January 22, 2025

Books I Read: 2024

Hey gang! I am back with another reporting of all the books I read this past calendar year. Which is the one thing that you can count on consistently from this blog that I’ve otherwise left to shrivel on the vine. I should change that. I really do want to write more, I need the outlet. But do people even read blogs anymore? If a blog falls in the TikTok forest, can anybody hear it? I guess that doesn’t matter, I write this for me. And my one blogger friend Brian, hi Brian! And any other unwitting fool who stumbles upon it. I’d like to write more, so I’m gunna just jot that down and hopefully find the gumption to follow through this year. Anyways!

2024 was a record breaking year in terms of my reading because I read the most books I’ve ever read in one year! (That I know of, because I’ve only been keeping track officially since 2017. Maybe I read more books one year, like, when I was 8 and I just don’t know it. That was a big year for Goosebumps and I was fucking 8, so what else did I have to do?) But in terms of quantifiable stats, I read 66 books in 2024. Yeah, SIXTY-FUCKING-SIX! That feels like an immensely significant number to me, mainly because I decided it is. Keeping in mind, I know some people who read no books and I know someone who read over 100 books last year. That person is a lovely, inspiring reading machine. They’re the LeBron James of reading, and I recognize that they are the true outlier here. Lots of people read none, that’s very common. But 100 is rarified air, and I kinda feel like 66 is too. If the goal is a book a week, 52 is easily achieved, depending on what you read. But I really put the pedal to the metal last year and I feel like my 66 is an impressive showing.

What was so different from years prior? Not much, but I guess I was motivated. There’s a lot of books that exist, and I want to read as many of the good ones as I can. Because it just feels good, you know? To be completely engrossed in a gripping adventure outside of my boring suburban shell. Slip into a world of murder and mayhem and leave unscathed, an unassuming voyeur of slickly contrived drama. And while life with Woody is still demanding and very hands on, somehow more opportunities to read during his waking hours have cropped up. When I take him to swim or gymnastics class, I whip out a book while I sit in the stands. Yeah, I’m that parent. Or, sometimes on the weekends we tell him it’s quiet hour and he has to play independently because he just needs to calm the fuck down and chill out for a bit and we’re tapped out on playing hot wheels and dinosaurs for the moment. Which is conveniently a great reading hour for me. I’m hoping that my love of reading will extend to him via osmosis or whatever science term thingy it is that transmits shit to others. I figure he’ll see how cool I look doing it and obviously he’s gunna want to be hella cool like that too, right? Sometimes he does a great job at quiet hour, playing entirely by himself, quite happily. Other times he’ll play a bit during quiet hour, but it’s obvious he’s still jonesing for parental attention, so he’ll curl up beside me and ask me to read my book aloud to him. If I’m reading something that isn’t appropriate for his ears I’ll tell him no, but if I’m reading something fairly tame I’ll oblige. The first time I did it was to humour him, thinking he’d get bored of it in 30 seconds because there weren’t any pictures, but to my surprise he actually liked it! I was reading from a book called “How to Talk to Little Kids So They’ll Listen”, exposing some great parenting manipulations to make life with him easier, while he sat there an enraptured listener. (I haven’t finished that book btw, so it is not on the list this year. I’ve just been reading choice chapters from it as needed.) He also sat and listened me reading over 15 pages of Val Kilmer’s memoir aloud. No clue why that resonated with him so deeply. But thanks, Val! My plan is working after all.

Now, let’s get down to brass tacks! What you came here for, what you’re all dying to see, the list. I still write a tangible, touchable, lickable version of the list in my list-making journal. It took up three pages this year! (Not pictured, the third page…) Here it is, in all its Skittles toned glory:

A new habit this year though is that I’ve also started digitizing my list. I’ve done that using the GoodReads app AND with google sheets. Double your pleasure, double your fun, I always say. Now you can see a new and improved list of all the books I read showing the author, genre, date finished, and my own personal rating. It’s a simple 3-point scale from Total Crap to Excellent. With an It Okay middle tier. Data Analytics nerds rejoice!

