My Top Ten Series in 2022

My Top Ten Series in 2022
TTT for November 8, 2022
#TopTenTuesday
 

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The topic for Top Ten Tuesday today is Series I’d Like to Start/Catch up on/Finish.
It was a good opportunity for me to check what series I have been reading from this year so far.
I realize I have read books from 21 series, which is more than I thought. According to my stats, that’s 33% of my total reads so far.

I have read an entire series (5 books) – see below The Once and Future King.
Six series I have decided to stop after reading only 1 or 2 books.

I have happily continued 6 series. So my post will focus on these.
And to make 10, I will pick 3 series among the 8 I have started this year and that sound very promising.

My series will be very different from most posts I have the feeling, so I’m sure you can discover some great ones here.
Three are classics in English, and the others are in French, or translated from the Japanese or the Chinese. They all have at least one book available in English translation.

Click on covers to read my reviews on learn more about these books

1. The series I have started and finished this year: 5 audiobooks
The Once and Future King, by T. H. White
The Once and Future King series

2-7: Series I have enjoyed continuing in 2022

 Les nouvelles enquêtes de Maigret Gataca  L'Aiguille creuse 

The Inspector Maigret series by Georges Simenon has 75 books.
I’m currently reading #20 with one of my French students.

The Sharko & Henebelle series by Franck Thilliez has 12 titles.
I have read 5.

The Arsène Lupin series by Maurice Leblanc has 18 novels (plus 39 short stories and 5 plays). I have read 2 novels.

NOA  The Daughter of Time Malice

The 9 series by Marc Levy has 3 titles so far, and I have read them all.
Here is a short review of volume 2.

The Inspector Alan Grant series by Josephine Tey has 6 books.
I have read 2.

The Kyoichiro Kaga series by Keigo Higashino has 10 books,
though only three have been translated into English so far.
I have read two, and just got the third on Netgalley!

8-10: Series I started in 2022 and want to continue

The Three Body Problem  Les Fourmis Fer-de-Lance

The Remembrance of Earth’s Past Series by Cixin Liu has 4 books so far.
La Saga des Fourmis by Bernard Werber has 3 books.
The Nero Wolfe series by Rex Stout has 47 books, and they are all highly rated.
That should keep me busy for a while.

 

Have YOU read
or are YOU planning to read any of these?
Please leave the link to your own post,
so I can visit.

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2022: January wrap-up

JANUARY 2022 WRAP-UP

2022 is starting fantastically on the reading front, as well as on the blogging front, with lots of posts, and my highest number ever of visitors and visits, thanks!
One big thing is that so far, with 15 books read, I have managed a review for each. Some longer reviews and some shorter ones, mostly posted in the Sunday Post. This format seems to be working so far.

Besides several memes,
I posted my traditional three posts on the previous year stats.
I also participated in Bout of Books 33.

📚 Here is what I read in January:

15 books:
11 in print 
with 2,172 pages, a daily average of 70 pages/day
4 in audio
= 40H12
, a daily average of 1H17
(exactly same average as in December 2021!!)

4 in mystery:

  1. Gravé dans le sable, by Michel Bussi – French audio
  2. Entre deux mondes, by Olivier Norek – French audio
  3. L’Inconnue de la Seine, by Guillaume Musso – French audio
  4. L’Affaire Saint-Fiacre (Maigret #14), by Georges Simenon – read with a French student – counts for The Classics Club

3 in nonfiction:

  1. Passport, by Sophia Glock – graphic “novel”
  2. Wabi Sabi: Japanese Wisdom For a Perfectly Imperfect Life, by Beth Kempton
  3. Les Chemins du cœur : L’enseignement spirituel des Pères de l’Église, by Placide Deseille –  Orthodox spirituality

3 in children books:

  1. How Do You Live?, by Yoshino Genzaburo – Middle Grade, counts for the Japanese Literature Challenge 15, The 2022 Books in Translation Reading Challenge, and The Classics Club
  2. Wabi Sabi, by Mark Reibstein – picture book
  3. Because of Winn-Dixie, by Kate DiCamillo – Middle Grade

2 in science fiction:

  1. The Three-Body Problem, by Cixin Liu – counts for The 2022 Books in Translation Reading Challenge
  2. Les Fourmis, by Bernard Werber – French audio

2 in literary fiction:

  1. Red is my Heart, by Antoine Laurain – received for review, counts for The 2022 Books in Translation Reading Challenge
  2. The Wild Geese, by Ogai Mori – counts for the Japanese Literature Challenge 15, The 2022 Books in Translation Reading Challenge, and The Classics Club

1 in play:

  1. Dojoji, by Yukio Mishima – counts for the Japanese Literature Challenge 15, The 2022 Books in Translation Reading Challenge, and The Classics Club

MY FAVORITE BOOKS THIS PAST MONTH

Entre deux mondes How Do You Live

READING CHALLENGES & RECAP

Classics Club: 102/137 (from November 2020-until November 2025)
Japanese Literature Challenge: 3/12 books
2022 TBR Pile Reading Challenge: 0/12 books
2022 books in translation reading challenge
: 5/10+

Total of books read in 2022 = 15/120 (13%)
Number of books added to my TBR this past month = 38

OTHER BOOKS  REVIEWED THIS PAST MONTH

  Constance  Termination Shock

Click on the covers to access the reviews

GIVEAWAYS

The open giveaways are on my homepage = will be updated on February 1st

Books available for swapping

REVIEW COPIES AVAILABLE

Posted on my homepage = will be updated on February 1st

And we offer a Book Box!

MOST POPULAR BOOK REVIEW THIS PAST MONTH

Before the Coffee Gets Cold

click on the cover to access my review

MOST POPULAR POST THIS PAST MONTH
– NON BOOK REVIEW –

Sunday Post #50

BOOK BLOG THAT BROUGHT ME MOST TRAFFIC THIS PAST MONTH

Caffeinated Reviewer
please go visit, there are a lot of good things there!

TOP COMMENTERS 

Marianne at Let’s Read
Tammy at Books, Bones & Buffy
Greg at Book Haven
please go and visit them,
they have great book blogs

BLOG MILESTONES 

2,474 posts
over 5,575 followers
over 238,150 hits

📚

And here are the books
I plan to read in February
(
video)

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How was YOUR month of JANUARY?

2022-Monthly-Wrap-Up-Round-Up400

Nicole at Feed Your Fiction Addiction
has created a Month In Review meme
where you can link your monthly recap posts
Thanks Nicole!

Sunday Post #49 – 1/16/2022

Sunday Post

The Sunday Post is a weekly meme hosted by
Kimba @ Caffeinated Book Reviewer.
It’s a chance to share news.
A post to recap the past week on your blog,
showcase books and things we have received.
Share news about what is coming up
on your blog
for the week ahead.
See rules here: Sunday Post Meme

*** 

This post also counts for

Sunday Salon    Stacking the Shelves  Mailbox Monday2

 It's Monday! What Are You Reading2  IMWAYR  WWW Wednesdays 2

#SundayPost #SundaySalon
#StackingTheShelves #MailboxMonday
#itsmonday #IMWAYR
#WWWWednesday #WWWWednesdays

Click on the logos to join the memes,
and on the book covers to access synopsis or review

Not sure how long it will last, but this past week was quite productive.
Besides work and house chores, I managed to:

I do plan to slow down a bit the reading this year, to take time to read at least a short review for each book. Keeping fingers crossed to continue doing it as long as possible.

📚  JUST READ / LISTENED TO 🎧 

The Three Body Problem  Passport

Les Fourmis

📚  The Three Body Problem (Remembrance of Earth’s Past #1), by Cixin Liu
Published in 2006
Chinese science-fiction
Read for my public library Winter Challenge
and The 2022 Books in Translation Reading Challenge

VERDICT: Can physics and astrophysics be used to ask help to resolve our social problems on Earth? Definitely a must read by THE Chinese master of science-fiction.
Click on the cover to access my full review.

