2022. let's read!! goal is 100. actually, goal is to update this list more often than every two or three months.
i am starting the year already reading
1. the next wife by kaira rouda ... suspense .... psychological intrigue .... a drama of three women, the first wife, her daughter, and the next wife.
2. such a fun age by kiley reid for thursday book club ... a babysitter, the employer/mom, race, the connection between the two..... EXCELLENT for book club discussion
3. trophic cascade, poetry by camille t. dungy, a gift from julia
4. still-life with god by cynthia atkins, a poetry book gift from julia with MAYBE the very best title ever. as an artist and a prayer i wish i had thought it up!!! haha.
5. mr. churchill's secretary by susan ella macneal.... for church lady tuesday book club... great historical fiction ..... i love a book about a smart woman.
6. the penelopaid by margaret atwood ... i did not know that atwood has written so many books. i'd never heard of this one but was looking for greek mythology fiction ... and this was the most enticing since it is written by her. excellent retelling of the end of the odyssey form penelope's point of view.
7. love overboard by janet evanovich. .... not part of her stephanie plum series ... but cute and fun and light easy reading.
8. the housekeeper and the professor by yoko ogawa... for wednesday book club ... i listened to it. the narrator was fantastic. the story was even better. truly a beautiful book.
9. decluttering at the speed of life by dana white. i got this at the audible books dollar sale .... and really found it quite good. def worth more money than i paid for it. a worthwhile listen as i cleaned my closet ... giving me grand aspirations to get some other decluttering done (i'm looking at you art studio and uninhabited children's rooms)
10. the event by nathan hystad.... whoa. great book. apocalyptic sci fi end of the world but maybe we can save it book. thoroughly enjoyed it and recommend if this sort of thing is your usual. questions to remind me about this book when i can't remember it in december ... do you really know who you are married to? in a movie, would the space ships look like the borg box? machu picchu and aliens, explains a lot, huh?
11. everything my mother taught me by Alice hoffman ..... i saw it on audible on sale and had never heard of it .... a sweet, sad, short story (that i'm putting down as a book cause i don't have a short story list. haha... and it wasn't THAT short. )
12. magic lost, trouble found by lisa shearin ... raine is a sorceress ... the ogres are pretty bad .... a magical amulet ... good friends... solid YA story.
13. athena's child by hannah lynn .... greek mythology fiction .... medusa!
14. the maid by nita prose ... book club psychological thriller ..... or psycho drama...... molly the maid has some serious struggles!
15. fear by thich nhat hanh .... i listened to this. loved it. so soothing and thought provoking and just so much goodness.
16. the afterlife of walter augustus by hannah lynn .... great story. read this because it is the same author as 13. athena's child. totally different genre, and really, much more main stream... i thought it was super.
17. the likely resolutions of oliver clock by jane riley. works in a funeral home. talks embalming and dead people. socially awkward. good story.
18. no one is talking about this by patricia lockwood... for two book clubs ... i chose it ... award winner ... super weird ... very good ... lots of discussion points. i like experimental fiction a ton .... some in my book club hate it.
19. behold the dreamers by imbolo mbue ... i reread this for a book club .... great book ... a lot to learn about the immigrant experience
20. long story short by margot leitman ... book on story telling by a comic .... craft book for me ... hope i'm learning stuff!
21. blanket of stars, thru hiking the camino de santiago by cw Lockhart ... a memoir ... giving me hints on what walking the camino might be like.
22. the promised land by elizabeth musser ... a fiction book about a marriage falling apart and the wife hiking the camino .... more hints of what i can expect when i hike the camino
23. fear by thich nhat hanh ..... more buddhist reading for me....
24 .the library of the unwritten by a j hackwith ... fantasy .... unwritten books stored away .... main characters escaping ... the librarian having to chase them down ... fun.
25..gender queer: a memoir by maia kobabe. an EXCELLENT graphic novel. i really want to read more graphic novels. this one reminds me why i love them.
26..love that dog by sharon creech. a verse novel. a poetry novel. i am doing a self designed study of all the poetry novels i can get my hands on. this one is for kids and i LOVED it so much i read it twice. i have things to learn.
27...keep walking, your heart will catch up: a camino de santiago journey by cathay o. reta ... i am going to walk part of the camino ... so i'm reading to learn ... and to feel all the anticipatory feels!
28...i'm off then: losing and finding myself on the camino by hope kerkeling. every camino book is so different. i wonder what my camino journey will be like?
