What books made you run for the hills this year? Submit the three best and one worst books you read during 2021 below. Include links to your posts so people can read your reviews. The books may have any publication date, you just need to have read them this year. If you have something you must … [Read more]
Fugitive Telemetry by Martha Wells
We have a Murderbot murder mystery novella. It is almost as if this book was written specifically for me. Although published after Network Effect, Fugitive Telemetry takes place before it, after Mensah brings Murderbot to Preservation Station. We join action in progress as a body has been discovered … [Read more]
The Last Book on the Left by Marcus Parks, et al
Mexican Gothic by Silvia Moreno-Garcia
The Guest List by Lucy Foley
As a fan of Last Podcast on the Left, I both looked forward to reading the book by "The Boys" (Marcus Parks, Ben Kissel, and Henry Zebrowski) and also wondered how they would pull it off. The podcast is irreverent and explicit, with Parks (usually) providing the research and central narrative of a … [Read more]
The Pledge by Kathleen Kent
This one followed the same pattern as the Hunger Games trilogy: interesting first book followed by an excellent second and a concluding one that basically made me say "Eh, ok, I guess that's an ending." Part of why I loved (indeed loved) The Burn, the second book in the Betty Rhyzyk trilogy, is … [Read more]
Designs on a Duke by Ellie St. Clair
A Rogue By Any Other Name by Sarah MacLean
Fatal Affair by Marie Force
You have to hand it to Sarah MacLean. While she takes romance seriously, her books are fun. The banter is good, the scenarios are imaginative, and the characters are self-aware. I had this realization early in A Rogue By Any Other Name, when, as part of his attempt to kidnap and marry our heroine, … [Read more]
A Closed and Common Orbit by Becky Chambers
I was surprised to learn that the second book in Becky Chamber's "Wayfarer Series" does not feature the same cast and pivots in a completely different direction. I had become invested in everyone in The Long Way to a Small, Angry Planet so there was a tiny bit of disappointment. However, Chambers … [Read more]
