Top 12 Posts of 2021 – Year in Review (Part 4)
Hi Readers! I truly hope you enjoyed my year in review posts – Goals, Books, Movies & Series. To be honest, I do put in a lot of effort in it, not only because it is fun & also helps me track my progress, but also to make it at least a bit fun for you too! Books have been my guiding light & the center around which I find myself gravitating often. Books are the main reason why Mindscape in Words exists. So, I owe it all to the books. Books from different genres, by diverse authors, by debut authors, from different cultures, from different nationalities. All books of all time! Many times, I wonder if not reading & writing, what would be my hobbies? I do find myself at a loss. There are other hobbies that come to mind, of course, but somehow I never find the same passion for them as I have for reading & writing. So, thank you for appreciating my passion & letting it reflect in the soaring page views day by day! From these analytics, I have found out the top posts of 2021 which you viewed the most.
~~THE FOUR WINDS BY KRISTIN HANNAH BOOK REVIEW!~~
Genre: Historical Fiction
Pages: 464
Goodreads Rating: 4.32/5
My Rating: 1.5/5 Stars
The Four Winds by Kristin Hannah was my 3rd read from this author. I had loved The Nightingale & quite liked The Great Alone. But, unfortunately, The Four Winds was a disappointing read for me. This book has won Book of the Year Award by BOTM & it has been a finalist for other book awards as well. And, because I found this book undeserving, it aches me to see it doing well only because people tend to view such books from one angle alone. In this one, the angle is of all the hardships Americans faced during the Dust Bowl. While these hardships broke me in their raw, humane & natural ways, I could not ignore the whole picture. With such a powerful history, the novel lacked miserably in story progression making it unbearably slow. Also, the rigid & unlovable characters for an outstretched & tormenting story did not sit well with me. So the story had minor progression in terms of places, geographically. But it had no progression whatsoever in terms of the characters’ mental & emotional places.
~~IT ENDS WITH US BOOK REVIEW!~~
Genre: Romance
Pages: 385
Goodreads Rating: 4.43/5
My Rating: 4/5 Stars
Colleen Hoover is a favourite among many readers & has quite a fanbase. This is the only book of hers which I loved. The others Verity & Ugly Love were the most boring reading experiences for me. But It Ends With Us, though a simple & predictable story has a lot of meaning behind it. The kind of focus this book has put on the impact of domestic abuse & violence, gives so much clarity on the heinous reality of it. In the novel, it is mentioned that you cannot make the decision of staying or leaving for the person who is suffering, because you are outside of the situation. It is easy to judge & ask why didn’t she leave him, but when you are actually in that situation, the author has shown how complicated it is to take a decision. I also liked how Atlas’ situation is portrayed to tell us about the glaring injustice young homeless people face. We also see how important mental health is in this book as well. All the life lessons make the book much more than just a romance book, and also why I liked it as much as I did.
~~THE SONG OF ACHILLES BY MADELINE MILLER BOOK REVIEW!~~
Genre: Historical Mythological Fiction
Pages: 378
Goodreads Rating: 4.41/5
My Rating: 4.5/5 Stars
I never thought mythological fiction would be for me until I read Madeline Miller’s books. She is going to be the author whose books I will autobuy without reading the blurbs. (Can’t wait for Persephone!!) Her books are the best to get you out of a reading slump. Just with The Song of Achilles & Circe, she has become one of my favourite authors! Madeline Miller’s writing in this book is so lyrical & poetic during the romance aspects of the story; thundering & inspiring during the action aspects of the story; and it is miraculous throughout. Because of these wondrous combinations, the story comes alive in the reader’s mind making it so personal that all you can do is go with the flow & live it with all the characters.
~~BOOK REVIEW FOR EMILY HENRY’S PEOPLE WE MEET ON VACATION~~
Genre: Romance
Pages: 364
Goodreads Rating: 4.09/5
My Rating: 2/5 Stars
When you read the title of any book, you imagine what kind of story it would be. I imagined it to be a lot about vacations, especially since all the sane people are not able to take vacations in this pandemic. But no. It’s just about pretend platonic friends who take summer trips together for 12 years. This friends-turned-lovers theme is as old as any. It was stretched meaninglessly in this book. How can two people who have no boundaries & who express their love on a daily basis to each other, never cross that line in 12 years? It seems downright unbelievable & just plain stupid. Neither did I enjoy the fake vacations which lured me into reading the book, nor did I enjoy reading this plot.
