Oh hey! It’s that time of the year when we talk about the books I read in the last quarter. Normally, this would go up in October, but the last couple months were weird for me, so it’s going up now. My reading goal for the year is 34 books, and I’m on track to meet that. 

This post contains affiliate links. Thank you for supporting Kate the (Almost) Great! 

All 2021 Recent Reads | All Recent Reads posts | All books posts

Living Brave: Lessons from Hurt, Lighting the Way to Hope – “Shannon Dingle has experienced more than her fair share of tragedy and trauma in her life, including surviving sexual abuse and trafficking as a child that left her with lasting disabilities and experiencing faith shifts that put her at odds with the evangelical church that had been her home. Then, in July 2019, Shannon’s husband was tragically killed by a rogue wave while the family was on vacation. The grief of the aftermath of losing her love and life partner sits at the heart of Living Brave, where Shannon’s searing, raw prose, illustrates what it looks like to take brave steps on the other side of unimaginable loss” (x).

I’ve followed Shannon on Twitter for a few years now, since before Lee died. She and her family have been through so much, but this book is beautiful. On one of the first pages of this book, Shannon says that this was going to be a completely different book but then Lee died. She wrote a beautiful book about grief and continuing to live afterwards. 

2021 Recent Reads: April-June

The Evening and the Morning – “It is 997 CE, the end of the Dark Ages. England is facing attacks from the Welsh in the west and the Vikings in the east. Those in power bend justice according to their will, regardless of ordinary people and often in conflict with the king. Without a clear rule of law, chaos reigns.

“In these turbulent times, three characters find their lives intertwined. A young boatbuilder’s life is turned upside down when his home is raided by Vikings, forcing him and his family to move and start their lives anew in a small hamlet where he does not fit in. . . . A Norman noblewoman marries for love, following her husband across the sea to a new land, but the customs of her husband’s homeland are shockingly different, and it soon becomes clear to her that a single misstep could be catastrophic. . . . A monk dreams of transforming his humble abbey into a center of learning that will be admired throughout Europe. And each in turn comes into dangerous conflict with a clever and ruthless bishop who will do anything to increase his wealth and power” (x).

This book is a prequel to Ken Follet’s Kingsbridge series. I really enjoyed it, and it’s about half the length of the other Kingsbridge books, so if you’re interested in the series but are daunted by the length, this is a good one to start. 

As someone who has read other books set in the Dark Ages (as reviewed in April-June 2021, January-March 2020, October-December 2019, and July-September 2019, among others), I really enjoyed this book. It follows the same formula as the other Kingsbridge books, so it’s not revolutionary, but I loved it.

2021 Recent Reads: January-March

The Return of the King – “As the Shadow of Mordor grows across the land, the Companions of the Ring have become involved in separate adventures. Aragorn, revealed as the hidden heir of the ancient Kings of the West, has joined with the Riders of Rohan against the forces of Isengard and takes part in the desperate victory of the Hornburg. Merry and Pippin, captured by Orcs, escape into Fangorn Forest and there encounter the Ents. Gandalf has miraculously returned and defeated the evil wizard, Saruman. Sam has left his master for dead after a battle with the giant spider, Shelob; but Frodo is still alive—now in the foul hands of the Orcs. And all the while the armies of the Dark Lord are massing as the One Ring draws ever nearer to the Cracks of Doom” (x).

Unpopular opinion: The Lord of the Rings series is overhyped. I’ve now read all of them and I just don’t love them. I don’t dislike them, but I won’t reread them. I totally get that, at the time they were published, they were game-changing. I absolutely get that they’re talked up because of how much they mean to people. They’re just not for me. I tried reading the first one as a kid and couldn’t get into it, and I wasn’t wowed by the series as an adult. To each their own!

2020 Recent Reads: July-September

Educated – “Born to survivalists in the mountains of Idaho, Tara Westover was seventeen the first time she set foot in a classroom. Her family was so isolated from mainstream society that there was no one to ensure the children received an education, and no one to intervene when one of Tara’s older brothers became violent. When another brother got himself into college, Tara decided to try a new kind of life. Her quest for knowledge transformed her, taking her over oceans and across continents, to Harvard and to Cambridge University. Only then would she wonder if she’d traveled too far, if there was still a way home” (x). 

This was really, really interesting! I know that I’m behind the times and most people read this ages ago, but I finally got around to it in August and I really enjoyed it. I don’t know how to explain it, but it was different than I expected it to be. There’s a reason why this book spent over 130 consecutive weeks on the New York Times Best Seller List! 

2020 Recent Reads: April-June

The Last Tudor – “Jane Grey was queen of England for nine days. Her father and his allies crowned her instead of the dead king’s half-sister Mary Tudor, who quickly mustered an army, claimed her throne, and locked Jane in the Tower of London […] Mary sent her to the executioner’s block, where Jane transformed her father’s greedy power-grab into tragic martyrdom. ‘Learn you to die,’ was the advice Jane wrote to her younger sister Katherine, who has no intention of dying […] But she is heir to the insecure and infertile Queen Mary and then to her sister Queen Elizabeth, who will never allow Katherine to marry and produce a Tudor son. When Katherine’s pregnancy betrays her secret marriage, she faces imprisonment in the Tower, only yards from her sister’s scaffold. ‘Farewell, my sister,’ writes Katherine to the youngest Grey sister, Mary. A beautiful dwarf, disregarded by the court, Mary keeps family secrets, especially her own, while avoiding Elizabeth’s suspicious glare. After seeing her sisters defy their queens, Mary is acutely aware of her own danger, but determined to command her own life. What will happen when the last Tudor defies her ruthless and unforgiving cousin Queen Elizabeth?” (x)

I liked this book much more than I expected to! To be honest, I got it from the library because I had a 4+ hour drive 1 way to a wedding at the beginning of September. I knew that I like Philippa Gregory, and other than Jane Grey, I didn’t know anything about the Grey sisters. 

