I recently got tagged* in the in the Mid-Year Book Freakout tag on Instagram and although I have already made my post for the tag there, I wanted to make a companion blog post to elaborate on the books I chose for each question and why I chose them. This tag was jointly created by booktubers Earl Grey Books and Chami, and the questions are meant to allow you to reflect on the books you have read so far this year, as well as what books you want to read in the second half of the year. Granted, we are a little more than halfway through the year right now, but if it's not too late to make a 2021 reading roundup post, it's not too late for this.
*I actually tagged myself but that's not important
Best book — The Three-Body Problem by Liu Cixin
I was truly surprised to love this book as much as I did, since sci-fi is not a genre I've generally been fond of in the past. Especially given that The Three-Body Problem is a 'hard sci-fi' book (i.e. one that is heavy on science/scientific accuracy, as opposed to a 'soft sci-fi' book in which this is not such a priority) with a strong emphasis on physics, I was braced to struggle a bit with it going in.
To my surprise, The Three-Body Problem was actually a gripping read, intellectually challenging but without feeling like getting hit in the head with a science textbook. I felt that Liu did an excellent job of making the science comprehensible to the average non-scientist reader while also keeping the mind-blowing implications of some of the book's more out-there sci-fi elements. One of my favourite parts of the book, without a doubt, is the element of existential terror in it. It's hard to say much without spoiling it, but one of the major themes is the scale of humanity's existence in the universe, how much we are at the mercy of galactic forces that remain largely unknown to us. I'm so excited to read the next book in the series, which brings me to....
Favourite sequel — Haven’t read any yet this year! However, I am really hoping that The Dark Forest, Liu Cixin's sequel to The Three-Body Problem will be as good as the first book in the series.
New release you haven’t read yet — You Made a Fool of Death with Your Beauty by Akwaeke Emezi
My god, I feel like I have seen this book everywhere. Every bookshop, every bookstagram, every book website I follow. From what I've heard, it's for good reason. I haven't yet read a full book by Emezi (blame the library for making me return Freshwater before I had time to finish it), but I have greatly enjoyed their writing so far, so I really want to read this latest book by them. Not to mention that the hardback cover is absolutely gorgeous - if I had the money, that reason alone would have made me buy a the first time I saw one in a shop.
Favourite re-read — The Haunting of Hill House by Shirley Jackson
I re-read this book this year for my dissertation, which looked at queer themes in The Haunting of Hill House by Shirley Jackson and White is for Witching by Helen Oyeyemi. Although I love both books, The Haunting of Hill House is one of my favourite books in the world, and I notice new things about it every time I pick it up. I hope I will still be reading this book many years from now, when life experience will open my eyes to parts of Hill House that had been previously unknown to me.
Biggest disappointment — A Visit from the Goon Squad by Jennifer Egan
Should I make a whole rant post about this book? I certainly have the negative emotions needed to fuel it. I read this book because it was required on a course I was taking on Humanitarian Fictions, and besides not really knowing what exactly this book had to do with humanitarianism, I barely liked a single chapter of it. The one exception is the (in)famous 'PowerPoint chapter', which is told from the perspective of a young girl using PowerPoint slides to speak about her family. The concept of this chapter was innovative and some of the writing in it was quite beautiful. Why this innovation and beauty did not carry over to the rest of the text, I don't know. In any case, I finished A Visit from the Goon Squad depressed, irritated, and wanting to make unflattering comparisons to A Little Life.
Biggest surprise — Animal’s People by Indra Sinha
I was assigned Animal's People to read on the same course as A Visit from the Goon Squad, but I had the exact opposite experience with it. While I had some hope for A Visit from the Goon Squad but ended up hating it, I was reluctant to read Animal's People but ended up loving it - I even replanned all of my assignments for the course, just so I could write on Animal's People.
I think the reason I wasn't expecting to like this book is because some of its marketing led me to believe that this would be the sort of borderline-exploitative trauma porn you see lining the shelves of the Tesco book section (you can normally spot them by pictures of crying children on the cover). To my surprise, Animal's People was not that at all, but a nuanced look disaster, disability, and the joy of community formed in the aftermath of struggle.
A book that made you cry — Human Acts by Han Kang
Another book from the Humanitarian Fictions course, to stay Human Acts made me cry would be an understatement. This book emotionally destroyed me. What makes it harder to read is the fact that it is based on a real event, the Gwangju Uprising in South Korea, in which hundreds to thousands of protestors were killing by authoritarian government forces.* In Human Acts, the grief of each death is painfully felt, leading to an overwhelming sense of horror as these individual deaths continue to stack up. This is not doubt a necessary book, but it is a heartbreaking one.
*There is debate over the official death statistics and whether they can be trusted. The lower limit of deaths, according to the government shortly after the event, is between 100-200. Other sources think that the number could be much higher, as many as 2,000 deaths.
A book that made you smile — Princess Princess Ever After by Kay O’Neill
I have been a fan of Kay O'Neill since their Tumblr days, and it makes me so happy to see them as a successful published graphic novelist now. I read Princess Princess Ever After on my Kindle Unlimited free trial and was excited to see the features I have come to expect of their work: beautiful pastel-hued artwork, heartwarming storylines, queer love, and diverse representation. This book, though it is probably meant for a much younger audience than me, still made me smile. The thought that young queer kids are growing up in a world where books like this are increasingly mainstream made me even happier.
Favourite book by a debut/new to you author — Magma by Thora Hjörleifsdóttir
I saw this book recommended on TikTok (where I increasingly get my book recommendations these days) as a short read you could get through in a day. Magma is indeed a short book, with varyingly-short chapters too - some as short as a paragraph - yet it has the force of a much larger book behind it. Focusing on a young woman in a toxic relationship with a much older man, Magma reflected a situation I have seen around me so many times. Hjörleifsdóttir manages to show how these relationships, even if they are not overtly physically harmful, can be based on power imbalances that open them up to abuse of all kinds. This was a short, propulsive, and heart-rending read.
Most anticipated release for the second half of the year — Her Majesty’s Royal Coven by Juno Dawson
This actually came out in hardback here in the UK the day after I made my Instagram post, so I'm not sure it can even count as an 'anticipated' release anymore, but I'm going to include it anyway. I've always thought the concepts of Juno Dawson's books sounded so cool and wanted to read them, but I don't generally do well with young adult fiction and so have left them alone so far. Her Majesty's Royal Coven has an equally fun and fascinating concept, but as it is Dawson's first work of adult fiction, this time I actually plan on reading it.
Most beautiful book you have bought or received — The Book of Form and Emptiness by Ruth Ozeki (my signed Waterstones hardback 💖)
Having waited eight years (eight years!) for Ruth Ozeki, one of my favourite authors, to release a new novel, I was well-prepared to snap up a copy of The Book of Form and Emptiness as soon as it came out. My copy is the signed special edition from Waterstones, a hardback edition with sprayed edges and a signature from Ozeki herself, which I shall treasure forever.
Book you want to read by the end of the year — Luster by Raven Leilani (among others!)
I actually got about halfway through this book earlier in the year, but ended up having to abandon it to focus on my university work. It's been so long since I picked it back up that I think I probably need to start from the beginning again now. One of my reading goals for the rest of 2022 is to start again and actually finish it this time!
I think most people have done this tag at this point, but if you haven't and want to, please feel free to take this post as me tagging you to do it now. Otherwise, have you read or wanted to read any of the books on this list? Let me know what you thought if so 💖
