My Year in Books, 2022

 

by Sybil Johnson

I hope your week is going well. Internet problems at home has forced me to do this post from my local library. The view of the ocean is really nice.

Anyway, it’s time for my annual reading wrap-up.

In 2022 I “consumed” 93 books, 26 fewer than last year. Consumed because it’s a combination of listening to audiobooks and reading. The largest category was mystery/crime at 60%. The majority of those were cozy mysteries at 39%. I continued my reading of Nancy Drew books in order, reading 10 of them last year. These are mostly the 1960s/1970s editions, but I did read a few of the 1930s/40s versions. Mostly the ones where the stories drastically changed. Interesting to see the differences. 20% of the books I read were in the non-fiction category, up from last year.

I listened to 4 audiobooks, 16 fewer than last year. Two of those were books in the Sherlock Holmes in Minnesota mysteries by Larry Millett. I found them to be highly enjoyable stories. The narrator is top-notch on these.

In the cozy mystery category, I’m continuing my trend of reading paranormal cozies, including The Vampire Knitting Club mysteries I started last year. In the non paranormal area, I also love the Lighthouse Library series by Eva Gates aka Vicky Delany. I highly recommend it.

In the historical mystery category, one of my favorites was Execution by S. J. Parris. The story is set in England in the Elizabethan era. There’s a plot to put Mary Queen of Scots on the throne and a death that may or may not be connected. This is not the first book in the series, but the first I’ve read. There was enough of the back story, I didn’t have a problem understanding what was going on.

One of my favorites in the non-fiction category was The Feather Thief by Kirk Wallace Johnson. I had no idea that fly-tying was such a big thing and could result in a theft from a museum. Another interesting one was Mindhunter: Inside the FBI’s Elite Serial Crime Unit by John Douglas and Mark Olshaker. This is the book the Netflix series, Mindhunter, is based on. A very interesting read.

If you’re interested in learning how to read Egyptian hieroglyphs, I highly recommend Egyptian Hieroglyphs for Complete Beginners by Bill Manley. It was a nice review for me. I wish I’d had this book when I first started studying Middle Egyptian.

Another great non-fiction book was Eiffel’s Tower by Jill Jonnes. It chronicles the building of the Eiffel Tower and the exposition it was a part of. Very, very interesting.

I’ve also gotten into the Sandhamn murder series by Viveca Sten. Originally written in Swedish, I’ve been reading the English translations. I would categorize them as police procedurals set on an island in the archipelago. There’s a Swedish TV series based on these books, which I highly recommend. I watched the episodes through my local library via hoopladigital.

That’s my summary. I’m curious, did you find yourself reading more last year than in previous years? Did you read different things?