CONVERSATION: 2021 in Review
Conversationsauthor discovery / Best of 2021 / comfort reading / Covid / diversity / DNF / enemies to lovers / genre critique / grumpy / sunshine / LGBTQIA+ / low-angst / statistics / tropes / year in review59 Comments
Janine: I’ve noticed that my reading habits change a little from year to year. Some years I read more or fewer books than usual. Some years I discover new favorite authors. At times a genre shifts in a direction that isn’t as likely to engage me while another becomes more exciting. There are years when I look forward to tropes that once bored me and years when certain character behaviors become intolerable. My preferences as far as emotional tones can change too–there have been years when angst became exhausting and years when lighter books felt insubstantial. So I wanted to ask you about your reading year in 2021.
How many books did you read relative to other years?
Which authors were you most happy to discover? Did any once-beloved authors jump the shark for you and why?
Which genres did you drift away from or gravitate toward in 2021?
What emotional tones (dark/light, substantial/fluffy, angsty/calm, taut/relaxing, escapist/engaged) work best for you nowadays? Which do you like least now?
Which tropes have you had enough of now that it’s 2021? Which tropes have you recently realized you can’t have too much of?
How do the events that defined 2021 (like the spread of Covid, public figure behaviors, social movements and trends in other entertainment mediums) play a role in your current reading patterns?
Number of Books Read
Kaetrin: Last year I read about 160 books but this year I only managed 134 (so far) after a reading slump mid-year. Covid really messed with me this year too.
Janine: I finished 70 books–not atypical. I handed out more DNFs and C or below grades, though. There wasn’t much middle; I loved some books and tired of others fast. Probably because the older I get the less I want to waste my time.
Jayne: I’m finishing about the same number of books I usually do (225+) but I DNF’d more than I usually do. I agree with your reason, Janine, that I don’t want to waste my time with a book that is obviously not working for me. No matter how many reviews might say – “after a slow 50-page start, it picks up and I loved it” – I don’t think readers should have to slog through a boring set up to get to the good stuff. As a result, I’m being much more thoughtful and careful before requesting an arc. Too many books, too little time.
Jennie: I think I’ll finish about 50 books this year which is…pretty average for me, looking at the last five years? I used to finish more but since I got into reading several books at one time, I think I’ve slowed down a bit. I am still pretty uptight about finishing books, though – I can’t remember the last time I dumped one. The most I’ll do is sort of skim (I think that’s how I got through Alexander Hamilton a few years ago).
Authors: Dropped and Discovered
Layla: The author that jumped the shark for me was Lisa Kleypas. I had such high expectations of her latest series, but if I’m honest with myself, none of the books live up to the original wallflower series which I loved. The latest book especially irritated me and made me angry. The lazy reliance on tropes and the shallow characterizations were disappointing in an author who has so much potential.
Janine: I wouldn’t say she jumped the shark, but Katherine Addison’s The Witness for the Dead was my biggest disappointment despite a few flashes of brilliance. It’s a spinoff of The Goblin Emperor, a favorite in 2014, so that was deflating.
I loved Jacqueline Woodson’s 2014 YA memoir, Brown Girl Dreaming. Sadly, she’s the only new-to-me author I was excited to find.
There is, however, an author who climbed in my estimation, and that’s Tasha Suri. Her books have always been solid (and full of romance), but she stepped up her game with her f/f romantic fantasy novel, The Jasmine Throne.
Genres
Layla: I found myself gravitating this year to magical worlds books—three of my favorites were new authors to me, and also interestingly, similar in genre and tone. One was Freya Marske’s A Marvellous Light which is a m/m romance set in a magical world and started off with a potentially oppositional relationship between the two leads. It had a compelling mystery aspect, and the world building was really great, and the romance developed swiftly and grew into something very tender and sweet. I think actually that someone at DA recommended it? I don’t read m/m romances usually, but this one was marvelous. It was engaging and had just the amounts of light and dark elements.
The other two books I loved were also set in magical worlds–Chloe Neill’s A Swift and Savage Tide, and Lena Harper’s Payback’s a Witch. One is a m/f romance set in a Regency like alternate world with magic. Harper’s book is contemporary f/f featuring a town with witches and magical families. Both had really interesting female leads, complex and clever without being tortured or dark. The romances in both were light and happy, and the world building and cast of side characters had me wanting more.
Sirius: Ha, Layla I recently reviewed A Marvellous Light on DA. I am so glad you enjoyed it. I have not done my reading list, but last couple of years I gravitated overall to lighter books. Which I do not mind at all, I had been reading m/m romance for many years now, but I always did a mix of the genres and I still do, I like mysteries a lot and mainstream SFF, but I absolutely know that pandemic caused me (hopefully temporarily) to read less serious books if at all.
I am not talking literary fiction, it had always been hit or miss for me, but I always love reading non-fiction, especially historical non-fiction where I learned things about history which I may have missed in school and in the last few months alone I have been trying and putting back several of those books which I purchased earlier, and I am not happy with it.
Layla: Two things that irritated me this year–a certain genre of regency magical books that tried too hard. I’m sorry my memory is so bad with this, but I can picture the covers–Regency or Victorian silhouettes with an ornate or baroque background. One book had an assassin and a magical world with female captains driving flying ships? Another one had a society of ladies who are subversively working on science and a bodyguard who falls in love with the lady who is hosting them? I can’t think of the names I’m sorry! Boring, and trying to cram too much without compelling characterizations or world building. And Emily Henry style contemporary romance/chick lit (don’t know what to call the genre!). Olivia Dade is another author in this genre. What they share and what I can’t stand is an over reliance on stereotype, improbable scenarios and plots, and terrible writing.
Jayne: Layla, these are the two you’re trying to remember: Wisteria Society series by India Holton and the Athena series by Elizabeth Everett – How do I know? I was just looking at the Berkley Feb books and reading reviews of the first books in these series.
Layla: Yup those are the two!!! The covers are very elegant. The books not so much.
Jennie: I’m actually reading the second book in the Victorian female scientist series now – A Perfect Equation by Elizabeth Everett. It’s decent, but I feel like with historical romances I have to sort of put aside my feelings and consider them more dispassionately in order to be fair, and it’s been that way for years. I think even when I was really into them – for decades! – I read a lot that didn’t exactly inspire me. But almost every historical romance I read now, even one that I think technically has a good plot, writing and characterization, feels trite to me. I notice the tropes far more than the fresh elements, I think.
Which is why I continue to enjoy thriller/suspense books, because even when they’re bad, there is a readability that makes it hard for me to grade them too low. It’s like the opposite of my historical romance issue – with historicals, even well written ones don’t feel fresh, whereas with thrillers, even poorly written ones do. I think it all has to do with how long I’ve been reading them, though.
