I cannot believe we are here, at the end of 2022. A few weeks ago my book club met for December and did our annual book swap, which is one of my favorite things of the year!
If you follow me on Instagram, you know that I’ve blown through some books this year. I love posting my thoughts and reviews and it’s so fun to hear when someone says they read something based on one of my posts. And by that, I mean two people have told me that and it was fun to hear #notaninfluencer. So, I thought I’d create one central place for all of the books I read in 2022, along with my star rating for the two other people who might be interested!
Here is the final count — 52 books in 2022! That’s an average of one per week. As I’ve said before, I do kind of a hybrid of listening and reading, when possible. I never pay for a book twice, but often I can find at least a free audio version from the library on Libby or Hoopla. I’ll listen when I’m driving and then read when I’m home. I know some people don’t count audiobooks as reading, but I’m able to consume so much more content when I do this hybrid version, and to me that’s more important.
Let’s start with the lowest stars…
Two ⭐️
I only had one book that I have two stars this year, Circe by Madeline Miller. This was a book club pick and I really wanted to like it. But I just couldn’t connect with it. I kept wait for it to be over, but it’s quite long. Here’s the review I gave it at the time…
“Book 17 of 2022 :: Circe ⭐️⭐️ Okay, so this is probably an unpopular opinion based on the number of stars this book received everywhere, but I did not like this book. It was a page turner just so I could finish.
This was a book club book, so it was very outside of my genre wheelhouse. But that’s what book club is for, right? However, I felt like you really needed to have a pretty in-depth knowledge of Greek mythology going into reading this (which I don’t), so I found myself reading a glossary multiple times that the author has on her website.
Either way, it should be an interesting discussion for June’s book club get together!”
Three ⭐️
Almost Everything by Anne Lamott
Cold Tangerines by Shauna Niequist
Magic Hour by Kristin Hannah
Greenlights by Matthew McConaughey
Our Last Days in Barcelona by Chanel Cleeton
Clean Getaway by Nic Stone
Run Rose Run by Dolly Parton and James Patterson
Still Life by Louise Penny
The Lost Summers of Newport by Beatriz Williams, Lauren Willig, and Karen White
The Singles Game by Lauren Weisberger
The Terminal List by Jack Carr
A Man Called Ove by Fredrik Backman
A Horse and His Boy by C.S. Lewis
Four ⭐️
On the way to Christmas by Sheila Roberts, Melissa Ferguson, and Amy Clipston
Carrie Soto is Back by Taylor Jenkins Reid
The Office BFFs by Jenna Fischer and Angela Kinsey
The Maid by Nita Prose
Beneath the Scarlet Sky by Mark Sullivan
Meet Kit by Valerie Tripp
This Time Tomorrow by Emma Straub
Something Wilder by Christina Lauren
The Paris Apartment by Lucy Foley
The Judge’s List by John Grisham
I Am Pilgrim by Terry Hayes
Everything Sad is Untrue by Daniel Nayeri
Beezus and Ramona by Beverly Cleary
The Summer House by Lauren K. Denton
After I Do by Taylor Jenkins Reid
That Sounds Fun by Annie F. Downs
The Ten Thousand Doors of January by Alix E. Harrow
The Silent Patient by Alex Michaelides
Reckless Girls by Rachel Hawkins
Golden Girl by Elin Hilderbrand
Will by Will Smith
Five ⭐️
Lessons in Chemistry by Bonnie Garmus
Bomb Shelter by Mary Laura Philpott
The Bodyguard by Katherine Center
The Last Mrs. Parrish by Liv Constantine
The Hotel Nantucket by Elin Hilderbrand
I Guess I Haven’t Learned that Yet by Shauna Niequist
Every Summer After by Carley Fortune
The Love Hypothesis by Ali Hazelwood
Book Lovers by Emily Henry
Bread & Wine by Shauna Niequist
Gentle & Lowly by Dane C. Ortlund
The Things We Cannot Say by Kelly Rimmer
Once Upon a Wardrobe by Patti Callahan
Redeeming Love by Francine Rivers
The House Across the Lake by Riley Sager
Favorites
Favorite historical fiction
Once Upon a Wardrobe by Patti Callahan
The Things We Cannot Say by Kelly Rimmer
Favorite Romance/popular fiction
Every Summer After by Carley Fortune
Lessons in Chemistry by Bonnie Garmus
The Bodyguard by Katherine Center
Favorite Memoir
Bomb Shelter by Mary Laura Philpott
I Guess I Haven’t Learned that Yet by Shauna Niequist
Favorite mystery
The House Across the Lake by Riley Sager
The Last Mrs. Parrish by Liv Constantine
Overall, it was a great year in reading. I loved so many of the books I read and cannot wait to dive into new books next year!
Speaking of next year, I’m going to try something new for the first 3 months. I’m going to try to read a popular/new(ish) book, a nonfiction, and a classic each month. We’ll see how it goes, but I love the idea of going back to read or reread some classic books. I always lean toward fiction, so building some nonfiction in sounds fun as well.
If you’re looking to read more in 2023, here are a few suggestions…
Start a Goodreads account. Basically, it’s an app/website where you can hold all of the books you’ve read, what you want to read, and what you’re reading in one place. There’s also a social media-ish element where you can see what friends recommend and are reading.
Find a quaint local bookstore. One of my favorite places in Birmingham is Little Professor. I absolutely adore it. It’s so quaint, there’s always coffee, there’s a fantastic selection, but it’s small and locally owned so the employees really love to read and have great suggestions! I’m sure there are lots of bookstores like this around the country, but if you’re in the Birmingham area, start making Little Professor a place you frequent. I also get all gifts there for kiddos because they wrap!
Modern Mrs. Darcy (aka Anne Bogel) has a reading diary called My Reading Life. I cannot speak from experience on this, but I did buy this for my 2023 reading. I’ve found that as I’m consuming so many books, some books with similarities start to run together and I have trouble remember what I liked or disliked about them. I’m hoping this will help me to slow down a bit and jot some thoughts down as I’m reading this year.
This feels like a weird suggestion, but you can always follow me on Instagram and read my reviews. I use the hashtag #jesslikesbooks if you want to see past reviews, and I’ve got at least three years of saved highlights of books I’ve read and their reviews.
Join (or start) a book club! Listen, this is a whole other post, but I accidentally started a book club in my. neighborhood about 18 months ago and it’s been something wonderful to help me get out of my reading comfort zone. Here is a list of all the books we’ve read and the genres we started keeping to in late 2022 (disregard genres for books in 2021 and half of 2022). You can follow along with us or you can do your own thing. If you need tips on starting a club, let me know! I’m no expert, but we’ve lasted for a year and a half, so something is going well.
Okay, until next year…
