Year of reading 2022: Part 1 – My top 22 books

Posted on January 4, 2023 by WordsAndPeace

Year of reading 2022
Part 1
My top 22 books

To follow my tradition, here is part 1 of my yearly recap.
There is a total of 3 parts:

my favorite books, with my usual categories, see here below
my stats
my fun list with titles

2022 was a great year, with 41% of 5 stars rating (58 out of 140 books).
As usual, the final choice here below is based on the quality of the book, on how it resonated with me and my own experience, and on how it stayed with me.
I have added the 3 formats for the scifi category, as I read more of that genre this year.

MY FAVORITES

click on the covers to access either my review,
or the Goodreads page for the titles I have not reviewed yet

PRINT COPIES

Fiction	HistFic	NonFiction	Mystery

EBOOKS

Fiction	HistFict	NonFiction	Mystery

EBOOKS

Fiction	HistFict	NonFiction	Mystery

SCIENCE-FICTION

Print	Ebook	Audio

CHILDREN’S LIT

Print	Audio

POETRY

PICTURE BOOKS

COMICS

SPIRITUAL BOOK

BOOK COVER

Only 2 French this year in these top titles, and 3 Japanese books.
And 36% are classics!
Out of these 22, it’s really hard to spot THE winner. If I had absolutely to choose, I might go with The Bride Wore Black, for being a major unexpected discovery for me, of a really brilliant author. But I equally enjoyed all the above!

DO YOU HAVE SOME FAVORITES
IN COMMON WITH MINE?

MORE FUN RECAP TOMORROW!

HAPPY NEW YEAR OF READING TO YOU!

Save

Throwback Thursday: July 2012

Posted on September 8, 2022 by WordsAndPeace

#ThrowbackThursday

Revisiting what I posted 10 years ago
(my blog was born on September 29, 2010)
following the idea I found at The Chocolate Lady’s Book Review Blog
(click on this link or the logo to see where the idea started from,
and to post the link to your own post).

📚 📚 📚

Today, I’m revisiting July 2012.
I published 19 posts, 6 of these were reviews.

Of these books, here is the one that received most views then:

Click on the covers to know more

To tell the truth, I don’t remember much about the book, more about the feeling I had while I read it, and that I liked it.

But two books read that month have really stayed with me:

This was my first book by Daphne du Maurier, and a strong discovery.
Check my post: besides my review, it has lots of questions and answers (unless you have not yet read the book, because that part is obviously full of spoilers), and a fascinating analysis of the famous first sentence.
Since then, I have read My Cousin Rachel; and Jamaica Inn this past summer, which I also enjoyed a lot.
As well as Manderley Forever, a biography by Tatiana Du Rosnay.

My review on Rebecca is currently the book review that has received most views ever on my blog – for a long time, it was Of Mice and Men, but now Rebecca has over a 1,000 more views that Steinbeck’s novella.

In the Garden of Beasts: Love, Terror, and an American Family in Hitler’s Berlin is an excellent nonfiction.
In my review, I mention that I was going to read more by Larson. I haven’t done it yet!
I still want to read The Devil in the White City (I live in a suburb of Chicago), and probably also Isaac’s Storm.

📚 📚 📚

HAVE YOU READ THESE BOOKS?
PLEASE SHARE YOUR THROWBACK THURSDAY POST
My next post on this meme will be on October 6

20 Books of Summer 2022: it’s a wrap

Posted on September 2, 2022 by WordsAndPeace

#20booksofsummer22
#20booksofsummer

20 Books of Summer 2022:
it’s a wrap

Thanks to 746books.com I participated in this challenge from June 1 to August 31, for the third time.

Here were my original 20 books:

I am very happy, because I stuck pretty close to this list (rather unusual for me, lol), with 16 done and 2 more started.

AND I actually read almost as many books that were NOT on that original list:

I finished 7 in June, 12 in July, and 9 in August

Statistics wise, that’s:

28 books (7 on paper, 10 ebooks, and 11 audiobooks)
That’s a total of 4,929 pages (average of 53 pages/day)

And 95H46 of audio time (average of 1H02/day).

If I convert these audiobooks into pages, that’s 3,399 pages (average of 36 pages/day).
So the total in pages is 8,328 (average of 90 pages/day).

My original goal was 5,946 pages (average of 64 pages/day), so I’m very happy with this summer reading.

Genre wise – a nice mix
And 16 of these were classics
The oldest book was published in 1865, the most recent on July 16, 2022
Mystery: 10 – favorites: The Bride Wore Black / Confessions
Literary fiction: 6 – favorite: Ensemble, c’est tout
Scifi: 4 – favorite: Upgrade
Nonfiction: 3 – favorite: L’Enfer numérique
Historical fiction: 3 – favorite: So Big
Play: 1
Fantasy: 1

Source:
Library: 11
Web: 7
Owned: 4
Netgalley: 2
EStories (audio subscription): 2
Print review copy: 2

Languages:
English: 13
French: 10
Translated into English: 5
(2 from the Japanese, 2 from the French, 1 from the Russian)

My disappointments
I was disappointed with only #2, 11, and 19.
My conclusion: you REALLY need to read all the others!

Click here or one of the above charts to access my full chart

How many books did you read this Summer?
Which ones were your favorites or your disappointments?