December 30, 2021: What’s on the reading horizon for January, 2022!
Sis sent me the this pic from back in the day. Truth is, if you’d have taken a photo of me at any point in my life, chances are good I’d have been holding a book.
Which makes it downright shameful I won’t be posting a Best of Reads for 2021 since I did little to no reading this year. Previous years have seen me go through over a hundred books but the pandemic – and, specifically, this extended development period – has really quashed my desire to read.
BUT I’m going to (try to) put a change to that in 2022. I’m going to set myself a simple goal of a book a week and aim to target 50 for the year. Once I’m (hopefully) back in the swing of things, I should double that count – however I’m going to start with a modest target. Here’s my short list…
Greenwich Park – Katherine Faulkner (4th)
No And to Light On – Yara Zgheib (4th)
Reckless Girls – Rachel Hawkins (4th)
The Highhouse – Jessie Greengrass (4th)
The Swells – Wil Aiten (4th)
The School for Good Mothers – Jessamine Chan
A Flicker in the Dark – Stacy Willingham (11th)
Battle of there Linguist Mages – Scott Moore (11th)
Deep Dive – Ron Walter (11th)
Mickey 7 – Edward Ashton (15th)
The Good Son – Jacquelyn Mitchard (18th)
Reminders of Him – Colleen Hoover (18th)
Joan is Okay – Weike Wang (18th)
Last Resort – Andrew Lipstein (18th)
Light Years From Home – Mike Chen (18th)
Rod of Bones – Christopher Golden (25th)
The Accomplice – Lisa Lutz (25th)
The Overnight Guest – Heather Gudenkauf (25th)
Dead Silence – S.A. Barnes (25th)
Goliath – Tochi Onyebuchi
The Village – Caroline Mitchell (25th)
The LIar’s Beneath – Heather Powell (27th)
Anything missing? Anything you would recommend? Do tell.
Going back over my reading list for 2021 only to discover I didn’t read anything good enough to recommend to you. I did read some books I liked, but nothing outstanding. You have very high standards. Good to see you getting back to reading though. May we both read books in 2022 that are excellent.
(The best books I read in 2021–by a long shot–were nonfiction. There’s a surprise. Best book: The Only Plane in the Sky – Garret M. Graff. Second Best Book: Midnight in Chernobyl – Adam Higginbotham. And they were both beyond amazing if you feel like venturing out past the realms of fiction.)
I actually do occasionally venture out past the realms of fiction so thanks for the recommendations. Going to concentrate on 2022 releases, but will put these on my back-up list.
I’ve recently enjoyed Andy Weir’s Project Hail Mary and the Personal Librarian by Marie Benedict and Victoria Christopher Murray. The Weir book is a thought provoking science fiction novel about saving Earth from its own population that includes a first contact event while the Benedict Murray novel is a fictionalized take on the life of J.P. Morgan’s personal librarian, a young woman of color who is “passing” as white and moving through the high stakes world of fine art, rare manuscripts and big money. One if it’s most interesting aspects is that Belle deCosta Greene really existed and was librarian for Morgan’s personal library in NYC. I am also re-reading Martin Turnbull’s enjoyable Garden of Allah series about Golden Age Hollywood. Hope this gives you some enjoyable additions for your reading list.
I will be checking out The Personal Librarian for sure. I’d add to the list K.F. Breene’s Chosen and Natural Mage to the list, her books are sarcastic fun and full of exciting battles. I liked Hello Universe and the Shadow and Bone series.
I go through periods in my life where I enjoy doing one specific thing. It can go on for years too. Up until I was about 25, I would go to the library every week or two, exchanging read books for a new bunch of books. Mostly westerns, true life, and scary books. Anything Stephen King.
Then I went through my house plants phase. I’d go to the nursery every couple of weeks. I had beautiful plants in my room at home and at work. They were on my desk and covered all the filing cabinets. My elderly supervisor would complain they were sucking all the oxygen out of the office. I said she should quit smoking and that would help her breathe better. (I mean,… I THOUGHT she should quit smoking to help her breathe better. That was back in the day when you could smoke at work. And this was in a hospital!) After all, plants give off oxygen. They don’t suck it up. (If they did, people would die when they walked into a forest, right?)
Good luck with your 2022 reading schedule. You seem to enjoy it so much and have a very impressive history. Books are a whole new world when you get into them.
