Starting a little late, but oh well!

Original goal: 75 books
Updated goal: 175 books
Other goals:
- Limit the amount of rereads this year to a very few—I want to make a bigger dent in my TBR this year!
- Complete the 2021 Popsugar Reading Challenge

(Links will take you to my review)

January
1. Guts, 5 stars
2. Throne of Glass, 5 stars
3. Children of Virtue and Vengeance, 5 stars
4. Drama, 5 stars
5. Scarlet, 4 stars
6. The Hate U Give, 5 stars
7. The Lost Sisters, 5 stars
8. Ninth House, 4 stars
9. Anna and the French Kiss, 5 stars
10. The Picture of Dorian Gray, 3 stars
11. Murder, Magic, and What We Wore, 4 stars
12. The Wicked King, 5 stars
13. Pumpkinheads, 5 stars
14. The Color Purple, 4 stars
15. Red, White & Royal Blue, 4 stars
16. Milk and Honey, 5 stars
17. Instant Karma, 4 stars
18. Pride and Prejudice, 5 stars
19. Beautiful Beast, 5 stars
20. The Queen of Nothing, 5 stars
21. An Ember in the Ashes, 5 stars
22. Step into Magic, 5 stars
23. Evil Genius, 5 stars
24. The Book of Lost Things, 5 stars
25. Open Water, 5 stars
26. The Assassin’s Blade, 4 stars

February
1. Hunting Prince Dracula, 5 stars
2. I’ll Be the One, 5 stars
3. One of Us Is Next, 5 stars
4. The Poet X, 5 stars
5. The Fellowship of the Ring, 5 stars
6. The Two Towers, 5 stars
7. The Return of the King, 5 stars
8. The Murder of Emmett Till: A Graphic History, 5 stars
9. A Short History of the Girl Next Door, 3 stars
10. The Hollow Places, 3 stars
11. Love and First Sight, 4 stars
12. The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy, 5 stars
13. The Rose Society, 5 stars
14. A Turtle’s Guide to Introversion, 4 stars
15. The Gilded Wolves, 5 stars
16. We Hunt the Flame, 5 stars
17. The Hobbit, 5 stars
18. The Night Circus, 4 stars
19. Sincerely, Your Autistic Child, 5 stars
20. Dear Evan Hansen, 5 stars
21. The Binding, 4 stars
22. This Is How You Lose the Time War, 5 stars
23. Great Expectations, 4 stars
24. Dear Martin, 5 stars
25. The Shadow List, 5 stars
26. The Midnight Star, 5 stars
27. Fahrenheit 451, 5 stars
28. A Midsummer Night’s Dream, 5 stars
29. We Free the Stars, 5 stars
30. A Darker Shade of Magic, 4 stars
31. Swing, 5 stars
32. Daughter of Smoke & Bone, 4 stars
33. The Dream Thieves, 5 stars
34. The Gunslinger, 3 stars
35. The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo, 5 stars
36. Cress, 5 stars
37. Long Way Down, 5 stars
38. Shadow and Bone, 5 stars
39. Days of Blood & Starlight, 3 stars
40. The Silvered Serpents, 5 stars
41. Caraval, 5 stars
42. The Angel Trials, 5 stars

March
1. Girls of Paper and Fire, 5 stars
2. The Deep, 5 stars
3. Pygmalion, 4 stars
4. Winter, 5 stars
5. Sadie, 5 stars
6. Braving the Wilderness, 4 stars
7. Turtles All the Way Down, 5 stars
8. SHOUT, 5 stars
9. Twisted, 5 stars
10. The Girls I’ve Been, 3 stars
11. Lore Olympus, 5 stars
12. A Good Girl’s Guide to Murder, 5 stars
13. Strange the Dreamer, 4 stars
14. The Adventures of Tom Sawyer, 3 stars
15. Chain of Iron, 5 stars
16. Legendborn, 5 stars
17. My Sister, the Serial Killer, 5 stars
18. The Astonishing Color of After, 5 stars
20. Legendary, 5 stars
21. The Song of Achilles, 5 stars
22. Convenience Store Woman, 5 stars
23. I’m Not Dying with You Tonight, 5 stars
24. The Raven King, 5 stars
25. The Hazel Wood, 5 stars
26. With the Fire on High, 5 stars
27. Illuminae, 4 stars
28. I Saw You As A Flower, 4 stars
29. Cemetery Boys, 5 stars
30. Crown of Midnight, 5 stars
31. Spellbreaker, 4 stars
32. Daughters Of Nri, 4 stars
33. Faraway: Fairy Tales for the Here and Now, 5 stars
34. How the King of Elfhame Learned to Hate Stories, 5 stars
35. They Both Die at the End, 5 stars
36. Pet, 5 stars
37. The Priory of the Orange Tree, 4 stars
38. We Were Liars, 5 stars
39. The Black Kids, 5 stars

