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Total: 52/52

THE 2021 LIST

JANUARY
1. A book related to “In the Beginning...�� - The Invisible Library, Genevieve Cogman - 04/01/21
2. A book by an author whose name doesn't contain the letters A, T or Y - Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince, J K Rowling - 10/01/21
3. A book related to the lyrics for the song "My Favorite Things" from The Sound of Music - Midwinter Murder, Agatha Christie - 13/01/21
4. A book with a monochromatic cover - The Lost Plot, Genevieve Cogman - 09/02/21

FEBRUARY
5. A book by an author on USA Today's list of 100 Black Novelists You Should Read - The City We Became, NK Jemisin - 30/04/21
6. A love story - The Queen of Nothing, Holly Black - 02/04/21
7. A book that fits a prompt suggestion that didn't make the final list - Affairs of Steak, Julie Hyzy - 05/02/21
8. A book set in a state, province, or country you have never visited - Land of Wolves, Craig Johnson - 04/02/21

MARCH
9. A book you associate with a specific season or time of year - What Abigail Did That Summer, Ben Aaronovitch - 23/03/21
10. A book with a female villain or criminal - Before Mars, Emma Newman - 28/02/21
11. A book to celebrate The Grand Egyptian Museum - Aunt Dimity and the Buried Treasure, Nancy Atherton - 15/03/21
12. A book eligible for the Warwick Prize for Women in Translation - Chernobyl Prayer: A Chronicle of the Future, Svetlana Alexievich - 13/04/21
13. A book written by an author of one of your best reads of 2020 - The Galaxy, and the Ground Within, Becky Chambers - 19/02/21

APRIL
14. A book set in a made-up place - No Escape Claws, Sofie Ryan - 22/04/21
15. A book that features siblings as the main characters - We Have Always Lived in the Castle, Shirley Jackson - 21/04/21
16. A book with a building in the title - The Midnight Library, Matt Haig - 19/04/21
17. A book with a Muslim character or author - The Things I Would Tell You: British Muslim Women Write, Sabrina Mahfouz (ed) - 15/05/21

MAY
18. 3 books related to "Past, Present, Future" - Book 1 - Whiter Than the Lily, Alys Clare - 08/03/21
19. 3 books related to "Past, Present, Future" - Book 2 - The Cat, the Sneak and the Secret, Leann Sweeney - 07/03/21
20. 3 books related to "Past, Present, Future" - Book 3 - Atlas Alone, Emma Newman - 09/03/21
21. A book whose title and author both contain the letter "u" - Death in a Budapest Butterfly, Julia Buckley - 05/03/21
22. A book posted in one of the ATY Best Book of the Month threads - The Space Between Worlds, Micaiah Johnson - 29/09/21

JUNE
23. A cross genre novel - What Could Possibly Go Wrong?, Jodi Taylor - 17/06/21
24. A book about racism or race relations - Why I'm No Longer Talking to White People About Race, Reni Eddo-Lodge - 17/02/21
25. A book set on an island - Blackout, Ragnar Jonasson - 22/05/21>
26. A short book (<210 pages) by a new-to-you author - Rewild Yourself: 23 Spellbinding Ways to Make Nature More Visible, Simon Barnes - 17/05/21
JULY
27. A book with a character who can be found in a deck of cards - Quite Ugly One Morning, Christopher Brookmyre - 01/10/21
28. A book connected to ice - The Darkness, Ragnar Jonasson - 19/08/21
29. A book that you consider comfort reading - The Chocolate Apothecary, Josephine Moon - 23/06/21
30. A long book - The Name of All Things, Jenn Lyons - 31/10/21

AUGUST
31. A book by an author whose career spanned more than 21 years - The Colours of all the Cattle, Alexander McCall Smith - 25/08/21
32. A book whose cover shows more than 2 people - The Relentless Moon, Mary Robinette Kowal - 16/07/21
33. A collection of short stories, essays, or poetry - The Long and Short of It, Jodi Taylor - 13/07/21
34. A book with a travel theme - The Fated Sky, Mary Robinette Kowal - 12/07/21
35. A book set in a country on or below the Tropic of Cancer - The Case of the Deadly Butter Chicken, Tarquin Hall - 02/09/20

