the ask@AAR: What’s the ONE best non romance you read last year?
While I love me some romance, I’m a catholic reader: I like all kinds of stories. And, in 2021, I read so many great books. Honestly, I can’t remember a more rewarding reading year. So picking just one is like…..
However, that’s soft thinking. So, despite the fact that I loved ALL THE BOOKS this year, my very most utter favorite non-romance read of 2021 is….
Cloud Cuckoo Land by Anthony Doer
A bit of background:
In 2016, as I walked Sophie (RIP), I listened to Zach Appleman tell the story of Marie-Laure and Werner Pfennig. It was devastating, glorious, transportive, and beautiful. I walked an hour longer than I’d planned as I listened to the last chapter of All The Light We Cannot See simply because I couldn’t let the story go.
So when Cloud Cuckoo Land popped up as an ARC last year, I fretted. Of course I’d read it but what if it wasn’t as good as AtLWCS? What if it sucked? What if it was one of those deep, profound books I should like but I find interminable?
So, I read it. And, a few chapters in, I wasn’t sure. It’s a novel of several timelines, one set in the fourteenth century during the fall of Constantinople, one set in modern day Iowa, one set in the 1940s, and one set in the imaginable future. Initially, I had a hard time tracking the stories until, around Chapter Three when suddenly, astonishingly, the story that threads through the different timelines shone clearly. From then on, I was mesmerized.
By the book’s end I was awestruck by Doerr’s skill–the different plot lines sinuously entwine so effortlessly that the conclusion of the book is inevitable. But, more than that, in this year where so much of the news was about alienation, fear, and hate, Doerr’s compassion and love for the world and the deeply flawed people that do and have inhabited it is boundless. This book is a giant, smart, profoundly thoughtful hug.
I loved it. It’s my favorite non-romance read of 2021. What’s yours?
The Paris Apartment by Kelly Bowen for me. Of course, it’s also the only non-romance book I read this year LOL. But it was so good that it made my ‘best of 2021’ list!
I am considering adding it to mine.
D – did you see this?!?!?!? https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/tv/tv-news/netflix-mark-ruffalo-hugh-laurie-all-light-we-cannot-see-at-netflix-1235072252/
I hadn’t, thanks. It’s hard to think about it as a movie but I’ll be hopeful. Perhaps it will be like The English Patient, a book I couldn’t see as a film but knocked it out of the park.
Great actors attached so my fingers are crossed!
Fiction: A Psalm for the Wild Built by Becky Chambers. A short (novella-length) but compelling scifi/fantasy meditation on life, work, AI, face-to-face connections between people, and tea. It was my most frequent recommendation to other readers this year because it was so short, so “light” and yet still thought-provoking, all at the same time.
Nonfiction: Four Princes (Henry VIII, Francis I, Charles V, and Suleiman the Magnificent) by John Norwich. How had I never noticed that Henry, Charles (Holy Roman Emperor) and Suleiman’s reigns so closely coincided? Fascinating – and very readable.
FICTION: A Rogue’s Company by Allison Montclair, book 3 in the Sparks & Bainbridge mystery series, about two women who open a marriage bureau after WWII and also solve mysteries. I wish there would be more matchmaking in the books (there’s really none past the initial setup in the first book) in addition to the mystery solving, but I am enjoying the two main characters, how they reinvent themselves after the war, and how their lives continue to change as their circumstances do.
NONFICTION: The Cold Vanish by Jon Billman, which both recounts many instances of people who have gone missing from public lands and dives deeply into the case of one person who vanished from Olympic National Park. The book is sometimes meandering or repetitive, inconsistently mapped and indexed. I’m hoping it’s a deliberate choice, reflecting the haphazard nature of many disappearances and searches, and not just the writing/editing, but nevertheless, there is still something tragic and compelling about the events and lives depicted.
Covered over here for me: https://allaboutromance.com/the-best-of-2021-lisas-list/
So, umm… my nonromance reading is either online (mostly newspapers and magazines), and the other books I read are nonfiction. I really enjoyed The Light Ages, by Seb Falk, about astronomy powering science in what were the so-called Dark Ages.
