Overall Best Book: Unspeakable: The Tulsa Race Massacre by Carole Boston Weatherford and Floyd Cooper (Picture Book)
Best Poetry: The Gospel of Breaking by Jillian Christmas (Canadian; LGBTQ)
Best Literary Fiction: Burntcoat by Sarah Hall
Best Graphic Novel Series: Descender Vol 1: Tin Stars by Jeff Lemire and Dustin Nguyen (Canadian)
Best Essays: 12 Bytes: How We Got Here. Where We Might Go Next by Jeanette Winterson (LGBTQ)
Best Indigenous Fiction: Home Waltz by GA Grisenthwaite (Canadian)
Best Indigenous Graphic Novel: Borders by Thomas King and Natasha Donovan (Canadian)
Best Indigenous YA: The Firekeeper's Daughter by Angeline Boulley, audiobook read by Isabella Star LaBlanc
Best LGBTQ Memoir: Lost and Found by Kathryn Schulz, audiobook read by the author
Best Fiction Audiobook: The Final Revival of Opal and Nev by Dawnie Walton, read by a full cast
Best Nonfiction Audiobook: Orwell's Roses by Rebecca Solnit, read by the author
Best Canadian Nonfiction: Border and Rule: Global Migration, Capitalism and the Rise of Racist Nationalism by Harsha Walia, audiobook read by Cindy Kay
Best Graphic Nonfiction: The Black Panther Party by David F Walker and Marcus Kwame Anderson
Best Canadian Graphic Novel: Fictional Father by Joe Ollman
Best Disability Own Voices: The Words In My Hands by Asphyxia (Deaf; LGBTQ)
Best Call to Action: What White People Can Do Next: From Allyship to Coalition by Emma Dabiri, audiobook read by the author
Best Reread: Exit Wounds by Rutu Modan, translation by Noah Stollman (graphic novel)
Best Picture Books (3-way tie): The Rock from the Sky by Jon Klassen (Canadian); The Big Bath House by Kyo Maclear and Gracey Zhang (Canadian); Watercress by Andrea Wang and Jason Chin
Best LGBTQ PictureBook (French language): Anatole qui ne sechait jamais par Stephane Boulay et Agathe Bray-Bourret
I didn't manage a round-up post in January (mostly due to ongoing vision and other concussion-related problems), but here are my stats for future me to look back upon.
Best Books:
Overall Best Book: People Change by Vivek Shraya (LGBTQ; Canadian)
Best Poetry: Iron Goddess of Mercy by Larissa Lai (LGBTQ; Canadian)
Best Full Cast Audiobook: How Beautiful We Were by Imbolo Mbue, read by Prentice Onayemi, Janina Edwards, Dion Graham, JD Jackson, Allyson Johnson, and Lisa Renee Pitts
Best Audiobook Fiction: Intimacies by Katie Kitamura, read by Traci Kato-Kiriyama
Best Nonfiction: The Edge of the Sea by Rachel Carson, audiobook read by Kaiulani Lee (LGBTQ)
Best Youth Nonfiction: The Girl Who Drew Butterflies: How Maria Merian's Art Changed Science by Joyce Sidman
I started a Booktube channel at the very end of December, 2021. Here are my Friday Reads videos from each of the four weeks of January, in which I talk about all of the books that I read each week:
According to Goodreads, I read 424 books in 2021, totalling 102,946 pages. Divided by 365 days, that looks like about 282 pages each day.
It's the time of year when I look back on my reading in order to better understand myself. What have I been feeding into my brain? This means... pie charts! Since I keep monthly stats, the yearly ones are easy to compile.
My reading intentions tend to remain constant: to read widely, and to give priority to authors who are queer/Indigenous/nonWhite/Canadian/women. I will leave analysis for when my concussion is healed, but meanwhile, here they are.
This will be more brief than my usual monthly wrap-up because I'm healing from a concussion and can't spend much time reading or looking at screens. It's day 23 and I am improving steadily. Audiobooks have been a blessing, and also loved ones who have read aloud to me. Here's a list of my highlights from December (in no particular order):
Talking to Canadians by Rick Mercer
The Lion's Den by Anthony Marra
This Is Your Brain on Stereotypes by Tanya Lloyd Kyi and Drew Shannon
The Sentence by Louise Erdrich
State of Terror by Hillary Rodham Clinton and Louise Penny
Starbird by Sharon King-Chai
1000 Years of Joys and Sorrows: A Memoir by Ai Weiwei, translated by Allan H Barr
The Beatryce Prophecy by Kate DiCamillo
Dorie's Cookies by Dorie Greenspan (Note: I read most of this cookbook in November, and I tried out about 9 or 10 recipes. Yummy!)