April
1. Midnight Sun, 3 stars
2. A Cuban Girl’s Guide to Tea and Tomorrow, 4 stars
3. Glass Sword, 4 stars
4. Siege and Storm, 5 stars
5. A Torch Against the Night, 5 stars
6. Cindella Is Dead, 4 stars
7. A Pho Love Story, 4 stars
8. Ruin and Rising, 4 stars
9. Renegades, 4 stars
10. The Atlas Six, 5 stars
11. Fable, 4 stars
12. The Marriage Code, 4 stars
13. Call Down the Hawk, 5 stars
14. The Foxhole Court, 4 stars
15. The Murmur of Bees, 5 stars
16. A Blade So Black, 4 stars
17. Radio Silence, 5 stars
18. Six of Crows, 5 stars
19. We Hunt the Flame (RR)
20. A Curse So Dark and Lonely, 4 stars
21. Blood Heir, 5 stars
22. Crooked Kingdom, 5 stars
23. We Are Bridges, 5 stars
24. Home Sick Pilots, 4 stars
25. The Spanish Love Deception, 4 stars
26. The Poppy War, 5 stars
27. The Lovely Bones, 3.5 stars
28. We Free the Stars (RR)
29. A Reaper at the Gates, 5 stars
30. The Witch's Heart, 5 stars
31. I Wish You All the Best, 5 stars
32. Sheets, 5 stars
33. Fangirl (Manga), 4 stars
34. A Song Below Water, 4 stars
35. On the Come Up, 5 stars
36. Dread Nation, 5 stars

May
1. Archenemies, 5 stars
2. The Restaurant at the End of the Universe, 4 stars
3. The Petrified Flesh, 5 stars
4. The Babysitters Coven, 4 stars
5. Heir of Fire, 3.5 stars
6. An Enchantment of Ravens, 4 stars
7. Lost in the Never Woods, 5 stars
8. A Very Large Expanse of Sea, 4 stars
9. The Little Prince, 3.5 stars
10. Aftershocks, 5 stars
11. All the Light We Cannot See, 4.5 stars
12. Spin the Dawn, 5 stars
13. The Wrath and the Dawn, 5 stars
14. Be More Chill, 3 stars
15. The Diviners, 4.5 stars
16. Bacchanal, 5 stars
17. Animal Farm, 4 stars
18. Amal Unbound, 5 stars
19. These Violent Delights, 5 stars
20. The Ones We’re Meant to Find, 5 stars
21. Vicious, 4 stars
22. Finale, 4 stars
23. The Rose & the Dagger, 5 stars
24. Water for Elephants, 3 stars
25. Sweet & Bitter Magic, 4 stars
26. The Bone Witch, 5 stars
27. Forest of Souls, 5 stars
28. Nick and Norah’s Infinite Playlist, 3 stars
29. Dial A for Aunties, 5 stars
30. The Gilded Ones, 5 stars
31. The Forest of Stolen Girls, 5 stars
32. She Drives Me Crazy, 5 stars
33. Love & Olives, 5 stars
34. Counting Down with You, 4 stars
35. Little Fires Everywhere, 5 stars
36. Scythe, 5 stars
37. Ariadne, 4 stars
38. The City We Became, 3.5 stars
39. Charming as a Verb, 4 stars
40. The Girl in the Tower, 4 stars
41. Early Departures, 5 stars
42. Clap When You Land, 5 stars
43. I’ll Give You the Sun, 4 stars
44. Great Expectations (Manga), 5 stars
45. Frankly in Love, 5 stars
46. Daisy Jones & The Six, 4 stars
47. We Have Always Lived in the Castle, 3 stars
48. Red, White, and Whole, 5 stars
49. Excuse Me While I Ugly Cry, 5 stars
50. Beach Read, 3.5 stars
51. If We Were Villains, 5 stars
52. Rebel of the Sands, 5 stars
53. Crier’s War, 5 stars
54. From Lukov with Love, 3 stars
55. Angelfall, 5 stars
56. Punk 57, 4 stars
57. The Boy Who Lived in the Ceiling, 5 stars
58. The Secret Garden (Graphic Novel), 5 stars
59. Where the Crawdads Sing, 5 stars
60. These Violent Delights, 5 stars

2021 reading summary
75 books read (including 3 DNFs)
Average length: 336 pages
Average rating: 3.8

