2022 Bookish Wrap Up

I’m back!

I don’t know what it was about 2022, but I focused more on reading and less on…other things, like blogging. I can’t say that I missed it. I wrote a lot more creative works than I did in 2021, not that the publishing record reflects that, but when I wasn’t worried about churning out content for this blog I found that my creativity was more inspired.

I wrote over 250k words this year (72k blogging): one full novel (currently working on first round edits), 50k of another novel, and eight short stories (four of which are flash fiction). Three of those short stories were accepted and will be published in 2023. Additionally, book two of the Satura Trilogy will be released in 2023.

• “Mommy’s Little Helper,” Strange Libations by Apex Magazine (Jan-Feb 2023)
  • The prompt was to create a dark and creepy cocktail recipe that tells a story…in 250 words or less. In the words of my wife, this one is “really disturbing, honey.”
• “The Museum of Perpetual Service,” Museum Piece by Metaphorosis Books (Jan-Mar 2023)
  • The anthology contains unique museums and their collections. My story has a military sci-fi take on the life casts used in museum exhibits.
• “Water, Wolves and Salt,” Gaia Awakens II by The World’s Revolution (2023)
  • The second anthology in a shared-world cli-fi anthology. My story is the sequel to “Team Wolf Anxiety,” picking up about four years later.

This year, I’m going to try to make a small effort to get back to blogging, because I still love chatting about books (and I’m going to be chatting about a certain favorite series of mine that I’m going to be rereading). More on that in another post.

This year I read a whole bunch. I don’t really know what happened. Normally I average 150-170 books a year, but this year I kinda accidentally read 230?

Yeah, I dunno either.

But I do know that I want to share the highlights of what I read, and because I read so many amazing books, this is going to be a long-ish post. I’ll skip the short recaps on the books themselves, and because my reviews here are nonexistent and my Goodreads reviews are hit or miss, there will be no links.

To the books!

Science Fiction

Science fiction (and fantasy) are having a moment. There are so many amazing releases, and so many more books that were four-stars that I just didn’t mention here in my top picks—and even more that I haven’t gotten to yet. I could probably dedicate an entire post to the amazing science fiction and fantasy that released in 2022. Like, it’s incredible. I have no idea how I’m going to do a Hugo’s nominations predication this year because there are so many great things.

There are not a lot of backlist titles on this list. Most of the backlist books I read this year were rereads (keep scrolling).

• Dawn by Octavia Butler
• A Prayer for the Crown-Shy by Becky Chambers
• Terminal Peace by Jim Hines
• The Second Rebel by Linden Lewis
• The Sea of Tranquility by Emily St John Mandel
• The Memory Librarian by Janelle Monáe
• Nona the Ninth by Tamnsyn Muir
• The Kaiju Preservation Society by John Scalzi
• The Dawnhounds by Sascha Stronach

Fantasy

So. Many. Amazing. Books. And these are just the five stars.

• The Stardust Thief by Chelsea Abdullah
• When Women Were Dragons by Kelly Barnhill
• Saint Death’s Daughter by CSE Cooney
• The Final Strife by Saara El-Arifi
• Emily Wilde’s Encyclopaedia of Faeries by Heather Fawcett
• The Women Could Fly by Megan Giddings
• Nettle & Bone by T Kingfisher
• Babel by RF Kuang
• Kaikeyi by Vaishnavi Patel
• The Bone Orchard by Sara Mueller
• The Golden Enclaves by Naomi Novik
• Daughter of the Moon Goddess by Sue Lynn Tan

Romance

In addition to science fiction and fantasy, I also read a lot of romance (as you can tell by my genre graph). As you can tell, I am team cartoon cover all the way.

