My goal this year (and every year) is to read 52 books — essentially, a book a week. Many years, I don’t make it, largely because I de-prioritize reading for one reason or another. But this year, since I allowed myself to prioritize reading every day, I’m going to hit my goal.

Here are the first 10 of the 42 books I’ve read so far, in the order I read them, and a taste of my thoughts on each:

1. The October Country by Ray Bradbury — Gorgeous. I let myself be immersed in this collection of short stories, though I’ll have to admit they didn’t 100% hook me until “The Jar”. My absolute favorite story in the collection was “Jack-In-The-Box”… I think I could enjoy that one over multiple re-reads.

2. Everything That Rises Must Converge by Flannery O’Connor — I guess I started 2021 on a short story kick. Again… engrossing, heartbreaking, beautiful.

3. So Good They Can’t Ignore You by Cal Newport — I was searching for how to be happy in one’s work, and this book gave me lots of great things to think about. Highly recommended.

4. The Vegetarian by Han Kang — I was hoping this would be a horror novel and it was… just not in the way I expected. Moving, painful, and brutally frustrating, though ultimately beautifully written.

5. Beneath the Rising by Premee Mohamed — I’ve been wanting to add more cosmic/Lovecraftian horror to my brain, and I saw that one of my favorite folks to follow on Twitter had just written such a book. A delightful, snarky read, though I found the first half more enjoyable than the second.

6. The Hollow Places by T. Kingfisher — I’d read T. Kingfisher before (e.g., The Twisted Ones) and have always been delighted by the self-aware humor of her main characters. This work of weird/cosmic horror had some great creepy vibes (and is apparently an homage to “The Willows” by Algernon Blackwood, which I’d never read), though I’m not 100% sure I loved the last quarter of the book.

7. The Ghost Tree by Christina Henry — I loved the sense of family simmering beneath this story of missing and murdered townsfolk and a nearby haunted woods. Definitely recommended, though it does carry some graphic violence.

8. The Devotion of Suspect X by Keigo Higashino — I’ve read a LOT of mysteries in my day, and I’ve never quite read a mystery like this one. The characters, the structure… it was surprising and new to me in a way that kept me reading, though there wasn’t a surprising “twist” at the end. But it’s still beautifully written.

9. The Sanatorium by Sarah Pearse — A murder mystery set in the Swiss Alps, in a ski lodge that used to be a creepy medical facility? Yes, please! The setting of this one was so gorgeous I found myself aching to go there (despite, you know, the murders). But the ending was disappointing, in my opinion. (No spoilers here, but if you want to talk about it, I’m game.

10. One by One by Ruth Ware — So I accidentally read two “snowed in ski lodge” mysteries in a row, which was kind of hilarious. I preferred this one to The Sanatorium (above), but only because I found the mystery more plausible and tighter, and I enjoyed the character development a bit more.

Again, this is only the first 10 books out of what is going to be a total of 52 this year. What have you been reading lately? Anything you’d recommend? 

Words & warmth,

Sarah