Welcome to the annual wrap up for buddy reading! Ariel and I had planned to read a bunch of books in 2021, sharing our goals in this post. Today, we will do a quick review of the books we read together, a note on our Horror challenge from 2021 and what’s in store for us in 2022.
2021 Buddy Reads
We tried to read a book together every month but life got very busy at times so even when we could not read the same book, we read our respective horror books during reading hours. We had wanted to be more intentional on focusing on the rich narratives that happen outside the US in order to further broaden our horizons. Between the horror challenge and our buddy reads, we had a successful year of reads and discussions!
- Most Challenging: Midnight’s Children by Salman Rushdie (see discussion)
- Unique Magic System: The Conductors by Nicole Glover (see discussion)
- Atmospheric: Satellite Love by Genki Ferguson (see discussion)
- Horror with High Expectations: The Lost Village by Camilla Sten (see discussion)
- Most Moving Historical Fiction: The Mountains Sing by Nguyễn Phan Quế Mai (see discussion)
- Unexpected: Remote Control by Nnedi Okorafor (see discussion)
- Most Beautiful: The Boy, the Mole, the Fox and the Horse by Charlie Mackesy (see discussion)
- Favorite discussion: The Arsonists’ City by Hala Alyan (see discussion)
- Most Moving Science Fiction: Before the Coffee Gets Cold by Toshikazu Kawaguchi (see discussion)
- Most Twists and Turns: The Death of Jane Lawrence by Caitlin Starling (see discussion)
Three of these were on our original list of potential buddy reads, and we found that we organically chose books that worked for both of us at the right time, and that led us to some unexpected gems 🙂
2021 Horror Challenge
We read a horror book every month. All our wrap up posts and reviews can be found here. Below are all our picks:
2022 Buddy Reading Aspirations
We haven’t discussed a book in a few months now so we are starting January with Timekeeper by Tara Sim (see on Goodreads). We are also hosting the Romance Throughout the Year challenge on Storygraph, reading a romance book every month. Find the complete list of prompts here. We are looking forward to another year of great buddy reads and discussions! Thank you for following along in our journey 🙂
Are you planning to buddy read more in 2022? Unsure where to start? Check out our Buddy Reading 101 guide.
Have a wonderful new year and we will talk to you in 2022! 🙂
There are a few books on your lists that are on my tbr pile. I still haven’t gone back to Midnight’s Children though!
That one is such a hard read at times. Good book but quite dense. I hope it is easy to pick up again.