We’re already almost a quarter of the way through 2022, and before time gets any farther away from me, I’m putting out this list of my favorites from the past year.

In 2021, I read 29 new-to-me books that I rated 9, plus 8 older favorites revisited. I also rated 104 books as an 8 – still excellent, and some of them I wonder in retrospect why I didn’t rate them higher. But in order to keep things manageable both for me and for you, dear reader, I’m limiting myself to the shorter lists to share with you here. And perhaps I can use this as a guide to what books to try to go back and write reviews of. I’m not holding my breath, though, the way things have been going.

Here is my standard disclaimer about rating books:

“I have never liked doing a public scale rating of books – the librarian in me would rather describe what’s in the book and let you decide if it sounds good for you. But I do give books number ratings on my own private spreadsheet. I shamelessly borrowed the Book Smugglers’ 10-point rating system for this, where 0 is “I want my time and my money back”, 5 is “meh” and so on. For my purposes, 7 is a book I enjoyed, 8 is one I loved and 9 is one I really, really loved. 10 only gets given out retrospectively to books I find myself re-reading and thinking about a lot – a true personal classic.”

Middle Grade

• Anya and the Nightingale by Sofiya Pasternack
• Cece Rios and the Desert of Souls by Kaela Rivera
• Eva Evergreen and the Cursed Witch by Julie Abe

• Hollowpox: the Hunt for Morrigan Crow by Jessica Townsend
• Much Ado about Baseball by Rajani LaRocca
• Ophie’s Ghosts by Justina Ireland

• Raconteur’s Commonplace Book by Kate Milford
• The Raven Heir by Stephanie Burgis
• Siren Song by Anne Ursu

• Sisters of the Neversea by Cynthia Leitich Smith
• Too Bright to See by Kyle Lukoff
• The Troubled Girls of Dragomir Academy by Anne Ursu

• Cardboard Kingdom: Roar of the Beast by Chad Sell
• Class Act by Jerry Craft
• Strange Birds: a Field Guide to Ruffling Feathers by Celia C. Pérez

Teen

• Burn by Patrick Ness
• Girl from the Sea by Molly Knox Ostertag
• Legendborn by Tracy Deonn

• Mister Impossible by Maggie Stiefvater
• You Should See Me in a Crown by Leah Johnson
• Catfishing on Catnet by Naomi Kritzer

Adult

• A Deadly Education by Naomi Novik. Read by Anisha Dadia
• Order of the Pure Moon Reflected in Water by Zen Cho
• The City We Became by N.K. Jemisin

• What Fresh Hell is This? Perimenopause, Menopause, Other Indignities, and You by Heather Corinna
• The Parable of the Sower by Octavia Butler
• The Parable of the Talents by Octavia Butler
• A Psalm for the Wild Built by Becky Chambers

Rereads

• The Children of Greene Knowe by L. M. Boston (note that this is old enough to have some problematic elements)
• The Girl with the Dragon Heart by Stephanie Burgis (listened to with my daughter)
• Kat, Incorrigible by Stephanie Burgis

• Renegade Magic by Stephanie Burgis
• Stolen Magic by Stephanie Burgis
• Courting Magic by Stephanie Burgis

• A Hat Full of Sky by Terry Pratchett
• The Kairos Mechanism by Kate Milford

If you’ve made it through to the end of this long list and still want more, you may enjoy my end-of-year lists from previous years: 2020 , 2019, 2018, 2017, 2016, 2015, and 2014.