Janine: My main issue with historicals (I’m reading fewer, too) is unrealistic plotlines like dukes wooing barmaids or “ruin” portrayed as a great thing rather than a disaster. Or blatant disregard for history in the details, like in Kerrigan Byrne’s (2015 but a perfect example) The Highwayman, where a heroine in 1870s London enjoys a light repast of “Pasta Pomodoro and an excellent red table wine” at an Italian restaurant while a violinist serenades her and her suitor. I know many readers and authors feel that most complaints about historical accuracy have to do with biased readers’ inability to accept diversity in historicals, but I don’t think that’s always the case because I have that problem with just as many un-diverse books by white authors.
Jayne: Did the Byrne book also have candles stuck in empty Chianti bottles at the Italian restaurant?
Janine: LOL! I don’t remember candles in Chianti bottles but that would have been hilarious.
Kaetrin: My favorite genre is still contemporary but I’ve enjoyed quite a few historicals this year as well – which is fairly typical for me. My PNR reading has dropped off but I’ve read more fantasy romance and sci-fi romance to replace it.
I think I’m just about the opposite tastewise to Layla though! People We Meet on Vacation by Emily Henry will be a top 5 audiobook for me this year and All the Feels by Olivia Dade is on my best of reading list.
Janine: In addition to The Jasmine Throne, Archangel’s Light by Nalini Singh is another book that made me impressed with its author, and I’ve been reading Singh for fifteen years. Both books were LGBTQIA+ reads, and I feel that queer fiction is a place where a lot of freshness and creativity is flowing. Not only in romance but in other genres as well.
With regard to YA, many of the YA fantasy blurbs sound the same to me but I’m enjoying YA contemporaries more than I used to. The heyday of the “terminally ill kids fall in love” trope is finally in the rearview window, thank God. A lot of YA contemporaries are romantic and now that so many have happy endings, they’re a lot more fun.
Jennie: [Adult] contemporary romances are sort of in the middle for me – I don’t read that many because there’s only a few authors I know I like, but when I read them, the tropes bother me less and I get some of the “readability” I get with thrillers and for some reason don’t get with historical romances.
Janine: I’m enjoying contemporary romances more than I once did and diversity is a major reason. Cultural elements can add so much freshness. Helen Hoang’s portrayal of Vietnamese-American families, cultural customs and foods is a great example. There’s warmth there too—her affection for her culture comes through.
Jayne: I’m also enjoying diversity in contemporaries but if it’s there – I want to see it and have it be a noticeable part of the story and not just a “diversity box” checked off. If authors can include diversity in historicals, I’m all for it.
Emotional tones
Janine: Sirius, I’m also less keen on angst now because of Covid (and our polarized society). I still like high stakes but I need more humor, sweetness, or thoughtfulness.
Sirius: Janine I just wanted to clarify I was never particularly keen on angst for the sake of it – pandemic or not and I cannot tell you how many m/m authors I stopped reading just because I felt that the angst was ramped to eleven for no reason at all. I don’t mind characters going through heavy / tragic stuff but I need that happy ending more than ever these days and even though I am totally aware that mainstream SFF is not obligated to give me happy ending I am looking at the ending even more than usual – if main character is dead I am just not interested.
Jayne: I’m also reading fewer angsty books. They’ve never been favorites but this year I’ve wanted sweeter and kinder. I definitely shy away from books with descriptions such as “heartbreaking” in them. But I want books with realistic plots and characters so that’s led to me skipping some books that are going toward the far edge in order to be “different” from all the other rom-coms out there. A lot of times, I can’t even get past the blurb descriptions.
Kaetrin: I have found great joy in books where there’s no third act break up. I’m loving the way the authors rely on genre expectations to help build the tension but then the characters give one another the benefit of the doubt when the big terrible thing happens or the big terrible thing doesn’t quite happen at all and the story takes a fresh turn. Sometimes that’s really no conflict at all and there’s just the HEA. I think the latter has been working for me this year as a response to Covid but even then it’s a little hit and miss if there’s not much by way of tension in the story.
I’ve still been reading some non fiction in between romance books here and there but in my romance while I want realism I’m also happy for it to be aspirational.
Tropes
Jayne: Like Layla, I’m getting tired of the lazy reliance on tropes vs authors actually doing the work of building their characters or plots. One that I’ve been actively avoiding is “enemies to lovers.” There’s a balance between The Reason being believable instead of ridiculous or overdone and too often this balance is missed. I also got burned out on the use of the MCs pranking each other and as a result acting more like mid-teens vs adult business people.
Kaetrin: Like Jayne I’m not generally a fan of enemies to lovers. I dislike when characters are mean to one another but I don’t mind rivals to lovers.
Janine: I don’t necessarily mind enemies to lovers, depending on context, but whereas a couple of decades ago I might have tolerated a romance between a Democrat and a Republican, when I saw the blurb for Devon Daniels’ Meet You in the Middle, a 2021 contemporary about a couple who work for senators from the two opposing parties, I noped out at the speed of light.
I’ve also–undoubtedly because of #metoo and related scandals–become leery of heroes who take liberties. Earlier this year I tried to revisit an old Emma Darcy HP, The Wedding. There’s a scene early on where the hero assists the heroine, his secretary (who at this point in the story has no idea he’s into her and hasn’t given a thought to a relationship with him), onto a helicopter by unexpectedly lifting her into it. Darcy made it a hot moment, and when I first read it in 1992 I thought it was sexy. This time it took me aback.
Kaetrin: This year I have realised my favourite trope is grumpy/sunshine – and if the grump is a cinnamon roll in disguise I’m even happier.
What about you, readers? Did you read more or less in 2021? Which authors did you discover or drop? What genres, tones and tropes were you in the mood for (or not)? And how did real-life events and trends affect your reading?
So far, I’ve read 275 books in 2021, which is just a little above the 260 I read in 2020. Both years were higher than previous years (I usually top out in the low 200s) because I had unexpected reading time: in 2020, it was the covid shutdown (I work for the school system); in 2021, I was off work for three months with back trouble. Barring another covid outbreak or personal illness, I’m expecting my numbers to go down in 2020.
My favorite author discovery this year has been Claire Kingsley. I started with BROKEN MILES and never looked back. She does series romances just right: five-to-six books, each focused on one couple, but with a overarching mystery running through all of the books. I’ve read her Miles Family, Bailey Brothers (still waiting on the last one), Jetty Beach, and Bootleg Springs series (the last one co-written with Lucy Score). They’re not quite as angsty as I usually go for, but there’s still enough conflict and melancholy to appeal to me.