SEPTEMBER
36. A book with six or more words in the title - The Hobbit, or There and Back Again, J.R.R. Tolkien - 20/09/21
37. A book from the Are You Well Read in World Literature list - Beowulf, tr Francis Barton Gummere /Beowulf: A New Translation, Maria Dahvana Headley - 09-10/09/21
38. A book related to a word given by a random word generator - The Cats Came Back, Sofie Kelly - 27/09/21
39. A book involving an immigrant - Raisins and Almonds, Kerry Greenwood - 24/11/21

OCTOBER
40. A book with flowers or greenery on the cover - Gone with the Whisker, Laurie Cass - 07/09/21
41. A book by a new-to-you BIPOC author - Elatsoe, Darcie Little Badger - 11/10/21
42. A mystery or thriller - Grace Against the Clock, Julie Hyzy - 17/08/21
43. A book with elements of magic - Black Sun, Rebecca Roanhorse, 16/08/21

NOVEMBER
44. A book whose title contains a negative - No One Noticed the Cat, Anne McCaffery - 14/09/21
45. A book related to a codeword from the NATO Phonetic Alphabet - Purrfectly Dead, Dixie Lyle - 13/05/21
46. A winner or nominee from the 2020 ŷ������ Choice Awards - Piranesi, Susanna Clarke - 10/08/21
47. A non-fiction book other than biography, autobiography or memoir - Other Minds: The Octopus, the Sea, and the Deep Origins of Consciousness, Peter Godfrey-Smith - 13/10/21
48. A book that might cause someone to react “You read what?!?�� - Looking for Alaska, John Green - 18/08/21

DECEMBER
49. A book with an ensemble cast - The Vanished Birds, Simon Jimenez - 05/10/21
50. A book published in 2021 - Murder in the Cookbook Nook - 03/11/21
51. A book whose title refers to person(s) without giving their name - Cemetery Boys, Aiden Thomas - 07/10/21
52. A book related to "the end" - Killer Characters, Ellery Adams - 01/11/21

1. A book related to “In the Beginning...�� - The Invisible Library - ****

Both a debut novel and the first in a series of adventures for book lovers. I did read it about five years ago, but I decided to get it off the metaphorical shelf again.

2. A book by an author whose name doesn't contain the letters A, T or Y - Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince - ***

I hadn't read this since it first came out. I enjoyed it, although I could have done without the teen angst.

3. A book related to the lyrics for the song "My Favorite Things" from The Sound of Music - Midwinter Murder - ****


"Snowflakes that stay on my nose and eyelashes
Silver white winters that melt into springs"

Definitely snowflakes on this one, as well as snow on the ground.

A good little collection of winter-themed short stories.

24. A book about racism or race relations - Why I'm No Longer Talking to White People About Race -

A really though-provoking book.

8. A book set in a state, province, or country you have never visited - Land of Wolves - ****

Set in Wyoming, which I'd love to visit - largely because of the descriptions in the Longmire books - but haven't yet.

7. A book that fits a prompt suggestion that didn't make the final list - Affairs of Steak - ****

I do like the Whitehouse Chef mysteries - I just forget that between books! This one was read for POLL 3: A book that includes a recipe, which didn't make the final list.

13. A book written by an author of one of your best reads of 2020
- The Galaxy, and the Ground Within -

I've been waiting for it to come out for ages. I loved this, even though, to all intents and purposes, very little happened. It was just five disparate people getting to know eachother.

To Be Taught, If Fortunate, by the same author, was one of my 5* reads last year

10. A book with a female villain or criminal - Before Mars - ****

More villain than criminal. This is the third of Emma Newman's four Planetfall books. Like Wayfarers (see #8), each of the books is stand-alone, but with inconnecting characters. A very good SF thriller.

21. A book whose title and author both contain the letter "u" - Death in a Budapest Butterfly - ****

An intriguing cozy based on Hungarian folklore.

