Readers - your favourite books of 2022

I didn’t set a reading goal this year. I found that setting one in the past caused me to stick with books I wasn’t really enjoying just so I could get to a number.

My top books for the year were:

We Are the Light by Matthew Quick
The Family Remains by Lisa Jewell
Notes on Your Sudden Disappearance by Alison Espach
Book Lovers by Emily Henry
Start Without Me by Gary Janetti
Robert E. Lee and Me by Ty Seidule
How Do I Un-Remember This? by Danny Pellegrino

My reading goal at the beginning of the year was 52, then I revised that to 100, then 150 because I was on a reading frenzy...and then I broke my ankle in September and couldn't seem to focus on anything so currently my goal is 115 of which I've read 112.

I have a ton of 5 star reads this year which is unusual (these are in the order they showed up on Goodreads which seems to be really random):

Only Child by Rhiannon Navin
As Bright as Heaven by Susan Meissner
The Book of Essie by Meghan MacLean Weir
The Extraordinary Life of Sam Hell by Robert Dugoni
One to Watch by Kate Stayman-London
The Love Hypothesis by Ali Hazelwood
All the Bright Places by Jennifer Niven
The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo by Taylor Jenkins Reid
The Soulmate Equation by Christina Lauren
Eight Perfect Hours by Lia Louis
Mary Jane by Jessica Anya Blau
The Nature of Fragile Things by Susan Meissner
Lessons in Chemistry by Bonnie Garmus
Book Lovers by Emily Henry
Does My Body Offend You? by Mayra Cuevas
Meant to Be by Emily Giffin
Tomorrow and Tomorrow and Tomorrow by Gabrielle Zevin
The Magnificent Lives of Marjorie Post by Allison Pataki


I'd say of these my absolute favorites that I still remember and recommend to others are Lessons in Chemistry, Book Lovers, Mary Jane, and The Extraordinary Life of Sam Hell.

margaret fuller by marshall
the fabric of civilization by postrel
revolutionary samuel adams by schiff


of local interest, I reread Doc Maynard by speidel.. so well written about the early history of seattle. follow up to Sons of the Profits.

I don't set a yearly goal, but I do have a book group that sets monthly prompts. Sometimes I read specifically to those prompts and other times I read what I want and see if it will fit into a prompt. 

My favorites this year were:

** Lessons in Chemistry -- SO GOOD
** The Change
** When Women Were Dragons
** All of the Phryne Fisher books that I've read (10 or so)

Also, I just this minute picked up my copy of the new Louise Penny, "A World of Curiosities" and I'm very sure that will be wonderful, so I'll add that to the list.

I read a lot of other good books but these are the ones that stand out. 

Now I need to go add the books you all have on your end-of-year lists to my upcoming TBR list. hahaha

My current goal is 90, I'm at 83. Next year I'm doing pages not books, so if I give up on a book the pages still count...

According to The Storygraph my most highly rated books (4.5 - 4.75) were:
Harriet Tubman Conductor of the Underground Railroad by Ann Petry
The Storyteller by Dave Grohl
No Time Like the Future by Michael J. Fox
Before We Were Yours by Lisa Wingate
Malibu Rising by Taylor Jenkins Reid
and the Bookwanders Pages and Co by Anna James

and I'm in the middle of Lessons in Chemistry which will probably be way up there when I finish reading it.

Several of my top books were already mentioned, but here are a few others:

The Love Hypothesis - Ali Hazelwood
Every Summer After - Carley Fortune
Take My Hand - Dolen Perkins-Valdez
The Friend Zone - Abby Jimenez

My reading goal was 52 and I'm at 2732. I may read 1-2 more before the end of the year. My goal is 1 book a week, but when Russia invaded Ukraine, I could not tear myself away from the internet, I was waiting for the "Putin's assassinated!" update (which obv hasn't come... yet). I really worried about nuclear war. I watched a lot of TikTok to distract me, I just could not focus. At the time I was also trying to read A Suitable Boy, which is a HUGE ASS book. I got 1/3 of the way thru, and just could not focus on it. I put it down and picked something else up.

