37814: Nice to see you here!

Wishing you good luck with your 2021 challenge! Hooray for doggies!

>24 mstrust: Thanks for stopping by Jennifer!

Good luck with your 2021 reads! I'll be keeping an eye on your non-fic category :)

Thanks Jackie, I did well with non fiction this year- my goal was one/quarter & I surpassed it.

Enjoy your reading!

Lovely dog pictures, especially No 5!
I plan to read a little more nonfiction, too - I have so many interesting books, but I just never read them.
I hope you have a great reading year!

>28 MissBrangwen: I like that picture too. Though Milo is such a nervous Nelly he would only sit still if we had taken a long walk first.

Good luck with your nonfiction reading!

Link to Bingo post & above

I found you, Ardene. Not sure how well I will keep up in two groups but I will do my best.

No worries Paul, I think we all struggle with keeping up.

Today is my last work day for 2020, and I forgot it was a late one, so I showed up at 8:30 and no other staff were present, though early voting was in full swing. (I live in the state of Georgia.) So I am having a quiet cuppa before lunch.


Image by Pete Linforth from Pixabay

Feeling a bit anxious today. My sisters are moving my almost-93-year-old father to a facility near them tomorrow. There is a storm this morning in Iowa where they live, that's supposed to last until early tomorrow. I hope the roads will be cleared by the time the moving truck is loaded.

They were smart, and drove to a motel near him last night. They have six hours tomorrow to pack up his two bedroom apartment in assisted living (gowned, gloved and masked the entire time) and then the movers arrive to pack everything into the truck and drive two hours to the new facility.

I will feel better once he is moved in and settled.

Best wishes from Germany for your father and I hope that everything goes well and he will be happy in his new home!

I think one of the biggest strains of this pandemic is the effect it has on things that are already hard or difficult, it makes them all the more demanding.

Sending good thoughts for safe and smooth moving to your father and sisters.

I hope things went well for your father and sisters.

Thanks all for your good wishes.

The storm delayed things ( which meant my sisters had more than six hours to pack a good thing.) The physical move & 2 hour drive to new location, unload & unpack + 14-day quarantine for Dad is this morning. I hope to hear good news from my sisters tonight and talk with Dad tomorrow.

Hoping all goes well with the move for your Dad. I love the images you chose for your categories.

He's in, safe and sound! My sisters sent me photos of boxes & furniture in their house, LOL. Now I have to visit so I can help sort into keep and donate piles :-)

My New Year is starting out fun busy. Cooking soup & salad this morning to take to a friend's. Later this morning we are going geocaching, then back to her place for lunch. (She and her husband have declared me in their COVID bubble.)

And keep up with my friends here, Ardene. Have a great 2021.

>39 markon: Sounds like a lovely start to the new year! I'm glad to hear your dad is safe and sound in his new home and hope you'll be able to see him soon.

>38 markon: That must be such a relief! I hope that he soon settles and feels at home.

Happy New Year! Glad to read that the move went well and your dad is settling into his new home. Wishing you a wonderful year of reading in 2021.

Dropping off my and wishing you the best of new years in 2021!

I tend to lose track of you since you left the 75ers, but I've got you starred now.

Glad your dad is settling in and that your reading year is going well so far! I too love the images you chose (I'm partial to the image in >4 markon:, myself).

>44 ronincats: Hi Roni! Great to see you. I'll have to drop a star in the 75ers.

>45 pammab: Thanks Pam. I had fun choosing the images.

I've read two short stories, so that I could finish something, and enjoyed both of them.

"Mother Ocean," by Vandana Singh. Po is the main character in this story, published online as part of the Ocean Stories anthology created for the XPRIZE Foundation. A meditation on a conflicted daughter-mother relationship, and a glimpse of a potential not-so-distant future. I found it melancholic, hopeful, and realistic.

I also read the introduction to Clarice Lispector's The complete stories, and the first story, "The triumph," published in 1940, when Lispector was 19. This was a quick & easy read, and I applauded the protagonist's discovery that she was strong enough to survive without her live-in boyfriend. I'm doing a buddy read of the collection here.

I've spent quite a bit of time lately with Kintu by Jennifer Nansubuga Makumbi. It's a historical saga of a family in what we know know as Uganda covering the 1750s to the present day. I've finished the first"book"of six, which describes Kintu & his family and sets up the difficulties the family will have going forward.

I'm enjoying the novel & look forward to what happens next.

I've also started several other books (I can never read just one), but will not list the others here. But I definitely have enough reading to keep me busy :-)

>48 markon: I'm going to have to buy Kintu! I borrowed it from the library a while back but ran out of time to read it.

>49 rabbitprincess: I bought this 'cause I'm doing a buddy read & don't want to have to return til we're done.