Desert Island Books
The House in the Cerulean Sea
An allegorical fantasy that is basically just a big warm hug of feel-good escapism

Other 5 Star Reads
Razorblade Tears
Intense and uber-violent, but I think this takes best new release of 2021 for me.
Crying in H Mart
Oooof. I ugly cried through a solid third of this memoir.
People We Meet on Vacation
When Harry Met Sally for millennial travel bloggers.
The Witch's Heart
Circe walked so this retelling of Norse mythology could run.
The Final Revival of Opal & Nev
Don't buy the Daisy Jones comp title hype. This has some similarities as a fictional oral history rooted in the '70s music industry, but there is so much more going on as the titular Afropunk duo grapple with race across the decades.
The Echo Wife
Part domestic thriller, part sci-fi as a brilliant scientist's work is turned against her when her husband has an affair with her clone.
And Then There Were None
My annual Agatha Christie did not disappoint. She is the master of detective fiction and this book is why.
Solutions and Other Problems
I found Allie Brosh's sophomore graphic novel much more successful than Hyperbole and a Half.
Dorie Greenspan's Baking
Normally I wouldn't include cookbooks in my round-up or at most I'd give them an honorable mention at the end. But I finally read a Dorie Greenspan book and she has such a great voice.
Where the Crawdads Sing
Totally get the hype
The Four Winds
Kristin Hannah's latest following a mother and daughter across the Dust Bowl
The Drowning Kind
Most of my Halloween reads this year were disappointing, so I'm glad I broke my usual "horror is for October" rules to dig into this chilling psychological piece.
The Brown Sisters trilogy
I caught up with this series just in time for book three and am a full-fledged Talia Hibbert convert. Throwing in an honorable mention to The Kiss Quotient series - my other romance catch-up. Most of that series is not quite my cup of tea but The Heart Principle (this year's addition) was fantastic.

Other Good Mystery Thriller & Horror
When the Stars Go Dark
A bitterly realistic procedural drama about kidnapped teens.
The Last Thing He Told Me
Not quite mystery of the year for me, but well worth a read especially if domestic suspense is your preferred subgenre. Solid slow burn with an original premise.
A Flicker in the Dark
Early release on shelves next month. The daughter of a convicted serial killer is wrapped up in a series of copycat murders 20 years later.
Do No Harm
A solid crime thriller about the opioid epidemic that somehow flew under the radar.
Survive the Night
Riley Sager is now an auto-buy author for me for reliably entertaining, fast-paced thrillers.
Room
ngl I totally just read this so I could feel virtuous watching the film adaptation, but the book does a much better job capturing 5-year-old Jack's perspective while in the movie, it's impossible to miss how bleak their captivity is.
The Haunting of Hill House
My first dip into Shirley Jackson's oeuvre and so very worth it.

Other Good Historical Fiction
The Huntress & The Rose Code
Packaging these two together because Kate Quinn is my new fave for historical fiction. Her books are long but easy to read quickly and deeply, meticulously researched. Her author's notes are the best, explaining in rich detail how much of the story is from historical record and what few parts are creative liberties. She has a way of unearthing remarkable stories of women in WWII and I'm pumped for her next one in March.
Malibu Rising
'80s California glam from the compulsively readable Taylor Jenkins Reid.
Outlawed
The queer feminist Western I didn't know I needed.
The Secret Keeper of Jaipur
Not nearly as good as The Henna Artist, but this sequel is still pretty intriguing.

Other Good Romances
The Ex Talk
A really clever twist on the fake dating trope set in the world of public radio.
Honey Girl
Yes, it's the married in Vegas trope for lesbians, but the real beauty here is the late coming of age story for our academic protagonist.

Also Notable
Black Buck
A wild workplace satire and my pick for best debut novel of the year.
Project Hail Mary
I am not a hard sci-fi reader but this (from the author of The Martian) is very well executed.
Lady Susan
I finally read Jane Austen's oft-overlooked seventh novel and MAN it is so different from her other works.

Book Riot Read Harder Challenges completed: 6
#11 : a food memoir by an author of color (Crying in H Mart)
#13 : a book with a cover you don't like (The Haunting of Hill House -- curse the TV-tie-in cover)
#16 : an ownvoices book about disability (The Heart Principle)
#19 : a historical fiction with a POC or LGBTQ+ protagonist (The Secret Keeper of Jaipur; The Final Revival of Opal & Nev)
#22 : a book set in the Midwest (In the Garden of Spite)
#24 : a book featuring a beloved pet where the pet doesn't die (The House in the Cerulean Sea)