Top Ten Tuesday: Best of 2021 (Not Published in 2021)

Top Ten Tuesday is a weekly meme created by the Broke and the Bookish and now hosted by That Artsy Reader Girl.

Yesterday I rambled about books published in 2021 that I thought were good. That was a lot easier because I didn’t read a ton of things that actually came out this year. So I struggled a little with picking the best books for this list.

Raybearer by Jordan Ifueko and The Invisible Life of Addie Larue by V. E. Schwab were fabulous surprises. For me, their popularity is justified.

Piranesi by Susanna Clarke, A Game of Fox and Squirrels by Jenn Reese, and A Wizard’s Guide to Defensive Baking by T. Kingfisher deserved their award nominations.

Load Poems Like Guns and Postcolonial Love Poem were the best poetry collections I read.

Nice Dragons Finish Last by Rachel Aaron was a delight. I wasn’t sure I could get into an urban fantasy series again but this one has proven that wrong.

Impulse has been sitting on my shelf for a long time, maybe since it came out. This year I finally picked it up and it was emotional.

The Butterfly Garden is complicated. Like Impulse, it tackles heavy subjects. The main character is fascinating. I was on the edge of my seat, eager to read their story. Also, the FBI team members in charge were endearing. I’ve continued to read the other books because they continue to feature.

Reading the entire Claymore series by Norihiro Yagi was amazing. So many twists and turns. It was scary but also warm.

What were some of the reading highlights you had this year?