29...live your best story. 365 ways to ponder your days. by mary anne em radmacher ..... i haven't finished this book but i have been reading it a bit at a time and want to make sure it is on this list!! em is a friend of mine, an amazing writer, and a colorful soul. i'm even quoted in the introduction!
30...the comfort book by matt haig. i saw it and bought one for me and one for roberta. and i now think it is an excellent gift sort of book. roberta likes it too. i've read some of haig's novels and this is non fiction essays of comfort. he is an excellent writer.
31...star fish by lisa flipps. a YA novel in verse ... a poetry novel. just a lovely story. i adore the main character.
32...the pilgrimage by paulo coehlo .... more mysterious than i thought it would be .. not really what my pilgrimage will be like, even though i'm walking part of this same path. well worth reading !
33...a town called solace by mary Lawson for wedn book club... .three sad characters with lives intertwining .... very good.
34...station eleven by emily st. john mandel.... i watched the netflix series with my brother raymond ... and like it ... and then i read the book and just get it so much better. the books are always better!
35..lost and found by orson scott card
and
36...duplex by orson scott card. i always like his books. this is probs. YA lit .... kids with micropowers, instead of super powers.
i really loved ^ these two OSC books... and just looked up his whole bibliography expect more!
37... the age of miracles. by karen thompson walker .... is a reread for me... maybe read it three or five or who knows how long ago... but i've been thinking about apocalyptic sorts of books lately and wanted to remember this better. i like it just as well the second go. days have grown longer and gravity is stronger.
38... the scarlet plague by jack london.... a novella ... an old timer telling his grandkids what the world used to be like before the plague.
39. malibu rising by Taylor Jenkins Reid .... family of four kids ... estranged dad .... back and forth between growing up surfing and present day ..... family drama. liked it.
40. the likely resolutions of oliver clock by jane riley ... bitter sweet .... funeral home guy loses the women he thinks he loves but he never told her. very dear.
WARNING . darn. i went months without writing down what i've read this year..... and now i'm piecing it together with my kindle, my chirps, my libby, my audible app and the books scattered through the house, and going back through text messages from my book clubs. ugh. my executive function skills have apparently taken a hit. i'm sure i'll have read more than 100 books this year. i'm also sure i won't have them all written down. oh well.
41. i'm off then: losing and finding myself on the camino de santiago by hope kerkeling. yes! i walked a portion of the camino and loved it more having read other accounts of it.
42. live your best story: 365 ways to ponder your days. by em radmacher .... a friend of mine ... i'm quoted in it..... i skimmed it all ... but now will read it day by day again. lovely. smart. thought provoking.
43. calypso by dave sedaris. quirky, funny weird. i like the author's voice.
44. love overboard by janet evanovich .... always like this author. light, breezy, funny.
45. magic of found objects by maddie dawson
46. crying in the h mart by michelle zauner...w. book club book ... and then my pottery class read it too. really excellent. sad too though.
47.magic bitter, magic sweet by charlie holmberg
same author as the paper magician .... maire is a baker .... has magic but doesn't know where she comes from.
48. gild by raven kennedy .... the king midas story .... reimagined .... a little twisted? very dark. too dark for me to read the rest of the series.
49. first comes scandal by julia quinn
a bridgerton prequel about the rokesby family ....best friends marry to save her reputation .... happily ever after like just what you want from julia quinn
50. the girl with the make believe husband julia quinn
bridgeton prequel
cecilia travels to the states
51.the girl who fell beneath the sea by axie oh
a beautiful retelling of a korean folk tale ... entirely new to me .... quite beautifully written ... mina is sacrificed to the sea. sort of.
52. diy mfa by gabriela pereira.... quick look through. need to read gain slowly to make myself smarter.
53. mary jane by jessica anya blau
AWESOME. might well be a favorite book this year if not THE favorite. mary jane is a kid in the 70s with uptight
54. the rule of one by ashley saunders, leslie saunders
55. the rule of many
56. the rule of all
57. the southern book club’s guide to slaying vampires by grady hendrix ... goofy book club .... not good enough to be read by a book club, but perfectly entertaining.
58. one by sarah crossan ...a verse novel that i've read at least four times this year. for book clubs. because i love it. because it was going with me places so that i could absorb its goodness.
chandelle lavaun
this author has a whole world and two dozen books in it. witches. i enjoy her characters and the world she has created. it is not great literature but i have no complaints. i love the and now rereading some of them because life is hard and i'm looking for easy .... great, easy witch books for me.
