Books I read in 2021

I still scan my books into Goodreads when I take them back to the library so I can see what I've read - it is only a partial picture this year because the library has been closed for most of the sitting weeks, so I've read a lot of books that were borrowed, second-hand, bought from shops or even (gasp) books I already own and just haven't read yet. I'll put the list in here for anybody who cares, it is the usual very random mix. A bit more science fiction / fantasy than usual, and some of them were very good. I loved the Tamsyn Muir books (final in the trilogy due out next year I think) - brilliant world building but also there is something about her humour that I just clicked with - turns out she's from HOWICK so that explains it. It's a kiwi thing. I also loved the book by Susanna Clarke, and John Burnside was an absolute find, as you can see I think I read everything the library had. 

Other than that the books by Benjamin Wood, Charlotte Wood, Ian Pears and Benjamin Markovits are still memorable. This is my test, if I can't remember anything about the book at this point then it probably was good not great - and if a book isn't even good then I don't finish it and it doesn't go on this list. With the exception of the book by Inga Simpson - I used to work with Inga and I kind of hate-finished it because she was a bit high-maintenance and it comes through quite clearly in this memoir. And I don't know if I'll bother reading anything else by Sally Rooney. But other than that I can say that all the books on my list were worth finishing, which is quite a compliment in a lockdown year of very limited focus. 

Shards of Earth (The Final Architects Trilogy, #1)	Adrian Tchaikovsky
How to Be Both	Ali Smith
Rules of Civility	Amor Towles
Autonomous	Annalee Newitz
Christmas in Austin	Benjamin Markovits
The Ecliptic	Benjamin Wood
The Reader	Bernhard Schlink
Life after Truth	Ceridwen Dovey
The Weekend	Charlotte Wood
The Word Ghost	Christine Paice
You Think It, I'll Say It	Curtis Sittenfeld
The Song of the Orphans (Silvers, #2)	Daniel Price
Influx	Daniel Suarez
Slade House	David Mitchell
Theft by Finding: Diaries 1977-2002	David Sedaris
Square Haunting	Francesca Wade
The Amazing Mrs Livesey	Freda Marnie Nicholls
The Golem And The Djinni	Helene Wecker
Arcadia	Iain Pears
Understory: a life with trees	Inga Simpson
Killing Adonis	J.M. Donellan
Ashland & Vine	John Burnside
Havergey	John Burnside
A Summer of Drowning	John Burnside
The Secrets of Wishtide	Kate Saunders
Single, Carefree, Mellow	Katherine Heiny
The Quick	Lauren Owen
Inscape	Louise Carey
The Guest List	Lucy Foley
The Midnight Library	Matt Haig
Star-Crossed	Minnie Darke
How We Talk: The Inner Workings of Conversation	N.J. Enfield
Love, Nina: Despatches from Family Life	Nina Stibbe
My Life with Bob	Pamela Paul
Coventry: Essays	Rachel Cusk
The Sunlit Night	Rebecca Knight
Between Them: Remembering My Parents	Richard Ford
City of Blades  (The Divine Cities, #2)	Robert Jackson Bennett
Normal People	Sally Rooney
Oligarchy	Scarlett Thomas
The Choke	Sofie Laguna
Piranesi	Susanna Clarke
Harrow the Ninth (The Locked Tomb, #2)	Tamsyn Muir
Gideon the Ninth (The Locked Tomb, #1)	Tamsyn Muir
I Shall Wear Midnight	Terry Pratchett
The Master Bedroom	Tessa Hadley
Agency	William Gibson