Ada, 17, lives in a patriarchal community where her worth hinges on her fertility, and when she fails to become pregnant, she lights off - only to fall in with the Hole in the Wall Gang, led by a person known as the Kid. Published during the first week of the New Year, Anna North's Outlawed sets a high bar for the 12 months of publishing still to come: A feminist alt-history Western, it takes place in the Old West some 60 years after the Great Flu has killed off 90 percent of the American population. There is something both thrilling and intimidating about the first book of the year to receive rave reviews, and we didn't have to wait long for it in 2021. Here are 23 (plus a few additional suggestions) that you'll want to be sure to add to your heap. Okay, okay, who're we kidding? There's no such thing as too many books. But our to-be-read piles might be starting to look a little shorter after all those months in quarantine. Now we seem on the cusp of what is hopefully the beginning of the end, and it becomes possible again to imagine reading books in places like coffee shops or on transcontinental flights.