SUMMER READING FRENZY
59-66.....the coven elemental magic books, setting up the stories.... world building.
the chosen witch
the lost witch
the brave witch
the rebel witch
the broken witch
the eternal witch
the aether witch
the fire witch
67-71.... the coven: academy magic .... a different part of the world ... new characters and cards introduced.
the hidden witch
the fallen witch
the wild witch
the frozen witch
the secret witch
72. all's well by mona awad ... tues. book club for august.
quirky weird fun retelling of all's well that ends well..... oddball but great. (i like oddball)
73. blessed are the weird by jacob corby. .... i want to be a poet. or i am a poet. and a painter. and a potter. and this line is gold to me: The only success now is living and creating a work-of-art life....which i am trying to do with actual works of art.
74-77... the coven: fae magic... i reread the first three to read the fourth, the death witch.
the rogue witch
the cursed witch
the rotten witch
the death witch (8/2022 release)
78. the rose witch ... by chandelle lavaun (who i have totally over read but it's like candy ... or potato chips ... just one more) ... so this one seems like a stand alone ... it fits with all the others but doesn't appear to be part of a series ... though maybe it is the first of something. i should research this but don't need to since amazon emails me when this author has a new book out. haha.
79 the sunshine sisters by jane green
not much sunshine for these sisters ... their mom is hollywood famous ... and terrible .... and alienated them all..... it was a good listen though .....
80. the cleansing by sam kates..... post apocalyptic... which i love .... the end times come from people not from a meteor or something expected...... i really did like it ... but found it to harrowing to read the next two in the series. does them mean i'm outgrowing post apocalyptic ?
81. the mermaid's daughter by ann claycomb... wow. a retelling of the little mermaid. mysterious and excellent. way more believable than disney pulled off. haha
82. my name is lucy barton by elizabeth strout. excellent. really great. gosh families can be hard. this mother and daughter didn't speak for years ... unraveling that around a hospital illness.
83. the last unicorn. by peter beagle. somewhere i read that this is the best fantasy book ever. EVER. and that we should all read it and love it and buy extras to give as gifts to those that we love and that we want to understand the goodness of it. so, i loved it. but no, i'm not gifting it to everyone. it is quirky and i imagine not everyone will want to read it. but if you like fantasy, you should.
84.verity ... by colleen hoover ... my book club was talking about it ... and then i forgot that ... and then i got a sale email about it so i looked at it... and it has more than 150K reviews. which is absurd ... since i've been reading things about publishing which say things like 99% of all books published don't sell more than 100 books .... i made those specifics up, but it is some astonishing stat like that. so if ten percent write reviews (again, making stuff up, i have no idea what percent writes reviews) then millions have read the book. that said. it was a compelling book. fast, fun, hold your attention. not literature. but a great read. creepy psycho thriller.
. 85. reasons to live by amy hempel.... i read this for a writing group.... it is beautiful.... it is more literary than i usually read .... it made me wonder about the writer and her lyricism and the sparseness of her writing ... i have no sparseness in my writing! haha
86. citizen by claudine rankin ..... i chose this because it is non standard.... i'm sure there is a more literary word ... experimental? not sure .... anyway. i loved it. it was like reading art.
87. bird by bird by anne lamott .... this has been my bedside book for a long while ..... i just finished it after many weeks/months (cause i also have a kindle by the bed) .... this is my third or fourth time reading it and i think i get something different from it every time.
88. the unlikely pilgrimage of harold fry by rachel joyce. reminded me of the man called ove. i liked it. quickly old guy on a mission to sort out unfinished business.
89. the haunting of hill house by shirley jackson.... a creepy book from the 50s or 60s for Thursday bookclub. read it for halloween. creepy. reminded me some of the much newer book, mexican gothic.
90. this time tomorrow by emma straub.
so. read this book without reading about it. just go read it. don't read the amazon blurb first. there are lots of books that i think are better when you go in with no knowing, no expectation. i try to buy my book club books without knowing about them. i did it with this.... and then was so happily surprised by the surprise. it was a charming book with a lot of what ifs.
