Picture by Dan Dan the Binary Man on FlickrI didn't quite make it to fifty, but I came a lot closer than I did last year!
This
year, my beloved public library was (albeit in a far more limited way)
available to me, and that was no small thing. More books this year I
loved and had a huge impact on me.
Much to my shock, I received attention from both
Alice Hoffman and
Amanda Yates Garcia
for my reviews of their work, including some incredibly sweet comments
from the latter about my genuine gushing over her wonderful book.
But
it wasn't all good stuff, I'm afraid. We lost some incredible authors
in 2021. The legendary Beverly Cleary, responsible for so many wonderful
childhood memories and whose work appeared here twice so far died at
age 104. The author of a book that made a huge difference to me,
Lies My Teacher Told Me: Everything Your American History Textbook Got Wrong which I read as a teenager, James W. Loewen, also died in 2021, and if you haven't read
Lies,
please do so now! But the biggest loss to me was bell hooks, a massive
influence on my own feminism and activism, and a powerful force for good
in the world. I tore through her books as a teenager and her work holds
up and stays relevant. If you're doing it right, her work should be one
of the cornerstones of your feminism and activism. If you haven't read
bell hooks before now, please,
please read her work.
In
addition to luminaries we lost, though, there were also some real
doozys here I was too happy to read to filth after reading and
suffering.
So let's get into the good, the bad, and the meh! WATCH FOR THE END FOR A SPECIAL SHOUT OUT!