2021 in Review

 

Phew. We did it. Fifty books in fifty-two weeks. I enjoy doing the PopSugar Challenge. This year started rough but smoothed out as time passed.

Here’s a link to my original 100 choices for the challenge. You can see where I didn’t pick either listed, but I managed forty-six titles. How well do we match?

Here’s a link to the fifty titles I included in the blog.

Here’s a link to my List Challenge with all the books I read this year, one hundred and sixty. No kidding. Click and see how many you’ve finished.

Last, here’s a wrap-up of the books that didn’t make the blog.

Once Ghosted, Twice Shy by Alyssa Cole (TBR from 2020). For some reason, I couldn’t get into the story. To my detriment, I didn’t focus enough on the section headings to tell me the dates. The back and forth in time threw me, so I opted not to review it.

The Vine Witch by Luanne G. Smith (Genre Hybrid). I didn’t love this book. The title had some great elements and interesting plot twists. The story sounded like a paranormal suspense novel, like many romances. It’s a good book. Instead, I chose Pride and Prejudice and Zombies.

Little Women by Louisa May Alcott (Book Everyone Else Has Read but You). I opted to switch to Lord of Scoundrels for this category to beef up the romance books on my list. Plus, I didn’t want to be the only person in the romance genre who never read it.

Get a Life, Chloe Brown by Talia Hibbert (Book about an Artist). I debated quite a bit about including this book. It’s popular, by a POC author, and romance. But the heat level threw me off. One minute it was a sweet romance, and the next, it was very steamy. It was hard to reconcile.

The Wedding Date by Jasmine Guillory (Book with a Heart on the Cover). Again, I had another popular romance by a POC author. It looked like the author missed some issues, like race. Not that every book with a mixed-race couple has to be about the conflict between their cultures, but I thought she’d touch on it more. Again a good book, but Katie O’Connor’s Cupid’s Charm fit better.

Nine Perfect Strangers by Liane Moriarty (Locked Door Mystery). I’m just going to say I had bad information about the book. It was NOT a locked-door mystery. I was stabby after reading the whole thing to find the group got locked in a room for a hot minute.

Legend in Green Velvet and Naked Once More by Elizabeth Peters (Place I want to Visit and Free Book). Both books felt dated and are by the same author. I wanted to try something fresh. Boyfriend Material was one of my favorite of the year (Place to Visit), and my friend Rose gave me a slew of the Jane Austen mysteries.

The Year of Magical Thinking, ’Til Morning’s Light, and Brokeback Mountain all were included in my “Shortest Book” list. None seemed just right for the blog. I found out after that I grabbed an abridged copy of The Year of Magical Thinking. It’s back on my TBR list.

There were a few others. Meet Cute Diary didn’t work for me. Death Overdue ended up being a re-read. The Unexpected Inheritance of Detective Chopra didn’t work for the category I picked. And Nerd in Shining Armor seemed dated. I had a great time and learned to plan ahead for the 2022 challenge.

There were a ton of other books I wanted to read but never got to them, mostly for the “Longest Book in the TBR List” category. I had House of Leaves, The Witching Hour, and Leviathan Wake in mind, but no go. Short books work better for me, I guess. I started The Mysteries of Udolpho, Looking for Alaska, Spoiler Alert, and The Escape Room. For various reasons, I didn’t finish any of them. (For Spoiler Alert, I have a plot bunny just like it and didn’t want to taint my tale with a better one. LOL)

All in all, an exceptional year of reading. Next week, the new challenge begins!