~~THE LOST APOTHECARY BY SARAH PENNER BOOK REVIEW!~~
Genre: Historical Fiction
Pages: 301
Goodreads Rating: 3.78/5
My Rating: 4.5/5 Stars
If I hadn’t known that this was Sarah Penner’s debut novel, I never would have guessed it. The professional touch to the entire story leaving no loose ends, keeping it interesting all along the way with remarkable characters & a dual story is not at all a simple task. This one feels like it’s written by a historical fantasy mystery fiction expert. Different parts of the story bring out different kinds of writing which leads to different kinds of emotions during the reading. In parts of it, you come across the how imaginative the author is. In some parts, we can literally read the author’s brilliance dripping over the pages. In some parts, we see the raw emotions of these characters. Some parts are mystery, some are fantasy, some are thriller & entirely it comes in the beautiful package of historical fiction. What’s not to love!??
~~BOOK REVIEW FOR VERITY BY COLLEEN HOOVER~~
Genre: Thriller
Pages: 339
Goodreads Rating: 4.37/5
My Rating: 3.5/5 Stars
The predictability of a thriller & suspense novel plays a key part in how I eventually rate & review it. But Verity played a game on me. I was expecting a lot of things to go wrong. But, none of them happened, making it a relatively simpler, obvious unpredictable story in the most predictable way. Also, usually, flawed characters are what make readers love them, but not in this case. Too many flaws spoiled it.
~~WHY YOU SHOULD READ THE BEEKEEPER OF ALEPPO BY CHRISTY LEFTERI~~
Genre: Historical Fiction
Pages: 317
Goodreads Rating: 4.20/5
My Rating: 4.5/5 Stars
The Beekeeper of Aleppo is an astonishing & emotionally tumultuous story with so much loss & darkness leading to hope & light. This is the story of Nuri & Afra, who had to leave their hometown in Aleppo, Syria because of the bombing & the cruelty of war & politics. We read about their journey from Aleppo to Istanbul to Leros to Athens to finally the United Kingdom. In the entirety of this journey, there is so much suffering, loss & darkness. The way refugees are treated at all these places is different. At some, you feel hope for them to move forward. But, some places are described so vividly that it pains to read about it. This story has the power to make the readers feel the pain which the characters & so many real people feel. In spite of the extremity of evil, cruelty & darkness, this story thrives because of the characters’ hope for survival & making it. The kind of determination they have in spite of having already suffered so much is the raw human quotient which makes the story so overwhelming & rewarding to read.
~~FIREKEEPER’S DAUGHTER BY ANGELINE BOULLEY BOOK REVIEW!~~
Genre: Young Adult
Pages: 496
Goodreads Rating: 4.40/5
My Rating: 3/5 Stars
I thought that Angeline Boulley tried to put too many ingredients in one recipe. There is YA, Fantasy, Thriller & Romance all couped up in this 496-page book. Some people can digest it, but some people cannot. I think that if it was about the Ojibwe culture mixed with a little historical fiction or plain mystery with YA or YA with romance, then it would’ve been a lot better. The Ojibwe culture PoV was one of the most enlightening part in the novel. We see how indigenous communities are perceived by people outside of them. We also see how the people in the community are tightly-wound & stand up for each other. It was a courageous move on the author’s part to showcase the resilience of her community while also not blaming it for the ongoing criminal activities generating inside it.
