And now for the final bits and pieces!

Best Book Covers of 2022

Well, my top covers of the year were not published in 2022.

Witchmark (2018) C.L. Polk (The Kingston Cycle)
Publisher: Tor
Cover design by Will Staehle

 

This is far and away my favorite cover of the year. I adore the monochromatic blue, and the simple silhouettes, the trees bleeding into the stars, this misleading reflection upon the wet or icy streets. The whole thing gives of a sense of impending magic.

Proper Scoundrels (2021) Allie Therin (Roaring Twenties Magic)
Publisher: Carina Press
No cover artist mentioned or easily found.

 

This is my second favorite cover. It is also monochromatic, but this time in red, and also features silhouettes and line drawings. The art deco elements and the dress of the two characters give you a sense of time, as well as the class difference between the two characters. And the very subtle sense of movement in one character.

I did love some of the covers of books published in 2022. Just not as much as I loved the covers of Proper Scoundrels and Witchmark.

Husband Material (2022) Alexis Hall (London Calling)
Publisher: Sourcebooks Casablanca
Cover design and illustration by Elizabeth Turner Stokes

 

This cover, like the previous, is lovely. But as a sequel it lacks a little of the punch of the first book, since it’s expected to match the patterns of the first.

Despite that, I love the lines and bold colors.

A Bride’s Guide to Marriage and Murder (2022) Dianne Freeman (Countess of Harleigh Mystery)
Publisher: Kensington
No cover artist given or easily found.

 

This is another sequel, so it lacks the unexpectedness of the first book, but I do love the doodle style against a varying shades of pink.

An Impossible Impostor (2022) Deanna Raybourn (Veronica Speedwell)
Publisher: Berkley
Book design by Kristin del Rosario

 

All of the covers in this series are stunningly gorgeous. The immediately draw your attention and then keep it, as you suss out the little details. The only ding is the color, and that’s definitely a me thing.

Highest Rated Books of 2022

Two of these I’ve already talked about, the other I’m not going to talk about.

Blitz  (2022) Daniel O’Malley (The Checquy Files) 9/10

No Man’s Land: The Trailblazing Women Who Ran Britain’s Most Extraordinary Military Hospital During World War I  (2020) Wendy Moore 9/10

Knowing Why: Adult-Diagnosed Autistic People on Life and Autism  (2018) Autistic Self Advocacy Network  9/10

 

And because it wouldn’t be a Michelle post without them…

2022 Stats!

I read 247 books this year.

Goodreads is off by two books, but since I have to manually add anything that isn’t a kindle book, that’s not a surprise.

I am not going to go back and figure out what is missing.

And yes, I will continue to keep my reading goal as 12, because it’s so satisfying to be 2000% over my goal.

Although 247 is almost a 100 books fewer than last year, 2020 and 2021 were outliers, and you can see this is still the third largest number of books I’ve read since I started keeping track in 2003. (I started tracking halfway through the year, so 2003 is actually twice what was tracked.)

I read 51,969 pages this year, which is about 76.25 pages a day. I listened to audio books for 16 days, 20 hrs, and 15 mins. To clarify, I limit listening to audio books to when I’m exercising, doing chores (ie cleaning, cooking) and when we’re on road trips.

No record breaking months in 2022, and I am totally fine with that.

Genre-wise, the spread was similar to previous years, with mysteries almost–but not quite–making my most read genre for the year.

 

 

Romance: 125
Mystery: 108
Fantasy: 85
Boinking: 85
Historical: 67
Non-Fiction: 17
Science Fiction: 10
Anthology: 7
Comic: 4
YA: 3
Fiction: 0

These numbers do not add up, because a single book generally fits multiple genres.

My percent rereads is down from last year, but still pretty high.

The thing I find interesting about this chart is that is roughly charts my mental state over time–the more depressed and anxious I am, the more I reread old favorites.

 

I’ve been trying to stretch my reading horizons in recent years, and, I’ll be honest, the pandemic wasn’t so great for that.

Male author/artist: (55) (21.83%)
Female author/artist: (185) (73.41%)
NB author/artist: (10) (3.97%)
Other: (2) (0.79%)

I’ve always preferred female authors, and my running total since 2003 is 62% female authors, but my long-term file has been limited about other traits, so I’ve pulled these numbers from the Book Riot Reading Log I’ve also been using for the past several years. (Yes, I keep to separate workbooks AND a blog, which is why I don’t especially care about Good Reads and any other social reading site that wants me to manually enter books read just isn’t happening.)

Queer author/artist: (43) (17.27%)
Queer protagonist: (122) (49.00%)

Although I’m reading plenty of books with queer protagonists, I would like to read more books written by minority authors, be it POC, Queer, or Disability Rep

POC author/artist: (18) (7.23%)
POC protagonist: (65) (26.10%)

Trans author/artist: (1) (0%)
Trans protagonist: (1) (0%)

Disability Rep Author/Artist: (3) (1%)
Disability Rep Protagonist: (13) (5%)

And that, I think, is enough. I read a lot of books this year, not as many as last year, but that’s ok.

2022 Posts

The Books of 2022: Mysteries
The Books of 2022: Mystery Covers
The Books of 2022: Fantasy
The Books of 2022: Fantasy Covers
The Books of 2022: Non-Fiction
The Books of 2022: Non-Fiction Book Covers
The Books of 2022: Romance, Comics, and Audio Books
The Books of 2022: Romance Covers

Previous Years

The Books of 2021
The Books of 2020
The Books of 2019
The Books of 2018
The Books of 2017
The Books of 2016
The Books of 2015
The Books of 2014
The Books of 2013
The Books of 2012
The Books of 2011
The Books of 2010
The Books of 2009
The Books of 2008