The end of 2022 got away from me a bit, as the holidays, work stuff, and reaching my reading goal were taking up most of my mental capacity. I’ve also not posted about certain books due to the HarperCollins strike (check @hcpunion for updates, they’re on day 44 of the strike) to support the workers who are on strike.
The new year is here though and this means looking back on my reading from last year and setting my reading goals for this year. Yes, I know this is 7 days after January 1, but it’s still January so it’s fine.
2022 Reading Stats
Reading Goal was 100 books, I ended up reading 101
36,647 pages
Average Rating 3.81 out of 5 Stars
My Top 3 Moods: Mysterious, Dark, Lighthearted
The genres I spent the most time with in 2022: Young Adult, LGBTQIA+, Contemporary, Romance, & Historical
My 5 Star Reads:
Best Book You Read In 2022? Ugh!! It’s probably a tie between Belladonna and Tomorrow and Tomorrow and Tomorrow. Both are books that have been on my mind since I closed them and just haven’t left. For Belladonna, it’s such an interesting take on Death and Signa was a fascinating character. I loved all the gothic aspects of the book and cannot wait for the sequel. Tomorrow and Tomorrow and Tomorrow completely wrecked me, but it was such a beautiful and haunting book about friendships and love and how that affects so many aspects of a person’s life.
Book You Were Excited About & Thought You Were Going To Love More But Didn’t? This is definitely got to be Husband Material. I absolutely loved, loved, loved Boyfriend Material and was so excited to learn there would be a sequel. But so much of the arguments that Luc and Oliver had in the sequel felt shoehorned in and kept beating a dead horse. Yes, they are different people but that doesn’t mean they’re incompatible. I would’ve loved the novel more if they stopped having the same argument over and over.
Most surprising (in a good way or bad way) book you read? Book Lovers by Emily Henry. I was so, so, so happy when Nora and Charlie not only ended up together but also moved back to the city because that’s what they loved. I was also happy that Charlie told her to go back to New York because he knew Nora so well that she would’ve hated staying in Sunshine Falls, NC.
Favorite new author you discovered in 2021? OLIVIA DADE!!! I am here for fat positivity and fat people having happy endings!
Book You Read In 2022 That You Would Be MOST Likely To Re-Read in 2023? Belladonna by Adalyn Grace
Favorite cover of a book you read in 2022? The Honeys by Ryan La Sala
Most memorable character of 2022? Death from Belladonna
Most beautifully written book read in 2022? The Many Daughters of Afong Moy by Jamie Ford
Most thought-provoking/life-changing book of 2021? Tomorrow and Tomorrow and Tomorrow by Gabrielle Zevin
Favorite passage/quote from a book you read in 2021? Yea…I’m so choosing more than one quote.
“As I reread it for a final time, it occurred to me that we are all unreliable narrators of our own lives, crafting stories about ourselves that omit unsavory truths & highlight our invented realities.” The Mystery of Mrs. Christie by Marie Benedict
“They might need us now because we’re valuable, might pretend to accept us, to reward us-but never forget what they did to us first. If they did it once, Deka, they’ll surely do it again, no matter the flowery promises they give.” The Gilded Ones by Namina Forna
“The world is not a safe place for us. There are cartographers who came and made a map of the world as they saw it. They did not leave a place for us to write our names on that map. But here we are, we’re in it, this world that does not want us, a world that will never love us, a world that would choose to destroy us rather than make a space for us even though there is more than enough room.” Aristotle and Dante Dive into the Waters of the World by Benjamin Alire Saenz
“Maps were love letters written to times and places their makers had explored. They did not control the territory-they told its stories.” The Cartographers by Peng Shepherd
“It was not a map that made a place real. It was the people.” The Cartographers by Peng Shepherd
“Because I was a woman, they wanted to silence the screams on my lips and stifle the breath in my lungs. But I couldn’t stay quiet. I couldn’t pretend to be modest or purse or good. No. I was a woman and I couldn’t speak with the voice of a man, because it was not my voice-not true and not my own. But there was more to it than that. By writing in a woman’s voice I wanted to say that a woman, too, is a human being. To say that we, too, have the right to breathe, to cry out, and to sing.” Song of a Captive Bird by Jasmin Darznik
“There’s good in it too…I am the first person people see when they draw their last breath. I am the messenger who can deliver them to those they’ve missed. I am the one who assures them not to worry, or who delivers a swift death to those who are not welcome into the afterlife. I am many things, but what I am not is ashamed.” Belladonna by Adalyn Grace
OTP of the Year? Alex Woodroe and Lauren Clegg from All the Feels by Olivia Dade
Favorite non-romantic relationship of the year? Nora, June, and Alex from Red, White, and Royal Blue
Favorite book you read in 2021 from an author you’ve read previously? Tomorrow and Tomorrow and Tomorrow by Gabrielle Zevin
Newest fictional crush from a book you read in 2021? Deka (The Gilded Ones), Signa (Belladonna), April (Spoiler Alert)
Book that put a smile on your face or was the most fun to read? Dial A for Aunties by Jesse Q. Sutanto
Book that made you cry or nearly cry in 2021? The First to Die at the End by Adam Silvera
Hidden gem of the year? If You Could See the Sun by Ann Liang
Book that crushed your soul? Tomorrow and Tomorrow and Tomorrow by Gabrielle Zevin
Most unique book you read in 2021? The Honeys by Ryan La Sala
Book that Made you the most mad? The Woman in the Library by Sulari Gentill I’m still trying to figure out what I read and was so pissed when I finished the book!!
Happy Reading Darlings!
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