Ring out, wild bells, to the wild sky,
The flying cloud, the frosty light:
The year is dying in the night;
Ring out, wild bells, and let him die.
~ “Ring Out, Wild Bells” – Alfred Lord Tennyson
It’s mid-December and Goodreads tells me I’ve read a grand total of 187 books this year so far. Yes, I’m planning on making up the 13 book differential during Christmas break – but I’m here now to continue the clay tradition of selecting the top three books I’ve read this year. It’s more than slightly difficult to pick only three (!) out of those 187 books, but I’ve gone ahead and selected three novels in no particular order out of the countless I’ve fallen in love with this past year, novels that I feel can be highly recommended to readers.
The Swallows’ Flight by Hilary McKay
This is a companion sequel to one of my favorite middle-grade novels, Love to Everyone, which I’d read in 2018. Imagine my absolute surprise upon discovering McKay had published a companion this year, and of course I rushed to get my hands on it. I wasn’t disappointed.
(It’s not necessary to have read Love to Everyone before this, but I’d highly recommend it for ease of understanding who is who and why they’re so important.)
The Swallows’ Flight spans a full decade, from 1936 to 1946. In Berlin, best friends Erik and Hans dream of owning a zoo and a food cart, respectively. In Oxford, Kate suffers through constant illness, the baby of a large, chaotic family; in Plymouth, Ruby resents her older brother and hides her birthmarks from the world. These unlikely four collide through the mechanisms of the terrible Second World War.
Through Erik and Hans, we learn of the rise of the Nazi party and its effects on the people; through Kate and Ruby, we learn of the lingering aftermath of the Great War and how the Second War sweeps through the land. And through Pax, the Dog thrown into the mix, we’re given a different viewpoint on the world and everything in it.
McKay’s ability to write family is astounding, to write love in all aspects in the subtlest manner. Though I originally came for the characters of the first book, I stayed for the characters of this book – Hans and Erik living through a regime of terror; Kate and Ruby’s unlikely friendship in the face of imminent danger, and the pure humanity of it all.
The Westing Game by Ellen Raskin
The Westing Game is an absolute classic. Sixteen unlikely people are drawn together at the reading of a will – the will of their mysterious landlord. It’s quickly apparent that though Samuel W. Westing is very much dead, he’s left one last game for them to play… for the inheritance of his vast fortune.
Relationships are forged and broken and remade. Each of the sixteen have no idea what they’re doing there, let alone what is going on, but as they’re drawn deeper into what seemed at first to be a harmless last prank, things get deadly. And when things get deadly, people get desperate.
I reread this book for the third or fourth time earlier this year on an impulse and really, I wasn’t disappointed. Of course, like any mystery novel, the mystery wears off after the first read, after the first shock of discovering whodunnit – but like my constant rereads of Agatha Christie mysteries, I came back for the characters. If there’s one thing that I’ve learned about mystery novels, it’s that the characters can make or break it, and for me, the characters – especially feisty Turtle with her braid – made this book.
The Voyage of the Sparrowhawk by Natasha Farrant
This is another middle-grade novel. Set right after the end of World War I, Sparrowhawk follows Charlotte, orphaned and in care of her horrible aunt and uncle who are determined to send her to boarding school, and Ben, also orphaned, living alone on the titular narrowboat, the Sparrowhawk. Ben’s older brother had been wounded in France during the war, and though Ben holds out hope for his return, the local constable feels otherwise, determined to send Ben to school. They meet through a serious of escapades that firmly cement them as friends. Both Ben and Lottie feel as if only France holds the answers to their questions (for Lottie, her grandmother) and when opportunity presents itself, they run away, accompanied by a dog Lottie rescued. And so, in the company of an ever-growing number of dogs and friends, Ben and Lottie set out to find the missing pieces of their lives.
Sparrowhawk is a poignant and incredibly fun adventure that I thoroughly enjoyed reading. It deals with the aftermath of the war in a way suitable for younger readers and for older ones, too, with characters suitably heroic and villain-y enough for any reader. And dogs – did I mention dogs?
A belated Merry Christmas and New Years to you all, and for those of you who wish – what were your favorite books of 2021?
Ring in the valiant man and free,
The larger heart, the kindlier hand;
Ring out the darkness of the land,
Ring in the Christ that is to be.
~ “Ring Out, Wild Bells” – Alfred Lord Tennyson