~~THE INVISIBLE LIFE OF ADDIE LARUE BY V.E. SCHWAB BOOK REVIEW!~~
Genre: Fantasy
Pages: 442
Goodreads Rating: 4.24/5
My Rating: 4/5 Stars
The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue is a wondrous book with innumerable amazing things in it which connect to each other in the most glorious way. I loved the characters in this novel. We have Addie to magically glamorise the story & then we have Henry who is simply the most relatable character. And this combination struck the perfect symphony for me. I cannot state how much I loved the art angle in the story. Art was the perfect way for Addie to prove her existence. Also, how each piece connected to the other with those 7 freckles on her nose was incredible! Ideas are indeed wilder than memories! This aspect gave an extra edge to an already fascinating story. The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue was everything that I hoped it would be. I look forward to reading other works by V.E. Schwab as well!
~~THE SANATORIUM BY SARAH PEARSE BOOK REVIEW!~~
Genre: Mystery
Pages: 390
Goodreads Rating: 3.41/5
My Rating: 3/5 Stars
The only aspect of the novel that made an impression on me was the setting of the minimalist hotel by the Swiss Alps. I loved how even though the hotel used to be a sanatorium, in my imagination it was this amazing luxurious hotel. Even though the journey of reaching to the hotel & of being entirely on your own were something I’d hate in real life, but it made perfect sense in the novel. Having said this, I think the entire premise & setting would have been a lot more favourable for a horror or paranormal genre. It did work for a thriller, but given the whole history of the sanatorium, it would have fared much well in the other genres.
~~PACHINKO BY MIN JIN LEE BOOK REVIEW!~~
Genre: Historical Fiction
Pages: 496
Goodreads Rating: 4.28/5
My Rating: 5/5
From Korean & Japanese people’s biases to the unravelling of characters of a family for over 100 years to the importance of mental health & self-identity to bonds created by blood & love, Pachinko is an inspiring story, as unique as its characters & as common as the locals. Because the story spans 100 years, there are a lot of characters. With the combination of so many characters & brilliant story writing, it felt like I was robbed of a good 200 pages. I felt that for this book should have been 700 pages long because there was so much to cover with all these characters which the reader entirely adores. Watching these characters unravel within other characters’ stories was nothing less than a magical experience. In the present time while reading, it seems just one word after the other in quite a monotonous manner, but when you look back at it you understand the beauty of the journey in the form of compassion, love, empathy, peace & hope. To be honest, I LOVED this book the most this year & have written a detailed review which does it justice, so you should just read that!
~~IMPORTANT QUOTES FROM KIM JIYOUNG, BORN 1982 BY CHO NAM-JU~~
Genre: Fiction
Pages: 163
Goodreads Rating: 4.17/5
My Rating: 5/5
Kim Jiyoung, Born 1982 is so entirely fierce in portraying an important message to the world. The real scenario about gender discrimination in Korea is written with so much brevity. You can literally feel the anguish that women suffer because they are treated differently than men. Whether they should be born? Whether they should be educated? Whether they should work? Whether they should work after marriage? Whether they should work after becoming a mother? Whether they should be hired? Whether they should be paid as much as their male counterparts? Reading this made me realize that even though some women have it better than the others, all women have been discriminated in one form or the other. This book should be mandatory reading & I will always recommend it.
Check out the top 12 posts with their books as below!
And, like earlier posts, here is the template for you to use! So, please use them and tag me!
And, here are the page views for each of these posts!
So, that is all folks! Thank you so much for giving love to these posts. While I love many of the books from these posts, I also hate a few books on here too. And, I am glad it’s a mixed pattern because that way you get to know the passion with which I write these reviews when I utterly love the books & also the critique in me who loathes the books. Thank you for reading them!
Thanks so much for staying with me for my Year in Review series posts! Stay tuned for my 2022 posts as well, which have a lot in them for you readers, in form of goals, reading challenges & monthly templates!
Until next time,
About The Author
Aishwarya Shenolikar
Hello! I'm Aishwarya, an Introverted bookworm & writer. I have been reviewing books since 6 years on my blog - Mindscape in Words. My favourite genres are Historical Fiction, Mystery, Thrillers, Magical Realism, Poetry, Fantasy & Memoirs. I like the kind of books which evoke emotions on several levels leaving me wrecked, but also incredibly content. I'm dreaming for the world to paint a landscape full of words, more like Mindscape in Words. Hope you enjoy the view.