All Booked: Canceling Plans to Hang Out with My Favorite Books

The year 2022 isn’t exactly the post-pandemic wonderland that we dreamed of, and many of us are entering another period of collective canceled plans. I’m obviously not happy about it, but I am a vaccinated Cancer Sun and I’ve always enjoyed canceling plans, regardless of vaccination status. We’re all likely going out less and staying in more, yet again, in the honorable name of health and safety. Whatever the current state of humanity, however, time keeps on moving, and with each new year comes the requisite reflection on the year past. And since you, dear subscriber, opened this email, I’m assuming you’re ready to read my musings about books.

According to my Goodreads account, I read 62 books in 2021. That seems like a pretty respectable number. I read everything from poetry to romance to classics and even finished a few series. Some books I love at the moment, but by and by I forget them, while others stick to my brain. These are the books I read in 2021 with the stickiest stories.

Monkey Beach by Eden Robinson was recommended to me by a friend ages ago, and when I finally picked it up this year, I was so glad I did. It is set on a Haisla reservation in British Columbia where a woman, who has been visited by supernatural beings her whole life, goes on a search for her missing brother, who has likely drowned in the northern Pacific. Going back and forth through time and with a strong sense of atmosphere, this novel is full of magical realism, haunting otherworldly creatures (including a Sasquatch!), and dark humor.