Year in Books 2022

I missed posting my Book List for the last several years. (the 2019 Book List was the last one) Of course, I haven't been posting much of anything, have I? 

The Book Lists started out relatively manageable - up until 2018, I only read somewhere between 40-50 books each year. It still took a while to compile the list and figure out the number of pages and the hours needed to listen to the audiobooks, but I eventually got it done. Then, I just never got around to it for 2020 or 2021. Or, I didn't get around to it in a timely manner. I did eventually take the time to go through all my books for both of those years and record the pages and times in a Notepad file on my computer. And then my computer died, and I can't access that file.

So, I'm going to do the easy thing and link to my Year in Books on Goodreads. 

I read 117 books in 2022, the most ever in any year - 55 of those were books/ebooks, and 62 were audiobooks. 

I'm not sure exactly how that happened. I have started listening to audiobooks at double speed, so I'm sure that helps some.

Favorite books of the year:

• The Bloody Jack series by L.A. Meyer read by Katherine Kellgren - I loved these all over again.
• The Throne of Glass series by Sarah J. Maas - my niece got me started, and I've had a hard time putting these books down. I'm reading the last one now.
• The Wednesday Wars by Gary D. Schmidt 
• Fighting Words by Kimberly Brubaker Bradley
• The Villa by Rachel Hawkins

_______________________________________________________

And, because I didn't get my lists done for 2020 and 2021, here are those Years in Books, too:

• Year in Books 2020 - 80 books - 40 audiobooks and 40 books/ebooks
  the year I met the Vanderbeekers!
• Year in Books 2021 - 81 books - 40 audiobooks and 42 books/ebooks
  the year my friend Abriana got me started reading the Ranger's Apprentice books. I'd definitely recommend those!

Book List 2019

I've been reading as long as I can remember, but it wasn't until 2008 that I started putting together a list of all the books I read each year. I use Goodreads to keep track throughout the year and then list them all here once the year is over. Even though Goodreads compiles my Year in Books, it's always fun to go back through all the books I've read over the course of the year and see how many pages I've read and how many hours I've spent listening over the course of the year.

Also, once again I'll link to any reviews I did. As always, I have good intentions to review more of the books I read, but I don't always follow through. Let's see what 2019 looked like, shall we?

Again, all books are listed by the month I finished them. Even if I started listening or reading the previous month.

January 

1. The Memory Box - Eva Lesko Natiello (audio) - 11 hrs 9 min
2. A Mutiny in Time (Infinity Ring #1) - James Dashner (audio) - 4 hrs 30 min
3. Liturgy of the Ordinary: Sacred Practices in Everyday Life - Tish Harrison Warren - 184 pages
   
4. Still Alice - Lisa Genova - 293 pages
5. Vox - Christina Dalcher - 336 pages
6. The Rule of One (The Rule of One #1) - Ashley Saunders, Leslie Saunders - 258 pages

1071 pages | 15 hours 39 minutes

February

7. Inspired: Slaying Giants, Walking on Water, and Loving the Bible Again - Rachel Held Evans - 270 pages
8. Eleanor Oliphant is Completely Fine - Gail Honeyman - 327 pages
9. A Murder in Time (Kendra Donovan #1) - Julie McElwain (audio) - 18 hrs 39 min 
10. The Spitfire Girls - Soraya M. Lane - 328 pages - 328 pages  - (5 stars) 
11. The Lost Girls of Paris - Pam Jenoff (audio) - 11 hrs 41 min
12. Answering Jihad: A Better Way Forward - Nabeel Qureshi- 176 pages
13. The Wife - Meg Wolitzer 224 pages

1325 pages | 30 hours 20 minutes

March

14. Gilead (Gilead #1) - Marilynne Robinson (audio) - 8 hrs 54 min
15. Crosstalk - Connie Willis - 498 pages
16. MAD Librarian: You Gotta Fight for Your Right to Library! - Michael Guillebeau - 402 pages
17. Rhythms of Rest: Finding the Spirit of Sabbath in a Busy World - Shelly Miller - 226 pages
18. Under a Painted Sky - Stacey Lee (audio) - 10 hrs 11 min

1126 pages | 19 hours 5 minutes | a review for all 5

April

19. Scrappy Little Nobody - Anna Kendrick (audio) - 6 hrs
20. Five Feet Apart - Rachael Lippincott - 288 pages
21. Charlotte Morgan and the Lemonade Stand (The Number Investigators Book 2) - Martin Tiller - 61 pages
22. Daisy Jones & The Six - Taylor Jenkins Reid (audio) - 9 hrs 3 min
23. Elevation - Stephen King - 146 pages
24. Bathed in Prayer: Father Tim's Prayers, Sermons, and Reflections from the Mitford Series - Jan Karon (audio) -  7 hrs 20 min

