The holiday season is upon us, another strange, unforgettable year is almost done, and here at Coode Street it's time for our annual gift guide/year in review, where we recommend some books we loved during the year.

This time out we invited special guests and good friends James Bradley, Alix E. Harrow, and Ian Mond to join us to recommend just a few of the books we'd loved the most during 2021. Perhaps more than in any other year, this was a time when we all were almost surprised at how much great reading we found.

Because this is Coode Street, traditions are traditions and we had some technical issues. All is good for most of the hour of the recording, but there's a jump or two towards the end. We hope you'll excuse this, and that the recommendations will prove of interest.

As always, our thanks to Alix, James, and Ian for making time to talk to us. We hope you enjoy the podcast and that the guide is of some use. To help, the recommendations are below. And we're in talks to maybe return in January for a books we're looking forward to chat as well...

James Bradley recommended:

• Jennifer Mills, The Airways
• Elizabeth Knox, The Absolute Book
• Nina Allan, The Good Neighbours
• Olga Ravn, The Employees: A workplace novel of the 22nd century

and also mentioned:

• Alexandra Kleeman, Something New Under the Sun
• Laura Jean McKay, The Animals in That Country
• Marion Engel, Bear
• Garth Nix, Terciel and Elinor
• Sim Kern, Depart, Depart
• Hari Kunzru, Red Pill

Alix E. Harrow recommended:

• Lee Mandelo, Summer Sons
• Shelley Parker-Chan, She Who Became the Sun
• Ava Reid, The Wolf and the Woodsman
• Nghi Vo, The Chosen and the Beautiful

And I also loved/mentioned/endorsed:

• Becky Chambers, A Psalm for the Wild-BuiltAngela Slatter, All the Murmuring Bones

Ian Mond recommended:

• Build Your House Around My Body, Violet Kupersmith
• The Thing Between Us, Gus Moreno
• The Confessions of Copeland Cane, Keenan Norris
• All the Murmuring Bones, Angela Slatter
• Dead Souls, Sam Rivière
• The Angels of L19, Jonathan Walker
• Mrs Death: Misses Death, Salena Godden
• The Employees, Olga Ravn (translated by Martin Aitken)

Jonathan recommended:

• The Hood, Lavie Tidhar
• A Desolation Called Peace, Arkady Martine
• A Psalm for the Wild-Built, Becky Chambers
• The Wisdom of Crowds, Joe Abercrombie

and passingly mentioned The Detective Up Late by Adrian McKinty.

Gary recommended:

• Karin Tidbeck, The Memory Theatre
• M. Rickert, The Shipbuilder of Belfairie
• E. Lily Yu, On Fragile Waves
• Nina Allan, The Art of Space Travel and Other Stories
• P. Djèlí Clark, A Master of Djinn

Pus a couple of titles that were also on other folks’ lists, like The Hood and The Chosen and the Beautiful.