My husband found this incredible bookstore online where you can buy books by the pound, & apparently you can narrow it down to specific genres. I’m a little skeptical, because it’d just ruin my month if I got a copy of Atlas Shrugged or… well… any of Ayn Rand’s horrible attempts at writing. But I thought you might get a kick out of this shop while on your book search:
Interesting! Reminds of a restaurant I visited in Tokyo where they charged by weight. There was another one that charged by the amount of time it took to eat. It would be great to find a book shop that sold by how long it took you to read. I would definitely get my money’s worth.
First twenty four pages available to read free in link below.
If you haven’t read it and do decide to check it out, be sure to read the acknowledgements page
so you’ll understand why the story’s recipe hints at Boy And His Dog in the flavoring.
Haven’t aged a day!
Going back over my reading list for 2021 only to discover I didn’t read anything good enough to recommend to you. I did read some books I liked, but nothing outstanding. You have very high standards. Good to see you getting back to reading though. May we both read books in 2022 that are excellent.
(The best books I read in 2021–by a long shot–were nonfiction. There’s a surprise. Best book: The Only Plane in the Sky – Garret M. Graff. Second Best Book: Midnight in Chernobyl – Adam Higginbotham. And they were both beyond amazing if you feel like venturing out past the realms of fiction.)
I actually do occasionally venture out past the realms of fiction so thanks for the recommendations. Going to concentrate on 2022 releases, but will put these on my back-up list.
I’ve recently enjoyed Andy Weir’s Project Hail Mary and the Personal Librarian by Marie Benedict and Victoria Christopher Murray. The Weir book is a thought provoking science fiction novel about saving Earth from its own population that includes a first contact event while the Benedict Murray novel is a fictionalized take on the life of J.P. Morgan’s personal librarian, a young woman of color who is “passing” as white and moving through the high stakes world of fine art, rare manuscripts and big money. One if it’s most interesting aspects is that Belle deCosta Greene really existed and was librarian for Morgan’s personal library in NYC. I am also re-reading Martin Turnbull’s enjoyable Garden of Allah series about Golden Age Hollywood. Hope this gives you some enjoyable additions for your reading list.
I will be checking out The Personal Librarian for sure. I’d add to the list K.F. Breene’s Chosen and Natural Mage to the list, her books are sarcastic fun and full of exciting battles. I liked Hello Universe and the Shadow and Bone series.
I’ve just added Breene to my current queue. I’m always up for good sarcasm!
I go through periods in my life where I enjoy doing one specific thing. It can go on for years too. Up until I was about 25, I would go to the library every week or two, exchanging read books for a new bunch of books. Mostly westerns, true life, and scary books. Anything Stephen King.
Then I went through my house plants phase. I’d go to the nursery every couple of weeks. I had beautiful plants in my room at home and at work. They were on my desk and covered all the filing cabinets. My elderly supervisor would complain they were sucking all the oxygen out of the office. I said she should quit smoking and that would help her breathe better. (I mean,… I THOUGHT she should quit smoking to help her breathe better. That was back in the day when you could smoke at work. And this was in a hospital!) After all, plants give off oxygen. They don’t suck it up. (If they did, people would die when they walked into a forest, right?)
Good luck with your 2022 reading schedule. You seem to enjoy it so much and have a very impressive history. Books are a whole new world when you get into them.
If Patrick Rothfuss puts out the third book in his Kingkiller Chronicle this year that will be worth a read. The first two are excellent.
My husband found this incredible bookstore online where you can buy books by the pound, & apparently you can narrow it down to specific genres. I’m a little skeptical, because it’d just ruin my month if I got a copy of Atlas Shrugged or… well… any of Ayn Rand’s horrible attempts at writing. But I thought you might get a kick out of this shop while on your book search:
https://www.etsy.com/shop/NeverlandBooksUS?ref=simple-shop-header-name&listing_id=1115695019
May 2022 bring you green-lit projects with enough time for you to refresh your mind & imagination with the written word. 💕
Interesting! Reminds of a restaurant I visited in Tokyo where they charged by weight. There was another one that charged by the amount of time it took to eat. It would be great to find a book shop that sold by how long it took you to read. I would definitely get my money’s worth.
The restaurant charged by weight? Food weight I hope and not the diner’s weight? If by diner’s weight, I’d be broke after the first visit! 🙂
Have you read Cargill’s Day Zero?
It’s a prequel piece to Sea Of Rust.
First twenty four pages available to read free in link below.
If you haven’t read it and do decide to check it out, be sure to read the acknowledgements page
so you’ll understand why the story’s recipe hints at Boy And His Dog in the flavoring.
https://books.google.nl/books/about/Day_Zero.html?id=HxciDgAAQBAJ&printsec=frontcover&source=kp_read_button&hl=en&redir_esc=y#v=onepage&q&f=false
Loved Sea of Rust.