I haven’t consciously dropped any writers, but I’m no longer driven to read everything Sarina Bowen, Melanie Harlow, or Vi Keeland & Penelope Ward (together or separately) publish. Those writers used to be some of my must-reads, but over the past couple of years, I haven’t always kept up with them.
When it comes to tone, I prefer angsty-with-a-splash-of-melancholy (which is probably why my favorite line is Harlequin Presents); I don’t like anything to be too “fluffy.” And I don’t think current events have changed my reading preferences, perhaps because I’ve always been somewhat pessimistic about the human condition.
My favorite tropes are: antagonists-to-lovers (as long as it’s well done and there are legitimate reasons for the couple to initially be antagonistic; enforced proximity (if it can be in a snowbound cabin, all the better); and man is in love with his late brother’s (or late best friend’s) widow. I generally avoid friends-to-lovers (I just don’t believe that two people look at each other after years of plantonic friendship and suddenly have pants feelings) or best friend’s sibling/sibling’s best friend romances—but a good writer can certainly make those tropes work.
More rereading this year than ever before, especially long, inter-related series. Enjoying the predictable comfort of family groups—the ones characters inherit or build themselves—finding ever afters one by one. More books written by Canadian authors. Favorite PNRs, sports team romances, especially hockey. Always looking for stories with mature characters and conflicts. And new series launched by favorite writers. In short, solace and encouragement to be found in worlds where happy endings are assured.
@DiscoDollyDeb: You read a lot, Disco Deb. Those sound like tough circumstances so I hope the books were a comfort at that time.
Do you have a favorite Claire Kingsley? (I apologize if I already asked.)
If you like angst plus melancholy then may I recommend Mary Balogh’s 1990s books? She still does melancholy but there’s less angst in her current books. I don’t know if you ever read historicals but hers are usually relatively true to the period.
I haven’t read Sarina Bowen in a while myself though I’ve been telling myself I should. I’ve never read the others that you mentioned.
I love the “man is in love with his late best friend’s widow” but haven’t read one of those in many years. Can you recommend some?
(Fun historical fact: Between 1835 and 1921, a marriage between a man and his brother’s widow was prohibited in Britain. It was not until the Deceased Brother’s Widow’s Marriage Act passed that such marriages were permitted. Even before 1835 it was forbidden and considered voidable by the Anglican church, but at that time it was not always voided.)
I love friends-to-lovers but prefer the version where one of them has carried a torch for the other since the day they met but didn’t act on it because the other was in love with someone else. I believe that one person can be oblivious and sublimate an attraction but I agree that some kind of spark usually has to be there from the beginning. Although—Nalini Singh’s recent m/m made it work without that. It did that via a falling out and separation in the friendship. So that can work for me too.
@Janine:
Was this law changed in response to the losses due to World War I?
@Janine:
Janine I’m curious why was this law in place ? WhT is the rationale I mean? In some cultures marrying a brothers widow is actually meant to help her and keep property in the family. Often these weren’t “real” marriages like they wouldn’t be intimate but it was about protection of property and the widow and children also. There is generally some kind of address to this issue in the Abrahamic religions. I think it’s forbidden in Judaism ? In Islam it’s allowed but only with restrictions and in essence you cannot inherit a wife, you have to pay her dowry etc
My target for this year was a deliberately conservative 70 books and I’m at 69 now. I’m a bit of a news junkie and unfortunately 2021 has been another year in which I felt compelled to spend good reading time on political podcasts and keeping up with COVID news as one disaster lurched into the next. Because of this lack of time I initiated a zero tolerance approach to bad writing and pages of boring filler; my DNF tally this year so far is 39. Some of those books were abandoned after less than a chapter of amateurish prose but with plenty of others I realised I just didn’t care whether I finished them or not, even if I was well over halfway. Some of those DNFs were from authors who also appear in my official tally of 69, with books I really enjoyed. I gave no leeway for past performance this year; every book was judged on its own merits.
Some of my highlights this year were audiobooks, mostly mysteries, in which great narration highlighted clever writing. In romance I was looking for scenarios and characters that were something a bit different. Two of my favourites were by Penny Reid, who I’d previously decided was too longwinded for me. But the audio versions of Beard Science and Love Hacked were great listens, with their quirky heroes and expressive female narrators. The Audible Plus catalog launch in Australia was a highlight of my year.
@Mzcue: I love your final line about solace and encouragement and happy endings! I feel the same. Something comforting about romance where love triumphs and good people find happiness
@DiscoDollyDeb: which books do you recommend or love in this sub genre of antagonists to lovers? Did you read any this year ?
Looks like I read about 200 books this year, which is slightly above average for me.
Having slogged through GO TELL THE BEES I AM GONE, I can safely say that I am ready to break up with Diana Gabaldon. 960 pages, very little plot, and too many instances of Jamie “making a Scottish noise” (what the F does that mean anyway?). I have been lackluster on Nora Roberts/J.D. Robb for a while, but her latest few books have been underwhelming. She’s still doing the same thing, I just need something different.
Two new to me authors that I enjoyed: 1) Avery Cockburn, whose GLASGOW LADS series, at its best, combined compelling romance with info about modern Scottish politics/history; and 2) Maz Maddox’s RELIC series, with its batshit crazysauce dinoshifters. They may not be polished, but SMASH & GRAB got me through Election Night 2021, and I am eternally grateful.
I feel like romance tropes have become overly explicit and used as a lazy substitute for a good story. If I have to read one more “fake boyfriend/girlfriend” romance I think I’ll scream (unless it’s Alexis Hall’s BOYFRIEND MATERIAL. He can write whatever the hell he wants). “Only one bed” has also worn out its welcome.
My favorite book of the year was not a romance (although there was a whisper of a queer love story): SEVERAL PEOPLE ARE TYPING by Calvin Kasulke. It’s a workplace novel told entirely through Slack channel messages. The MC’s consciousness somehow becomes uploaded into the company’s Slack, and as he tries to figure out how to get back to his body, his colleagues deal with inter-office romance, P.R. nightmares, unusual new coworkers, and mysterious howling. It’s a quick read but very memorable.
Happy Holidays to all, and thank you for another year of strong year of reviews and columns. Special thanks to Sirius, who points me towards numerous great queer romances.
One thing I didn’t mention in my comment is the steady increase in m/m romance I have read over the last couple of years. When I read HEATED RIVALRY a couple of years ago, it was one of the few m/m romances I read that year. The amount of m/m has increased to the point that this year the ratio of m/m to m/f romances in my reading is about 50-50.
