A very belated happy new year! I decided to combine my end of year reading review with my December wrapup as I only managed to read 2 books last month between Christmas and late nights up with the baby, though just managed to reach my goal of 52 books.
The Very Secret Society of Irregular Witches by Sangu Mandanna
The story follows lonely witch Mika Moon who takes on a job as a tutor for three witch children being raised in secret. This is a slow burn grumpy-sunshine romance between the children’s guardian Jamie and Mika, but it was the found family storyline that really drew me in and kept me hooked. The Very Secret Society of Irregular Witches is such a cosy, comforting and heartwarming story about magic, romance, family, home and belonging.
Calm Christmas and a Happy New Year by Beth Kempton
This was an impulse purchase but appealed because it’s about creating a personal and meaningful Christmas. Kempton suggests that there are five main themes of Christmas: faith, magic, connection, abundance and personal traditions, and each of these themes will have more or less significance to us. It was lovely reminiscing about Christmas from childhood to present but also reading about how other cultures and countries around the world celebrate, thinking about ways to simplify how I celebrate Christmas so that it encapsulate all my favourite parts and eschews all the aspects I find stressful or meaningless, and for a relatively short book it covers a lot of different facets of Christmas from budgeting to coping with grief and loneliness around the festive season.
2022 was an interesting year for reading: I read 52 books, 19 of which were borrowed from the library, as one of my reading resolutions was to read at least one book from the library every month, and as it happened all the books I read in March and August were borrowed from the library.
The majority of the books I read were fiction with a mix of contemporary fiction, fantasy, mysteries from Agatha Christie to Richard Osman, and ten children’s stories from ghost stories like Bridge of Souls, Gallant and The Haunting of Aveline Jones to environmental stories like Julia and the Shark, October, October and The Summer We Turned Green.
I didn’t find as many new favourites as the year before though my absolute favourites were the gripping small town drama Beartown by Fredrik Backman and the urban fantasy Jade City by Fonda Lee, which I enjoyed so much I binge read the whole trilogy in February. I also loved the King of Scars duology, and the final books in the Scholomance and Inheritance Games trilogies.
I also read 16 non-fiction books most of which were on environmental themes or parenting, easily the most non-fiction I’ve read in a year since graduating from university, and something I definitely hope to continue in 2023.
My reading goals for 2023 will be similar to last year, though I’m already off to a slow start and I’m feeling less confident about reaching my target of 52 books by the end of the year. I’ll continue to use and support the library service, and I’d also like to make a dent in my TBR which is currently 45 books long.
What are your reading resolutions for 2023? X
Lovely and Grateful 
Well done on such a good reading year. I am impressed!
2022 for me was pretty bad reading wise. I think I only managed about 8 books. I have set myself a Good Reads challenge to read 20 books this year, fingers crossed. X
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20 books used to be my annual average too, but I’ve made a concerted effort to read more over the last few years because I enjoy it more than TV or scrolling on my phone. 😅 I definitely think enjoyment matters more than numbers, I know lots of bloggers who read 100+ books a year but I’ve no idea how they remember what they’ve read by the end of the year. Good luck with your goodreads challenge. X
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Thank you. I probably do watch alot more TV and scroll through my phone rather than reading books. I am currently reading the third Bella Ellis Bronte Mystery that you recommended ages ago, I think a new one may have been published since. X
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I think the 4th one is due out soon, they’re great fun mysteries. I love the family bickering and sassing each other. 🤭 X
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As an adult I have hardly read any books 😳 A bookworm as a child it has taken me a long time to find books I actually enjoyed reading, previously buying or borrowing books that seemed suited to what was popular within my age group.
Finding time to sit down and fit in reading was another problem!
I was determined to fall in love with reading again this year so started with October,. October just last week which I’d seen on your blog and had ordered months ago. A beautiful read it had me in tears but I was absolutely gripped! I finished it in a day and ordered three more of Katya’s books!
In the meantime I started reading Pax which my partner had bought himself a long time ago but had never read. Another lovely book, very emotional it had me in tears and of course there was Pax journey home which I ordered just as I was finishing Pax. So three books in a week so far for me!
I have lots of books that I have bought and not read yet so if I can read at least one book in a month that would be great!
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Thanks for your lovely, thoughtful comment. I’ve often thought that people who don’t enjoy reading are probably reading the wrong books and haven’t found their genre or writer yet. Enjoying what you read is much more important that how many books you read. Some people read 12 books a year, other people read a 100, it’s not a competition. 😊 I’m so glad you enjoyed October, October, such a poignant and heartwarming coming of age story. You might enjoy Julia and the Shark too. There’s some brilliant children’s books out there. X
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Someone made a comment on Twitter recently about people missing out by not reading children’s books, I have to agree! I have just lent October, October to a work colleague who doesn’t read that much so hoping she enjoys it as much as me.
I am now reading another Katya Balen book The Space We’re in which I am enjoying, I can also highly recommend The Light in Everything.
I did attempt to read H is for Hawk but really struggled with that one and gave up in the end. I have read nature books before but this one was too much of a hard read for me.
Yes Julia and the Shark is on my to read list! I have started using my Twitter account recently and am following a lot of bookish people, there are so many lovely children’s books to read, very exciting! 🙂
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