Wishing Everyone a less stressful and more hopeful 2022. May good health and happiness find their ways into your lives. Thank you for taking the time to pop over to my blog throughout the year and taking the time to comment. Your friendship and love of good books means a lot to me.
What's your first book for 2022? Have you picked a "First Book of the New Year?" Thrity Umrigar is a wonderful author so I decided to start 2022 with her new book, Honor, which releases on Tuesday. So far (at about 50 pages) it's been a very good story but it is about to take a darker turn.
Do you have any specific reading plans for January?
I always enjoy making a tentative list of books that I'd love to try each month and, for January, I've been more deliberate - really trying to pick just books that I think sound like they might be winners for me. (Let's see how well this list ambitious of (12) books works out.)
- Honor, Thrity Umrigar (favorite author)
- Abide with Me; Elizabeth Strout (favorite author)
- Amy and Isabelle; Elizabeth Strout (favorite author)
- Winter Solstice; Rosamunde Pilcher (have been wanting to try this for 20 years-audio was not working for me so I purchased the print edition.)
- The Wintering: The Power of Rest & Retreat in Difficult Times; Katherine May (just because 2-years of COVID sometimes gets to me)
- In Five Years; Rebecca Serle (book group read for the end of January)
- The Elephant of Belfast; S. Kirk Walsh (elephant lover (actually all creatures great & small) - I've been eyeing this one since it's release last year.
- Mala's Cat: A Memoir of Survival in WWII; Mala Kacenberg (new release - just because me & cats)
- The Maid; Nita Prose (new January release - sucker for hotel settings in fiction.)
- To Paradise; Hanya Yanagihara (new January release - her previous book: A Little Life was one of my most memorable reads ever)
- Joan is Okay; Weike Wang (another January release - a blend of humor and medicine)
- Greenwich Park; Katherine Faulkner (yes, one more January release - cover art called my name and story line left me curious.)
Happy New Year. I enjoyed Joan is Okay.
ReplyDeleteI get some of my end of the year book stats from Goodreads, but others like author gender and genre, I get by looking though my reviews for the year and counting. Kind of tedious.
ReplyDeleteI love Umrigar Thrity's books. It's been awhile since I read one though. I hope you love Honor. It does sound good!
ReplyDeleteI keep a spreadsheet of all the books I read each year with details I like to track. I don't share all the stats of info I collect, but it's fun for me to see personally.
I hope you have a Happy New Year, Diane!
Happy New Year, Diane! Winter Solstice is on my list for 2022 too. I've yet to read anything by Rosamunde Pilcher and that needs to be addressed this year. I must look into Elizabeth Strout too.
ReplyDeleteGood wishes for your 2022 reading goals!
ReplyDeleteWordpress tracks blog stats.
Some I pull from Goodreads. I started a spreadsheet that Book Riot offers but I forgot about half way through the year & didn’t have time to update it before the 31st.
I found the 2022 version of the Book Riot spreadsheet, and...well, I'll try it. It's pretty detailed, but maybe...
DeleteHappy New Year!
ReplyDeleteFor me, I've a draft post of the books list and I'll update it everytime (complete with the blog links) I finish reading a book so I won't get overwhelmed and I'll just post the completed list at the end of the year. It's easier and less tedious too. :)
I know you'll find bunch of good reads, you always do! Happy New Year from all of us!
ReplyDeleteHi Diane!
ReplyDeleteHappy New Year! I can't believe we are actually in a new year already. Don't really know if it's wise to hope for a good year, let's just do it silently and hope no evil spirits will hear us!
I use Goodreads and I have this stunning new blog template (as you know!) and I know that your annual reading challenge are built in there. I just need to figure out how to use it....
I love to do a library card every month to help me plan and track my reading for the month. I didn't do all that well with it the last couple of months last year, but I am determined to make it work this year!
I only recognize in Five Years on your list for January, but will check out the rest of your books.
Hope you are enjoying a good weekend!
I always interested to see that other bloggers have such definite reading plans and obviously that works for them. I'm pretty much the opposite of that. I read whatever happens to appeal to me at the moment and that seems to work for me. To each his/her own.
ReplyDeleteDorothy, I agree - whatever works for "the reader." It's for enjoyment not stress LOL
DeleteHappy New Year! Your First Book looks tempting...and some others on your list are also calling to me.
ReplyDeleteThanks for visiting my blog.
My first book is turning out to be more intense than I anticipated - good writing though. Happy New Year!
DeleteI track only by having a list with the info on it. But still it is a "major project in December". I mean to do the stats each month. I even wrote it on the blog last year but I did not follow through. Quel suprise!
ReplyDeleteI don't plan out books to read in advance. But this year I do have a couple daily snippets reads. Maybe I will write about them.
