I had a weird year, and StoryGraph picked up on it. My 2023 Reading Wrap-Up reviewed my habits as "[Riding] a rollercoaster of emotions, [pondering] thought-provoking themes, and [delving] into dark and intense narratives."
My GoodReads stats are as follows:
Average Rating in 2023: 3.68 Stars
Averages Book Length: 336 pages (+2 from last year!)
Most Popular: Fourth Wing
Here they are, in order of completion! My 101 books of 2022!
Like, Comment, Subscribe: How YouTube Drives Google's Dominance and Controls Our Culture - Mark Bergen
Making a Scene- Constance Wu
The Great Alone- Kristin Hannah
The Family Game- Catherine Steadman
From Scratch: A Memoir of Love, Sicily, and Finding Home- Tembi Locke
The Gifts of Imperfection- Brené Brown
The Lost Ticket- Freya Sampson
The Dead Romantics- Ashley Poston
Waxing On: The Karate Kid and Me- Ralph Maccio
The Identicals- Elin Hilderbrand
Spare- Prince Harry
The Summer of Broken Rules- K.L. Walther
The Sporty One: My Life as a Spice Girl- Melanie Chisholm
The Suite Spot (Beck Sisters, #2) - Trish Doller
An Arrow to the Moon- Emily X.R. Pan
No Cure for Being Human: And Other Truths I Need to Hear- Kate Bowler
Back to the Burbs- Avery Flynn and Tracy Wolff
The Lemon- S.E. Boyd
Big Magic: Creative Living Beyond Fear- Elizabeth Gilbert
It Happened One Summer (Bellinger Sisters, #1) - Tessa Bailey
Brutally Honest- Melanie Brown
Exes and O's (The Influencer, #2) - Amy Lea
I Have Some Questions For You- Rebecca Makkai
Ghosts in the Schoolyard: Racism and School Closings on Chicago's South Side- Eve L. Ewing
The Book of Lost Names - Kristin Harmel
Dreamland Burning - Jennifer Latham
We Should All Be Feminists- Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie
Written in the Stars (Written in the Stars, #1) - Alexandria Bellefleur
Finlay Donovan Is Killing It (Finlay Donovan, #1) - Elle Cosimano
Finlay Donovan Knocks 'Em Dead (Finlay Donovan, #2) - Elle Cosimano
Finlay Donovan Jumps the Gun (Finlay Donovan, #3) - Elle Cosimano
Anon Pls. - DeuxMoi
Daughter of the Moon Goddess (The celestial Kingdom Duology #1) - Sue Lynn Tan
A Perfect Vintage- Chelsea Fagan
Calling Me Home- Julie Kibler
How the Penguins Saved Vernoca (Vernoca McCreedy, #1) - Hazel Prior
This Bird Has Flown- Susanna Hoffs
The Storied Life of A.J. Fikry - Gabrielle Zevin
Paris: The Memoir - Paris Hilton (I read this TWICE)
Wahala - Nikki May
Happy Place - Emily Henry
Iona Iverson's Rules for Commuting - Clare Pooley
Don't You Dare - Jessica Hamilton
Lunar Love - Lauren Kung Jessen
Promise Boys- Nick Brooks
The True Love Experiment - Christina Lauren
Elsewhere - Gabrielle Zevin
The Cat Who Saved Books - Sōsuke Natsukawa
Romanic Comedy- Curtis Sittenfeld
Going Dark- Melissa de la Cruz
Pageboy - Elliot Page
Live Your Best Lie - Jessie Weaver
Yellowface- R.F. Kuang
The Long Weekend - Gilly Macmillan
Loba - Diane di Prima
Babel- R.F. Kuang
The Daydreams- Laura Hankin
Seven Days in June- Tia Williams
Stone Cold Fox- Rachel Koller Croft
The Force of Such Beauty- Barbara Bourland
Nothing More to Tell- Karen M. McManus
Remarkably Bright Creatures- Shelby Van Pelt
The Golden Spoon- Jessa Maxwell
Forget Me Not- Julie Soto
The Five-Star Weekend- Elin Hilderband
Yours Truly (Part of Your World, #2) - Abby Jimenez
Missing Clarissa - Ripley Jones
Fourth Wing (The Empyrean, #1) - Rebecca Yarros
The Hunting of Hillary: The Forty-Year Campaign to Destroy Hillary Clinton- Michael D'Antonio