Some noteworthy conclusions drawn from my google sheet:

26/66 books were rated Excellent, a 39% excellency rating!
3/66 books were rated Total Crap, only a mere 4.5% of the books I read sucked ass, which I guess means I’m doing a good job choosing entertaining books
All 3 of those Total Crap books were from the Horror genre
December was my most prolific month with 9 total books read
On average, I read 5 books per month
Horror is my most read genre, (22/66 = 33%, a full third of all my reading). No surprise there! The thrillers are all very horror-adjacent though, I’m just splitting hairs here, so we could mush those genres together and conclude that 35/66 (53%) of the books I read were scratching a serious itch for danger
I read 2 Pulitzer winning works of fiction and they were both Excellent, as expected. Ronan Farrow’s work on Catch and Kill contributed to a Pulitzer win for the New Yorker as well, but in a different category.
- To note: I am on a casually meandering side quest to read all of the books that have won a Pulitzer prize for Fiction. I’m keeping a separate list for that and I’ve already read 10/76 books awarded that prize so far!
- This is the list that I’m working from for that, if you’re curious: The Pulitzer Prizes – Fiction
The highest rated category is a three way tie of 100% Excellence between Pulitzer Winners, Non-Fiction, and Kid’s Lit. Every single book I read in those categories was Excellent (but, those stats are admittedly skewed given the raw data I’m working with.)
The most read author was Dean Koontz with 6 books
Many authors made multiple appearances though: Riley Sager (5), Stephen King (3), Thomas Harris (3), Richard Chizmar (3), Josh Malerman (3), Grady Hendrix (2), Kiersten White (2), Madeline Miller (2), and Robert McCammon (2) respectively
- Which just goes to show that I am nothing if not loyal!
There were some other familiar favourites making singular appearances as well: C.J. Tudor, Neil Gaiman, and Joe Hill

A really fabulous stat that I get from using the GoodReads app is the total number of pages I’ve devoured across all the books read in a singular year:

24,077 Pages! That is truly incredible. I was shocked when I saw it, but also quite proud. This is the sole reason I’m using GoodReads to be honest. I don’t rate books or write reviews or engage content from other readers in any way. I just like that big juicy Pages stat.

Also of note, I had an eye exam this year and have learned that in my advancing years, I am now far-sighted. I had to get glasses for reading. There I am, getting all old and shit. Kinda looking like Dave Grohl maybe. But at least I don’t cheat on my spouse and keep a stash of secret babies squirrelled away. (Shots fired! Dave, you let us all down last year with that shit, you dirtbag! And I’m still mad at you.)

With so many pages turned, and so many lessons learned, I have to say that the absolute cream of the crop this year, the best of the best books, the ones I would recommend to any one, are these (in no specific ranked order):

