top 5 books you've read in the past year?
Ooh thank you for the ask! 💖
In no particular order:
1. A Desolation Called Peace by Arkady Martine -- incredible followup to an already good first book (A Memory Called Empire). I love how this book plays with the theme of plural identity in a boggling number of ways and makes it feel natural to the story/characters and not contrived. I'm rereading it with my sister and am still constantly surprised by how pervasive and layered it is. Definitely ambitious to add three new perspective characters but I think Martine pulls it off well. The character i was most skeptical about (Eight Antidote) became my favorite by the end. I highly recommend this duology.
2. Be the Serpent by Seanan McGuire - October Daye is a series built on long cons, twists, and hidden identities. This book contains the most shocking one yet, an incredible payoff built up for fifteen (15!!!) books. I'm impressed by the level of foreshadowing involved because it's obvious in hindsight but a dreadful surprise in the moment. My sister and I have figured out the next (possibly final?) reveal for the series and are 100 percent certain we're right, but I'm definitely looking forward to that one as well.
3. The Hourglass Throne by KD Edwards - I liked the first book of The Tarot Sequence, but had some issues with it. Edwards is very friendly and responsive to criticism and quite literally addressed all my problems by the second book. This third book is a doozy; intense and upsetting, but with some great developments and food for thought. I've enjoyed the character development and the general trajectory of the series and am super excited for more. Also I'm 90 percent sure I've figured out who the Mystery Woman is and am excited to see if/when that gets revealed.
4. The Well of Ascension by Brandon Sanderson - I'm new to Sanderson's work but have seen mostly universal praise for it. I liked the first book but this second one has an absolutely stellar narrative twist to it. I love how you can figure it out very early if you're paying attention. I figured it out shortly before the reveal because I noticed a small detail and went completely insane. I'm a sucker for that kind of thing. In general I've found Mistborn to be a creative take on epic fantasy. I still need to read the third book though lol
5. The Unreal and The Real by Ursula K Le Guin - This is a short story/novella collection but has some incredible works that I'm still thinking about constantly. Le Guin was just an incredible author and way ahead of her time in many respects. Favorites from this collection: The Diary of the Rose (maybe the best short story I've read, I've reread it a dozen times and break down in tears every time), Hand/Cup/Shell, Nine Lives, The Shobies' Story, The Matter of Seggri (major content warning), The Wife's Story, and The Jar of Water.
