2020 Reading Report

Like many of you, despite having more time alone at home this year because of the pandemic, I read far fewer books—at least, fewer new books. It was a year of rereading old comfort reads, rewatching favourite Korean dramas, and listening to a lot of comedians (generally the only way I could handle the news).

I do not keep the scrupulous records that many bloggers manage, so I can't tell you how many of what sort of book I read, but I can go through my kindle purchases and library borrows and get some idea of what the year's reading was like.

Most anticipated and didn't let me down:

Network Effect, the Murderbot novel! 

Return of the Thief, the final book of Megan Whalen Turner's Queen's Thief series, and the long wait was so, so worth it! One of my first goals in 2021 is to reread the entire series.

New books from writers I like:

Call Down the Hawk, Maggie Stiefvater's spin-off from her Raven Boys series, which I liked a lot but didn't love as much as I'd thought I would.

The Once and Future Witches, by Alix Harrow. I loved The Ten Thousand Doors of January so much that I was nervous about this one, but it had three awesome characters and a great premise and was imaginative and gripping and now I know I like Alix Harrow!

Tuyo and Nikoles, by Rachel Neumeier. I cannot believe how prolific Neumeier is! Not one, but two new books in a completely new series, that I enjoyed so much I've already re-read them. And she also put out a new book in her Black Dog series, Copper Mountain! Have to say, the pandemic would have been much bleaker without Rachel Neumeier. (She also kept up her interesting blog, which I appreciated.)

Plus there were two new Penric novellas from Lois McMaster Bujold, two new novellas from T. Kingfisher, the latest Invisible Library novel from Genevieve Cogman—oh, look, there's an even newer one! Yay!—, a new short story in Andrea Höst's Touchstone world, a cool novella from Zen Cho ... you know, I did read some really enjoyable stuff this year!

New-to-me Authors:

M.C.A Hogarth: the Dreamhealers series was so utterly perfect for this year. Gentle, wise, fun but not taxing world-building. Much of the suspense was the fascination of exploring a new friendship between two very different species. Quite refreshing and delightful.

Margaret Rogerson: I don't know why I read very little YA and Middle-Grade this year. But Rogerson is a new author I will be looking out for. I read Sorcery of Thorns for the Cybils and then went looking for An Enchantment of Ravens, her earlier book. Both were good; Thorns was better, and I look forward to seeing what she does next. I'm also highly anticipating the sequel to the Cybils winner, Fireborne, by Rosaria Munda.

Nghi Vo: I was blown away by the novella The Empress of Salt and Fortune. Haven't picked up the second one yet, but I will definitely.

Books I tried to read but couldn't:

I was very excited about A Memory Called Empire, The Starless Sea, The Lovely War, and The Priory of the Orange Tree, but in the end I didn't finish any of them. Maybe the world-building required too much of my brain? Or I wasn't quite grabbed enough by the characters? They were all good and interesting and had lovely writing, but I put them down and never picked them up again.

But I'm glad I did this post: I feel better about last year's reading, and I'm quite excited to discover new books to love in 2021!