Pile by the Bed reviews Nobel Prize winner Olga Tokarczuk's 2014 magnum opus The Books of Jacob centering around a little known Jewish messianic sect in eighteenth century Eastern Europe.

Pile by the Bed reviews Harsh Times by Mario Vargas Llosa looking at the American inspired political unrest in Guatemala in the 1950s and 60s.

It was a tough choice but here are Pile by the Bed's top 5 books of 2021 and five honourable mentions.

Pile by the Bed's Top 5 crime novels for 2021 and 5 honourable mentions.

Pile by the Bed reviews The Quantum War, the third of four books planned in Derek Künsken's heist-fuelled science fiction Quantum Evolution series.

Pile by the Bed's top five science fiction novels for 2021 with five honourable mentions.

Pile by the Bed's top 5 (actually 6) fantasy novels of 2021 and four honourable mentions

Pile by the Bed reviews Lemon by Kwon Yeo-Sun a Korean crime novel that touches on a range of Korean social issues.

Pile by the Bed reviews Canticle Creek by Adrian Hyland - an Australian procedural, set in rural Victoria but with links back to the Northern Territory.

Pile by the Bed reviews The Russian Wife, the fourteenth in Australian crime writer Barry Maitland's Brock and Kolla series.

Pile by the Bed reviews Kill your Brother - a breathless, tense and violent but compulsive thriller from Jack Heath.

Pile by the Bed reviews Noor by Nnedi Okorafor - a stand alone cyberpunk, Africanfuturist roadtrip with a resilient heroine at its core.

Pile by the Bed reviews Leviathan Falls by James SA Corey - the ninth and final book in The Expanse series. Recommended.

Pile by the Bed reviews Great Circle by Maggie Shipstead, a great American novel rich with character, theme and resonance and shortlisted for the 2021 Booker Prize.

Pile by the Bed reviews The Promise by Damon Galgut, winner of the 2021 Booker Prize, a vebally inventive novel dealing with the last thirty years of South African history.

Pile by the Bed reviews Cosmogramma by Courttia Newland a book of short stories casting a new slant on familiar speculative fiction tropes.

Pile by the Bed reviews The Second Rebel, second book in Linden Lewis' space opera First Sister trilogy which ups the stakes and develops to some great cliffhangers

Pile by the Bed reviews Our Violent Ends by Chloe Gong, conclusion to her 1920s Shanghai set, Shakespeare inspired These Violent Delights.

Pile by the Bed reviews Devotion by Hannah Kent, a romance set against the story of the immigration of German religious communities to South Australia in the nineteenth century.

Pile by the Bed reviews The Last Woman in the World by Inga Simpson a post-apocalyptic tale that takes the recent experiences of the bushfires and pandemic in Australia as inspiration.