@Janine: My favorite Claire Kingsley is the duet PROTECTING YOU and FIGHTING FOR US. These are the first two books in her Bailey Brothers series and they feature the same couple over about a decade (Kingsley’s Miles Family series, which is tangentially related to the Bailey Brothers, occurs within the timeframe of the two books—if that makes sense). In PROTECTING YOU, a young couple (neighbors since childhood and in love since their teens) are engaged and looking forward to a long, happy life together. Then the hero protects the heroine from a sexual assault and, in the process, kills the man assaulting her. The hero goes to prison for almost ten years. When he is released (as FIGHTING FOR US begins), the hero and heroine discover that the waiting might have been the easiest part. A beautifully-written duet about adjusting expectations while staying in love. Although written in 2020, the duet is one of my favorite reads of 2021.
Mary Balogh was one of my favorites back when I was reading primarily historical romance. In fact, in the late 1980s, when I was totally burned out on bodice-rippers, Balogh’s THE OBEDIENT BRIDE was one of the books that brought me back to romance reading. I used to read everything she wrote (THE DEVIL’S WEB—angst for days—is probably my favorite of her books) and I still dip my toe in now and again (I love SLIGHTLY DANGEROUS), but because I don’t read much HR, I don’t read everything she publishes.
The “man in love with his late brother’s (or late best friend’s) widow” is such a popular trope you’re almost spoiled for choice, but the first two books that popped into my head actually turn the trope sideways: WITHOUT YOU by Marley Valentine is an m/m romance where a man who has always identified as straight falls for his late brother’s boyfriend. This was one of my favorite books last year, just as much about recovering from grief (the brother died of cancer) as it is about finding new love. The other book I thought of is a gender-reversal of the trope: Kelly Jamieson’s DANCING IN THE RAIN, in which a woman falls for the father of her late sister’s child. I think that worked for me because the hero didn’t know he was a father until the mother was in the last stages of cancer and so there had never been any relationship between himself and the heroine’s sister (it sounds weird, but Jamieson makes the scenario plausible). Two similar books with the brother’s widow trope are Juliana Stone’s THE CHRISTMAS HE LOVED HER and Melanie Harlow’s FROM THIS MOMENT (In both books, the hero falls for his late twin brother’s widow, which adds another dimension, especially in the case of the Harlow, where the twins were identical). Right now I’m looking forward to Serena Bell’s WILDER WITH YOU (scheduled for next February) in which a man falls for his late wife’s friend.
Regarding this historic/religious elements of a man marrying his brother’s widow: the Bible says in one place that a man is responsible for his brother’s widow (this is the reason Onan did not want to have sex with his wife—because she was his brother’s widow and any child he had with her would be considered his brother’s), but there is also a stricture against a man marrying his brother’s widow in Leviticus. This prohibition was used by Henry VIII to dissolve his marriage to Catherine of Aragon because she had been married to his older brother, Arthur, prior to Arthur’s death.
@Layla: My favorite antagonists-to-lovers romance is CD Reiss’s IRON CROWNE. The heroine is an environmental lawyer; the hero is a property developer with a reputation for skirting environmental regulations; both are baffled by their attraction to each other. I really like that Reiss creates a situation where the MCs have every reason to be antagonists. Maisey Yates is another writer who does antagonists-to-lovers very well. I don’t know if you like rancher romances, but CLAIMING THE RANCHER’S HEIR, about rival winery owners (who also have ranches attached to their vineyards) is a nicely done a-t-l.
Sorry–my paragraph breaks disappeared when I posted my comment above. I hope it doesn’t seem too disjointed with all the subjects jumbled together.
@SusanS: Another Avery Cockburn fan here. While the books/dialog can be quite funny, there are real issues to be dealt with and some of it is not easy. Still highly recommended. And now I have to check out Maz Maddox’s RELIC series because batshit crazysauce (with dino shifters!?!) will fit quite nicely with where my head is these days. Thanks for mentioning it.
Ah ha! Now I understand how some of you are able to keep lists of books you’ve read. I usually read a book each evening, often starting a second (leading to some very groggy work days). This has been my pattern for decades. Imagine the reading time I’d miss if I maintained a list.
While the number of books I read remained steady, I have read more newish adult after enjoying Sarina Bowen’s True North series last year, although my enjoyment is very author-specific. I also finally read a few m/m romance and…um…I enjoy the characters, and their heart-felt emotions on their journey to HEA, but not the explicit sex. It’s made me reconsider my thoughts about women (and others) who don’t enjoy on-page sex in their romance novels.
Like @oceanjasper, I’ve been quick to DNF, unlike the years where if I started, I finished no matter what. That earlier attitude pulled me through a bunch of the canon of English lit and made clear that English lit was the last thing I should study in college.
My tolerance of angst, never high, now hovers just above zero. I’ve lost all patience with contemporary romance that starts with bickering characters. I read two this year and the third was DNF before the first chapter ended. If the title or blurb of historical fiction contains the word “tame” or any variation thereof, I’m not interested.
This year the books I enjoyed most were Janet Elizabeth Henderson’s. Her Invertarry series is contemporary romance with dashes of humor in exactly the right spots to lighten some serious topics. Invertarry led directly into the Benson Security series. I enjoyed her combination of tense situation with budding romance so much that going forward I’ll look for more of this type book.
@DiscoDollyDeb: I went back and added a little bit of spacing for you.
@DiscoDollyDeb:
Ouch – I’m not sure I wouldn’t be squirming and wincing at this “twins” set up.
@SusanS:
Is this not the end of the “Outlander” series? I thought I read that somewhere. But after checking a few reviews I see that this one ends on a cliffhanger. This review made me laugh – “Waiting all this time for a great buzz and I got smoked! Pleas tell Diana I’ve packed up my hive and we are gone!”
@Jayne: I think the next book (#10) is supposed to be the end of the series, but there’s a non-zero chance that Gabaldon will decide she isn’t ready to write The End yet. And honestly, she has inflicted worse cliffhangers on her readers than this one.
@SusanS: So … what does that title mean?
@Jayne: Yes. Interestingly there was also a law against a man marrying his wife’s sister in England, but that was abolished in 1907. But the law against a man marrying his brother’s widow wasn’t abolished until 1921 and yes, that was connected to World War I. Not only was compassion and sympathy toward war widows a factor, but the government saved money on widows’ pensions when the women remarried. There was even a financial inducement offered for that reason. Additionally, fourteen years had passed since the Deceased Wife’s Sister’s Marriage Act and that act was less controversial by the time, leading people to be more accepting of men marrying their brothers’ widows as well.
I love end of year reading wrap ups! So much fun to see how everyone is doing.
I’ve read 101 books according to GR and that’s been my average for the past few years. Which is interesting because I feel like I’m reading less than I was.
I don’t have as many auto-buy authors as I used to have – some of that is because I have a more limited budget and some of that is because I’ve out grown or lost interest in some authors. I think my auto-buys are just K.J. Charles, Aster Glenn Gray and Cat Sebastian.