Black River Orchard by Chuck Wendig
- A bonkers nutso tale of horror and murder revolving around artisanal apples. It made me a Chuck Wendig fan and I’m looking forward to reading more of his stuff.
Brothers by Alex Van Halen
- Is this a perfect rock ‘n’ roll memoir? No. Is it entertaining and deeply endearing? Hell yes! I loved learning more about the Van Halen brothers and how they grew up. I loved hearing crazy stories about Diamond Dave! And I loved spending time in a loyal and loving sibling relationship. Alex is right, the connection they had is one that most siblings will sadly never achieve.
Circe by Madeline Miller
- I don’t often read Historical fiction, but this book was on Paste Magazine’s list of The 40 Best Novels of the 2010’s (another side quest I’m on), and I kept seeing it highly recommended in the book forums I follow. I immediately got why it’s been lauded as a remarkable and fantastic read after the first chapter. It is so freaking good! I loved the reimagining of the witch Circe from Homer’s The Odyssey, which I had lots of experience with in my academic days. She was a complex and compelling heroine who I loved spending time with. I applauded her tenacity and I ached with her during her loneliest moments. It made me read Miller’s The Song of Achilles as well and it is also a phenomenal read. But of the two, I liked Circe best.
Gone South by Robert R. McCammon
- The summer of 2024 was my summer of the dusty old paperback page-turner, and this was the best of them all. The story was good, a wild and outlandish adventure with multiple subsets of characters overlapping and intertwining. You’ve got a fugitive on the run, bounty hunters, deformed freaks, swamp people, and a deluded Elvis impersonator/wannabe! This book had it all and moved at a breakneck pace. It was weird and funny and exciting. Boat chases! Car chases! Foot chases! Swamp chases! All the kinds of chases were present. It was fun. Way more fun than McCammon’s Boy’s Life which holds an exalted place in 80’s fiction, but I’m not really sure why. It just meanders. Gone South is a better bang for your buck.
Rebel Girl: My Life as a Feminist Punk by Kathleen Hanna
- Incredible. This is the perfect example of everything I want a memoir to be! Kathleen Hanna is candid and raw to a degree that nobody else ever is when they write their memoir. When I read a memoir I want the person to really show me who they are behind the veneer of fame. I want to feel like I’m having a one on one conversation with someone about their life where they’re willing to share with me everything, to answer any question I might have. Kathleen gives that and oh so much more. She’s a real person, a real artist, who has struggled and made mistakes, who has persevered and figured out who she is outside of the musical scene and point in time that seemingly defines her for the purposes of a Wikipedia page. I’ve always loved her and her music, but now I somehow love her even more. Everyone should read this book.
Total Recall by Arnold Schwarzenegger
- Arnold is similar to Kathleen Hanna in that he is very honest in telling the story of his tremendous life. And this is just such an amusing and inspiring read. This is a person who was born with buckets of determination and drive, who made everything they ever wanted to happen in life, happen. Through unrelenting force of will alone. This is a great portrait of a man who loves living and has never stopped pushing himself. It’s an ode to optimism and grit. I respect and admire him, simple as that. He’s got unique views on life and he’s a very intelligent person. He’s made some monumental mistakes, and parts of the book read like an effusive apology to Maria, but I get it. Even though he fucked up, he was trying to be accountable for his shit as he reflected on those mistakes. Unlike Val Kilmer’s slippery and seemingly revisionist retellings of all his failed romances… that dude is pathologically exempt from all his faults, so I especially respect the hell out of Arnold for owning his shit. They say never meet your heroes, but he seems like the exception to that rule, the kind of hero you would never regret meeting.

One little bit of snark before I wrap this up, and it’s directed at Thomas Harris. Red Dragon is a phenomenal book. I couldn’t put it down and it kept me guessing at every turn. It was visceral and haunting at times, and it made me feel deeply uncomfortable in the exact way I want a horror novel to make me feel. Bravo! It spurred me on to reading a few more Harris novels. I’d already read The Silence of the Lambs years ago, and not needing to re-tread old ground, I jumped ahead from Red Dragon into Hannibal next. Here’s the snark: It FUCKING SUCKS! What a total pile of shit that novel is. It took me over 2 weeks to read it because it was such a tedious slog. I burned through Read Dragon in four days and was expecting to do the same with Hannibal, but it was sooooo slow in the beginning that I just kind of stalled and dreaded picking it up. I had to force myself through it. The novel starts with Clarice and her fall from grace, which is just so stupid, but you expect Harris is setting the stage for major redemption later on so you deal with it. And then the story goes to some random ass character in Italy that we give no shits about, and a whole clusterfuck happens over there. Which makes Hannibal decide it’s safe to come back to the U.S.?? Like, no dawg. He’s an evil supervillain genius that the whole world is looking for, this makes no sense! Then the last half of the novel does start to pick up, and I’m thinking “okay, maybe he’ll salvage this and stick the landing after all.” NO. It was a total shit the pants, miss the mats completely, zeroes across the board from all judges ending! I’m still infuriated thinking about it months later as I write this. Why??? Why did you do this to your fans, Mr. Harris? WHAT.THE.FUCK my dude? It was a completely unnecessary character assassination of Clarice Starling and an overall abomination of a story. I hate it. Hopping mad over here.

