2021 Books still on my TBR
I love reading everyone's 'best of the year' lists, but it is very dangerous for my TBR! Here are some of the 2021 releases still on my to-read list:
Open Water by Caleb Azumah Nelson (Feb)
Two young people meet at a pub in South East London. Both are Black British, both won scholarships to private schools where they struggled to belong, both are now artists - he a photographer, she a dancer - trying to make their mark in a city that by turns celebrates and rejects them.
The Lamplighters by Emma Stonex (March)
Cornwall, 1972. Three keepers vanish from a remote lighthouse, miles from the shore. The entrance door is locked from the inside. The clocks have stopped. The Principal Keeper’s weather log describes a mighty storm, but the skies have been clear all week.
The Last House on Needless Street by Catriona Ward (March)
This is the story of a serial killer. A stolen child. Revenge. Death. And an ordinary house at the end of an ordinary street. In the dark forest at the end of Needless Street, lies something buried. But it's not what you think...
My Phantoms by Gwendoline Riley (April)
Bridget's mother is dying. An extrovert with few friends who has sought intimacy in the wrong places; a twice-divorced mother-of-two now living alone surrounded by her memories, Helen has always haunted her daughter. Now, as together they approach the end, Bridget looks back on their tumultuous relationship and tries to reckon with the cruelties inflicted on both sides.
Things I Have Withheld by Kei Miller (May)
Kei Miller explores the silence in which so many important things are kept. He examines the experience of discrimination through this silence and what it means to breach it: to risk words, to risk truths. And he considers the histories our bodies inherit - the crimes that haunt them, and how meaning can shift as we move throughout the world, variously assuming privilege or victimhood.
Assembly by Natasha Brown (June)
The narrator of Assembly is a black British woman. She is preparing to attend a lavish garden party at her boyfriend’s family estate, set deep in the English countryside. At the same time, she is considering the carefully assembled pieces of herself. As the minutes tick down and the future beckons, she can’t escape the question: is it time to take it all apart?
How to Kill Your Family by Bella Mackie (June)
When Grace Bernard discovers her absentee millionaire father has rejected her dying mother’s pleas for help, she vows revenge, and sets about to kill every member of his family. But then Grace is imprisoned for a murder she didn’t commit.
Cecily by Annie Garthwaite (July)
You are born high, but marry a traitor's son. You bear him twelve children, carry his cause and bury his past. You play the game, against enemies who wish you ashes. Slowly, you rise. You are Cecily. But when the King who governs you proves unfit, what then? Loyalty or treason - death may follow both. The board is set. Time to make your first move.
If you want to know which 2021 releases I've already read and loved, you can check out my Alternative Books of the Year.
Open Water by Caleb Azumah Nelson (Feb)
Two young people meet at a pub in South East London. Both are Black British, both won scholarships to private schools where they struggled to belong, both are now artists - he a photographer, she a dancer - trying to make their mark in a city that by turns celebrates and rejects them.
The Lamplighters by Emma Stonex (March)
Cornwall, 1972. Three keepers vanish from a remote lighthouse, miles from the shore. The entrance door is locked from the inside. The clocks have stopped. The Principal Keeper’s weather log describes a mighty storm, but the skies have been clear all week.
The Last House on Needless Street by Catriona Ward (March)
This is the story of a serial killer. A stolen child. Revenge. Death. And an ordinary house at the end of an ordinary street. In the dark forest at the end of Needless Street, lies something buried. But it's not what you think...
My Phantoms by Gwendoline Riley (April)
Bridget's mother is dying. An extrovert with few friends who has sought intimacy in the wrong places; a twice-divorced mother-of-two now living alone surrounded by her memories, Helen has always haunted her daughter. Now, as together they approach the end, Bridget looks back on their tumultuous relationship and tries to reckon with the cruelties inflicted on both sides.
Things I Have Withheld by Kei Miller (May)
Kei Miller explores the silence in which so many important things are kept. He examines the experience of discrimination through this silence and what it means to breach it: to risk words, to risk truths. And he considers the histories our bodies inherit - the crimes that haunt them, and how meaning can shift as we move throughout the world, variously assuming privilege or victimhood.
Assembly by Natasha Brown (June)
The narrator of Assembly is a black British woman. She is preparing to attend a lavish garden party at her boyfriend’s family estate, set deep in the English countryside. At the same time, she is considering the carefully assembled pieces of herself. As the minutes tick down and the future beckons, she can’t escape the question: is it time to take it all apart?
How to Kill Your Family by Bella Mackie (June)
When Grace Bernard discovers her absentee millionaire father has rejected her dying mother’s pleas for help, she vows revenge, and sets about to kill every member of his family. But then Grace is imprisoned for a murder she didn’t commit.
Cecily by Annie Garthwaite (July)
You are born high, but marry a traitor's son. You bear him twelve children, carry his cause and bury his past. You play the game, against enemies who wish you ashes. Slowly, you rise. You are Cecily. But when the King who governs you proves unfit, what then? Loyalty or treason - death may follow both. The board is set. Time to make your first move.
If you want to know which 2021 releases I've already read and loved, you can check out my Alternative Books of the Year.
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