Showing posts with label favorite reads. Show all posts
Showing posts with label favorite reads. Show all posts
Tuesday, December 31, 2024
Saturday, December 30, 2023
Tuesday, December 27, 2022
Favorite reads of 2022
Annual favorite reads post - recall that a) favorite read does not equal best or highest rated b) I would rather die with books unread than be scrounging for things to read so please let me know what made your list this year.
Jana and I cut Show Us Your Books in June, and it was a good long run but after all these years, there is much freedom in not working around the second Tuesday of every month. Yet here I am on the last Tuesday of the year with the favorite reads just like I've been for the past eight years. Hard habits to break sometimes.
As of today I've read 139 books this year from what I can tell - sometimes I forget to add to GoodReads or I add it after reading and the dates fuck up or short stories are included and they shouldn't be IMO but I have not shelved them otherwise. Alas the world is an imperfect place and I am an imperfect person and who really cares the particulars of how many books I've read? You can always see what I'm reading in real time by following me on Goodreads. I think this link takes you to my year in books which I always like to look over. All of my book posts live here. All book title links below take you to Goodreads.
Here are my favorite reads of 2022, all book title links below take you to Goodreads:
Ejaculate Responsibly: A Whole New Way to Think About Abortion by Gabrielle Stanley Blair - This should be required reading for ALL people.
Perennial favorite list makers are my dependable series books, the below had new releases this year:
- The Josie Quinn series by Lisa Regan who I was thrilled to meet at a local bookstore this year
- Two new Alex Delaware novels by Jonathan Kellerman, the second of which I finished last night
-The Kate Burkholder series by Linda Castillo
-The Tracy Crosswhite Series by Robert Dugoni
What books made your favorite reads list this year?
Thursday, December 30, 2021
Show Us Your Books: 12 Favorite Reads of 2021
I love when people share their favorite reads of the year. I almost always find something to immediately add to my very long to be read list. I would rather die with books unread than be pawing around for something to read at any time, so keep sharing books you love. I'm going to do that in a different way this year, not saying a damn thing about why I liked them. I'm just listing them and you can do with that what you will. My dog died three days ago and this is what I have the bandwidth for.
As of today I've read 143 books this year - 142 published plus one Beta read for Shelby. You can always see what I'm reading in real time by following me on Goodreads.. I think this link takes you to my year in books which I always like to look over. Yet another year with no cool diagrams like some people share and I always say I will make happen and alas I do not.
You can go to this page where all of the original SUYB posts live in one place - the read in MONTH below means the book is in that month's SUYB post, maybe not read in that actual month since they don't go by calendar months. Out of 143 books, here are my 12 favorite reads for the year:
Detransition, Baby by Torrey Peters - read in January
Circe by Madeline Miller - read in February
The Last Thing He Told Me by Laura Dave - read in May
We Begin at the End by Chris Whitaker - read in May
The Nature of Fragile Things by Susan Meissner - read in July
Mary Jane by Jessica Anya Blau - read in July
The Paper Palace by Miranda Cowley Heller - read in September
Once There Were Wolves by Charlotte McConaughy - read in September
Everything We Didn't Say by Nicole Baart - read in November
Sankofa by Chibundu Onuzo - read in November
Wish You Were Here by Jodi Picoult - read in December
No One Will Miss Her by Kat Rosenfield - read in December
Important ALSO: I read #s 11, 12, and 13 in the Josie Quinn series by Lisa Regan this year, the first in a new series by Harlan Coben about one of the Myron Bolitar series characters (Win), and the 13th in the Kate Burkholder series by Linda Castillo and they were all great. I depend on series books and they don't usually make my year end lists.
Happy birthday to Angie today!
Linkup Guidelines:
Favorite Reads Link Up will be open until 1/9/2022 - please check back for later linker uppers!
Favorite Reads Link Up will be open until 1/9/2022 - please check back for later linker uppers!
1. Visit and comment with both of your hosts, Jana & me, and check in with as many in our reading circle as you can - give some love to the later linker uppers!
2. Link back to us in your blog post - if you want the button you can get it from that link
3. The next regular Show Us Your Books linkup is Tuesday, January 11, 2022
Tuesday, December 29, 2020
Show Us Your Books: 15 Favorite Reads of 2020
Welcome to favorite reads of 2020! This linkup is a favorite every year. I definitely pick up about five books I missed throughout the year or that didn’t sound good to me the first time someone mentioned them lol. So make sure you read through everyone’s lists!
I’ve written ad nauseam at this point about how different this year was for me in regards to reading - how I lost the ability to lose myself in a book for much of a year due to lack of focus, how what held my attention was so different than it would be in other years. I just want to crawl out of this year and into the next, with the full knowledge that very little will change at the turn of the year, like any other year. But I have hope that I will consistently sink into books again without having to have the exact right chemistry of mood, world temperature of the day, a consistent return of focus, and the right book to capture my attention.
