Reading Round-Up: 2022

Hello Lovelies!

Happy New Year! I am super excited to round up on last year and also launch with you my reading challenge for 2023! 2022 was a great year for my little blog because I found that I really enjoyed posting more. I hope you didn’t get sick of me in the process though! I’m on a particular high today because I should have gone back to school but the heating had broken! Yes! An additional day off. More reading time for me!

First of all, I want to round up 2022. I was really pleased to see that I managed to read 145 books in 2022. Definitely down from 2021 but that’s because we weren’t stuck at home! You can remind yourself of last year here, should you wish to. Along the way, there have been some amazing books. I’ll give you my top 5 later but I’ve honestly loved it. It’s all been about trying to get down my to be read pile and I’ve put a dent in it, that’s for sure! It hasn’t been easy, like most readers there have been slumps along the way and the inability to find a book I can get into. There’s so many factors in play at times so I don’t tend to share which books I didn’t finish because I know it isn’t the book, usually it’s me. But, I am ruthless. I do give up and move on because life is too short.

Regardless, let’s check out the books of 2022!

1. Appanah, Nathacha – The Sky Above the Roof
2. Tattersfield, Eleanor – Lockdown Secrets
3. Rauf, Onjali Q – The Lion at the Door
4. Colwin, Laurie – Happy All The Time
5. Grisham, John – The Racketeer
6. Flack, Caroline – Storm in a C Cup
7. Patterson, James – The Last Days of John Lennon
8. French, Dawn – Oh Dear Silvia
9. Jennings, Luke – Codename Villanelle
10. Priestley, J.B – An Inspector Calls
11. Tremayne, S.K. – The Assistants
12. Hazelwood, Ali – The Love Hypothesis
13. Morris, Heather – Three Sisters
14. James, Erica – Mothers and Daughters
15. Wilson, Antoine – Mouth to Mouth
16. Hitchings, Henry – Love Letters to Bookshops Around the World
17. McCartney, Sophie – Tired & Tested
18. Dowd, Siobhan – The London Eye Mystery
19. Zgheib, Yara – No Land to Light On
20. Lepionka, Kristen – The Last Place You Look
21. Halls, Stacey – Mrs England
22. Prose, Nita – The Maid
23. Donaldson, Julia & Scheffler, Axel – The Gruffalo
24. Debona, Katherine – Love Me, Love Me Not
25. Allen, Anthea – Life, Death and Biscuits
26. Ware, Jessie – Omelette
27. Shrager, Rosemary – The Last Supper
28. Schwab, V.E. – Gallant
29. Halls, Stacey – The Foundling
30. Ryn, Jessica – The Extraordinary Hope of Dawn Brightside
31. Logan, T.M. – The Curfew
32. Maher, Kerri – The Paris Bookseller
33. Penner, Sarah – The Lost Apothecary
34. Blackburn, Lizzie Damilola – Yinka, Where is Your Husband?
35. Hockney, David & Gayford, Martin – Spring Cannot be Cancelled
36. Mas, Victoria – The Mad Woman’s Ball
37. Strout, Lucy – My Name is Lucy Barton
38. Cox, Katy – M is for Mummy
39. Osbourne, Bella – The Library
40. Wahrer, Caitlin – Damage
41. Ireland, Sandra – The Unmaking of Ellie Rook
42. Gold, Hannah – The Last Bear
43. Williams, Candice-Carty – Queenie
44. Keyes, Marian – Rachel’s Holiday
45. O’Leary, Beth – The No-Show
46. Grohl, Dave – The Storyteller
47. Hargrave, Kiran Millwood – Julia and the Shark
48. Gold, Hannah – The Lost Whale
49. Steinbeck, John – Cannery Row
50. Fforde, Katie – Saving the Day
51. Keyes, Marian – Again, Rachel
52. Lockhart, E – We Were Liars
53. Hawkins, Paula – Blind Spot
54. Buchanan, Daisy – Insatiable
55. Vine, Lucy – What Fresh Hell
56. Craven, M.W. – The Cutting Season
57. McCaughrean, Geraldine – The Supreme Lie
58. Sams, Saba – Send Nudes
59. Wilson, A.K. – The Manager
60. Sims, Gill – The Saturday Night Sauvignon Sisterhood
61. Oseman, Alice – Nick and Charlie
62. Patterson, James – Honeymoon
63. Bennett, Alan – The Uncommon Reader
64. Malik, Ayisha – Sofia Khan and the Baby Blues
65. Paris, Helen – Lost Property
66. Wilson, A.N. – Lilibet – The Girl who Would be Queen
67. Carvan, Tabitha – This is not a Book About Benedict Cumberbatch
68. Hogan, Ruth – The Keeper of Lost Things
69. Buchanan, Daisy – Careering
70. Benson, Jen – The Wild Year
71. Han, Jenny – The Summer I Turned Pretty
72. Cox, Sara – Thrown
73. Sutanto, Jesse – Dial A For Aunties
74. Wickers, Kate – Shape of a Boy
75. Chen, Kirstin – Counterfeit
76. Stonex, Emma – The Lamplighters
77. Candlish, Louise – The Other Passenger
78. Heydenrych, Amy – The Pact
79. Sunim, Haemin – The Things You Can See Only When You Slow Down
80. Cha, Steph – Your House Will Pay
81. Backman, Fredrik – Anxious People
82. Bly, Mary – Lizzie & Dante
83. Takhar, Helen Monks – That Woman
84. Heller, Miranda Cowley – Paper Palace
85. Campbell, Michele – A Stranger on the Beach
86. Jewell, Lisa – The Family Upstairs
87. Corry, Jane – We All Have Our Secrets
88. Cave, Jessie – Sunset
89. Han, Jenny – It’s Not Summer Without You
90. Hui, Angela – Takeaway
91. Swanson, Peter  – Before She Knew Him
92. Rowell, Rainbow – Fangirl
93. Han, Jenny – We’ll Always Have Summer
94. Mulhern, Stephen – Max Magic
95. Osman, Richard – The Man Who Died Twice
96. Newson, Karl & Anganuzzi, Clara – The World at Your Feet
97. Sutanto, Jesse – Four Aunties and a Wedding
98. Jestin, Victor – Heatwave
99. Brook, Kate – Not Exactly What I Had In Mind
100. Bourne, Holly – How Do You Like Me Now?
101. Bochis, Iulia – The Sun, The Sea & The Stars
102. Hazelwood, Ali – Love on the Brain
103. Taylor, Matson – All About Evie
104. Kay, Adam – Undoctored
105. Norbury, James – The Journey
106. Gayle, Mike – The Museum of Ordinary People
107. Felton, Tom – Beyond the Wand
108. Kawaguchi, Toshikazu – Before the Coffee Gets Cold: Tales from the Café
109. Shakespeare, William – Macbeth
110. Kawaguchi, Toshikazu – Before Your Memory Fades
111. Murray, Lily & Surplice, Holly – Five Little Penguins
112. Tucci, Stanely – Taste: My Life Through Food
113. Osman, Richard – The Bullet That Missed
114. Sanghani, Radhika – Thirty Things I Love About Myself
115. Doughty, Louise – Platform Seven
116. Theroux, Louis – Theroux the Keyhole
117. Du Beke, Anton – We’ll Meet Again
118. Moore, Ian – Death and Papa Noel
119. Donati, Alba – Diary of a Tuscan Bookshop
120. Kemp, Roman – Are You Really Ok?
121. Coles, Richard – Murder Before Evensong
122. Bennett, S.J. – Murder Most Royal
123. Miller, Madeline – Galatea
124. Swanson, Peter  – Rules for Perfect Murders
125. Sharma, Nisha – Dating Dr. Dil
126. Smith, Alex T – The Twelve Days of Christmas
127. Dickens, Charles – A Christmas Carol
128. Jewell, Lisa – The Family Remains
129. Collins, Bridget & co – The Haunting Season
130. Duffy, Carol Ann – Advent Street
131. Herron, Mick  – Slough House
132. Grimm Brothers & co – A German Christmas
133. Pooley, Claire – The People on Platform 5
134. Taylor-Bessent, Mel – The Christmas Carrolls
135. Sampson, Freya – The Girl on the 88 Bus
136. Macomber, Debbie – Jingle All The Way
137. Ayoade, Richard – The Book That No One Wanted to Read
138. Herron, Mick – Stanging By The Wall
139. Du Beke, Anton – Ballroom Blitz
140. Dean, Will – The Last Thing to Burn
141. Carroll, Lewis – Through the Looking Glass
142. Hendricks, Jaime Lynn – His Missing Wife
143. Lockhart, E – Family of Liars
144. Perry, Matthew – Friends, Lovers, and the Big Terrible Thing
145. Garmus, Bonnie – Lessons in Chemistry 