495 pages | 22 hours 23 minutes

May

25. The City of Mirrors (The Passage #3) - Justin Cronin - 602 pages
26. Love and First Sight - Josh Sundquist (audio) - 6h 25m
27. The One and Only Ivan - Katherine Applegate - 325 pages
28. The War That Saved My Life (The War That Saved My Life #1) - Kimberly Brubaker Bradley - 316 pages - (5 stars)
29. The Tales of Beedle the Bard: The Illustrated Edition (Hogwarts Library) - J.K. Rowling - 160 pages
30. The Kitchen House - Kathleen Grissom (audio) -12 hrs 57 min
31. The War I Finally Won (The War That Saved My Life #2) - Kimberly Brubaker Bradley - 400 pages - (5 stars)

1803 pages | 19 hours 22 minutes

June

32. Inside HBO's Game of Thrones: Seasons 1 & 2 - Bryan Cogman - 192 pages
33. The Other Daughter - Lauren Willig (audio) - 10 hrs 39 min

192 pages | 10 hours 39 minutes

July

34. The Wife Between Us - Greer Hendricks, Sarah Pekkanen (audio) - 11 hrs 25 min
35. Once We Had a Horse - Glen Rounds - 32 pages
36. Light from Other Stars - Erika Swyler - 305 pages
37. Song of Susannah (The Dark Tower #6) - Stephen King - 413 pages
38. Good Omens - Terry Pratchett, Neil Gaiman (audio) - 12 hrs 32 min
39. Murder on Birchardville Hill - Ruth Buchanan - 123 pages

 873 pages | 23 hours 57 minutes | reviews for 4 out of 6

August

40. Have You Seen Luis Velez? - Catherine Ryan Hyde - 320 pages
41. The Rest of God: Restoring Your Soul by Restoring Sabbath - Mark Buchanan - 240 pages
42. The Art of Racing in the Rain - Garth Stein (audio) - 6 hrs 56 min
43. The Book Woman of Troublesome Creek - Kim Michele Richardson (audio) - 9 hrs 26 min
44. Enna Burning (The Books of Bayern #2) - Shannon Hale - 316 pages
45. The Colorado Kid - Stephen King - 205 pages
46. A Thousand Shall Fall - Susi Hasel Mundy - 178 pages

1259 pages | 16 hours 22 minutes

September

47. The Day the World Came to Town: 9/11 in Gander, Newfoundland - Jim DeFede - 260 pages
48. Extraordinary Means - Robyn Schneider (audio) - 8 hrs 7 min
49. The Two Lila Bennetts - Liz Fenton, Lisa Steinke - 307 pages
50. The Secret Thoughts of an Unlikely Convert: An English Professor's Journey into Christian Faith - Rosaria Champagne Butterfield (audio) - 7 hrs 15 min
51. The Grace Year - Kim Liggett - 407 pages
52. Summerlings - Lisa Howorth - 256 pages
53. These Is My Words: The Diary of Sarah Agnes Prine, 1881-1901 (Sarah Agnes Prine #1) - Nancy E. Turner (audio) - 13 hrs 47 min - (5 stars)
54. Love Changes Everything: Finding What's Real in a World Full of Fake - Micah Berteau - 208 pages

1438 pages | 29 hours 9 minutes | 1 reviewed half of them...

October

55. Sorry I'm Late, I Didn't Want to Come: One Introvert's Year of Saying Yes - Jessica Pan - 274 pages - (5 stars)
56. The Martian - Andy Weir (audio) - 10 hrs 59 min - (5 stars)

274 pages | 10 hours 59 minutes

November

57. The Furies - Katie Lowe - 357 pages
58. A Gentleman in Moscow - Amor Towles (audio) - 17 hrs 52 min
59. Sold on a Monday - Kristina McMorris - 352 pages
60. Glow (Sky Chasers #1) - Amy Kathleen Ryan (audio) - 9 hrs 56 min
61. The Words between Us - Erin Bartels - 374 pages
62. Spark (Sky Chasers #2) - Amy Kathleen Ryan (audio) - 11 hrs 12 min