In case you have encountered enthusiastic reviews of The Bright Ages, which came out in December 2021, let me tell you that in comparison to Falk’s book, it lacks a certain coherence. The two U.S. hardcovers differ in cost by a penny, but Falk has a lot more illustrations. The Bright Ages mostly discusses famous-people-about-whom-stuff-is-known, with a few bits of art history. It is a revisionist look at Europe and the Near East from around the fifth to the twelfth and thirteenth centuries.
In my dissatisfaction, I went back and read The Year 1000, published in 1999. It made me as happy as reading The Light Ages, although it is more general.
I am also doing a lot of reading about textile history, but that would be a long discussion.
I totally agree with Cloud Cuckoo Land. I was worried in the beginning. I couldn’t see how it was going to be uplift, but it was!
The Calculating Stars by Mary Robinette Kowal, about a climate crisis in the 1950s that necessitates an accelerated space program, including accepting female and non-white astronauts.
And another vote for Murderbot!
Razorblade tears by S.A. Cosby. A gritty American thriller with a high body count but real heart and I immediately want to read everything by the author!
Agree – see my comment below. It should be noted that while there is a high body count, the book didn’t dwell on the blood, so even someone like me, who doesn’t like violence, could read it.
I never (well, hardly ever) can pick just one book as a favorite, because different books/authors appeal to different needs or moods or phases of the moon. None of my favorite reads in 2021 were published in 2021:
o Circe, Madeline Miller (2018) – so much happens and Circe interacts with so many gods and mortals, yet Miller manages to make us care about almost all of them, including Circe herself
o The Buried Giant, Kazuo Ishiguro (2015) – A story about the act of forgetting and the power of memory, a resonant tale of love, vengeance, and war. The book included a quote that in context pierced my heart: “When it is too late for rescue, it is still early enough for revenge”.
o The House in the Cerulean Sea (2020), TJ Klune – This does have something of a love story in it and completely charmed me
o Hamnet, Maggie O’Farrell (2020) – Powerful and poignant, not a romance but there is love between Agnes and her playwright
Need to add one more book: Razorblade Tears by S.A. Crosby, The story of two ex-cons with little in common other than a criminal past and a love for their dead sons who band together in their desperate desire for revenge. In their quest to do better for their sons in death than they did in life, these hardened men will confront their own prejudices about their sons and each other, as they rain down vengeance upon those who hurt their boys. Found it telling that when Ike is asked if it’s revenge that keeps him going, he replies, “No, hate. Folks like to talk about revenge like it’s a righteous thing but it’s just hate in a nicer suit.”
I can’t give you my top non-romance read because that will be revealed in a later post… But…
I’ll put in another vote for Murderbot! This year, I finished Network Effect (The Murderbot Diaries, #5).
Also, I finally finished “The Murder of Roger Ackroyd” by Agatha Christie, and that lives up to its reputation even if you start it knowing whodunit.
Just for fun, I’m adding “Mary Elizabeth Braddon: A Companion to the Mystery Fiction” by Anne-Marie Beller (edited by Elizabeth Foxwell). ;) Although I’ve only made it up to the “C” entries.
Most of my non-romance reading last year was F&SF series where I liked the whole series but would have trouble picking a single favorite volume. My favorite stand-alone (as far as I know) was the fantasy Briarheart by Mercedes Lackey, a fairy tale about a princess being fiercely protected by her half-sister.
The first book that popped into my head was THE GOOD LIE by A.R. Torre—a twisty story about a therapist who gets involved with a man whose son was the victim of a serial killer. Both of them are keeping big secrets and both sometimes act in morally-grey areas. For a story involving a serial killer, the violence is fairly light, nothing overly-explicit or gruesome. The book shows that even the most competent and professional people can make mistakes—and when the do, the results can be catastrophic. (By the way, Torre also publishes romances under the name Alessandra Torre, but THE GOOD LIE is decidedly not a romance.)
Dabney, I just started Cloud Cuckoo Land, and the first few chapters were a bit confusing for me, so I went back and reread them when I was more awake, and you are right that things do start to fall into place. I have been looking forward to this book for so long and want to savor every moment.
