Time at home with nothing much to do is sort of a booklover’s dream. I had high reading hopes for my time social distancing – so much time, so many books brought home from the library and filling my personal bookshelves. Did I read as much as I thought I would? Not really, no. But there were a few books that I did read that quickly made it to my top reads of 2020 (and maybe all-time) reading list.
Emily’s Top 5 Quarantine Reads
#5: A Stroke of Malice (A Lady Darby Mystery #8)
by Anna Lee Huber
This is one of my favorite ongoing series. Set in England and Scotland, it follows the escapades of Lady Kiera Darby, an artist and former wife of a renowned anatomist, who now spends her time solving murders with the dashing Sebastian Gage. Bucking cultural norms and standing firm in her beliefs, Kiera is a force to be reckoned with and the last person you would want to stumble upon a dead body at a holiday party.
#4: Aurora Rising (The Aurora Cycle #1)
by Jay Kristoff and Amie KaufmanThis was a re-read to prep for the recently released Aurora Burning. Kristoff and Kaufman are masters of writing science fiction with dynamic character, thrilling suspense, snappy dialogue. The Aurora Cycle follows Squad 312, recent graduates of the Aurora Academy, as they discover a force that is threatening the entire galaxy…and they may just be everyone’s last hope.
#3: The Unlikely Escape of Uriah Heep
by H.G. ParryNext to space fiction (see above) books about books may just be my favorite literary trope. H.G. Parry creates a world in which the fictional world is closer than we think. Charley Sutherland has a unique gift – the ability to read fictional characters into existence. When he reads Uriah Heep, from Charles Dickens’s classic David Copperfield into our world, he finds himself in the center of a growing war between the fiction and reality.
#2: The Southern Book Club’s Guide to Slaying Vampires
by Grady Hendrix
I don’t normally gravitate toward books with a lot of buzz, but the premise of this one just screamed “read me!” Set in the 90s, the story follows a group of women who find solace from their lives and husbands in their true-crime book club. When a mysterious man moves in just down the street, the club quickly becomes entangled in conspiracy theories and are convinced he is not quite what he seems. A bit gory and graphic, Hendrix weaves a story of friendship, loyalty, and resilience.
#1: The House in the Cerulean Sea
by T.J. KluneSo good I read it all in a day. Linus Baker is a caseworker for the Department in Charge of Magical Youth – an organization that monitors establishments that care for children with magical abilities. Baker is tasked with evaluating a particular orphanage run by Arthur Parnassus who is raising the antichrist (Lucifer, known as Lucy) and an entourage of other special kids. Linus discovers that the life he was living wasn’t really life at all, not everyone is as they seem, and sometimes we can choose our family. This one is filled with heart and humor with special detail given to creating well-rounded, empathetic, complicated characters you fall in love with immediately.
What did you read during quarantine?
The Thirteenth Tale by Diane Setterfield
Wild Game: My Mother, Her Lover, and Me by Adrienne Brodeur
The Institute by Stephen King
The Read-Aloud Family by Sarah Mackenzie
The Unhoneymooners by Christina Lauren:
Cilka’s Journey by Heather Morris:
The Girl He Used to Know by Tracey Garvis-Graves
Things You Save in A Fire by Katherine Center:
Winter by Marissa Meyer:
