I mentioned last week that we’d stopped by Hains Point one night to see the blossoms as we were driving back from Virginia.

Going at night made it less obvious that the trees were past peak-flowering — leaves and blooms blended in the more monochromatic light — but you also lost the lovely pinks that draw people to them in the first place.

I’m glad that we saw the blossoms in any format this year and seeing the cherry trees at night had been a bucket list item. But as with many things you look forward to for a long time (like room service), it pales in comparison to the imagination. Next year, I’ll be back in the daylight.

So, I fell seven summaries short of telling you about all the the books I read last year. And since I hadn’t finished sharing, I just didn’t bother to give you my ten favorites from 2021. But, there’s nothing like a freebie week for Top Ten Tuesdays over at That Artsy Reader Girl in early April to provide the inspiration to rectify that oversight.

So here are the ten books I most enjoyed reading last year:

1. T.J. Klune’s Under the Whispering Door: In back to back years,  Klune has penned the novel that I loved best. In this one, a grey, unlikeable man dies, but does not move on. A girl comes to collect him and brings him to a cafe, where a gentle bear of a man explains that it is a safe place for him to adjust to being dead, and that when he is ready, upstairs there is a door that leads on. But what happens if in this final wayfinding station between the worlds, he finally finds a life?
2. Jo & Laurie by Margaret Stohl and Melissa de la Cruz: If you read the story of Joe, Beth, Meg, and Amy and got to the end and thought, “Perfect! Everyone ended up just with the people they should have!” you can just move along to the next entry. If, on the other hand, you fumed at a woman who’d been dead for 100 years for not letting two obvious characters explore things further, this book, written from the perspectives of Jo (the author of an alternative version of Little Women) and Laurie (her BFF, who knows her better than anyone), might let you explore some of those feelings.
3. Class Act by Jerry Craft: In this companion middle-grade graphic novel to the award-winning New Kid, Craft centers his story on Jordan’s friend, Drew, who is now in seventh grade and his second year at the prep school where he and Jordan are some of the only Black kids enrolled. This year, they’ll deal with colorism, remaining friends with someone whose family has a lot of privilege, and the question about why all the Black kids hang out together, among others. Another beautiful story about aggressions and microaggressions.
4. Incense and Sensibility by Sonali Dev: In the third of Dev’s The Rajes series, a modern quartet of novels that reimagine some of her favorite Austen novels, but featuring six Indian-American cousins, we focus on the eldest cousin, Yash, who is running for governor of California. After an assassination attempt which lands his bodyguard in a coma, Yash begins to have panic attacks. His sisters convince him to go and see their dear friend, India, who with her mother and sister, runs a yoga studio and is an expert at helping clients deal with mental health issues. Little do they know that he once long ago fell deeply in love with India, only to end up fake engaged to his own childhood friend. Way less soapy than I make it out to be. And, as with all of Dev’s books in this series, inspired by the Austen novel, rather than being a strict retelling.
5. Serena Singh Flips the Script by Sonya Lalli: Set in D.C., this is a sweet contemporary novel about a young woman who’s trying to find her way in the world and succeeding on the face of it, with a kick-ass new position at her dream job. But as a first-generation American, she’s struggling with issues with her parents. She’s also having a hard time making friends — and goes on a couple of hilarious friend-dates during the course of the story. And then there’s her love life — there’s the cute photographer from her sister’s wedding, but there’s also the guy she used to be in love with, who’s subsequent marriage has broken up, but with whom she swears she just wants to rekindle a friendship. Multi-layered and well-thought out. Recommended.
6. Murder on Cold Street by Sherry Thomas: The latest in the Lady Sherlock series, this Christmassy story sees Charlotte, Mrs. Watson, and Lord Ingram having to solve a murder that Inspector Treadles has been accused of. I adore this series and highly recommend it.
7. Sal and Gabi Break the Universe by Carlos Hernandez: A cute middle-grade story about a boy, who in his grief at losing his mother a couple years earlier, accidentally found a way to access the multiverse. When he starts at a new school, a girl with an eye for details figures out what’s happening, and they set out on a series of adventures that just might destroy the world.
8. Michelle Obama’s Becoming: The fact that it took me nearly three years to finish listening to this memoir should not remotely count against it. Instead, take away how comforting it was to have Michelle pop in to tell me bits and pieces of her story — a remarkably rewarding life, but not remotely what she would have chosen for herself — over occasional nights washing dishes after being downsized, as I was struggling with a job that asked a lot of me, and, finally, during the pandemic. She’d talk about how infuriating her husband could be, how stressful her jobs had been, and the biggest challenges she’d faced. And I’d feel a little less alone at 3 a.m.
9. Recipe for Persuasion by Sonali Dev: In a tribute to the Jane Austen classic, the second in this interlocking series of four stories about an Indian-American family focuses on Ashna, a chef, who is paired in a celebrity cooking contest with Rico Silva, a soccer star, who just happens to have been her secret high school boy friend — and the boy her father sent away because he wasn’t good enough for her. I love this series and recommend it to everyone.
10. Nancy Drew: The Palace of Wisdom by Kelly Thompson and illustrated by Jenn St. Onge: In this graphic novel adaptation of the famous young sleuth, Nancy is summoned from River Heights by an anonymous note that hints that her mother’s death years before is more than just an accident. Now she’ll need to team up with her old friends, George, Bess, and Joe and Frank Hardy to solve that mystery, another that dates back to the same time as her mother’s, and some that are much more recent. Nancy Drew meets Veronica Mars. Highly enjoyable.

Have you read any of these books? Got any books you’ve read recently that you’ve loved?

It was another quiet weekend around the Burrow:

We watched the UConn women win … and then lose.

We bought plants, and I put them all in the ground.

I finished a book and started a new one.

We stopped at a coffeehouse I hadn’t been to since the pandemic began (they were only open for takeout with curtailed hours) and sat on the patio in the sun.

We went to the grocery store and the farmers market.

I turned the heel of my sock and started working on the foot.

We watched Better Nate than Ever, which was sweet.

We watched and heard the news and did not turn away.

We went on.

Three beautiful things from my past week:

1. Rudi coming home from a ten-day coaching trip (and the end of the 2021-22 coaching season).

2. We were out running an errand in Virginia, and I thought to send us home via Hains Point. The cherry trees are lovely against the night sky.

3. A single box of a preferred brand on emptyish shelves at the second store I stop at.

What’s been beautiful in your world lately?

I’m nearly up to the heel turn for my socks, which is very exciting. I will be glad to have finished a project and to have new stripey socks to wear.

I’m almost halfway through Light from Uncommon Stars. I don’t know that enjoy is the right word for such a book, but I’m caught up in the story now and want to see if everyone will do right by one another.

I finished listening to A Marvellous Light (loved it) and have moved on to Cassandra Peterson’s memoir, Yours Cruelly, Elvira. I’m still in early days, but I’m enjoying her voice so far.

Head over to As Kat Knits to hear about what others are reading and crafting.

I didn’t make it down to the Tidal Basin this year for peak bloom season, which was early last week. While I still might go down to Hains Point, where they have a better distribution of early- and late-blooming trees, I did admire the flowering trees in my own neighborhood. While I put on Flickr that these blooms were cherries, they might, in fact, be crabapples.

These are definitely peach flowers, because eventually this tree, located in the yard of the Colombian ambassador, grows fruit.