I broke my wrist and bonked my head hard enough to injure my brain, all of which means that I haven't been able to do much reading in December. I did make a video looking back on 2021, however. It's on my friend Shawn's booktube channel. I think i have figured out how to embed it here on my blog. The list of titles I spoke about is below.
In Memory of Memory by Maria Stepanova (translation by Sasha Dugdale)
Voices from Chernobyl: The Oral History of a Nuclear Disaster by Svetlana Alexievich (translation by Keith Gessen and Alma Lapinskiene):
About Incarceration:
The Strangers by Katherena Vermette
Cookbook by a Woman of Colour:
Our Little Kitchen by Jillian Tamaki
Protagonist Older than 50:
Shadow Life by Hiromi Goto and Ann Xu
A Funny Kind of Paradise by Jo Owens
South American Author in Translation:
Adventures of China Iron by Gabriela Cabezon Camara (translation by Fiona Mackintosh and Iona Macintyre)
Reread a Favourite:
Noopiming by Leanne Betasamosake Simpson
Polar Vortex by Shani Mootoo
The Subtweet by Vivek Shraya
Memoir by an Indigenous Woman:
How to Lose Everything by Christa Couture
In My Own Moccasins by Helen Knott
By a Neurodivergent Author:
Exciting Times by Naoise Dolan
La Difference Invisible par Julie Dachez et Mademoiselle Caroline (English title: Invisible Differences: A Story of Asperger’s, Adulting, and Living a Life in Full Color)
Crime Novel or Thriller in Translation:
Snakes and Earrings by Hitomi Kanehara (translation by David James Karashima)
The Godmother by Hannelore Cayre (translation by Stephanie Smee)
About the Natural World:
Field Study: Meditations on a Year at the Herbarium by Helen Humphreys
Fathoms by Rebecca Giggs
Finding the Mother Tree by Suzanne Simard
Revery: A Year of Bees by Jenna Butler
English Pastoral: An Inheritance by James Rebanks (also titled: Pastoral Song: A Farmer’s Journey)
What Willow Says by Lynn Buckle
Young Adult Novel by a Latinx Author:
Cemetery Boys by Aiden Thomas
Poetry Collection by a Black Woman:
Burning Sugar by Cicely Belle Blain
Book with a Biracial Protagonist:
The Actual Star by Monica Byrne
The Book of Form and Emptiness by Ruth Ozeki
Em by Kim Thuy
A Muslim Middle Grade Novel:
The Girl and the Ghost by Hanna Alkaf
A Queer Love Story:
Heartstopper by Alice Oseman
Plain Bad Heroines by Emily Danforth
About a Woman in Politics:
Indian in the Cabinet by Jody Wilson-Raybould
Can You Hear Me Now? by Celina Ceasar-Chavannes
State of Terror by Hillary Clinton and Louise Penny
Book with a Rural Setting:
The Yield by Tara June Winch
Astra by Cedar Bowers
Book with a Cover Designed by a Woman:
Everything Affects Everyone by Shawna Leman (designer Ellie Hastings)
*Book by an Arab Author in Translation:
*want to read Woman at Point Zero by Nawal Saadawi
Book by a Trans Author:
Detransition Baby by Torrey Peters
A Dream of a Woman by Casey Plett
Fantasy Novel by an Asian Author:
Beneath the Rising by Premee Mohamed
Nonfiction Book About Social Justice:
My Conversations with Canadians by Lee Maracle
Short Story Collection by a Caribbean Author:
These Ghosts Are Family by Maisy Card
Bonus Authors:
Alexis Wright (Carpentaria; The Swan)
Tsitsi Dangarembga (This Mournable Body)
Leila Aboulela (*Minaret; *Elsewhere, Home)
Yoko Ogawa (Revenge; Memory Police; The Housekeeper and the Professor)
*on TBR
You can find Shawn the Book Maniac's channel here.