I’ve always read a mix of genre fiction. I’m still reading a lot of romance but also quite a bit of SFF. I have more or less stopped reading about straight, cis gender people. I think the only fiction book I read without any LGBTQ+ protagonists was A Wizard’s Guide to Defensive Baking by T. Kingfisher. And I don’t remember if the N.K. Jemison I read had LGBTQ+ characters. I agree with Janine – LGBTQ+ fiction is really good right now. It’s such an exciting time to be a queer reader.
The one sub-genre that I’ve moved away from almost completely is BDSM romance – I don’t know if I’ve changed or the genre’s changed – probably both. Most of the few I’ve read recently were either boring or cringey or both. Misha Horne is the only exception to that (ignore the horrible pen name – she writes excellent, emotionally satisfying erotic romance).
Several of my favorite reads this year were a lot darker than I usually care for. I partly blame Janine – she really sold me on three of them – Archangel’s Light, The Vanished Birds and The Jasmine Throne. The 4th one is Blackwater Sister by Zen Cho (can’t blame this one on Janine since she DNF’d it). I also read some truly ridiculous books too – sillier than I usually go for – the dinosaur shifter series already mentioned and Socially Orcward by Lisa Henry (think queer Shrek). And I read a lot of cozy, cozy reads – the best were The Gentle Art of Fortune Hunting by KJ Charles, Roan Parrish’s Garnet Run series, Cat Sebastian’s Peter Cabot Gets Lost and Becky Chamber’s A Psalm for the Wild Built.
I did a lot more reading challenges this year – I think I did 4 romance bingos – one for each of the 4 seasons – and looking for books to fit the squares got me to try some new authors and new books. I did also explicitly try to only read LGBTQ books for the book challenges. It also inspired me to read more books with buzz than I usually do – Detransition Baby, Honey Girl, Rise to the Sun and One Last Stop were all LGBTQ books that got a lot of love and that I’m glad I read.
I discovered Ashlyn Kane this year (she was a Hoopla discovery that I made specifically looking to fill a bingo square). Riley Hart was a discovery last year – they both seem like they’ll join Annabeth Albert as reliable second tier authors – authors who write tropey, satisfying, if not earth-shattering, m/m romance.
@Layla: If I’ve got my facts straight, the source of the rationale is a prohibition by the Anglican Church that dates back to 1560 and can be found in the Book of Common Prayer. The rationale itself is that when a man’s brother marries, his wife becomes a sister to the brother (hence the term sister-in-law). In the eyes of the church, they are siblings. Therefore for them to marry would be incest.
Judaism has some complexities where this issue is concerned. The Torah states that a man can’t sleep with his brother’s wife, but there is an exception. When a widow and her late husband had no children, the Torah decrees that the deceased man’s brother should marry the widow. It is considered a mitzvah, probably because at the time the Torah was written a childless widow would quickly slide into poverty and might even starve to death. There are restrictions on this, however. The requirements (quoted, slightly edited, from Wikipedia’s page on yibbum, which is what this practice is called) are that:
The reasoning here is that the first son of such a union becomes the heir to the deceased man’s properties and is viewed to a degree, I think, as the late brother’s son.
Weird, I know, but that’s what happens when you’re dealing with a religion that is almost 4000 years old.
If the dead man’s brother doesn’t wish to perform this mitzvah or if the dead man’s widow doesn’t want to marry the brother, then a ceremony that is more involved than a simple divorce is required to separate them and absolve the brother of his expected commitment.
I didn’t know any of this BTW. But what I did know, thanks to two beautiful works (one a book and the other a movie), was that the reverse, a man marrying his late wife’s sister, is allowed.
The first of the two is an Israeli children’s book that tells the true story of Eliezer Ben Yehuda through the eyes of his son, Itamar (the first native speaker of modern Hebrew). Eliezer immigrated to Ottoman-era Palestine in 1887 and became a journalist and lexicographer and created the movement to revive Hebrew back into a spoken language. Anyway, partway through the book Dvorah, Itamar’s mother and Eliezer’s wife, becomes gravely ill with tuberculosis and pleads with her husband to marry her younger sister after her death to provide a mother to their five young children. I read the book in childhood and still remember this part vividly because it was so heartwrenching. Eliezer did marry the sister, and according to the book, she was a loving mother and the marriage prospered in other ways as well.
The other narrative is beautiful and also wrenching but in a different way. It’s a 2013 Israeli movie called “Fill the Void.” The story is set among the ultra-orthodox Hasidic Jewish community in Israel. At the beginning of the movie, eighteen-year-old Shira is happy that her parents have begun arranging a marriage between her and a young man she likes. The situation changes quickly, though, when Shira’s sister dies giving birth. The sister’s husband wants to move out of the country with the baby. Shira’s mother, devastated by the loss of her daughter, can’t bear the thought of losing her grandchild too. She exerts pressure on Shira to marry her late sister’s (much older) husband so that he and the child will stay in Israel (he has agreed to that), and even though Shira doesn’t want to (she is in love with the young man she thought she’d marry) she feels the weight of her mother’s longing acutely. What she’ll decide to do isn’t revealed until the close to the end of the movie.
It’s a good movie and the director Rama Burshtein, is an orthodox Jewish woman herself (not ultra-orthodox or Hasidic, however) so the religion, the spiritual comfort it can offer, and the dilemmas it can produce are treated with respect. But she also doesn’t flinch from examining the community with clear eyes.
Edited to add: *smacks forehead* It just occurred to me that <>of course it would be allowed—Jacob did that in the book of Genesis when he married Leah and then her sister Rachel. D’oh!
@Mzcue:
That’s an aspect of the romance genre that I wish was treated more respectfully in the mainstream media. Although I do feel things are getting better in that regard.
Interestingly, I’m working on a review of a book (not a romance) that among other things, deconstructs the found family trope by showing that found families can also be flawed.
Can you recommend some good PNR to me? I have fallen far behind on that genre.
@Mzcue: @<a href="https://dearauthor.com/features/conversations/conversation-2021-in-review/#comment-925127" I had always been a re-reader, but last decade or so I had been rereading less and last two years I am again rereading a lot, [email protected]SusanS: Thank you , you also pointed me to several books and I am definitely checking out “Several people are typing” :).
@SusanS: I am going to check out Glasgow Lads. It sounds fabulous.
Fake boyfriend / fake girlfriend has been one of my most hated tropes for years but recently I’ve come around to liking it slightly, or at least tolerating it more. Partly because that’s a lot of what is on offer when you try to find a lighter contemporary and lighter contemporaries are one of the things I’m looking for now.