Three that have really stuck with me are Lessons in Chemistry, Remarkably Bright Creatures, and Carrie Soto Is Back.

eta: I was wrong, i've read 32

I don't do reading goals because I realized as a perfectionist I was focusing too much on the goal and it was taking away from my reading pleasure. I'm addicted to reading. I read every single night before I go to sleep. Last year (2021) I read 66 books. The year before that (2020) I read 80, and in 2019 I read 82 books.

I have been logging my books on Goodreads for the past 8 years. I was going along my merrily way reading like usual and decided to check my reading stats to see where I was just out of curiosity and so far this year I've read 112 books! I must admit I have been reading a lot more lately due to some insomnia-when I can't sleep I turn on my light and read. Trouble is sometimes the book is so good I keep reading it until it is done   . 

My favorite books this year in order from the start of the year to now (reading order) have been:

Snow Flower and the Secret Fan by Lisa See
The Night Portrait by Laura Morelli
Ride the Wind by Lucia St. Clair Robson
Shanghai Girls by Lisa See
Dreams of Joy by Lisa See
I Must Betray You by Ruta Sepetys
The Last Green Valley by Mark T Sullivan
The Red Heart by James Alexander Thom
The Last Checkmate by Gabriella Saab
The Tea Girl of Hummingbird Lane by Lisa See
When Apricots Bloom by Gina Wilkinson
China Dolls by Lisa See
The Yellow Bird Sings by Jennifer Rosner
The Diamond Eye by Kate Quinn
A Brilliant Night of Stars and Ice by Rebecca Connolly
The Last White Rose by Alison Weir 
Magic Lessons by Alice Hoffman
The Four Winds by Kristin Hannah
When Women Were Dragons by Kelly Barnhill
This Tender Land by William Kent Krueger
The Violinist of Auschwitz by Ellie Midwood
Pachinko by Min Jin Lee
The Collector's Daughter by Gill Paul
When We Had Wings by Ariel Lawhon, Kristina McMorris and Susan Meissner
The Calligrapher's Daughter and The Kinship of Secrets by Eugenia Kim
Return to Auschwitz by Kitty Hart
Schindler's List by Thomas Keneally 

Wow-that's a lot more than 5-10 and I even left some out. These were the 5 star books I read this year. 

     I'm so happy I discovered her this year. She is now one of my favorite authors! I've got her new book listed on goodreads already with a "to read" mark. Can't wait for publication date either. 

I love this thread as well. I usually like to read about 25 books a year. I am likely around 40 this year, but I also decided to DNF at any point the books annoyed me. In addition, I have had to curtail my reading to books that are relatively lighthearted - I don't want any trauma or strife. As such I didn't have any 5 star reads this year. Some of the books the other Peas have posted were 5 star reads for me in previous years, though. Still hoping for that one book!

I'm in the middle of "Tomorrow and Tomorrow and Tomorrow" at the moment and am struggling to keep going. 

Probably not quite in the middle... maybe 1/3 of the way through. It's just not grabbing me, but I'll keep on reading. But the other problem is that I just got Louise Penny's newest, "A World of Curiosities", so that's all I want to read.

I try for 100, currently at 82 but have stalled out the last few weeks. I loved Tomorrow and Tomorrow and Tomorrow, it will likely end up my favorite, but I still have SK’s Fairy Tale in my TBR pile. Lessons in Chemistry, Malibu Rising and Remarkably Bright Creatures were also very good.

My goal was 40 and I’m at 33. I started off really strong but then over the summer listened to more podcasts than books. My favorites were:

The Golden Couple
Take My Hand
The House Across the Lake
Those Who Saved Us
Billy Summers
The Home for Unwanted Girls