In 2021 I read 15 out of 24 books on my reading list challenge. Not the best, but not the worst. I’m afraid my motivation and time tanked by the end of the year around the holidays. Nonetheless, I immensely enjoyed the challenge and plan to do another set of books in 2022! Below is the list I announced back in March 2021.
| Title | Author | Genre |
The Death of Alexander the Great | ||
| Words of Radiance | Brandon Sanderson | Adult Fantasy |
| Daughter of Smoke & Bone | Laini Taylor | Young Adult |
| Where the Red Fern Grows | Wilson Rawls | Children’s |
| Crazy Rich Asians | Kevin Kwan | Adult Fiction |
| China Rich Girlfriend | Kevin Kwan | Adult Fiction |
| Rich People Problems | Kevin Kwan | Adult Ficiton |
| The Cosmic Serpent: DNA and the Origins of Knowledge | Jeremy Narby | Psychedelic Non-Fiction |
| Jitterbug Perfume | Tom Robbins | Adult Fiction Comedy |
| Practical Magic | Alice Hoffman | Fiction |
| A Season of Gifts | Richard Peck | Children’s |
And here are the books that I read that were not on the original list.
| Title | Author | Genre |
| Black Sun | Rebecca Roanhorse | Adult Fantasy |
| Forest of Souls | Lori M. Lee | Young Adult |
| Magician’s Gambit | David Eddings | Adult Fantasy |
My absolute favorite book from the reading challenge was The Name of the Wind by Patrick Rothfuss. The world building, characters…really everything about it was magical! Rothfuss’s writing has an enrapturing beauty that reminded me indirectly of Alice Hoffman, who I would say has a similar, poetic style. I highly recommend this book if you’re a fan of high fantasy. I must warn you that although the sequel has been written, the third book has not. It seems like Rothfuss may be in a situation similar to G.R.R. Martin. Sigh…so who knows when we’ll see the end of Kvothe’s tale. Black Sun by Rebecca Roanhorse was a very close second favorite.
My least favorite book was the Magician’s Gambit by David Eddings from the Belgariad series. While I liked the first book in that series I found by the third book, the storyline was too repetitive and the two main female characters were overbearing. Not surprising since this is an old fantasy book from the early 80s. I won’t discourage anyone from reading the series. It is rated very highly on Goodreads, so there are many fans of the books, but it was just not to my taste.
Lastly here is the link to the Goodreads version of my reading challenge review. Thank you for reading! On to the next list!
Lily K Borak 