19. 3 books related to "Past, Present, Future" - Book 2 - The Cat, the Sneak and the Secret - ***

Set in the current day, so this was the entry for present.

18. 3 books related to "Past, Present, Future" - Book 1 - Whiter Than the Lily - ***

#7 in a very good historical mystery series, set in the 1190s

20. 3 books related to "Past, Present, Future" - Book 3 - Atlas Alone -

An excellent futuristic thriller - maybe even stronger than the other three books in the Planetfall series. And the ending was unexpected.

11. A book to celebrate The Grand Egyptian Museum - Aunt Dimity and the Buried Treasure - ****

The Aunt Dimity books are one of my comfort reads!

In this one, Dimity sends Lori to look for someone she knew after WWII, and it turns out that he's a famous Egyptologist.

The British Museum is also mentioned, as well as the Finch Museum that the villagers set up after they take up a new metal-detecting craze.

So, museums, archaology and an Egyptologist!

9. A book you associate with a specific season or time of year - What Abigail Did That Summer -

I really like the bite-sized Rivers of London novellas, and this one was no exception. Summer on Hampstead Heath, with talking foxes.

6. A love story - The Queen of Nothing - ****

Well, this trilogy certainly didn't start out as a love story, but it becomes one in this final book, when the two main characters realise what they actually mean to each other.

12. A book eligible for the Warwick Prize for Women in Translation - Chernobyl Prayer: A Chronicle of the Future -

A spellbinding oral history of the Chernobyl disaster, as well as being one of the main sources for the TV miniseries a couple of years ago. How little we knew about what really happened.

This is the translation of the revised edition, rather than the original 1997 text.

16. A book with a building in the title - The Midnight Library - ***

This was quite a hard book for me but it did get me thinking.

15. A book that features siblings as the main characters - We Have Always Lived in the Castle - **

Truth be told, I though this was just odd for most of it, although the scene where the villagers go on the rampage made me angry. At least the cat survived.

14. A book set in a made-up place - No Escape Claws - ****

As far as I can tell, North Harbour, Maine is a made up place. This was an enjoyable mystery in a series I go back to from time to time.

5. A book by an author on USA Today's list of 100 Black Novelists You Should Read - The City We Became, NK Jemisin - 30/04/21 - **

This had some very cool ideas, but overall, I found it hard to connect with. I prefer the author's Broken Earth books.

17. A book with a Muslim character or author - The Things I Would Tell You: British Muslim Women Write - ***

Not one, but many Muslim authors. This anthology of fiction, non-fiction and poetry, offers an eclectic selection. Some I liked more than others, but the most interesting for me were the non-fiction contributions.

26. A short book (<210 pages) by a new-to-you author - Rewild Yourself: 23 Spellbinding Ways to Make Nature More Visible -

At 208pg, this is a cracking little book about how to reconnect with nature - something that's been very important during Lockdown. A rare 5* read for me.

25. A book set on an island - Blackout - ***

The Dark Iceland series is pretty decent Scandi crime. This one was was a bit slow getting going, but was good once it hit its stride. It also makes a big deal about Iceland being an island.

4. A book with a monochromatic cover - The Lost Plot - ***

I was going to go black and white, but then the book I chose worked better for prompt 24, so based on the allowance for a single colour in the help thread, I change my mind to this.

23. A cross genre novel - What Could Possibly Go Wrong? - ****

Time travel meets historical fiction! Plus, this series is laugh out loud funny in the lighter bits, while racking up the tension at other times.

29. A book that you consider comfort reading - The Chocolate Apothecary - ****

I don't really read "Chick-Lit", but I picked this up as the description was intreguing, and I ended up really enjoying it. It would make a really good beach read.

33. A collection of short stories, essays, or poetry - The Long and Short of It - ****

I really like the St Mary's stories, and these shorts fill in some of the blanks.

34. A book with a travel theme - The Fated Sky - ***

I decided to take the "travel theme" as a journey - in this case, a journey to Mars. I didn't like this quite as much as the first in the series, The Calculating Stars, but it was still a good story.

