#11) Engines of Oblivion by Karen Osborne – Osborne’s second offering in her series, The Memory War, took some time to draw me in, but ultimately succeeded in telling a complicated story about the ongoing saga of first contact that turns to interstellar war, and the women who change the course of history. Engines of Oblivion picks up with Natalie Chan, a supporting character form the first installment of the series, Architects of Memory, who frankly, took a while to emerge back into my brain even after having read the previous novel only a year or so ago. The main characters from Architects do return, and their presence is felt throughout, but this is really Natalie’s story, and her evolving relationship with the Master Node of the mysterious Vai. The challenge with Osborne’s novels is that her plots are so dense, and convoluted, that I often don’t really know what’s going on. Ultimately, the characters are real enough, and the story engaging enough that it almost doesn’t matter that I’m missing the larger story she is trying to tell, but part of me is frustrated by that as well.
#10) Remarkably Bright Creatures by Shelby Van Pelt – This sweet story is, at its heart, a story about family lost and family reunited. 70-year-old Tova lives alone with the 30-year-old grief of her son’s death, ruled as a suicide. Her husband has also recently passed away, and Tova lives her solitary life in the the small tow of Sowell Bay, WA among the company of the KnitWits, friends who she enjoys, but more accurately tolerates. When Cameron, a young lost man comes to town searching for his father in a desperate attempt to get his life on track, the two invariably collide and find they have more in common than they could ever imagine. What makers Remarkably Bright Creatures stand out from its someone pedestrian, albeit well-constructed central story, is the only real joy in Tova’s life — her job cleaning at the Sowell Bay Aquarium, and the unusual relationship she develops with Marcellus, the Giant Pacific Octopus who is a resident there. How Marcellus affects the trajectories of both Tova and Cameron’s lives adds a unique twist to Shelby Van Pelt’s debut novel.
#13) Moon of the Crusted Snow by Waubgeshig Rice – This slight novel is filled with atmosphere. Far to the north, in a remote Anishinaabe community, winter approaches. When all power and networks suddenly fail, the people of the town find themselves cut off from the rest of the world, and it is only through a small number of unexpected arrivals do they learn this phenomenon is widespread. Where some folks have prepared for a long winter by following older traditions, like hunting to stock up on meat, others are ill-prepared, and it’s up to the community to support everyone. While things are tough in town, it soon becomes apparent that things are far worse in the larger cities to the South.
#12) Men Without Women by Haruki Murakami – Acclaimed Tokyo writer Haruki Murakami collection of short stories, Men Without Women, published in 2017, explores a variety of scenarios where men find themselves without women and their lives a thrown into upheaval. Two of the stories contained in this collection, ‘Drive My Car’ and ‘Scheherazade’ were combined to create the marvelous screenplay for the 2021 film, DRIVE MY CAR, by filmmaker Ryûsuke Hamaguchi to great effect, which is why I decided to read Murakami’s collection. While an adept and accomplished writer, I wish I could read the stories in the original Japanese, because I felt that the quality of the writing was impacted by the translator, two of which are used for this group of stories. The bulk of the stories in this collection were beautifully done, but a couple toward the end were not as strong. 
#14) Cress Watercress by Gregory Maguire – Young rabbit Cress Watercress, is relocating with her mother and younger brother after losing their father to a mysterious, but most certainly dire fate. Cress is in the early throes of grieving, and is more unhappy about leaving her home. The beleaguered family finds sanctuary, and a steep rent, at the Broken Arms, a near dead tree with a strict, blind owl as landlord, and takes residence in a tiny apartment beneath its roots.
My #1 book of the year comes from an author whose work I have followed pretty much since his debut short story collection, The Secret Lives of People in Love in 2007. That was actually the second of his works that I read, first discovering him thanks to my friends at HarperCollins with his follow-up collection, Love Begins in Winter published in 2009. I didn’t do a list of favorite books read in that year, but I suspect Love Begins in Winter would have at minimum been in my Top 10, with a good chance it would have ranked considerably higher. After publishing a trio of books of essays, Simon published his first novel in 2011, Everything Beautiful Began After which ranked #8 in my list of 
#1 – Night Came With Many Stars by Simon Van Booy (2021) – It’s always exciting when you’re a few chapters in and you start to realize that the book you’re reading is going to be a great one. Night Came With Many Stars the latest novel by Simon Van Booy, is one such book. A gifted writer, Simon’s books are all good, but there are a couple of his that rank among my favorites. His latest, a exquisite telling of four generations of a family living in Kentucky from the early 30’s to 2010, is an unexpected and delightful return to that echelon of beauty. Along with Patricia A. McKillip, Van Booy is one of the few authors whose use of language alone is enough to get me to read their work, regardless of subject. In this novel, the care and warmth in which Simon treats the members of this family is simply breath-taking, even as it is simple.
#3 – The Stone Sky by N. K. Jemisin (2017) – Minor SPOILERS below.
#2 The Hidden Palace by Helene Wacker (2021) – Delighted to discover that Helene Wecker had written a sequel to her NYT best-selling novel, The Golem and the Jinni (my #2 book of 2013). The Hidden Palace picks up where she had left off in her debut, detailing the unusual journey of two singular souls, a golem named Chava Levy, and a Jinni named Ahmad, who inhabit an ever-changing world of early 20th century New York City. Although the pair find solace in each other’s company, their relationship is a tumultuous one, eventually fracturing in a way that ripples outward and affects many around them as they struggle to find their places in a human world.