For whatever reason, I gave Harris another chance later in the year when I read Cari Mora because that book had killer potential. The description on the book jacket led me to believe there’d be a semi-recreation of the Starling/Lecter dynamic, but with new characters in a new iteration. Another plucky female lead facing off with an unthinkable monster. They had a moment, those two, at the end. But they didn’t come together and square off in quite the way I expected. It was anticlimactic at best. There’s some nervy scenes, but mostly this is a heist story. A heist story told in the most vague, ambivalent way possible. The book was by no means about the falsely advertised cat-and-mouse between hunter and prey. But I guess that was the best the publishers could come up with to get people to read it? I mean, it worked on me. The problem is after you’ve read the book, you just feel like you were duped. So I won’t be reading any more Harris, I’ll tell you that. Fool me once, fuck you. Fool me twice, goddamn, fuck me! I shoulda known better.

So that’s that, everything I read in 2024. This year of reading should be good too. I’ve read 5 books so far and I’ve got a few early contenders for best of the year. I’ve got Lonesome Dove on the shelf, just waiting for the right moment to leap into my hands. I think maybe the summer will be a good time to tackle this critically acclaimed, epic western. And I’ve got some more 70’s Koontz lined up. I haven’t read as much Koontz as I have King, but I’m going to go out on a limb here and say from what I’ve read so far, the 70’s might be my favourite era of his. His villains are so deranged, but in a very direct and earnest way. I dig that. We’ll see how that opinion shifts though as I dive deeper into his stuff.

I’m not going to force myself to crush a specific number of books this year, it’d be nice to meet the 50 book quota again, but I’ll see how I feel. Usually a year of crushing books gives way to a year of lightly crunching them instead; the natural ebb and flow of obsession and restraint at work. I do want to read something that challenges me this year though. I don’t know what that is, but I know it’s out there. Maybe something that will inspire focus and improvement in my own writing. Or, maybe I should finally tackle Hemingway! (I’ve read absolutely zero Hemingway, can you believe that?)

If you came this far, thanks for reading dude, I appreciate it. Drop me a line if you’ve got thoughts on my reading list or want to chat about any book, ever! I never tire of talking about books and I welcome your company, always 🙂

Posted in Books, Goals, Hobbies
Tagged book-review, books, Fiction, fun, goals, humour, life, reading, writing
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February 26, 2022

Books I Read: 2021

Well this is bizarre. Looking back at my post from 2020 not a hell of a lot has changed. Practically nothing is different. We had another full year of staying at home on a locked down, minimized life. The only substantial difference is that I went back to work in June after one full year of bullshit maternity leave that was ruined by covid. But, as I mentioned last year, at least I still have books. What was it that ol’ Willy Wallace said? You can take my ability to comfortably navigate society and see the people I love without severe pandemic paranoia but you can’t take my books? Sounds right. It went something like that, I’m fairly certain.

Reading has always been my ultimate escape and I have needed it these past two years more than ever before. From January – May 2021 I was still on maternity leave so I did a lot of reading. When I went back to work in June, reading took a small hit, understandably. But overall I still managed to read a respectable 45 books this past year.

Here is the official visual of my list:

Followed of course by the official “easier on your eyes” typed list:

The Deer Park by Norman Mailer (January 4th)
Pizza Girl by Jean Kyoung Frazier (January 7th)
We Were Liars by E. Lockhart (January 8th)
City on Fire by Garth Risk Hallberg (January 21st)
Good Omens by Neil Gaiman and Terry Pratchett (January 29th)
My Dark Vanessa by Kate Elizabeth Russell (February 2nd)
Afterland by Lauren Beukes (February 12th)
Vicious by V.E. Schwab (February 19th)
The Chain by Adrian McKinty (February 23rd)
If It Bleeds by Stephen King (March 1st)
Elevator Pitch by Linwood Barclay (March 4th)
Firefly Lane by Kristin Hannah (March 9th)
The Other People by C.J. Tudor (March 14th)
Whisper Network by Chandler Baker (March 18th)
Behind Her Eyes by Sarah Pinborough (March 26th)
High Fidelity by Nick Hornby (April 6th)
Oona Out of Order by Margarita Montimore (April 11th)
Thinner by Stephen King (April 18th)
The Only Child by Andrew Pyper (April 28th)
You Love Me by Caroline Kepnes (May 2nd)
When No One is Watching by Alyssa Cole (May 15th)
Daring Greatly by Brené Brown (May 25th)
A Long Way Down by Nick Hornby (June 13th)
The Dirt by Mötley Crüe (June 20th)
Accelerate: Building and Scaling High Performing Technology Organizations by Nicole Forsgren, Ph.D, Jez Humble, and Gene Kim (June 27th)
Inspection by Josh Malerman (July 4th)
Bossypants by Tina Fey (July 7th)
The Power by Naomi Alderman (July 24th)
Later by Stephen King (July 26th)
The Girls Are All So Nice Here by L.E. Flynn (August 5th)
I Know You Know by Gilly MacMillan (August 10th)
Made for Love by Alissa Nutting (August 17th)
Sunburn by Laura Lippman August 21st)
The Other Woman by Sandie Jones (August 23rd)
The Arrangement by Robyn Harding (August 26th)
The Store by Bentley Little (September 12th)
Looking for Alaska by John Green (September 17th)
She’s Come Undone by Wally Lamb (September 24th)
Of Mice and Men by John Steinbeck (September 26th)
Believe Me by J.P. Delaney (October 14th)
It’s Kind of a Cheesy Love Story by Lauren Morrill (October 29th)
The Death of Bees by Lisa O’Donnell (November 16th)
The Switch by Elmore Leonard (November 27th)
Nine Perfect Strangers by Liane Moriarty (December 25th)
The Storyteller by Dave Grohl (December 28th)

My reading patterns are very similar to last year, lots of “pop fiction”. You know, the psychological thrillers about murder with dubious heroines that have completely dominated the market since Gone Girl sparked the craze of unreliable narration and “shocking” plot twists. It seems like every book now is marketed as having some shocking twist you won’t see coming that you can actually see coming from a mile away. Although I will say, a few of the books I read this year did wind up genuinely surprising me, so shocking readers isn’t impossible, but it has gotten harder to do well. Behind Her Eyes and The Other Woman did have genuinely shocking plot twists at the end that I did not see coming, so worth a look for anyone who still wants to read those pop fiction shock twist kind of tales.

Stephen King made three appearances on the list again, so good for you, Steve! I really liked Later but Thinner was a total chore. It hasn’t aged well, what with the gypsy vilification and all.

I read two books specifically to get myself back into the right mindset for my return to work after a year off: Daring Greatly and Accelerate. Both excellent books, but not exactly pleasure reading. I finally got around to reading Bossypants by Tina Fey. It was good, but didn’t really live up to all the hype.

I read some classic American authors, Norman Mailer and John Steinbeck. Shoutout to Elmore Leonard too, the O.G. of tongue-in-cheek mystery capers. The Deer Park was horribly misogynistic and lacked any purpose for me. But what else would you expect from someone who stabbed their wife at a party? Re-reading Of Mice and Men highlighted for me the difference between an author and a writer. Steinbeck is a fucking AUTHOR. So much of the trashy pop murder fiction I read is just entertainment, written by writers. Steinbeck is levels and levels above everyone else on this list. He’s in a class all his own, a true craftsman and wordsmith. A prolific, respected author of incredible American fiction. He fucking rules!

I’m going to mix things up this year and award superlatives to the books that need individual callouts for good or bad reasons.

