I’ve finally picked up The Song of Achilles and I’m about halfway through. It’s a much quicker read than I expected!
I also read Villains by Necessity which was…interesting. A fun little read, but a lot of the reviews just didn’t match up for me.
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Oooo, I just got the Circe audio!
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I read Circe and Song of Achilles over the summer and loved both!
I just started reading Caste: The Origin of Our Discontents by Isabelle Wilkerson. Not exactly light reading, but the writing style makes it surprisingly approachable.
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I still haven’t finished Song of Achilles–I’m about halfway through and just…stopped. I think it got overhyped for me. It’s a good book and I’m enjoying it, but so far it’s not quite what people told me it would be.
But there is a second half so perhaps I’m just being pessimistic!
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Has anyone read The Raven Cycle books or the Graveling Realm trilogy? Because I love geeking out over those books. Like stand on a chair excitement.
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I finished “The Lies of Locke Lamora” by Scott Lynch over a week ago, and I’m still reeling at how incredible it was. I haven’t been so unable to out down a book in a long while.
Think The Godfather meets Thieflord meets just a touch of Lovecraft all in a fantasy novel. It’s cleverness is endless, it surprises you at every turn. It is about as violent as The Godfather as well, so big warning 
there.
I cannot recommend this book enough!
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I just finished Neverwhere by Neil Gaiman. I loved the story. The ending was decent but not my favorite.
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Has anyone here read the unabridged edition of The Count of Monte Cristo? There was a nice looking version of the abridged edition at my local used bookstore that I grabbed since I’ve heard plenty of good things about it, but I was wondering if the extra details of the unabridged edition are worth the extra commitment. They didn’t have an unabridged ones there or I would have just grabbed it anyway.
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I’ve never read it but I’ve heard good things too!
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Friends! As we wind down our year in books, I’d love to know what your best reads of the year have been!! I’ve still got a couple in the works that I’m hoping to finish before the new year in order to meet my Goodreads goal, so I’ll reserve my judgment until I do, but I’m looking forward to sharing some favorites soon!
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Neverwhere by Neil Gaiman was great. I’m currently reading the Johannes Cabal series which I greatly recommend. It’s a dark comedy series about a necromancer and the books are all standalone, they don’t have to be read in a particular order which is something I really appreciate.
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I really enjoyed The Uncommon Reader by Alan Bennett. It was short, whimsical, and fun.
I’m also very glad I read We Have Always Lived in the Castle by Shirley Jackson. Sweet bananas was it good. Some of it was totally predictable, but it kept me engaged and gave me a few surprises.
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I think Night Circus and The Starless Sea are my favourites from this year. Just remembering them both invokes a feeling of awe and wonder 
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Looking back, I saw The Starless Sea was my first read of 2020, and it was hard to top that!! I also have more Neil Gaiman and Shirley Jackson on my 2021 TBR for sure.
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I fell off a reading cliff somewhere in the middle of the summer, and stopped somewhere in the middle of The Song of Achilles. With the move, etc. my reading goals vaporized, but Circe was the best book I read this year and in the past few years.
It’s not exactly a book-book, but I finally cracked open Thousand Year Old Vampire, the single-player interactive novel, and I am absolutely in love with it. I just finalized my character, the time/setting, and the cast of mortals surrounding him, and will reward myself with expanding it when I’m done with work for the day. It’s nice having a little “writing exercise” that’s just for my own enjoyment, though I’m having to work to silence the little voice in the back of my head that says, “this sure would make a great addition to the Briarverse.”
I highly recommend it, and it’s available in hardcover and pdf.
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I think my favorite this year was The Hazel Wood by Melissa Albert.
Also I’m not sure if this counts because its manga Jojo’s Bizzare Adventure kept me company for an entire year and I’ve only run out of chapters now. So time-wise, that series has dominated my 2020 reading amd I’m not mad about it. Its an easy, mindless but fun Shounen battle manga and it gave me exactly the level of nonsense escapism I needed this year.
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At risk of sounding like a suck up, but I don’t care because it’s you guys and I really mean it: The Book of Briars chapters we’ve previewed with pre-order, especially the latest groups of chapters (4A and 4B).
After that, hands down Circe and The Invisible Life of Addie Lurue.
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Manga absolutely counts!!!
And I am simply dying to read Addie Larue still. Hoping I get it off the library holds list in 2021!!
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Almost all these books are on my 2021 list. I’m probably reduce my GoodReads goal for next year though because I’m not commuting and reading takes more energy & time than listening.
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