First thoughts on Leo Africanus by Amin Maalouf. I enjoyed this novel more than I expected to. (I'd tried it once before and DNFd it as too dry.)

This time I enjoyed the meditative pace, and the unemotional prose telling about what Hasan/Leo did and where he traveled and things that happened totally out of his control. It also paints a glimpse of a picture of North Africa in the 13th/14th century when the Ottoman Empire was rising.

I have the ususal questions about how much a novel featuring an actual person actually follows a person's life and can describe a person's thoughts. Was Harun a real person? He seemed to me the person who Hasan/Leo was most emotionally connected to over time. It was interesting to me that he didn't seem to miss his family when he was away from them, and that he felt strong attachments to his wives (except his cousin) while he was with them, but didn't dwell on them when he was somewhere else. Or perhaps Maloof was more interested in exploring the outward aspects of his life rather than his thoughts and emotions.

Fits the history cat (medieval period.) I'm also doing a quarterly read about African Empires, and slid this in alongside one or two nonfiction reads.

My friend Sally & I watched the Netflix miniseries over the holidays and enjoyed it. While the trajectory of the story was similar in the book, the details are different, and I'm happy to have had both experiences

Black in Selma tells the story of the ongoing struggle for civil rights in Selma, AL from the perspective of J. L. Chestnut, a native of Selma, and the first black lawyer there. Covers the 1950s - 1980s.

I enjoyed this perspective on the political structure of Selma, the players , both black & white, and the continuing battle for equity.

>53 markon: Looks like a good read, on my WL it goes!

>54 Tess_W: Hope you enjoy it when you get to it Tess.

The doors of Eden by Adrian Tchaikovsky ©2020

This was fun and fast paced. Not as thought provoking as Children of Time or Children or Ruin. Takes us back and forth, though mostly forth, through the last 65 million years of time.

Foregrounded by several human characters in our 21st century with a supporting cast of intelligent beings from other periods.

Lee and Mal go on vacation together, but only one of them comes back, and Lee isn't sure if what she remembers bears any relation to reality. Four years later Mal make contact and things go completely off the rails.

Julian has been charged by the government with keeping Dr. Kay Amal Khan safe, and working for the British. Then some creatures turn up dead in her apartment, his friend and coworker Alison finds an unusual information source and Khan goes missing.

And I’ve gotta say, I’m glad I took the time to look at the structure of this one beforehand, so I had a map of the book when I got to the confusing part. I probably could have read and understood it, but am glad when I got to it I could say, You haven’t lost your place, the author is repeating pieces; that’s what those repeated Is meant!” And I do not understand why the publisher did not put a table of contents in this one. The author had clearly organized the book in a specific way, had specific section and chapter headings, and it would have been 2-4 additional pages of a 497 page book, so I can’t think it would have added much to the cost.

An entertaining read.

>56 markon: I find the Tchaikovsky book covers gorgeous. Since I didn't like Children of Time especially much, I probably won't go after this one in particular. But I'm really glad you enjoyed it.

>56 markon: just speculation, but perhaps the publishers wanted to keep the book under 500 pages. (although they would not have to have numbered the table of contents).

>57 pammab: I agree, the covers are beautiful.

>58 Tess_W: Maybe, but when it's already a chunkster, I wonder if that matters.

Finished Kintu by Jennifer Nansubugua Makumbi this morning. An enjoyable read, but one I might have to read a second or third time to keep all the characters straight.

This is historical fiction, with, perhaps, a hint of magical realism, following the descendents of Kintu Kidda in the early 21st century. It describes the lives of various individuals and branches of the family, and culminates in a family reunion at which the family seeks to break the curse Kintu accidentally provoked on the clan.

The flatshare by Beth O'Leary. If more romances were written like this, I'd probably read more of them. This is a fun look at two people who are financially strapped for different reasons, and end up sharing a flat, and eventually, their lives. But romance is not their goal. Pure fun.

I will be trying O'Leary's The switch next, in which twenty-something Leena is forced to take a two-month sabbatical after her sister's death, and decides to switch places with her 80-something grandmother Eileen, newly single and looking for a new partner. An unlikely premise? Yes, but I'm willing to suspend disbelief for the course of a book.

I'm a fan of Susan Cooper's The Dark is Rising series, so thought I'd try Ghost Hawk, a juvenile novel set in the historical period between the Pilgrims' arrival in North America and what some of us know as King Phillip's war (1620s-1670s). It was a good read overall, but I had a couple of quibbles about the end. I wished it had simply stopped with the death of John Wakely. Though perhaps this would be problematic for a children's novel. The release of the spirit of Little Hawk tagged on the end was too far into the future. I also didn't like the implication of the ending that there are no present day Native American cultures.