Love & Other Scams - Philip Ellis
The Things We Do in the Dark - Jennifer Hillier
Hello Stranger- Katherine Center
None of This Is True- Lisa Jewell
A Monster Calls: Inspired by an idea from Siobhan Dowd- Patrick Ness
Warrior Girl Unearthed- Angeline Boulley
The Last Time I Lied- Riley Sager
The Southern Book Club's Guide to Slaying Vampires- Grady Hendrix
My Last Innocent Year- Daisy Alpert Florin
Death of a Bookseller- Alice Slater
The Great Believers- Rebecca Makkai
A Botanist's Guide to Parties and Poisons (Saffron Everleigh Mystery, #1) - Kate Khavari
I'll Eat When I'm Dead- Barbara Bourland
Down the Drain- Julia Fox
Final Girls - Riley Sager
Iron Flame (The Empyrean, #2)
The Only One Left - Riley Sager
Emily Wilde's Encyclopaedia of Faeries (Emily Wilde, #1) - Heather Fawcett
Fault Lines - Emily Itami
Remember Us- Jacquline Woodson
A Shot in the Dark- Victoria Lee
Waiting for Tom Hanks (Waiting for Tom Hanks, #1) - Kerry Winfrey
Rabbit: A Memoir - Patricia Williams
Horse- Geraldine Brooks
Vera Wong's Unsolicited Advice for Murderers - Jesse Q. Sutano
With Love, from Cold World - Alicia Thompson
Say Her Name - Zetta Elliot
The Guest - Emma Cline
Meet Meet the Lake- Carley Fortune
Severance- Ling Ma
P.S. I Miss You - Jen Petro-Roy
Best Celeb Memoir(s)
The Sporty One: Mel C
Brutally Honest: Mel B
Paris: the Memoir
Down the Drain
Rabbit
Best Thriller/ Mystery
The Family Game
The Things We Do in the Dark
None of This is True
The Only One Left
Best Romance
The Dead Romantics
An Arrow to the Moon
Best Historical
The Book of Lost Names
Calling Me Home
Dreamland Burning
Best Nonfiction
The Sporty One: Mel C
Best Cry
Horse
Best YA
Promise Boys
Dreamland Burning
An Arrow to the Moon
Warrior Girl Unearthed
Calling Me Home
Best Prose
Daughter of the Moon Goddess: Celestial Kingdom #1
Best Audio Performance
The Sporty One: Mel C
Best Overall
Daughter of the Moon Goddess: Celestial Kingdom #1
My Highest Ratings (5 Stars)
* See this post for the complete list of 4-5 star books
An Arrow to the Moon
Severance
Promise Boys
Horse
The Lost Ticket
Spare
Paris: The Memoir
Rabbit
My Lowest Ratings (1-2 Stars)
A Botanist's Guide to Parties and Poisons (1.0)
Fault Lines (1.25)
I'll Eat When I'm Dead (1.5)
The True Love Experiment (2.0)
Anon Pls. (2.0)
Written in the Stars (2.0)
Finlay Donoval #3 (2.0)
Making a Scene (2.0)
Emily Wilde's Encyclopaedia of Faeries (2.0)
With Love, from Cold World (2.0)
It Happened One Summer (2.0)
StoryGraph Stats!
Final Reflections
My nonfiction dropped from 32% to 20%! I read far fewer memoirs this year. They dropped from my #3 genre category to #7.
I read alongside more friends and increased my network of book girlies! This was facilitated by taking road trips with friends and leaning into the Fourth Wing hype.
And, on that note, the hype is real! Fourth Wing was amazing! I'm loving the dragons and the angst.
BK Public Library budget cuts are breaking my heart! Our available holds just got cut to 5 books on hold per patron - it used to be much higher (12 or 20, I forget).
There is a steep decline in the mood of books I read after the summer; in direct correlation with returning to work after vacation and several family tragedies.
I prefer plot-driven stories over character-driven stories.
Open endings drive me nuts.
Thrillers with endings that are out-of-left field are actually disappointing.
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