Keira Gratton: A Day of Fallen Night by Samantha Shannon
The long-awaited prequel to Shannon's infamous The Priory of the Orange Tree, this release is another forceful sapphic epic. Was it as good as the original? No. However, the first book was borderline flawless, so its sequel never had a chance. The breath of diversity and ingenuity that the genre desperately needs, Shannon's corpus is a must-read for people tired of the pale, stale, and male. It's a feminist response to Brandon Sanderson: war, religion, magic systems, dragons and authentic explorations of love.
We follow Glorian, Dumai, Tunuva, and Wulf through the Grief of the Ages, 500 years before the events of The Priory. Across the continent religion is lazy and corrupted, the threat of dormant wyrms long ignored. Inys is more concerned with civil infighting, and the youth of The Priory are questioning their calling. Only in the East, on the Lacustrine island, are they preparing to lose an ancient war.
Fantasy gets a bad rap thanks to decades of sheltered white male perspectives, and now the recent popularity of smutty faerie romances. I'm not looking down on people who enjoy either of those things, but storytelling as a format started in myth, fable, and pure fantasy. The genre has so much history and potential, and series' like Shannon's which push the conventions of the form are where our attention should be to drag fantasy into the modern day!
Benjamin Sayer: Extra Time Beckons, Penalties Loom by Adam Hurrey
Extra Time Beckons, Penalties Loom was undoubtedly my book of the year. The sequel to Hurrey's 2014 book Football Cliches (which led to the famous podcast of the same name), Extra Time Beckons, Penalties Loom was a book I knew I’d be fascinated by. The use of language in sports media is one of those irrational fascination for me, and this book explores that in depth.
Questions like “what makes a team ‘plucky’?” and “why doesn’t league football allow for pluckiness?” being answered in such great detail makes it seem like these questions are always being asked, when they're really things that you have probably never once thought of. What makes this book so fun is that questions like these, and the exploration into niches such as what makes premier league business ‘unfinished’. The Rolls-Royce of books.
Erin Reid: As Long as the Lemon Trees Grow by Zoulfa Katouh
My favourite book this year by far has to be As Long as the Lemon Trees Grow. It is an inspiring story of love, hope and sisterhood during the Syrian revolution. I felt like it was such a beautiful love letter to Syria and its people. Be prepared for some of the biggest plot twists you've ever seen and make sure to have a packet of tissues! As it's a YA novel, it explains the Syrian revolution in a really simple and accessible way but doesn't shy away from sharing the brutal truth; it was hard hitting and emotional, and even so knowing what's happening in Syria now.
I loved that although the Syrian revolution was the primary context for the book, it wasn’t the main focus; instead it focused on the people, who are so often dehumanised in Western media. I can't wait to read more from this author in the new year. There is not a day where I don't think about this book and its characters. If you pick up any book to read from this list, make it this one as it is not one to be missed!
Ruby Tiplady: God: A Human History of Religion by Reza Aslan
This accessible histography takes an anthropological approach to theology, analysing when and why we developed religious thought, how practices developed over time, and how organised religion spread globally. While the book had its commercial success in 2018, I had never come across it, even when I studied theology in college. I found it by chance and loved every page; thought-provoking, challenging, and inclusive of diverse thought, this book is simultaneously clear and comprehensive.
The first part of the book deals with prehistoric global origins of the "religious impulse", how humanity fashioned a god or gods from their reality, our ever-changing relationship with life and death, and the beginnings of organised religious activity, including cave-paintings and sites such as the Göbekli Tepe.
He then shifts his focus to the development of distinct monothesistic religion, sharing details of Ancient Egyptian and Classical religion to illustrate the cultural shifts that took place. He traces the development of Christianity, Judaism, and Islam. Aslan grew up a Muslim, then converted to Christianity, and reverted back to Islam in his adulthood. Thus, he has a unique, respectful, and grounded view of the world's major religions, their origins, and the reality of living life as a person of these faiths. This work is provocative, educational, and truly