26-ish books in 2022

[StColumbofNavron]

Roll up, roll up ...

Shiny new thread for 2022.

I am setting my target at 25 this year.

I want to read at least a min of 5 in hardcopy and at least 4 non-fiction.

38 - Operation Moonlight by Louise Morrish. Elisabeth is 99 and living in her childhood home with her carer Tali. She is keeping secret her past as an undercover agent in occupied France in WW2. The book weaves both parts of her life together and is heartwarming and interesting, I really enjoyed it.

@CaptBuckyOHare I totally agree about Winter Solstice, can't believe it gets recommended so much.

35 Christmas stories by Noel Streatfeild. Very light read, the essence of her novels in short stories.
36 Shrines of Gaiety by Kate Atkinson. Loved this. It's like Peaky Blinders crossed with Maisie Dobbs crossed with, well, Noel Streatfeild. Only really well written by Kate Atkinson. One of those books you are sad to finish. I have it out of the library and the librarian warned me I only had 3 weeks to read it but that wasn't a problem.
Goodreads is telling me I've read 40 books but I count 38 on there and 36 on here. Confused.

Well I've got nowhere near my target this year...a combination of TV drama and music quiz app addiction has eaten into my reading time. Although I did listen to all of the Harry Potters on Audible but I'm not counting them!

However, I have really enjoyed all the books I have read; none more so than my last of the year:

17. Still Life by Sarah Winman. I was lucky enough to live in Florence for 3 months when I was studying for my degree, so reading this was like going back to a really happy time for me. The love that oozed out of the pages was palpable.

My reading goal for 2023 is not to buy or borrow any books until I've read at least a dozen from my bookshelf/kindle! I'll probably aim for 25 again next year but not going to beat myself up if I don't make it.

Thanks for the thread @

Oops, fat fingers

Thanks for the thread @StColumbofNavron - hopefully see you all on the 2023 version 🙂

I also didn’t reach 25 but managed 18. One of my New Year’s Reading Resolutions is to feel less guilty about reading during the day, so will hopefully make 25 in 2023.
But, like you MargotMoon will not be disheartened if I don’t.
I too loved Still Life ❤️
Other stand out reads of 2022 were The Ink Black Heart, Shrines of Gaiety, The Lincoln Highway, The Girl with the Louding Voice and The Most Fun We Ever Had.

No idea why that last bit appears underlined.

Well, I have listed 38. Of those 20 were audio, including the entire Harry Potter series. So next year I would like to get up to 26 actual reading. I will not need to buy any books to achieve this . As well as carrying on with audio books.

The downside of listening to so many audio books is that I have more or less completely abandoned podcasts.

@EspeciallyD Yes, podcasts have also eaten into my reading time! I've quite a few I love and several audiobooks I've bought this year and not even started.

2022 in review! I read 29 books (standouts highlighted):

1. The Inheritance Of Loss by Kiran Desai
2. The Perfect World of Miwako Sumida by Clarissa Goenawan
3. Allegedly by Tiffany D. Jackson
4. Milkman by Anna Burns
5. The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up by Marie Kondo
6. Can't Even: How Millennials Became the Burn Out Generation by Anne Helen Petersen
7. The Secret History by Donna Tartt
8. The Unwomanly Face of War by Svetlana Alexievich
9. Whistling for the Elephants by Sandi Toksvig

10. Ariadne by Jennifer Saint 11. The Girl With The Louding Voice by Abi Daré 12. Violeta by Isabel Allende 13. The Secret Lives Of Church Ladies by Deesha Philyaw 14. Daisy Jones And The Six by Taylor Jenkins Reid 15. Tender Is The Flesh by Augustina Bazterrica 16. Transcendent Kingdom by Yaa Gyasi 17. Marriage Of A Thousand Lies by S.J. Sindu 18. In the Midst of Winter by Isabel Allende 19. Invisible Women: Exposing Data Bias in a World Designed for Men by Caroline Criado Perez 20. Agatha Raisin and the Walkers of Dembley by M.C. Beaton 21. This Charming Man by Marian Keyes 22. How To Be Eaten by Maria Adelmann 23. Underbelly by Anna Whitehouse 24. The Eye of the Reindeer by Eva Weaver 25. Convenience Store Woman by Sayaka Murata 26. The Mermaid of Black Conch by Monique Roffey 27. The Giver by Lois Lowry 28. When I Was Ten by Fiona Cummins 29. The Blue Salt Road by Joanna Harris

Overall it was a good year for reading, and I discovered a few new authors who I'd like to read more from. Hope I can say the same this year!