Gregory does a really good job with this book because it made me mad at Elizabeth I that I hadn’t heard much about the Grey sisters. None of the Grey sisters deserved what they got. Jane didn’t deserve to die because of her family’s ambitions. Katherine didn’t deserve to die because she loved her husband and was separated from him and their sons. Mary didn’t deserve to live under house arrest and without her husband because Elizabeth was threatened by the Greys. 

Anyway. It’s a good book.

2020 Recent Reads: January-March

A Column of Fire – “In 1558, the ancient stones of Kingsbridge Cathedral look down on a city torn apart by religious conflict. As power in England shifts precariously between Catholics and Protestants, royalty and commoners clash, testing friendship, loyalty, and love. Ned Willard wants nothing more than to marry Margery Fitzgerald. But when the lovers find themselves on opposing sides of the religious conflict dividing the country, Ned goes to work for Princess Elizabeth […] The shrewd, determined young monarch sets up the country’s first secret service to give her early warning of assassination plots, rebellions, and invasion plans. Over a turbulent half century, the love between Ned and Margery seems doomed as extremism sparks violence from Edinburgh to Geneva. The real enemies, then as now, are not the rival religions. The true battle pitches those who believe in tolerance and compromise against the tyrants who would impose their ideas on everyone else—no matter what the cost” (x).

This is another Kingsbridge book! It was also a re-read. After I finished The Last Tudor, I wanted to re-read this, especially since I spent so much time in the car in September. It was a bit better than I remembered, but World Without End remains my favorite book in the series. I listened to it on Audible.

2019 Recent Reads: October-December

Malibu Rising – “Four famous siblings throw an epic party to celebrate the end of the summer. But over the course of twenty-four hours, the family drama that ensues will change their lives will change forever […]  Everyone wants to be around the famous Rivas: Nina, the talented surfer and supermodel; brothers Jay and Hud, one a championship surfer, the other a renowned photographer; and their adored baby sister, Kit. Together the siblings are a source of fascination in Malibu and the world over—especially as the offspring of the legendary singer Mick Riva. […] By midnight the party will be completely out of control. By morning, the Riva mansion will have gone up in flames. But before that first spark in the early hours before dawn, the alcohol will flow, the music will play, and the loves and secrets that shaped this family’s generations will all come rising to the surface” (x).

I picked this up at the airport when I went to another wedding in September and it was just as good as I heard! It’s written by the same author as The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo, and the famous Riva siblings are the children of Mick Riva, the 3rd husband of Evelyn Hugo. (That’s just a fun connection. Check out my review of Evelyn Hugo below.) I read this book in 1 weekend and immediately loaned it to my mom. It’s so, so good! 

2019 Recent Reads: July-September

Northern Spy – “A producer at the BBC and mother to a new baby, Tessa is at work in Belfast one day when the news of another raid comes on the air. The IRA may have gone underground in the two decades since the Good Friday Agreement, but they never really went away, and lately bomb threats, security checkpoints, and helicopters floating ominously over the city have become features of everyday life. As the news reporter requests the public’s help in locating those responsible for the robbery, security footage reveals Tessa’s sister, Marian, pulling a black ski mask over her face. The police believe Marian has joined the IRA, but Tessa is convinced she must have been abducted or coerced [….] When the truth about Marian comes to light, Tessa is faced with impossible choices that will test the limits of her ideals, the bonds of her family, her notions of right and wrong, and her identity as a sister and a mother. Walking an increasingly perilous road, she wants nothing more than to protect the one person she loves more fiercely than her sister: her infant son, Finn” (x).

Ah this was so good! It was a library recommendation and I never would have picked it otherwise. This book really grabs you, and I really, really enjoyed it. Sometimes there are books that are really good but the people who will like it most are people who like that particular genre. That’s not this book. I think as long as you like fiction, you will like Northern Spy.

2019 Recent Reads: April-June

The Mirror & The Light – “With The Mirror & the Light, Hilary Mantel brings to a triumphant close the trilogy she began with […]  Wolf Hall and Bring Up the Bodies. She traces the final years of Thomas Cromwell, the boy from nowhere who climbs to the heights of power, offering a defining portrait of predator and prey, of a ferocious contest between present and past, between royal will and a common man’s vision: of a modern nation making itself through conflict, passion and courage […] Cromwell, a man with only his wits to rely on, has no great family to back him, no private army. Despite rebellion at home, traitors plotting abroad and the threat of invasion testing Henry’s regime to the breaking point, Cromwell’s robust imagination sees a new country in the mirror of the future. All of England lies at his feet, ripe for innovation and religious reform. But as fortune’s wheel turns, Cromwell’s enemies are gathering in the shadows. The inevitable question remains: how long can anyone survive under Henry’s cruel and capricious gaze?” (x).

This book, on the other hand, is one that I think you won’t like if you don’t like historical fiction. It’s a very well-written book, and I know why it won a bunch of awards. But the people who will enjoy this the most are those who like historical fiction. It is, as mentioned, the third in a trilogy. The first two are Wolf Hall and Bring Up the Bodies (reviewed here and here). Unless you’re a history buff, you do need to read those first.

2019 Recent Reads: January-March

What books have you read recently? 

Like this post? Check out: 

The Best Audiobooks I’ve Listened To, 19 Retellings of Classic Fiction You Need To Read, Advice Books To Read (That Aren’t Cheesy!), 17 Modern Classic Novels