Heaviest Book on the List – City on Fire by Garth Risk Hallberg
This book was physically enormous. Coming in at just over 900 pages, it had some heft. I strained my neck and arms reading it, it was just such a bulky book. And kind of a letdown to be honest. I was excited about spending time with characters who were part of the punk scene in 1970’s New York, but it just got so tiresome as it went on. For all the space Hallberg was given to tell his story, he didn’t do a hell of a lot with it.
Most Improved Protagonist – She’s Come Undone by Wally Lamb
Oh Dolores Price, my heart went out to you so many times while reading! This poor woman, what an odyssey her life was. I loved it when she told her doctor to eat shit because of his fat-shaming. This was my first time reading Wally Lamb and it reminded me a lot of John Irving. The characters are just put through the wringer and you should never expect a happy, Hollywood ending for anyone. Just pain and the endurance of pain.
Book Most Likely to Get Under Your Skin – The Chain by Adrian McKinty & The Store by Bentley Little
It’s a tie! The Chain was an intense, thrilling read but not for the feint of heart. It’s about this fucked up ring of blackmailers who make regular every day parents abduct children in a horrible chain letter way. Your child gets taken, you’re told to pay the ransom and then abduct another child or you won’t get yours back. Only when the parents of the child you’ve taken have gone on to abduct the next child on the chain will yours be released. As a parent, the premise alone is unthinkable. But it was unputdownable, so if you think you can hack it, give it a try! The Store was a good creepy read too, it’s a slow build to the end. It’s upsetting just because of the disgusting, stomach-churning ending that I’m not going to spoil.
Wildest Ride – The Dirt by Mötley Crüe
These guys don’t hold back, they share every fucked up intimate detail of their journey as one of the hardest partying bands of the 80’s. I’m honestly amazed that they’re all still alive based on the sheer volume of drugs and booze they’ve pumped through their systems. There were so many memorable stories and outlandish antics. Sex, drugs, and rock ‘n’ roll is an understatement, you’ll get more than your share of all that and then some! A must-read for anyone who loves Mötley Crüe, or just wants to spend some time living that rock star life.
Most Likely to be Thrown in the Trash – The Only Child by Andrew Pyper
I’ve really had it with this guy. I heard about him for the first time a few years ago when I picked up a copy of The Damned at the used bookstore, which was an awesome read. I was so excited that I’d found a great new person to read, but every other book of his has sucked major balls. And this was the worst one yet! The most laughable moment was when the main character got on a flight to Europe and claimed to have read all of Dracula, Frankenstein, and Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde while on their flight. Fuck right off, there’s no way in hell any one person could do that. Or would even want to! This is a book about an immortal vampire trying to reconnect with his child, but I lost the ability to suspend my disbelief over someone reading three old timey books back to back on a plane. Utter nonsense.
Darkest Reality – The Power by Naomi Alderman
In theory I love the idea of women having a sudden and terrifying power that they can use to subjugate the male population and give them a taste of their own oppression. But there were some truly terrifying moments of societal uproar, terrorism, and war in this book that caused this beautiful utopian reality to lose its lustre real quick.
Class Clown – Good Omens by Neil Gaiman and Terry Pratchett
By far the funniest, silliest book I read this year. A lot of the great wry humour and quirky wit I expect from Gaiman. Never been a Pratchett reader, but safe to assume all the portions of this book that used humorous footnotes can be attributed to him. Though I’ve never read him, I do know that Pratchett liked him some footnotes! Lighthearted apocalyptic fun, if you’re into that, then give this book a try.
Life of the Party – The Storyteller by Dave Grohl
The last book I read this year, and what a way to finish my list! You get a lot of great stories about Dave’s life from the early days right through to the current Foo life. I couldn’t put this one down, I blazed through it in three days. One thing I will say, just as a general observation not a criticism, is that while I found the stories Dave told to be entertaining and amusing sometimes it did feel just a little bit name-drop-y and like it didn’t give me anything deeply personal that I could empathize with. The part where Dave talks about Kurt’s passing is the closest it gets to cracking through Dave’s chill easy-going dude vibe. He never tells you anything meaningful about his relationships, how he met his wife, failed marriages, etc. And the prose does start to feel too formulaic by the end of the book. Here’s how almost every chapter goes: start with a gotcha sentence, something sudden or shocking to hook the reader and then detour by starting the story at the beginning eventually making your way back to initial setup. Every chapter was like that. It’s the book equivalent of that filmmaking technique that uses narration and the whole record scratch/pause video “Hold Up” moment. “You might be wondering how I ended up in this crazy scenario. Well let’s go back to the start and I’ll tell you.” Very that, you know what I mean?
