Top 5 Books for 2021 (So Far)
It’s nearly half way through the year, and with winter approaching — time to snuggle up in front of your firepit and just read.
Here are my Top 5 books for 2021 (so far).. and if you want some more inspiration, here is how my most anticipated reads of the year are also going.
‘A Girl Returned’ by Donatella Di Pietrantonio (pub 2019 / Italian)
170pp
This one goes out to all of those who fell in love with Elena Ferrante’s ‘Neapolitan Novels’, or for those who wanted something more. A short and surprisingly beautiful book despite the dark premise. A girl is ‘returned’ to her real mother after years of living with another family. This is what she discovers and despite the plot, it’s quite a heartwarming read.
‘A Room Made of Leaves’ by Kate Grenville (pub 2020 / Australian)
317pp
I’ve spent this year catching up on my Kate Grenville back cat (ouch ‘Dark Places was a bit too horrible to make this list!) and this was a winner. What could have been a dull and dry subject (an assumed / alt-history about the wife of early Australian John Macarthur); Grenville weaves literary magic and mastery turning this story into what could easily be in my Top 10 reads for the year. Oh, she does dark, mean, and nasty so well.
‘A Children’s Bible’ by Lydia Millet (pub 2020/ USA)
240pp
This was both strange and captivating — and one where you have no idea what will happen next. It’s a dark and odd take on “the world is ending” genre — as a climate change-induced storm takes over a family holiday — and reduces the children-as-heroes to chaotic runaways.
‘Luster’ by Raven Leilani (pub 2020 / USA)
(226pp)
Phew…. for those of you who have read this — get in touch as I still need a big debrief on this one. Reading the blurb, I thought I was in for something along the lines of ‘It’s Such a Fun Age’.. but oooh boy was I wrong. Compelling like a train wreck with so much going on. A strange and very uncomfortable telling of a relationship of a young black girl, a white man, and ultimately his whole family. It’s a rough ride, and still wrapping my head around it.
‘The Discomfort of Evening’ by Marieke Lucas Rijneveld (pub 2020 / Netherlands)
298pp
I was a bit dubious about this one. International Booker Prize winners are very hit and miss — and this 2020 winner had whispers of abuse, neglect and animal cruelty in it.
And holy moley — what a weird, odd and disturbing but gripping story. It’s a family surviving after the death of the son through the eyes if a child. Is it real or imagined, plague of God or one imagination of a negleted girl?
