One of my favorite posts of the year, I bring you all my 5 star reads for the past twelve months. This year I had 12 (although technically 11 as one was a re-read of my favorite book of 2020 for my book club). Here they are (The Girl with the Louding Voice was my re-read).
As has been the case for the past few years, I then have the arduous task of picking and ranking my top 5. Just know that I highly recommend any of these top 12, but here are my ultimate choices:
#5 When Ghosts Come Home by Wiley Cash - I love this NC author's writing and this story was compelling, mysterious, and heartbreaking all within its pages.
#4 Unsettled Ground by Claire Fuller - A finalist for the women's prize for fiction, this is a character driven novel about sheltered adult siblings left after their mother uexpectedly dies.
#3 The Charm Offensive by Alison Cochrun - I may have stopped watching The Bachelor years ago, but this story about a reality show bachelor completely out of his element who falls for his handler was the LGBTQ romance I didn't know I needed. Such an excellent mental health rep in this one also!
#2 The Guncle - The feel good book of the year (and maybe forever!), I fell in love with GUP (gay Uncle Patrick) and want to be real life friends with him!
And the #1 book of 2021 is:
Klara and the Sun by Kazuo Ishiguro - A story about an AF (artificial friend) set in the near future, with tons of social commentary and symbolism. Oh yes, and I bawled like a baby at the end!!
And there we are, another year in the books. I read a total of 263 books this year, so it's such a joy to go back and look at all the gems. There were tons of 4 star reads that I could have picked honorable mentions from, but this post might have gone on forever, so I held back 🙂 Onward to another (hopefully) excellent year of books and reading!