But there’s another reason, and that is that I’ve been more open to the trope since I listened to the audiobook (Laura Keating version) of To All the Boys I’ve Loved Before and it was amazingly good. One of the things the author did right is set the book in a high school and make the heroine a sophomore or junior. Faking an entire relationship because of other people’s opinions is decidedly adolescent in my view. Really, what adult does that? I’ve never met one who did. In high school kids really care about what everyone else is thinking of them, so it just fits the context better. The book was also excellent in another way—when the truth came out there was actual fallout. In these books typically there isn’t any. The characters deceive people who care about them without compunction and the fact that the outcome of that could make some of those people feel deeply hurt isn’t acknowledged. But it does happen in this book, and I loved that too. Anyway, once you’ve read an excellent book, you want more, so I’ve been yearning to repeat the experience and reading more of them than I used to. It is an irksome trope though, I agree.
@oceanjasper: I DNF’d 18 books and finished around 65. But when I count DNFs I’m not including those I ditched in the first chapter. If I did the ratio of DNFs to finished books would climb. I also would have DNF’d at least several more books than I did if I hadn’t had an outside obligation to finish them (reading with husband, reading for book club, requested an arc). At this point I am tired of reading obligations. They can make reading feel like a chore even when the books are great.
@Layla: Hear hear!
@DiscoDollyDeb: I’m reading more LGBTQIA+ books also, but not necessarily m/m. I have realized lately that although I’m not heroine-oriented I do generally want there to be a strong female character with a substantial presence in a book. I doubt I would have loved Nalini Singh’s m/m, Archangel’s Light, so much, if there hadn’t been two important female characters with a substantial (non-romantic) role in the book, one of whom I loved (Sharine). Some of the m/m romances I’ve tried don’t have enough of that for me.
Thanks for the Kingsley recommendations. With regard to the “friend’s widow” trope, except for the one with the identical twins (a “can’t look away from it” trope, like rubbernecking at a car accident, for me) I would prefer something that didn’t have a sibling element but a tight friend connection.
Did you ever read the much-hated Sarah’s Child by Linda Howard? It has the trope (heroine has loved the hero for years but her best friend got him before she got the courage to approach him; now her friend and their two boys are dead and she’s there for him, but tries to hide her feelings) but the heroine is kind of passive and too good. I have the feeling you’d like the trope but maybe not the character. Although I think you might like the hero. If you’ve already read it, let me know what you thought!
Re Levirate marriages, when I looked them up today I read that Henry VIII tried to use that to get the church to annul his marriage to Catherine of Aragon but the church would have none of it.
And here I thought for sure you would name Heated Rivalry when Layla asked you for an antagonists-to-lovers recommendation.
@LML: Another non-fan of bickering ad taming here. In my teens I like that stuff but now my feelings have reversed.
When I think of angst, though, I don’t think just of those but of heart wrenching situations too. And in those cases, it depends for me on whether the book is thoughtful about the topic and the emotions are earned. In other words, is it just angst for angst’s sake or is it angst in service of something much bigger? Even there, though, I want to see some of the sunny stuff like humor, kindness, friendship bonds, etc. I need that more than I used to.
I think I’ll check Henderson out. Her books sound interesting.
@Mzcue and Sirius: Re rereading. I just checked my Goodreads account and holy smokes, seventeen of the books I read this year were rereads! That’s over 20%. I knew I was rereading more but I didn’t realize just how much more.
@Janine:
Also remember that Catherine of Aragon’s nephew had the Pope under his thumb so that influenced things. I wonder if under different circumstances, Henry VIII might have gotten away with his annulment request.
Re: Henry VIII’s marriage to Catherine of Aragon and his attempt to have it annulled because she was his older brother’s widow: when Henry couldn’t get the Pope to budge on the annulment issue, he simply separated the English church from Rome, declared himself head of the Church of England, and granted himself the annulment. He then quickly married Anne Boleyn (who, like Catherine before her, gave Henry a daughter instead of the much longed-for son and was eventually beheaded on a trumped-up adultery charge so that Henry could try the pregnancy lottery with another wife). If Henry had gotten the annulment from Catherine that he had wanted (or, going back a step, if one of Catherine’s many miscarriages and stillbirths had resulted in a living son), how different our religious history might be.
/Full disclosure: I am a “cradle Episcopalian/Anglican,” so my personal religious history would undoubtedly have been vastly different had Henry received the desired annulment.
@Jayne: A friend of Jamie and Claire brings them a hive of bees. There is a custom that you should tell the bees about every major event – births, deaths, etc. – and if you neglect doing so, the bees will leave. There’s a point in the book where a major character is sure that death is imminent and reminds Claire to tell the bees.
@SusanS: Ah, interesting. Thanks.
@LML – would you like some recs for closed door / low heat / not explicit mm and other queer romances?
Here are a few of my faves:
Boyfriend Material by Alexis Hall – like a gay Hugh Grant rom com
Tigers and Devils by Sean Kennedy – snarky Australian jock/ hipster mm romance
The Love Study by Kris Ripper – cute m/nb (non-binary) romance between two over-thinking twenty somethings. Read the sample – the narrator can be a lot.
Avery Cockburn’s curling series is low heat – it’s a spin-off off her Glasgow Lads series which is higher heat.
Peter Darling by Austin Chant – mm, trans reimagining of Peter Pan with a slow burn, enemies to lovers romance.
The Longest Night by E. E. Ottoman – mm trans historical romance set in early 20th C New York.
Have you read any queer m/f romance? That’s honestly my favorite recent development in queer romance. There are (finally!) quite a few m/f romances with bi/pan/queer characters (who don’t lose their queer identity when they become part of a straight couple).
Xeni by Rebekah Weatherspoon – mf with a bi hero.
Small Changes by Roan Parrish – mf with bi heroine
Rosaline Palmer Takes the Cake by Alexis Hall – mf with bi heroine
Cat Sebastian’s Regency Imposters series features queer m/f (and one m/nb) couples.
@LML: I looked at the Benson series and the blurb for the first one mentions the hero trying to keep the heroine safe from herself. The trope of the heroine who gets herself in trouble and has to be rescued is not a favorite. Does this actually happen in the book, or is he just assuming that it will?
@Janine: After I commented yesterday I found this — it might interest you:
https://www.historytoday.com/archive/history-matters/meeting-urgent-need
@cleo: Sorry not sorry.
How did you like the Kingfisher and the Jemison? Also which Jemison was it?
Now that you mention BDSM romance, I haven’t read any in ages either. I must not be in the mood to read a book where that’s a central focus right now.
@DiscoDollyDeb: Yes I know. I just (*slaps forehead*) forgot that Catherine of Aragon was that wife. My husband’s family is Episcopalian actually.