1083 pages | 39 hours

December

63. The Flatshare - Beth O'Leary - 336 pages
64. Lost in Translation: An Illustrated Compendium of Untranslatable Words from Around the World - Ella Frances Sanders - 112 pages
65. Everything Happens for a Reason: And Other Lies I've Loved - Kate Bowler - 183 pages
66. A Study in Charlotte (Charlotte Holmes #1) - Brittany Cavallaro (audio) - 9 hrs 7 min
67. Red at the Bone - Jacqueline Woodson - 208 pages
68. A Hobbit, a Wardrobe, and a Great War: How J.R.R. Tolkien and C.S. Lewis Rediscovered Faith, Friendship, and Heroism in the Cataclysm of 1914-18 - Joseph Loconte - 232 pages
69. One for the Blackbird, One for the Crow - Olivia Hawker (audio) - 19 hrs 2 min
70. The Holy Bible: English Standard Version - 1328 pages - (5 stars)
71. The Dark Tower (The Dark Tower #7) - Stephen King - 845 pages - I finished re-reading the series!

3244 pages | 28 hours 9 minutes

• Total books - 71 (compare to 63 in 2018)
• Total pages - 14,183 (compare to 13,698 pages in 2018)
• Total time - 265 hours 4 minutes  (compare to 192 hours 13 minutes in 2018)

Page counts courtesy of Goodreads; audio lengths courtesy of Audible. My reading goal for the year was 50 books, and I met and surpassed it. I have yet to decide if I should shoot higher in 2020 or just go for 50 again and see how it turns out.

I didn't do such a good job of writing reviews this year - 34 reviews out of 71 books, so less than half. Some of them were just a few words, but I suppose that's better than nothing, right? Still, there were books that I really meant to review but didn't...

 How many books did you read in 2019?  I'd love to hear some suggestions for my 2020 reading list.  Because my already crazy long and ever-growing TBR list can always use a few more, right?

*if you happen to click any of the book covers and buy from Amazon, they say they'll pay me a small percentage.  Every little bit helps, and I thank you for your support!

Squirrel!

I received an email the other day from an author I follow. Actually, I signed up for his newsletter a while back in exchange for a free copy of one of his books. A book I have yet to read. Will I ever read all those (or any of those, for that matter) free Kindle books I keep grabbing? But I just can't resist grabbing them. They're free!

Anyway, the point of this particular email was to ask for feedback from the readers. This author has written a series of books, but very few people ever read through the entire series. They'll read one or two or three of the books, and then they'll quit reading. He was asking how far we'd read and why we'd quit when we did.

Of course, since I haven't read any of the books, I couldn't speak to those books specifically, but I did give my best guess - there are many, many books available, and readers tend to get distracted.  Seriously, my TBR list is already miles long, and it just keeps growing. Every time someone mentions a book that looks interesting I add it. So, even when I start a series that I really like, I usually only end up reading 2 or 3 of the books. Then I decide to take a break from the series and read something else. Next thing I know, it's been 3 or 4 years... (there are a lot of something elses)

Here are a few examples:

• I read the first three of Diana Gabaldon's Outlander series in 2008, stopped for some reason and never continued. Now that we've started watching the series on Starz, I'm wanting to start that series again and read them all. But there are so many...
• I re-read the first 4 Harry Potter books in 2011, fully intending to finish the series, but I took a break and haven't gone back since. (Though to be fair, I did read all of them as they came out, so maybe that's not the same?)

• I started George R.R. Martin's Song of Ice and Fire series in 2013 - After finishing #3, I took a short break to read other books and had definite plans to read the remaining 2 books in 2014.
  It's 2019, and I haven't gone back. Not because I didn't LOVE the books, because I did. (We did watch the series on HBO. Just waiting till April so we can find out what happens next)
• I read Justin Cronin's The Passage and The Twelve in 2016 because the 3rd book in the series was coming out. I'd read The Passage several years before (in 2010) but never continued on... So I read both of them in preparation for City of Mirrors. Loved them both. And still haven't read City of Mirrors. (I do have it on hold at the library right now, so maybe I'll finally get to it)

• And I started re-reading Stephen King's Dark Tower series in 2015. I've read a lot of other books along the way, but I haven't actually taken a complete break from the series. I'm still working my way through it and planning to finish the last 2 books this year. Check my 2019 book list when I post it next year to see if I actually accomplish that.

Yes, there are some series that I've continued with - Jan Karon's Mitford Series, The Bloody Jack series by L.A. Meyer (wanna listen to those again!), J.D. Robb's In Death series. And that's the real question - WHY do some series keep us coming back for more? And why do some fail to get our attention back once we've been distracted by all those other books?