Major Oddball / Misfit Energy – Made For Love by Alissa Nutting
Did not know this was a book until after I’d already watched the show. D and I really liked the show, it was a bonkers watch. If you’re not familiar with it, it’s about a billionaire tech company founder whose newest invention is a chip that can be implanted into your partner’s brain so you can achieve a truly intimate connection based on biological and neurological data. But it’s actually much more nefarious than even that sounds. It’s really about the obsessive level of control you can have over another person and how you can use that data to keep innovating. Sound like anyone you might know? It felt very on the nose having this megalomanic tech mogul trying to push his insane ideas onto society with no regard for their actual desire for it. Considering the headlines we see nowadays about companies like Facebook and Amazon it felt entirely too believable as a premise. We particularly enjoyed Ray Romano’s role as the crass, bereaved father engaged in a new relationship with his “companion”, a sex doll named Diane. The source material though? Way more fucked up than the show ever got at its most unbelievable plot points. I’m really glad the people who adapted the show decided to drop the whole dolphin fucking sub-story. That shit was completely unreadable. I almost gave up on this book several times. I don’t recommend it unless you like to get weird. Reeeeeal weird.
Most Likely to Disappoint – My Dark Vanessa by Kate Elizabeth Russell
This is a book I’d seen lots of people recommending online, mostly women. So I thought I’d check it out and see what all the hype was about. It’s just a gross, creepy, sad read. The main character never grows or learns from her experiences being groomed and raped by her english teacher who she fancies herself in love with. The whole thing is just shock value rapist apologist crap. I hated it and I don’t recommend it. It let me down the most out of everything I read this year.
Most Likely to Succeed – Of Mice and Men by John Steinbeck
Classic. And classic for a reason. It’s a simple, tragic tale of friendship told beautifully and everyone should read it. It’s been challenged and put on banned lists for numerous reasons, but that’s just typical Whiny McWhiners trying to censor art. If you were never made to read it as required school reading, or you just pretended you did to get through English class, you should give it a genuine chance.
Most Enjoyable Read of the Year – Oona Out of Order by Margarita Montimore
A chick lit romp through time, I live for it! This is a new take on the time travel story and I was so into it. Premise: on the night of her 18th birthday, Oona faints and wakes up suddenly thrust years into the future in her 50’s in the year 2015. There’s a letter from herself to read when she gets there that explains from the age 18 onwards she’ll be living every year of her life out of order. So instead of living life in a linear timeframe like the rest of us, 1982, 1983, 1984, etc. her life becomes 1982, 2015, 1991, etc. All the while she’s still the same age spiritually. So even though she just turned 19 she’s 19 in a 51 year old body and life. I thought it was such a cool twist on time-travel stories and I loved it.

Of the 45 books I read those are the ones that stand out the most and are worthy of callouts, for good or bad reasons. Maybe you’ll want to check some out? If I can get someone to read at least one book because of this post I’ll feel just fine about that.

It’s been a slow start to the 2022 reading list. I’ve got some decent things waiting on the shelf for me to pick up, but I’ve been feeling a bit of that “reader’s block” I get sometimes. You know what I’m talking about. That feeling when the crushing amount of work it takes just to exist saps your will to do anything other than lay on the couch with Netflix and Doritos at the end of a long day? That’s the one. Because all the days are so long and exhausting. So very long and exhausting. But it’s wicked to wish the time away so I just focus on getting by instead.

I’m sure I’ll feel a bit more like reading again when the snow melts, when work stops being a total pressure cooker every day, when Woody goes to college. I’m nothing if not hopeful. Until then, take ‘er easy pals! I’ll see you next year when I recap the 2022 list, if not sooner.