@cleo: Ooh, queer m/f sounds good. I recently put Perfect on Paper, a YA by Sophie Gonzalez, on hold at the library but I didn’t have any others on my radar.
https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/49204960-perfect-on-paper
One thing I am really glad of is that there are now so many books about bisexual characters where they are portrayed in an other than primarily erotic light. Ten years ago it was hard to find those. Bisexual characters were to be found mainly in erotic romances. I like erotic romances sometimes but it felt like the genre was othering bisexual identity.
Kate Canterbary’s m/f THE BELLE AND THE BEARD features a hero and a heroine who are both bi. I liked that when they discussed their previous relationships, it was nbd that they’d both had same-sex partners.
A duet I really enjoyed this year was Anna Martin’s THE IMPOSSIBLE BOY and THE LOST BOY. This is an m/m romance between a pan-sexual musician and a non-gender-conforming fashion journalist. The books are quite angsty and the MCs have a lot to work through (including anorexia and drug addiction, so cw/tw if these would be difficult subjects for you), but I thought Martin did a great job showing the relationship between two men who don’t fit the “traditional” masculine molds.
I also liked Ella Frank & Brooke Blaine’s DARE YOU, DARE ME, TRUTH OR DARE trilogy which features an m/m relationship between a bi fireman and a gay tech titan who is completely unapologetic about his love for lingerie, high heels, and designer dresses.
Hi, @Cleo and thanks for the recommendations. I copied them into a doc for easy reference when chasing down the titles.
@Janine, Not this heroine. Megan and her twin are sisters of Invertarry’s police officer and appear in the Invertarry series. If mayhem occurs (dyeing sheep pink), Megan is probably behind it. She has exactly zero patience with anyone who thinks she needs protecting (without tipping into TSTL). The conflict between hero’s “let me protect you” and Megan’s “Oh, hell no. I have a plan.” leavens a serious plot.
I would say start with the first Invertarry but a) that’s a lot of books to read to get to Benson Security and b) the first Invertarry was a breath away from DNF in the first chapter because the hero was “I’m so superior” rude to his sister and the heroine and I am out of patience with that masculine bs.
@LML: The Benson series sounds more interesting to me. Do you think I would miss important stuff about the characters if I started with it?
@Janine: I really enjoyed the T. Kingfisher. It’s YA – the heroine is 14, which is younger YA than I usually read but it was so much fun. It was dark for YA (it starts with the discovery of a dead body and there’s a carnivorous sour-dough starter) but not too dark for me.
I read The Hundred Thousand Kingdoms by N.K. Jemisin and I enjoyed it. I think it was her debut. I want to try some of her more recent works but haven’t yet.
@DiscoDollyDeb: I just put the Kate Canterbary on my wishlist – thanks for the rec.
@Janine, well, yes I think you will miss knowing fuller personalities of some of the characters but if you enjoy Benson Security #1 and contemporary you might want to reverse to Invertarry series and work your way back (forward?) to Benson. I read the Invertarry and Benson series one evening directly after another and do not recall any info dumping, which would have been crazy-making day after day.
If you want to get really wild and crazy, start with Can’t Tie Me Down, the first of three about the Sinclair sisters of Invertarry, one of whom reappears in Benson Security. It was great fun to read. Come to think on it, my enjoyment of Can’t Tie Me Down is what kept me from DNF Invertarry #1 before page four.
@cleo and @LML: Thank you both. LML, I’ll give it thought.
@LML: @Janine: I tried one of the Henderson books and really liked some things about it but really didn’t like others. I also then went back and tried to read the first book “Lingerie Wars” and got about 3 pages into it. Should I just skip it and move on to the next one?
https://dearauthor.com/book-reviews/f-reviews/review-cant-buy-me-love-by-janet-elizabeth-henderson/
@Jayne, Lingerie Wars (Invertarry #1) was my least favorite of all Henderson’s books and I was a breath away from DNF within the first chapter.
Can’t Tie Me Down, the first in Sinclair Sisters series, is one of my favorite Henderson titles. You wrote that you enjoyed parts of Can’t Buy Me Love, third and last in that series. I would suggest trying Can’t Tie Me Down and if you enjoy it, read the second Sinclair Sisters or skip to Invertarry #2.
@LML: Thanks for the advice. Sounds like a plan.
OooOooh! So many recommendations reading through the comments!
I had an absolutely vile year (my father died in April and I had spent the prior year terrified to visit with him for fear of giving him COVID) so I did a crap ton of rereading–according to my stats almost 48% of the books I read were rereads.
On the other hand, 20% of the books I read were new releases (ie 2021) and I read a lot new-to-me books published in 2020 as well.
Because of my terrible mental state, almost everything I read had a happy ending / HEA. 66% of the books I read had a romance in them, but I also read a ton of mysteries and fantasies, which are generally comfort reads for me. And for the first time in more than a decade I read some science fiction. Murderbot of course.
I read far fewer comics/graphic novels this year, probably because they require me to find and wear reading glasses, and that was a lot of effort many days.
I don’t think I dropped many authors, however, I still haven’t read some additions to series I’ve been preordering for ages because I couldn’t handle a possible bad ending (Faith Hunter’s latest Jane Yellowrock and CS Harris’s latest Sebastian St Cyr glare at me from my TBR, not understanding what happened, since I normally read new additions to those series within days of their release.)
Besides Murderbot, some of my favorite books this year were The Charm Offensive by Alison Cochrun; A Marvellous Light by Freya Marske, as well as T. Kingfisher’s Saint of Steel series for fantasies, and for mysteries, Dahlia Donovan’s Motts Cold Case series, Dianne Freeman’s Countess of Harleigh series, and Alexis Hall’s Murder Most Actual (I really adore Alexis Hall.)
Josh Lanyon, NR Walker, KJ Charles, TJ Klune, CS Poe, Roan Parrish, Cat Sebastian, Michelle Diener, and Kate Ross were the authors I reached to for comfort rereads, though the first book I picked up to chase away my grief was Robert B Parker’s Small Vices which is one of my all-time favorites, and I always pick up something different every time I read it. (This time it was the how well he did the passing of time and distance.)
And I’ve read a stupid number of books this year: 319 so far, which is going to be way more than last years record of 296.
I’m going to add a bunch of books to my wish list from all these end-of-the-year round ups. :)
I hope I read a lot less next year, because I hope not to be trapped at home from a pandemic or hiding under the covers struggling with my mental health.