I just need to learn to read faster, so I can read all the books.

Book List 2018

I've been reading as long as I can remember, but it wasn't until 2008 that I started putting together a list of all the books I read each year. I use Goodreads to keep track throughout the year and then list them all here once the year is over. Even though Goodreads compiles my Year in Books, it's always fun to go back through all the books I've read over the course of the year and see how many pages and how many hours of reading I have.

Also, once again I'll link to any reviews I did. As always, I have good intentions to review more of the books I read, but I don't always follow through. I feel like I did a much better job of rating and reviewing this year. Several books even earned 5 stars, which is rare for me. I usually go with 4 stars, saving that elusive 5th star for something that really makes an impression.  Let's see what 2018 looked like, shall we?

Again, all books are listed by the month I finished them. Even if I started listening or reading the previous month.

January

1. Brave New World - Aldous Huxley (audio) - 8 hrs
2. The Good Liar - Catherine McKenzie - 373 pages
3. One Thousand Gifts: A Dare to Live Fully Right Where You Are - Ann Voskamp - 241 pages
   
4. Hearts of Resistance - Soraya M. Lane - 324 pages
5. Substitute: Going to School with a Thousand Kids - Nicholson Baker - 733 pages
6. Endurance: Shackleton's Incredible Voyage - Alfred Lansing (audio)  - 10 hrs 20 min -  (5 stars)
7. The Thief's Daughter (Kingfountain #2) - Jeff Wheeler - 368 pages

2039 pages | 18 hours and 20 minutes | I wrote a review for 6 out of 7!

February

8. Turtles All the Way Down - John Green - 304 pages
9. Ink and Bone (The Great Library #1) - Rachel Caine (audio) - 10 hrs 26 min
10. Scarred: A Journey of Restoration - Jan Levine - 162 pages
11. The King's Traitor (Kingfountain #3) - Jeff Wheeler - 386 pages  - (5 stars) but for some reason, I didn't take the time to write a review...
12. My Sister's Grave (Tracy Crosswhite #1) - Robert Dugoni (audio)  - 10 hrs 49 min

852 pages | 21 hours and 15 minutes | and, ummm - only 1 review

March

13. The Maid's War (Kingfountain 0.5) - Jeff Wheeler - 302 pages
14. The Zookeeper's Wife - Diane Ackerman (audio) - 10 hrs 55 min
15. How to Stop Time - Matt Haig - 331 pages
16. God's Love Story - Marissa Baker - 42 pages

675 pages | 10 hours 55 minutes | a review for all 4

April

17. The Wretched of Muirwood (Legends of Muirwood #1) - Jeff Wheeler - 350 pages
18. God, Me, and Sweet Iced Tea: Experiencing God in the Midst of Everyday Moments - Rose Chandler Johnson - 149 pages
19. Sunrise (Sunrise #1) - Karen Kingsbury - 301 pages
20. The Fate of the Tearling (The Queen of the Tearling #3) - Erika Johansen (audio) - 19 hrs 33 min
21. Charlotte Morgan and the Great Big Math Problem (The Number Investigators Book 1) - Martin Tiller - 117 pages
22. Jar of Hearts - Jennifer Hillier - 311 pages - (5 stars)
23. Isaiah 53 Explained - Mitch Glaser - 164 pages

1392 pages |19 hours 33 minutes | reviews for 4 of 7

May

24. Dark in Death (In Death #46) - J.D. Robb (audio) - 13 hrs 25 min

25. The Blight of Muirwood (Legends of Muirwood #2) - Jeff Wheeler - 548 pages
26. Bring Me Back - B.A. Paris - 384 pages
27. The Wind Through the Keyhole (The Dark Tower #4.5) - Stephen King - 309 pages
28. Girls' Night Out - Liz Fenton & Lisa Steinke - 333 pages
29. Nick of Time (Nick McIver Adventures Through Time #1) - Ted Bell (audio) - 11 hrs 56 min
30. To Kill a Mockingbird - Harper Lee - 324 pages - (5 stars)

1898 pages | 25 hours 21 minutes | reviews for 4 of 7

June

31. After Anna - Lisa Scottoline - 352 pages
32. A Life for God: A Rabbi’s Analysis of Life, the Cross, and Eternity - Greg Hershberg - 112 pages
33. All the Light We Cannot See - Anthony Doerr (audio) - 16 hrs 2 min