91. the book of the unnamed midwife. by meg ellison. oh wow. i really loved this. post apocalyptic.... more men than women make it through the pandemic .... but no many of anyone..... life is completely altered. i just thought it was great worldbuiling .... well.... telling us what the remnant of our world looks and feels like .... and the main character was just a star. not like a hero doing fab things ... but a tired woman bent on surviving and helping other women. really great. part of a series but i haven't read the next ones.
92. maybe you should talk to someone by lori gottlieb. i loved this. a therapist talking to her therapist .... it was complex and nuanced and funny and touching. really great.
93. across that bridge by john lewis.... there's a sunday school class at church for this book. i've only been once but finally finished the book .... other people go to every sunday school class and haven't read the book. so it goes. john lewis was an amazing human. i'm not sure i've ever had the opportunity to be brave in the way that he was brave all the time.
94. the girls in the stilt house by kelly mustian .... for thursday book club in november. historical fiction in the bayou .... young women making it through their lives in spite of the hideous men. had a crawdad feel too it.
(speaking of crawdad feel:)
where the crawdads sing by delia owens.... i watched the movie on a plane flight and LOVED it ... and i never love movies from books .... so that made me reread the book ... not sure how many years ago i read it .... i know i liked it then ..... making it interesting that i loved the movie ..... but i think the story was perfect for a movie .... and more convoluted for a book. i also loved the actors which of course made me overlook some of the things about the characters that weren't as great ....
anyway, still a good book..... with a well done movie.
95. seventh son by orson scott card. oh! i loved this. i love orson scott card ... and i love the guy who narrates his book (i don't think it OSC himself) ... this was like a fantasy/us history mash up. really excellent. i loved the characters. i think there are more in the series. i need to research that .... and will read them.
96. book of etta (midwife post apocalyptic book 2) .... the book of the last midwife is a couple up from here ..... lately, since i'm doing a lot of writing, i read differently, thinking about the author instead of just being absorbed in the story .... this author, meg ellison, is so creative. i can't imagine how she thought this world up. really well done. smart, compelling book.
97. the trees witness everything. by victoria chang.... poetry. lots of serious sad poetry. it is so interesting that sad can be so beautiful.
98. the listening skin by glenis redmond. i met glenis at LIAV camp when she was a guest poet... the first time she was there i just listened. the second time, i made her talk to me! haha. this book is so clearly her voice that it feels like memoir. well done!
99. the anatomy of a story by john truby. a writing craft book that was WAY too long for me. it took me ages to finish it reading just a bit each week. however. it felt smart. i learned stuff. so that's good.
100. mr potato head vs. mr freud. by clint mccown. haha. what a great title for a book. another craft book. more readable than the one above....... lots of these how to write books repeat each other ... and you just have to find the one or ones that speak to you. this one was good. i'll likely go through it again.
101. save the cat writes a novel. by jessica brody ..... "the last book on novel writing that you'll ever need" ... not at the rate i'm going .... i spend a lot of time reading how to write. fingers crossed it is helping. this one is good. it super simplifies its ideas.
102. how to write a novel in 20 pies by amy wallen. i love pies! i love writing! clever book. full of recipes and writing tips.
103. art matters by neil gaiman. i love this book. love. the art and the words and the message and the whole lovely combination.
104 comfort and joy by kristin hannah ..... i like her other books so i chose this for a december book club ... a xmas book.... then BOTH other book clubs wanted books for december, and looky there! for the first time ever, all three book clubs are reading the same book in the same month. i feel so tricky... AND i liked the book.
105. the reading list by sara nisha adams...... i listened to it .... quirky characters and premise. cute book.
106. OMG dances with wolves by michael blake. how on earth did i not know that the movie i have seen 20+ times is a novel?? and now i've solved that by reading it. thank goodness.
and
107. the whole reason i found out that dances with wolves was a book was because i read there was a sequel: the holy road by michael blake follows stands with a fist.
i feel cheated from 20 years of not knowing these books existed.
108. succulent wild women by SARK .... beautiful book with kind thoughts and advice and wonderings. i have friends who should read every single SARK book and cut themselves some slack.
109. ready, set, wow! by robbie hanson who IS MY FRIEND. i'm so lucky to know him.... and i feel so proud that he can write such a joyful business book.
110. shuna's journey by hayao miyazaki .... i saw it in a book store and it was BEAUTIFUL.... a graphic novel.... and then i realized it was to be read BACK TO FRONT since it was first printed in japan. so the english translation is still back to front. so cool. beautiful story. LOVE.
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