📚  Passport, by Sophia Glock
Published in 2021
Graphic nonfiction / memoir

This was an interesting memoir of a girl growing up in different countries, because of the special occupation of her parents.
It was many years before they finally told are what they were doing.
Before that, she had to wrestle with the fact of never belonging anywhere and feeling always different.
This, plus the usual turmoil of teenage years didn’t make her life easy.
I liked this down-to-earth easy to relate coming-of-age story –the author’s herself.
Plus the illustration style is good: simple but very expressive.
It could be a good entry into nonfiction, if it’s a genre you don’t often read

🎧  Les Fourmis, by Berbard Werber
Translated as Empire of the Ants
Published in 1991
Scifi

Wow, impressive scifi by a new to me French author.
When we think scifi, we often think extra-terrestrial creatures.
But what about “infra-terrestrial” ones?
When Jonathan inherits a house form an uncle, he gets a letter from him, telling him never to go down to the cellar! Of course, one day, he does go down, I don’t think that’s a surprising spoiler. And then his wife does as well. When they don’t come back up, their young son finally calls the police…

I love how the chapters alternate between the world of humans, and the world of ants.
These are not monsters, those are real ants, with tons of amazing scientific data about the organization of their society and their modes of communication.
Totally fascinating.
And of course, there’s some major drama and suspense.

As a complement, yesterday morning I watched Ant Mountain, a fascinating documentary by Attenborough on a huge ant colony in Switzerland.

📚  CURRENTLY READING/LISTENING TO 🎧 

The Wild Geese  Entre deux mondes

📚 The Wild Geese, by Ogai Mori
Published in 1911
Literary fiction
Am reading for The Japanese Literature Challenge 15
and The 2022 Books in Translation Reading Challenge
and The Classics Club

Loving the simple and very evocative style so far. And the character development, especially Otama’s. The synopsis is intriguing in that respect.

“In The Wild Geese, prominent Japanese novelist Ogai Mori offers a poignant story of unfulfilled love. The young heroine, Otama, is forced by poverty to become a moneylender’s mistress. Her dawning consciousness of her predicament brings the novel to a touching climax”.

🎧 Entre deux mondes, by Olivier Norek
Not available in English
Published in 2017
Thriller

On the hardship migrants face in the world, and most especially on the terrible Jungle, the migrant camp in Calais, France.
I knew about it, but didn’t know many details about it.
Wow, unbelievable!
I love how many French thrillers focus on some big issues.

📚  BOOK UP NEXT 📚 

How Do You Live

📚 How Do You Live, by Genzaburo Yoshino
Published in 1937
Middle grade historical fiction
Will be reading for The Japanese Literature Challenge 15
and The 2022 Books in Translation Reading Challenge
and The Classics Club

I want to read it first, to be ready when Miyazaki‘s movie comes out!

“First published in 1937, Genzaburō Yoshino’s How Do You Live? has long been acknowledged in Japan as a crossover classic for young readers. Academy Award–winning animator Hayao Miyazaki (Spirited AwayMy Neighbor TotoroHowl’s Moving Castle) has called it his favorite childhood book and announced plans to emerge from retirement to make it the basis of a final film.
How Do You Live? is narrated in two voices. The first belongs to Copper, fifteen, who after the death of his father must confront inevitable and enormous change, including his own betrayal of his best friend. In between episodes of Copper’s emerging story, his uncle writes to him in a journal, sharing knowledge and offering advice on life’s big questions as Copper begins to encounter them. Over the course of the story, Copper, like his namesake Copernicus, looks to the stars, and uses his discoveries about the heavens, earth, and human nature to answer the question of how he will live.”

📚  LAST BOOK ADDED TO MY GOODREADS TBR 📚 

Three Apples Fell From the Sky

📚  Three Apples Fell From the Sky, by Narine Abgaryan
Published in 2015

In an isolated village high in the Armenian mountains, a close-knit community bickers, gossips and laughs. Their only connection to the outside world is an ancient telegraph wire and a perilous mountain road that even goats struggle to navigate.
As they go about their daily lives – harvesting crops, making baklava, tidying houses – the villagers sustain one another through good times and bad. But sometimes all it takes is a spark of romance to turn life on its head, and a plot to bring two of Maran’s most stubbornly single residents together soon gives the village something new to gossip about…
Three Apples Fell from the Sky is an enchanting fable that brilliantly captures the idiosyncrasy of a small community. Sparkling with sumptuous imagery and warm humour, this is a vibrant tale of resilience, bravery and the miracle of everyday friendship.

📚   NO BOOK RECEIVED THIS PAST WEEK  📚 

📚  GIVEAWAYS  📚 

Constellation   The Queen's Lover

📚  BOOK AVAILABLE FOR REVIEW 📚
Review in your own time!

1 copy available: first come first serve!
Alina_A Song For the Telling

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HAVE YOU READ ANY OF THESE BOOKS?
HOW WAS YOUR WEEK?