You can see my favorite reads of 2019 here. In the numbers compared to other years- I am at 112 books read (will probably add another). 163 around this time in 2019, 137 in 2018, 157 in 2017, 124 in 2016, and 104 in 2015. Even though it seems like it, I’m not far off of what I usually read some years. The feeling of it is hugely different most of the time and the number of books is arbitrary and not important to me. The ease of getting lost in a book is and I want it back. As a matter of housekeeping the next regular Show Us Your Books linkup is Tuesday, January 12, 2021.
I'm surprised to reach the end of this year and find I had more than three favorite reads. That's the kind of year it was. Would all of these have made the list in other, regular years? Probably not. I did not include some excellent books that I read this year - books that I recognize as important (Hood Feminism or Untamed) or truly well done (Valentine, Blacktop Wasteland), but were unable to capture me completely. I had to truly sink into the book and forget about the world for it to appear on this list this year. I applied those parameters to books I read before March 16 too. In no particular order, here are my favorite reads of 2020:
Long Bright River by Liz Moore - A contemporary book set in Philly, a mystery with female leads, the opioid crisis which is an every day conversation in our house, and the author uses the title of the book in the first 40 pages? How could I not love this. I was sucked in and couldn't put it down. This is my favorite read of the year.
Writers & Lovers by Lily King - This is a writer’s book and a reader’s book, a little raw, a little 70s (though not set there), a little throwbackish, a little meandering, and I loved it.
The Simple Wild by K.A. Tucker - I'm not a romancey person, but I am an Alaska person, despite having never been there. I really enjoyed this book after the main character got over her Schitts Creek early Alexis self.
Just Mercy: A Story of Justice and Redemption by Bryan Stevenson - Everything you think you know or believe about the justice system and race and the death penalty, set it down outside of yourself and read this. It's not preachy or overly technical, it's just showing us the workings of the systemic machine and the human beings in it. My heart is in my throat when I even think about this book.
The Boy from the Woods by Harlan Coben - How do I love Harlan Coben, let me count the ways. One, I can absolutely always sink into one of his books, global pandemic be damned. Two, his characters make appearances in other books. Hester Crimstein here. Love love love.
The Vanishing Half by Brit Bennett - The writing was excellent as was the story. Bennett is on my must read list. She wrote something on the bathroom wall? Move over, let me read it.
She Rides Shotgun by Jordan Harper - This was excellent. Fucked up and excellent.
28 Summers by Elin Hilderbrand - I am not an Elin groupie but man I loved this book. I read it in 24 hours and the end had my throat working like crazy.
Pretty Things by Janelle Brown - I was pleasantly surprised by this book. I didn't know much about it, it was one I bought early on in quarantine to reach the ships with $35 orders threshold for some food items I couldn't find in any stores from Target online. I really liked it. I was sucked in, the pace was great, and the story was good.
Piecing Me Together by Renee Watson - I loved this book. As an adult reading this YA novel, I liked thinking about how we set up mentorships that maybe don't always give mentees what they actually want or need.
A Good Marriage by Kimberly McCreight - This is all over the place for a reason. I know a lot of people are out there pooh poohing this like the expectation is that it is Shakespeare when it clearly is not, nor is it meant to be. What it is is quick and interesting. Quick and interesting are my gold standard this year.
The Hunting Party by Lucy Foley - This is a good example of this year's favorite reads being what keep me reading through and despite. Lucy Foley's books are problematic in many ways but they are absolutely readable for me even as the world burns around me.
Transcendent Kingdom by Yaa Gyasi - Gyasi's Homegoing has sat in my stomach like a stone since I read it in 2017. Her writing is superb, and the complete difference in this book and that is a mark of that. Fans of Homegoing, do not expect another one of those. This is a good book in its own right, and the writing on addiction from a family member is spot on.
The Searcher by Tana French - This took me a while to read, all of her books do, but I loved it. It's probably my second favorite of hers aside from the first book in the Dublin Murder series.
When the Stars Go Dark by Paula McLain - This is probably the novel that cements me as a Paula McLain fangirl. It is different than what I've read from her previously but I loved it straight out. It's a mystery/thriller, but the writing was wonderful, almost lyrical in spots, which is not always the case in mystery/thrillers as those of use who read a lot of them know. Free advanced copy from Netgalley in exchange for an honest review - book publishes April 13, 2021
Linkup Guidelines:
1. Visit and comment with both of your hosts, Jana & me, and check in with as many in our reading circle as you can - give some love to the later linker uppers!
2. Link back to us in your blog post - if you want the button you can get it from that link
1. Visit and comment with both of your hosts, Jana & me, and check in with as many in our reading circle as you can - give some love to the later linker uppers!
2. Link back to us in your blog post - if you want the button you can get it from that link
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