As I mentioned in my comments below, I loved the Murderbot Diaries, and The Thursday Murder Club was lots of fun. But I would say the book that I enjoyed on a deeper level was This Tender Land by William Kent Krueger. It is about 3 adolescent boys who are in an Indian School during the Depression (with these schools being in the news recently, it had particular relevance.) Two are white brothers and one is Native American. They run away and have lots of adventures and see so many things along the way. The author said his inspirations were The Odyssey, Huck Finn, and To Kill a Mockingbird. Both my book clubs read it and loved it. The beginning, when they are at the Indian School, is painful to read, but once they hit the road it becomes more of an adventure. The narrator, Odie, contemplates the nature of God throughout, initially believing “God is a tornado.” But it is not a religious book, it is thoughtful and ultimately gentle and kind and hopeful. I highly recommend it.
That sounds excellent; adding it to my library holds!
I hope you enjoy it! And I just added The Paris Apartment to mine— Thanks for the rec!
I looked through all 300 books I’ve read this year and the only non-romance fiction that weren’t rereads were Murderbot books. All the rest, even those which are mostly historical fiction like Stella Riley’s Roundheads and Cavaliers series, have romantic elements. So do the suspense and mystery books I’ve read. There was one urban fantasy series by Melissa F. Olson called Boundary Magic which had very little romance and was well done. It was free on KU. My non-romance rereads included Lord Peter Wimsey books by Dorothy L. Sayers and some of Georgette Heyer’s mystery books.
Years ago I drifted away from non-romantic fiction to romance because I was so tired of all the hurting people and sadness in much of the fiction I was reading. I got really gun-shy of most fiction because all the recommended books were so hard to read, even if the ending was hopeful. They are often marketed as “gut wrenching” or “heart breaking.” Romance books, or books with romantic elements, provided a way for me to feel optimistic or hopeful.
I do think I need to broaden my horizons, however, and perhaps 2022 will be kind enough to let that happen.
Carrie, I read all the Murderbots last years, and I loved them (although the final novella was not quite as strong as the others.) I was happy to see Martha Wells win both the Hugo and the Nebula awards for this wonderful series.
Think I would say the same things about this novel – and I had the same worries after All the Light We Cannot See! I opted to listen to CCL and fell in love with it. It is a bit confusing at first, and I had some early doubts…but it’s one of those clever novels with neat little story lines coalescing in important – not manufactured – ways as the story winds it’s way to the conclusion. I loved it – but I’m not sure I would recommend it without knowing the reader very well in advance.
I also loved Kelly Bowen’s The Paris Apartment, and because I think it’s more appealing to lots of readers who like lots of different kinds of books – especially romance readers willing to follow a romance writer into historical fiction, it’s the one I’m picking as my year end favorite.
And one more that caught me off guard at the end of the year: The Thursday Murder Club, by Richard Osman. I thought it was fabulous; I listened to this one, too. Seniors living in a quiet and elegant retirement village set out to find a killer. Funny, smart, unique – I gave it as a gift to both of my parents and my in-laws! One of our former reviewers, Hollis, rec’d it on GR and I’m so glad she did! It was excellent. – and improved by it’s excellent narrator!
Em, I also loved listening to The Thursday Murder Club. The narrator is Lesley Manville, who has been nominated for lots of acting awards, and she is fabulous. I saw that she is playing Princess Margaret in the next two seasons of The Crown, which is good news. I’ve just started listening to book 2, The Man Who Died Twice, and it is just as fun so far.
Oh, I’m so happy to hear that!!! I have an audible credit I will use to get it!!!
My library has both The Paris Apartment and The Thursday Murder Club on audio, so I’ve added them. Thanks for the recommendations.
They are 2020 books but I read both Caste by Isabella Wilkerson and The Splendid and the Vile by Erik Larson in 2021 and those are two of the best books I’ve ever read. Band of Sisters by Lauren Willig and The Kitchen Front by Jennifer Ryan are my two favorite women’s fiction novels from last year.