DNF: Fingersmith (Sarah Waters), The Other Black Girl (Zakiya Dalila Harris), Are We Having Fun Yet? (Lucy Mangan), Possession (A.S. Byatt), Rachel's Holiday (Marian Keyes), Winter Solstice (Rosamunde Pilcher), Heaven (Meiko Kawakami), Girl Meets Boy (Ali Smith), & Caste: The Origins of Our Discontents (Isabel Wilkerson).

Just made it to 26 - I blame emigrating this year but at least I made the minimum!

2022

1. Piranesi
2. The Ocean at the End of the Lane
3. Still Life (A)
4. Wayward
5. The Bass Rock
6. Hunger
7. The Female Persuasion
8. The Parted Earth (A)
9. The Lost Daughter

10. Bombs on Aunt Dainty 11. On the Come Up (A) 12. Here Comes the Sun (A) 13. The Lincoln Highway 14. Red Clocks 15. Dear Edward 16. Curious Incident of the Dog in the Nighttime 17. Solitaire 18. Tasting Sunlight 19. The Shadow King 20. Apeirogon 21. Daddy Love 22. The Home for Good Mothers 23. Nick and Charlie 24. When Breath Becomes Air 25. Push/Precious (A) 26. The Hearts Invisible Furies

My final was way above my target, but I credit that to my intro into audio books. I too seem to have abandoned podcasts.

Please don't be disheartened if you didn't meet your own target, that has never been the point of these threads.

I would like to thank you all for your posts, I have had some great recommendations from here. My stand outs of the year where The Radium Girls, Kate Moore and The Night She Disappeared, Lisa Jewel .

I look forward to delving into our 2023 thread with you all again.

My full list with favourites in bold:

1. Freckles - Cecelia Ahern
2. TheMidnight Library - Matt Haig (a)
3. The Beekeeper of Aleppo - Cristy Lefteri (a)
4. Goodnight Mr Tom - Michelle Magorian (a)
5. Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone - JKR (a)
6. The Christmas Chronicles - Nigel Slater
7. HP and the Chamber of Secrets - JKR (a)
8. HP and the Prisoner of Azkaban - JKR (a)
9. Persuasion - Jane Austen
10. Anne of Green Gables - LM Montgomery (a)
11. I Love the Bones of You - Christopher Eccleston (a)
12. How to Grow Old - John Bishop (a)
13. Jamaica Inn - Daphne du Maurier
14. HP and the Goblet of Fire - JKR (a)
15. The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks - Rebecca Skloot (a)
16. The Marmalade Diaries - Ben Aitken
17. HP and the Order of the Phoenix - JKR (a)
18. Summerwater - Sarah Moss
19. Hungry - Grace Dent
20. HP and the Half Blood Prince - JKR (a)
21. Young Mungo - Douglas Stuart (a)
22. Apples Never Fall - Liane Moriarty
23. Notes from a Small Island - BIll Bryson
24. The No 1 LAdies Detective Agency - A MacCall Smith
25. Takeaway - Angela Hui (a)
26. Factory Girls - Michelle Gallen (a)
27. HP and the Deathly Hallows - JKR (a)
28. Tap to Tidy - Stacey Solomon (a)
29. Songbirds - Christy Lefteri (a)
30. Making It - Jay Blades (a)
31. Coming to England - Floella Benjamin (a)
32. The Marriage Portrait - Maggie O’Farrell
33. The Salt Path - Raynor Winn (a)
34. Behind the Seams - Esme Young (a)
35. My Name is Why - Lemn Sissay (a)
36. Lessons in Chemistry - Bonnie Garmus
37. How to Kill Your Family - Bella MAckie (a)
38. Operation Moonlight - Louise Morrish

I haven’t been on one of these threads before but have really enjoyed reading all the recommendations and it has spurred me on to read more than I usually do, thank you all.

Link to 2023 thread!
2023 thread.

I forgot to add one more I read in the holidays
31.What if 2 -Randall Munroe that I bough for DS and he read it , now it’s being read by DH.
I got to 31. Last year but since I’m still reading 2 of them the total finished is 29 which met my target and I shall keep this up in the new year ! None were audio but I might try them as I do my decluttering etc jobs .

Book 15 The Death of Remembrance by Denzil Meyrick