I think we can all agree there’s some incredible books here! Picking a top five is tough but they are:

• Beyond the Wand – Tom Felton. When I reviewed it, I called it. I just knew that it was going to take a really special book to beat it.
• Friends, Lovers, and the Big Terrible Thing – Matthew Perry. I’m a huge Friends fan so I couldn’t not read this book. It was utterly heartbreaking and hopeful at the same time.
• Paper Palace – Miranda Cowley Heller. One of my summer reads that I couldn’t put down. I absolutely loved it. It gave me Crawdad vibes that I’d been desperately looking for!
• The Lamplighters – Emma Stonex. Another beach read that I reviewed but fell in love with the plot after the first few pages.
• The Lost Apothecary – Sarah Penner. A beautiful cover, a wonderful story with strong female characters.

That’s it! There’s so many others that I could have chosen but I decided to stick with these. What do you think? Have you read any of these?

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2023: My focus has now changed to 2023 and what exciting books the future holds for me here. I’ve decided I need to continue with my efforts of getting down my to be read pile. Whilst going through my monthly reading challenge last year, I spotted that some of the criteria were quite similar so I’ve worked on it and please let me introduce to you all, the reading challenge for 2023!

I’ve tried to make sure that I’ve got some things that motivate me (e.g. a beach read. Who isn’t longing for summer?) as well as things that will definitely challenge me and broaden my reading horizons. Feel free to join in with this and make suggestions for me! I get a lot of my reading list from you guys so I’m keen for any books you think are good! I really hope you join in with me!

So, onto the next book and preparing myself for the next half term.

Big love all xxxx