And I wish everyone all the best in books in the coming year. :)
@Jayne: I’m listening to Go Tell the Bees now. I’m not quite halfway through and @SusanS: is right – there’s not a lot of plot. But also, nobody (yet) has been raped so I’m counting that as a win. The narrator, Davina Porter, is so good and the book is helping me pass the time with my Christmas baking so it’s not as bad as I had feared. I had very low expectations – not much happening is so much better than the torture porn of some of the earlier books. Why am I still reading the series? That’s a good question. Something something sunk cost fallacy maybe? LOL
I think I might be out of the In Death series as well – that’s a little easier to quit because each story is self-contained but I’m definitely not in a rush to listen to them like I used to be. The release from earlier this year is still on my TBL and I think there’s been another since then that I haven’t bothered to pick up.
One of my pet peeves is that I hate not knowing the end of a story so I’m sure I’ll be in it for Outlander until the bitter end – although if the end is in fact bitter I shall be pissed!
@Kaetrin: So how does the narrator convey Jamie’s “making a Scottish noise”? Is this just a basic man grunt but with a Scottish brogue? Curious minds are curious. ☺ And “no rape” for the win!
@Random Michelle, I’m sorry you lost your father, especially without being free to spend time with him beforehand as you wished.
Goodreads is telling me I’ve now read 78 books so now I’m hoping I’ll reach 80 by the end of the year. Of course some of what Goodreads counts as books may be novellas or even short stories.
@cleo:
I love them too. We plan to post our Best of 2021 lists in the next couple of weeks or so, so watch for those.
@LML and @Jayne: I think maybe I’ll try that plan too. Let me know what you think if you read Can’t Tie Me Down, Jayne.
@Random Michelle: (((((Hugs))))). I’m so sorry to hear about your dad. That’s so tough.
Everyone loves Murderbot! (But what pronoun to use? The books call Murderbot “it” but Murderbot is so human that I struggle with that.)
I have to read that Freya Marske.
@Random Michelle: Since you are reading fantasy novels and looking for happy endings, have you ever read The Goblin Emperor? It’s terrific and it’s also one of the most “comfort read” books I’ve ever read. I have a friend who has read it at least 25 times by now because of that.
@LML:
Thank you. I really hope next year will be better.
@Janine. Thank you. it’s been really really lousy.
:)
@Random Michelle: I can believe that. I went through something similar years ago when my grandmother died. She was living in Israel at the time and I came to visit for four weeks because she was on remission from brain cancer but we knew it would come back (we thought in a year or two). When we lived in Israel (up until I was almost twelve) she stayed with us for two days every week, so she was almost a second mother to me. The cancer came back while I was visiting, much earlier than expected. I couldn’t afford to come back again the same year so even though she died seven months later, so when I left I knew I would never see her again. Was hard. So believe me when I say you have my deepest sympathy.
@Janine:
When I talk about Murderbot, I use “they”; I can’t remember precisely, but I feel like only the “human” use the it pronoun for Murderbot, and that feels part and parcel of treating Murderbot like a being without any rights. But I’m not 100% on remembering that. And I can’t remember what pronoun Murderbot uses for Art.
I really enjoyed A Marvellous Light, although it did have it’s weaknesses. I think the comparisons to Susanna Clarke are more for the pacing (slow) and setting, rather than any really similar feel to Jonathan Strange and Mr Norrell. (My husband recently listened to that, and it was not the right time–towards the end he just wanted it to be done.)
I have not read the Goblin Emperor, but it is now on my wishlist. I’m not sure I have the mental energy to for ground up world building right now (paranormal and historical give me an already familiar base world, so they’re easier) but it’s on my list now. :) Thank you!
…
I’ve avoided the Outlander series because I cannot stand reading about time travel. I absolutely adore the Lord John books (which have no time travel) but I have never been able to read Outlander. Which is maybe ok, because Lord John’s stories seem to have less rape from what I’ve heard.
@Janine:
Cancer is the worst. I was pretty sure that when we left my dad that night I wouldn’t see him again, but my mom was still talking about the coming weeks. I’m glad I got to say goodbye in person. But this stupid pandemic…
And losing grandmothers is awful; even though it’s been years, you have my sympathy. We all knew when my grandmother was reaching the end, so we had a huge family get-together the Saturday before she died, and everyone got to hug her and talk with her. I hate that so many people didn’t get that in the last two years. Losing someone is hard enough when you get to say goodbye.
@Random Michelle: I don’t remember what Murderbot calls Art but in Rogue Protocol Murderbot refers to Miki, the bot that thinks they are human, as “it.” And even in the short story Home: Habitat, Range, Niche, Territory (free, and probably my favorite Murderbot story of those I’ve read), which takes place right after Exit Strategy and is narrated in Dr. Mensah’s POV, Mensah thinks of Murderbot as “it.” You can see how much she cares about them, too.
I think you will like The Goblin Emperor when you get to it, but the worldbuilding is thick so yes, save it for a time when you’re in the mood for that.
You’re not missing much with Outlander. I lost my copy of the first book around 700 pages in and realized I didn’t care if I ever found it. Claire is TSTL and Jamie is a Marty Stu. She’s constantly making ridiculous mistakes and he’s constantly having to bail her out. Ugh.
@Random Michelle: Yes, it is the worst. I am sorry, it must have been painful to hear your mom hoping for more and knowing her hopes would likely be dashed. It is good you got to say goodbye in person but Covid is awful. ((((Hugs)))) again.
@Janine:
I’m glad I chose well with regard to Outlander. At least the rapey bits in the Lord John stories are extremely brief.
And now I need to go back to reread all of Murderbot. Obviously. Just to see the pronouns. Because for some reason I thought the pronouning of Miki as it had to do with Murderbot seeing Miki as a lesser being. But then, it’s not like Murderbot has high self esteem to think of themselves as a person rather than as object.
Now I’m wondering if Mensa is being deliberate (since Murderbot hasn’t chose pronouns for themselves) or if its deliberate.
@Random Michelle: I didn’t get as far as the rape in Outlander (the book) but I did get that far on the show and it went on and on there. I quit the show at that point (the end of season one).
Re Murderbot—with Miki, it may have been an authorial choice to drive the point that though Miki saw it/them-self as human, Murderbot did not and thought Miki was delusional for having that self-image. If you notice what pronouns Murderbot uses for Art, let me know. That will shed light on the question.
Tangential to what you said about Mensah, I can’t see Murderbot choosing a pronoun for themselves. It seems like something that would require Murderot to engage with human concepts that they would just as soon reject.
@Jayne: It’s kind of a glottal/throat clearing kind of noise and kind of an “mhmm” LOL
@Janine:
You’re right. Murderbot refers to all other bots (including the comfort units) as it. And through Network Effect (I am saving the last book for a little longer) Murderbot refers to ART/Peri “it”.
And I ART/Peri’s humans use “it” when talking to ART.
So…. Now I really need to stop delaying and read the 6th book. :)
@Random Michelle: I need to do that too.