SA Book & Challenge Lovers discussion

What are the best books that you read in 2021? Tell us what you enjoyed and maybe what should be avoided!

The Man Who Died Twice by Richard Osman
The Promise by Damon Galgut
Klara and the Sun by Kazuo Ishiguro
A Swim in a Pond in the Rain by George Saunders
The Invisible Life of Addie Larue by VE Schwab

This is an impressive list, Gordon! I really have to get to Richard Osman. What was your worst book do you think?

No bad books this year although I found "Our Band Could be Your LIfe" by Azerrad a bit long

My post to a similar discussion in another group.

What was the best book you read in 2021?
It is too difficult to pick only one. Herewith my five-star reads(in chronological order) for the year thus far: The Girl with the Louding Voice; Their Eyes Were Watching God; Wine to Water: A Bartender's Quest to Bring Clean Water to the World; The Remains of the Day; Stones from the River; One of Us: The Story of Anders Breivik and the Massacre in Norway; Indian Summer of a Forsyte; Kennis Van Die Aand; Shadow and Bone; The Warden; You Never Can Tell; The World According to Garp; Middlemarch; The Casual Vacancy; A Tale for the Time Being; Koors; Animal Farm;To Kill a Mockingbird; Little Boys Come from the Stars; Grand Hotel

Twenty. but considering that I have read 196 books thus far, not a lot.

What was the worst book you read in 2021?
Pass

Which author(s) did you fall in love with, or rediscover, in 2021?
Zora Neale Hurston, Ursula Hegi; Vicki Baum. Deon Meyer; André P. Brink among others

What are your reading plans for 2022?
Read as much as I can

Which author(s) or book(s) are you most looking forward to reading in 2022?
Pass

What else do you want to say about what you read in 2021?
Terrible two years, made bearable by having books available to read.

Using Wayne's format here:

What was the best book you read in 2021?
There were a lot, I'll go with Possession, The Cairo Trilogy: Palace Walk / Palace of Desire / Sugar Street, Doctor Thorne, Kintu, Half a Lifelong Romance, A Sin of Omission, Troy, A Fistful of Shells: West Africa from the Rise of the Slave Trade to the Age of Revolution, The Only Plane in the Sky: An Oral History of 9/11, The Street, The Hate U Give

What was the worst book you read in 2021?
Not dreadful, but I disliked most of the characters in Death in the Stocks

Which author(s) did you fall in love with, or rediscover, in 2021?
Tayari Jones, Anthony Trollope, Edna Ferber, Naguib Mahfouz, Jennifer Nansubuga Makumbi, Ursula K. Le Guin

What are your reading plans for 2022?
Reading lots of classics.

Which author(s) or book(s) are you most looking forward to reading in 2022?
See above as I have most of them slotted into 2022 plans.

What else do you want to say about what you read in 2021?
I'll echo Wayne, it was a horrible year, but lots of good books helped.