>61 markon: I have The Switch on my To Read list and I have to say, as someone who used to live in London, that the basic premise seemed unusual but far from impossible. I hope your suspension of disbelief pays off!

>61 markon: I also loved The Flatshare and really enjoyed The Switch as well! I'd say The Switch is a little bit more "women's fiction" than romance -- that is, the focus is on the female main characters and their development, and the romances (while present) are secondary. O'Leary has a third book coming out in June, The Road Trip, and I'm really looking forward to it!

>64 christina_reads: Yes, I will probably read The road trip later this year as well. And I agree, the romance isn't central to the story, which is how I like it.

Sometimes you have to lie by Leslie Brody.

I was underwhelmed by this biography of Louise Fitzhugh.

The good: Brody had access to papers, letters, and accounts of Fitzhugh's friends, and does give us chronoligical story of her life and relationships. Fitzhugh has escaped the careful curation of her heir Lois Morehead, and can now be acknowledged as a lesbian.

What I felt was missing was a deeper than surface analysis of what she said, did, wrote, painted. And a statement of why she is worth writing a biography about.

My take: I get the feeling that Louise was deeply unhappy through muuch of her life from this biography, yet she obviously had many friends and lovers, and was, eventually, fiinancially and critically successful. So I'd be curious about another author's take on her.

I think Louise Fitzhugh's imporatance lies in her living as an out lesbian in the 1960s and beyond, as well as anticipating the curve in realistic children's literature with Harriet the spy's brutal honesty about people and her work ethic, as well as writing the first scene where an adolescent talks about getting her period (The long secret.) (Yes, before Judy Blume.)

I am reading some of Fitzhugh's other works, currently listening to an audio of The long secret. Haven't got to the menstruation scene yet. 2.5 stars

>66 markon: I've never read anything by Louise Fitzhugh unless her illustrations for Suzuki Beane count. She sounds interesting.

>67 spiralsheep: I would say Suzuki Beane counts. And I think Fitzhugh is an interesting personality. Beane was actually a takeoff on Eloise.

>68 markon: My extensive local library system has exactly one Louise Fitzhugh book and it's Harriet the Spy so I've added it to my maybe 2022 list.

>69 spiralsheep: From the little I know, Harriet the spy is definitely the best one if you want to try her.

For me, the most challenging part of reading The royal kingdoms of Ghana, Mali, and Songhay: Life in medieval Africa was thinking about how a country's origin story is part of its history, and how oral tradition can be used as a source of history.

The book does what its title says, gives a brief and broad overview of the history of these three kingdoms in western Africa between 300-1600 AD.

I hope to learn more about how oral tradition can be used as a source while reading A fistful of shells: West Africa from the rise of the slave trade to the age of revolution by Toby Green which arrived in the mail this weekend. This covers a slightly different time period in the same region in much more detail (476 pages as opposed to 123 in the McKissack.)

Link to categories at top of thread.

Link to Bingo post.

I've been posting more on my club read thread than here, but wanted to stop by and mention some favorite reads for the March.

March favorites

Indelicacy by Amina Cain
The winged histories by Sofia Samatar

Also discovered a new-to-me author of mysteries, Dervla McTiernan. McTiernan's novels are police procedurals set in Glasgow, Scotland. Unfortunately, the third in the series and a prequel are not available in paper or ebook in the USA, but only as Audible Originals. Boo!!

>72 markon: That is a shame that the third book is available only as an Audible original in the US!

>73 rabbitprincess: I hope that will change later this year.

Gosh it's been a long time! There isn't any way to catch up, but I'm gonna take a look at my bingo card and check in with the SFF kit and go from there.

For the rest of the year, see my Club Reads thread here.

I'm not very good at following threads in other groups, Ardene, but at least I'm caught up here!

Thanks for stopping by Roni!

I've been trying to update my lists here, and have been surprised that I've read far more mysteries than anything else. My impression was that I read more fantasy & science fiction this year than anything.

I also have to remember that I was being paid not to work earlier in the year, and I think the stress influenced what i read.

But my stats, though I will probably finish a few more books in December, are shown below.

Fantasy 14
Literary fiction 11
Mystery 24
Nonfiction 9 (4 nonfiction, 5 biography/memoir)
Science fiction 10
Misc. 5

This included only 3 books in translation, plus I'm slowly reading the complete stories of Clarice Lispector.

For a total of recorded books read of 73. I didn't record rereads, and there were two months when I forgot to record what I read. Plus I discovered Patricia Briggs this year and binge read Mercy Thompson books.

I'm really pleased to have a number total, and a breakdown in the main categories I read in. Will it change anything going forward? Not sure.

Head over here for 2022.