• Astrid Parker Doesn’t Fail by Ashley Herring Blake
• Delilah Green Doesn’t Care by Ashley Herring Blake
• Book Lovers by Emily Henry
• Mika in Real Life by Emiko Jean
• On Rotation by Shirlene Obuobi
• The Dead Romantics by Ashely Poston
• Thank You for Listening by Julia Whelan

Young Adult

2022 saw my almost complete withdrawal from the young adult age category. YA is doing some amazing things, however, I haven’t really been interested in them. But there were some books that really caught my attention—and my heart.

• The Passing Playbook by Isaac Fitzsimons
• The Weight of Blood by Tiffany Jackson
• A Wizard’s Guide to Defensive Baking by T Kingfisher
• Café con Lychee by Emery Lee
• I Kissed Shara Wheeler by Casey McQuiston
• The Lesbiana’s Guide to Catholic School by Sonora Reyes
• Sadie by Courtney Summers (not really YA, though)

Historical Fiction

Not a genre I read a whole lot of (same with literary fiction and thrillers), but there were several that I really, really loved.

• The Night Watchman by Louise Erdrich
• The Love Songs of WEB Du Bois by Honorée Fanonne Jeffers
• The Great Believers by Rebecca Makkai
• Carrie Soto is Back by Taylor Jenkins Reid (yes, this one is contentious)
• The Cherry Walkers by Sarai Walker

Nonfiction

I like to attempt to read more nonfiction each year, but I am a mood reader so it goes in spurts. As you can see, a little bit of this, a little bit of that, but I’m more interested in reading about histories not taught accurately (or ignored completely) in schools.

• Hooked by Sutton Foster
• The 1619 Project by Nikole Hannah-Jones
• Secret City by James Kirchick
• An Afro-Indigenous History of the United States by Kyle Mays
• Read Dangerously by Afar Nafisi
• Burn the Page by Danica Roem
• Finding the Mother Tree by Suzanne Simard
• How the Word is Passed by Clint Smith
• The Hidden Life of Trees by Peter Wohlleben

Rereads

Only one of these (my Vorkosigan reread) was planned. The rest just happened, mostly because they fit a prompt for one book challenge or another and instead of finding something new my brain said YES THIS. In other cases (Becky Chambers, Tamsyn Muir), a reread was necessary before a new release.

I love rereading, but I rarely do it, mostly because there are so many amazing books out there. But diving back into an old favorite allows for new exploration. Sometimes the books hold up, however, sometimes they don’t. All these held up (yes, there are flaws, but the beauty of being human is being able to hold two or more opposing beliefs in one’s head simultaneously). And some I liked even better this time around.

• A Civil Campaign by Lois McMaster Bujold
• Memory by Lois McMaster Bujold
• Mirror Dance by Lois McMaster Bujold
• A Psalm for the Wild-Built by Becky Chambers
• The Hero and the Crown by Robin McKinley
• Dairy Queen by Catherine Gilbert Murdock
• Gideon the Ninth by Tamsyn Muir
• Check, Please! by Ngozi Ukazu
• All Systems Red by Martha Wells

Other Media

Because a reader doesn’t exist on books alone. Unlike the books, these ones are ranked.

Podcasts

• You’re Wrong About
• If Books Could Kill
• Breaking the Glass Slipper
• Sounds Like a Cult
• American Hysteria
• Deux U

So I might have a mild obsession with things other people are obsessed with.

TV shows

• Abbott Elementary
• She-Hulk
• Ms Marvel
• Blockbuster
• I Know What You Did Last Summer

Not listed is Brooklyn 99, because that’s my comfort show (yes, it’s total copaganda—remember the two opposing thoughts thing?) and what I will turn on 99% of the time. I rewatched it at least 15 times this year. Along with Golden Girls. There’s no shame in my brain.

Movies

I honestly can’t think of a single one I really loved this year. But I haven’t yet watched Wakanda Forever, so. I also didn’t watch a whole lot of movies I don’t think…my wife certainly did, but while she was rewatching 80s action or sword-and-sandal flicks or America’s Sweethearts for the twelfth time, I was reading in another room.

What were your favorite books of 2022?