Man, I really let the team down on reviews this year. It wasn’t that I wasn’t reading. It was that I felt like I forgot I’d read something two seconds after I read it. But that’s also not true, because I definitely had favorites this year that I still think about. Anyway, it’s been a busy, distracted year but here are 5 things I read and loved.

1. Highly Suspicious and Unfairly Cute by Talia Hibbert

This book was so great. The leads are high school students trying their best to secure a prestigious scholarship through a leadership program that involves being outdoors and being self-reliant. The characters were so likable that I just wanted them to succeed and I love it when I get to cheer characters on. The plot complications were good, the romance was good, the resolution was lovely.

2. Lone Women by Victor Lavalle

Set in the beginning of the Nineteen hundreds, the main character leaves her home in tragic circumstances and buys a claim in Montana. She’s hoping to disappear and settle someplace out in the wilderness where no one will ever discover her family’s terrible secret. You know what happens next, right? The story was compelling and I couldn’t put it down. There’s mystery, there’s sisterhood, there’s adventure, what more could you want in a book?

3. What Moves the Dead by T. Kingfisher

This novel is a retelling of the Fall of the House of Usher. The main character Alex Easton rushes to the Usher home when they hear a childhood friend has fallen ill and is dying. The tale spirals out from there. It is creepy and Alex Easton is an excellent narrator. I loved every stinking minute of this novel.

4. Halo-halo and Homicide by Mia P. Manansala

This is the second book in a series and I also read and loved the first book this year. The main character Lila is settling in to life back home. She returned in the first novel following a break up and now she’s decided to stay. These are cozy mysteries and they are great. There is enough intrigue to keep you interested and wanting to know more but nothing gory that might keep you up at night. Oh, and Lila is a pastry chef and is constantly putting a Filipino-American spin on classics and everything sounds so good. Mia P. Manansala has recipes from the novels on her website which is wonderful. I made her Lila’s ube crinkles and they were a hit at three different functions.

5. The Undertow by Jeff Sharlet

Part travelogue/messy reckoning with the fractured political landscape in post-2020 America, this book of essays follows a cross-country journey Sharlet took starting in the hometown of Ashli Babbitt, who was killed on January 6th at rhetorical Capitol. This was an interesting meditation on perspective, distrust, and social division. It left me with questions In still considering.

Man, I really let the team down on reviews this year. It wasn’t that I wasn’t reading. It was that I felt like I forgot I’d read something two seconds after I read it. But that’s also not true, because I definitely had favorites this year that I still think about. Anyway, it’s been a busy, distracted year but here are 5 things I read and loved.

1. Highly Suspicious and Unfairly Cute by Talia Hibbert

This book was so great. The leads are high school students trying their best to secure a prestigious scholarship through a leadership program that involves being outdoors and being self-reliant. The characters were so likable that I just wanted them to succeed and I love it when I get to cheer characters on. The plot complications were good, the romance was good, the resolution was lovely.

2. Lone Women by Victor Lavalle

Set in the beginning of the Nineteen hundreds, the main character leaves her home in tragic circumstances and buys a claim in Montana. She’s hoping to disappear and settle someplace out in the wilderness where no one will ever discover her family’s terrible secret. You know what happens next, right? The story was compelling and I couldn’t put it down. There’s mystery, there’s sisterhood, there’s adventure, what more could you want in a book?

3. What Moves the Dead by T. Kingfisher

This novel is a retelling of the Fall of the House of Usher. The main character Alex Easton rushes to the Usher home when they hear a childhood friend has fallen ill and is dying. The tale spirals out from there. It is creepy and Alex Easton is an excellent narrator. I loved every stinking minute of this novel.

4. Halo-halo and Homicide by Mia P. Manansala

This is the second book in a series and I also read and loved the first book this year. The main character Lila is settling in to life back home. She returned in the first novel following a break up and now she’s decided to stay. These are cozy mysteries and they are great. There is enough intrigue to keep you interested and wanting to know more but nothing gory that might keep you up at night. Oh, and Lila is a pastry chef and is constantly putting a Filipino-American spin on classics and everything sounds so good. Mia P. Manansala has recipes from the novels on her website which is wonderful. I made her Lila’s ube crinkles and they were a hit at three different functions.

5. The Undertow by Jeff Sharlet

Part travelogue/messy reckoning with the fractured political landscape in post-2020 America, this book of essays follows a cross-country journey Sharlet took starting in the hometown of Ashli Babbitt, who was killed on January 6th at rhetorical Capitol. This was an interesting meditation on perspective, distrust, and social division. It left me with questions In still considering.