Hey Nan, you sound like me about starting the year with good intentions, but then those plans go by the wayside LOL I do like to plan at least half of my month in books.
DeleteI hope you enjoy Winter Solstice! The Elephant of Belfast is a book I'm looking forward to reading this year, too. Here's hoping 2022 is a much less stressful, more happy and hopeful year for all of us. :D
ReplyDeleteLark, I think I will like Winter Solstice better in print format. Hope 2022 is a good year for us.
DeleteWell, I always use Goodreads and then last year I added my own LAME spreadsheet because my friend in Germany and I always compare stats at the end of the year.
ReplyDeleteToday I was THRILLED to see the link to the 2022 Book Riot Reading Log. It has all the categories I want to track...and then some! I saw that link on Deb @ Readerbuzz's blog. Can't wait to plug my first book into it.
Happy reading and Happy new year!
Jinger, thank you for that spreadsheet info. I missed that on Deb's post. Happy New Year.
DeleteWishing you a happy, safe, blessed, healthy and prosperous New Year!!! xoxo
ReplyDeleteThanks Caren, same to you.
DeleteHappy New Year!!!
ReplyDeleteSame to you Greg!
DeleteLooks like you're getting off to a great start in 2022. I like the list, having read a couple of them and being pretty familiar with some of the authors listed. My first book of the year will be a Harry Bosch book by Michael Connelly. Second year in a row that I kick things off by reading one of Connelly's.
ReplyDeleteThat's a cool plan starting off the year (2 in a row) with the same favorite author. Happy Reading in 2022 Sam.
DeleteHappy New Year! I like your January list - I see several on here that sound interesting to me. Especially The Maid, which sounds very interesting.
ReplyDeleteI have been tracking my reading on a spreadsheet for years - one of the sheets collects stats and charts, so I don't really need to do anything special at the end of the month or year. I think I started my sheet from a template that someone provided and then deleted what I didn't want and customized it for me.
Thank you Athira for your spreadsheet feedback. I'm hoping I'm more on top of it for 2022 so it is less cumbersome on December.
DeleteI really enjoyed The Space Between Us, so I'll be anxious to hear your thoughts about Honor. I don't really have any specific reading plans other than try to read for an hour before I start fixing dinner. I usually read for at least an hour at bedtime (and while I eat lunch), but I'd like to increase my overall time each day. I'm also going to try to read at least two books a month from my very old TBR shelves. I have so many new books calling to me, but I hate to neglect the ones that I was so eager to get all those years ago. I hope you enjoy Winter Solstice. I'm almost finished rereading it and am so glad I stuck with it. The first few chapters take a little patience... Ah, you mentioned A Little Life. That's one of the books in my stacks that I WILL read this year!
ReplyDeleteTo answer your question about tracking my reading, I have a bullet journal page (I no longer journal, but use the paper) that I use to create a chart with all my specifications for each book I read. After I finish a book, I place a checkmark in each appropriate column. At the end of the year, I just tally each category. Voila!
Hey Les, I LOVED The Space Between Us as well. Umrigar's new book is a tough read once you pass the halfway point - difficult subject matter but very good writing. I wasn't aware of the subject matter when I began. I just wanted to read it because of the author.
DeleteI still think about A Little Life from so many years ago - another tough read but my favorite book ever.
Thanks for the feedback on tracking and good luck with your 2022 plans.
Glad you chose Honor as your First Book of the Year ... but now I'm wondering if it's too too dark? Or is it worth it? I like your list for January reading ... all seem good. I use Goodreads to track some of my reading but otherwise I figure my stats by hand at the end of year .... which takes too long! Let me know if you find something good to use to track.
ReplyDeleteSusan, Honor is well written but, heavier than I anticipated. I hate the thought of using a spreadsheet for stats. I may just keep monthly totals to keep it easier at year end.
DeleteOhhh, stats are my downfall! Every year I start out trying to keep good ones, and every year I fail miserably! I track my reading on LibraryThing, but it's not great for spitting out reports and I just can't seem to become a spreadsheet person.
ReplyDeleteI don't have a systematic reading plan for January; I'll be luckily to finish my First Book (Crossroads) in a month at the rate I've been going!
Elizabeth Strout is one of my favorite authors, too. Happy New Year!
I do my stats at the end of each month and so theoretically I just have to add everything up for the end of the year. I haven't technically done that yet but that's the idea! The Wintering looks interesting and I could use something like that as well. Happy 2022!
ReplyDeleteWe read In Five Years for our book group too. I wish I kept better stats. What I do keep track of is just me zoning out on goodreads for a few days to come up with a few things :)
ReplyDeletestacy
Happy New Year, Diane! I hope your year is off to a great start. I do track all kinds of stats for my reading and I use an excel spreadsheet and GoodReads. I hope you enjoy In Five Years. I liked it a lot but of course am so behind on reviews.
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