32. A book whose cover shows more than 2 people - The Relentless Moon -

Definitely the best in the Lady Astronaut series so far.

28. A book connected to ice - The Darkness - *

Set in Iceland, hence the connection to ice.

This was a really good book, until the last couple of chapters, which I absolutely hated, and pulled it from a three or four star book to a one.

31. A book by an author whose career spanned more than 21 years - The Colours of all the Cattle - ***

Hard to believe, but the first No.1 Ladies Detective Agency book was published in 1998!

35. A book set in a country on or below the Tropic of Cancer - The Case of the Deadly Butter Chicken - ***

Third in a quirky mystery series set in India, about Delhi's "most private investigator" and his team.

45. A book related to a codeword from the NATO Phonetic Alphabet - Purrfectly Dead - ***

The series, and the names of the three main characters are Whiskey (a dog), Tango (a ghostly cat) and Foxtrot (the main human character)

42. A mystery or thriller - Grace Against the Clock - ****

Book five in a cozy mystery series I like, but seem to keep forgetting about.

43. A book with elements of magic - Black Sun - ****

It took me a while to get used to the chopping and changing in when everything happened, but once I did, I enjoyed this a lot. It's good to know that there's still epic fantasy out there which can do something different.

40. A book with flowers or greenery on the cover - Gone with the Whisker - ***

I see flowers and trees

46. A winner or nominee from the 2020 ŷ������ Choice Awards - Piranesi - ***

This is an exceedingly weird book. An interesting premise, but I preferred Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell

48. A book that might cause someone to react “You read what?!?�� - Looking for Alaska - ****

I can't think why any of my friends would have expected me to read a book about teenagers at high school in the US.

38. A book related to a word given by a random word generator - The Cats Came Back - ***

My random word was Concert. This book happens during a music festival, and leads up to a big gala concert on the last night.

44. A book whose title contains a negative - No One Noticed the Cat -

How can you not like a book where the smartest person in the room is the cat?

22. A book posted in one of the ATY Best Book of the Month threads - The Space Between Worlds - ***

Posted in the March 2021 thread. An intriguing SF thriller, although I wasn't too sure about the POV character.

37. A book from the Are You Well Read in World Literature list - Beowulf - *** and Beowulf: A New Translation - ****

So these were a bit of a compare and contrast. I read the modern one first, but then ended up in a discussion about whether it was a translation or an adaptation - so I read the older one as well. Its definitely a translation, and I found the newer one more relatable.

36. A book with six or more words in the title - The Hobbit, or There and Back Again -

I read this periodically, as I love it. I hadn't noticed the Beowulf reference before, though.

27. A book with a character who can be found in a deck of cards - Quite Ugly One Morning - ***

The main character's name is Jack.

49. A book with an ensemble cast - The Vanished Birds -

An amazing first novel - probably the best I've read since The Martian and The Long Way to a Small, Angry Planet. Space Opera, with a focus on character.

Which character is being focused on changes with each chapter, although they're all part of the same story and often in the same place. Hence using it for this prompt.

51. A book whose title refers to person(s) without giving their name - Cemetery Boys - ***

I wasn't really the target audience for this, but it was very well written, and I was fascinated by the culture.

41. A book by a new-to-you BIPOC author - Elatsoe - ****

A really enjoyable YA paranormal mystery.

47. A non-fiction book other than biography, autobiography or memoir - Other Minds: The Octopus, the Sea, and the Deep Origins of Consciousness - ****

Bridging the boundary of science and philosophy, this is a fascinating book about what it is to be sentient.

30. A long book - The Name of All Things - ***

I think over 600 pages qualifies, and it felt so much longer! I read the first in this series for last year's Hugos, and this one for this year.

I even enjoyed a lot of it. Indeed, unusually for me, I thought "wow, I might even finish this trilogy of way too long books, even if I only give them 3*s" - and then I discovered there were five of them. Nope, life is too short. Sigh.