464 pages | 16 hours 2 minutes | a review

July

34. A Gathering of Secrets (Kate Burkholder #10) - Linda Castillo - 308 pages

35. The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time - Mark Haddon - 226 pages
36. Baby Teeth - Zoje Stage - 304 pages
37. Lies - T.M. Logan - 498 pages - (5 stars)
38. To Be Where You Are (Mitford Years #14) - Jan Karon (audio) - 17 hrs 48 min
39. Edison: The Mystery of the Missing Mouse Treasure - Torben Kuhlmann - 112 pages

 1448 pages | 17 hours 48 minutes | reviews for all 6

August

40. There Was an Old Lady Who Swallowed Fly Guy (Fly Guy #4) - Tedd Arnold - 32 pages

41. Summer (Sunrise #2) - Karen Kingsbury - 356 pages
42. Hearts of Fire: Eight Women in the Underground Church and Their Stories of Costly Faith - The Voice of the Martyrs - 304 pages
43. Wake Up Happy: The Dream Big, Win Big Guide to Transforming Your Life - Michael Strahan (audio) - 5 hrs 38 min
44. The Kitty Committee: A Novel of Suspense - Kathryn Berla - 234 pages
45. Speak - Laurie Halse Anderson - 198 pages

1124 pages | 5 hours 38 minutes | 3 reviews (sort of)

September

46. The Man in the High Castle - Philip K. Dick (audio) - 9 hrs 58 min
    
47. No Longer a Slumdog: Bringing Hope to Children in Crisis - K.P. Yohannan  - 156 pages
48. The Teacher's Funeral - Richard Peck (audio) - 4 hrs 42 min - (5 stars)

156 pages | 14 hours 40 minutes | 2 reviews

October

49. The Rock, the Road, and the Rabbi: My Journey into the Heart of Scriptural Faith and the Land Where It All Began - Kathie Lee Gifford - 224 pages

50. The Library Book - Susan Orlean - 336 pages - (5 stars)
51. A Long Way From Chicago: A Novel in Stories (A Long Way from Chicago #1) - Richard Peck - 157 pages
52. Vessel - Andrew J. Morgan (audio) - 8 hrs 46 min
53. I'll Never Tell - Catherine McKenzie - 380 pages - (5 stars)

1097 pages | 8 hours 46 minutes | 3 reviews

November

54. Adrift: A True Story of Tragedy on the Icy Atlantic and the One Who Lived to Tell about It - Brian Murphy - 257 pages

55. Ready Player One - Ernest Cline (audio) - 15 hrs 40 min - (5 stars)
56. Thomas Jefferson and the Tripoli Pirates - Brian Kilmeade (audio) - 4 hrs 52 min
57. Night Driving: Notes from a Prodigal Soul - Chad Bird - 160 pages

417 pages | 20 hours 32 minutes | a review for all 4

December

58. Wolves of the Calla (The Dark Tower #5) - Stephen King - 714 pages

59. The Girl in the Spider's Web (Millennium #4) -David Lagercrantz (audio) - 13 hrs 23 min
60. Pagan Christianity?: Exploring the Roots of Our Church Practices - Frank Viola, George Barna - 337 pages
61. The Hate U Give - Angie Thomas - 447 pages - (5 stars)
62. The Tattooist of Auschwitz - Heather Morris - 249 pages
63. Jesus Calling: Enjoying Peace in His Presence - 389 pages

2136 pages | 13 hours 23 minutes | 5 reviews

• Total books - 63 (compare to 36 in 2017 - looks like I just flipped the digits!)
• Total pages - 13,698 (compare to 5180 pages in 2017)
• Total time - 192 hours 13 minutes  (compare to 178 hours 55 minutes in 2017)

Page counts courtesy of Goodreads; audio lengths courtesy of Audible. My reading goal for the year was 50 books, and I met and surpassed it. Feels pretty good, considering I failed to meet my goal last year. I'm not confident enough in my ability to repeat that, though, so I'm shooting for 50 again this year.

I did a better job of writing reviews this year - 43 reviews. Some of them were just a few words, but that's better than nothing, right? Still, there were books that I really meant to review but didn't...

  How many books did you read in 2018?  I'd love to hear some suggestions for my 2019 reading list.  Because my already crazy long and ever-growing TBR list can always use a few more.

*if you happen to click any of the book covers and buy from Amazon, they say they'll pay me a small percentage.  Every little bit helps, and I thank you for your support!