Best Books So Far in 2022

The fact that I only have six books to show reflects how my reading has been going so far this year: not good. I’m reading slower and reading less, mostly because finding the time or interest to read has been scarce.

I’ve managed to complete 26 books, comics, and picture books so far. Of that bunch, these are the ones I gave high ratings because I greatly enjoyed them.

Kushiel’s Avatar by Jacqueline Carey
★★★★☆ ½

SUMMARY

It’s the third novel in a fantasy trilogy about a god-touched courtesan who’s trained as a spy and uses her skills to save her country and the people she loves many times.

Top 5 Tuesday #75: Comics Set at School

Top 5 Tuesday is a weekly meme created by Shanah, the Bionic Book Worm, and now hosted by Meeghan at Meeghan Reads.

---

This week’s topic:

Top 5 books set at a school

Here are five comic books that take place at a school of some kind or involves characters attending such institutions.

Archie, Vol. 1: The New Riverdale by Mark Waid, illus. by Fiona Staples, Annie Wu, and Veronica Fish

This is the first volume in the reboot of the classic comic book series staring the all-American teen, Archie, who attends Riverdale High with his friends Betty, Veronica, and Jughead. This first volume mostly introduces us to the characters. I remember not being very impressed by it, so I didn’t continue with the series.

Top 5 Tuesday #74: These Ones Give Summer Vibes

Top 5 Tuesday is a weekly meme created by Shanah, the Bionic Book Worm, and now hosted by Meeghan at Meeghan Reads.

---

This week’s topic:

Top 5 books that remind you of a season

I’m supposed to list books that remind me of the four seasons, but (luckily for Meeghan — HAPPY BIRTHDAY!!!) I can only think of books that remind me of summer, lol! So here are five books that give me strong summer vibes.

To Night Owl From Dogfish by Holly Goldberg Sloan & Meg Wolitzer

This one falls toward the older end of middle grade, bordering on YA. It’s a contemporary novel about two girls whose single dads are dating and want their daughters to meet and get along. It’s an epistolary novel, as the story is relayed via emails and texts the girls use to communicate. And it gives me summer vibes because it takes place in the summer while the girls are at camp and because it reminds me of the movie Parent Trap. The story is light, fun, and sweet.

Top 5 Tuesday #73: Death

Here’s a Top 5 Tuesday post on a Wednesday because I forgot that yesterday was going to be Tuesday. 😩

You might think that’s odd of me, and you’d be right. My internal clock is a bit skewed at the moment, and I’m even more off schedule than I’ve been since this year started because now I’m very sick. 😷

Hopefully things will get back to some sort of normal around here soon.

Btw, Top 5 Tuesday is a weekly meme created by Shanah, the Bionic Book Worm, and now hosted by Meeghan at Meeghan Reads.

This week’s topic:

Top 5 books about a death

---

Well… I didn’t realize until after drafting the post that the topic is “about a death” rather that “about death” as a theme, hence my limited selections below. 

Top 5 Tuesday #72: Weddings & Births

Top 5 Tuesday is a weekly meme created by Shanah, the Bionic Book Worm, and now hosted by Meeghan at Meeghan Reads.

So my intention with this post was to play catch up and make it a list of 10 things, but it turns out that I haven’t read many things that include the topics below — or my memory isn’t serving me well at the moment — so to come up with a list of 5, I’ve combined the selections for last week and this week’s topics into one list.

This week’s and last week’s topic combo:

Top 5 books about weddings & births

---

The Duke & I by Julia Quinn

Of course a Bridgerton book would contain a wedding. The Duke & I is the first in this Regency romance series about the extensive Bridgerton family whose matriarch seeks to secure happy, love-filled marriages for her children. I enjoyed the first book as much as I did its TV show adaptation on Netflix. As for the second book, The Viscount Who Loved Me, I enjoyed the TV show more than I did the book.

Top 5 Tuesday #71: Scavenger Hunt!

Top 5 Tuesday is a weekly meme created by Shanah, the Bionic Book Worm, and now hosted by Meeghan at Meeghan Reads.

This week’s topic:

…

---

Well… the theme for this month’s topic is scavenger hunt, so every week participants had to find books that contain the week’s object on the cover or in the title. I… didn’t participate because life, so I’ve decided to do all the month’s topics in this post.

I’ll start with the topic for this week.

Find a…

…book with a book on the cover

Book Love by Debbie Tung (illus.)

Top 5 Tuesday #70: Series I Haven’t Finished

Top 5 Tuesday is a weekly meme created by Shanah, the Bionic Book Worm, and now hosted by Meeghan at Meeghan Reads.

---

This week’s topic:

Top 5 series I haven’t finished

(What series haven’t you finished yet (or caught up to date on if it’s ongoing) that you meant to?)

There are MANY series I need to finish. Actually, I think I need to do one of those series-read projects I see people doing where you list the many series you’re in the middle of and read to complete or catch up on them. But, for now, here are 5 I’d like to complete.

First Law series by Joe Abercrombie

Top 5 Tuesday #69: These Have Been Around Awhile

Top 5 Tuesday is a weekly meme created by Shanah, the Bionic Book Worm, and now hosted by Meeghan at Meeghan Reads.

---

This week’s topic:

Top 5 books that have been on my TBR since forever

(What other books are you hiding on your TBR? And which ones have been there the longest?)

I’m sure we all have books on our TBRs that we’ve been meaning to read for years now but have yet to get to. I recently rediscovered a few while moving. Here are some of them.

Top 5 Tuesday #68: Top 5 New Authors of 2021

Top 5 Tuesday is a weekly meme created by Shanah, the Bionic Book Worm, and now hosted by Meeghan at Meeghan Reads.

---

This week’s topic:

Top 5 new authors of 2021

(Tell us all about your favourite new authors, either debut authors from 2021 or new-to-you this year.)

I met some great new-to-me authors this year who I’d love to read more from. Here are my top five.

Camilla Bruce

At the top is Camilla Bruce whose In the Garden of Spite I read earlier this year, thanks to Mogsy and Tammy. The novel is a historical thriller about a female serial killer in the late 1800s. It’s slow paced but such a riveting read. Both my aunt (who I made read it) and I want to read more from Bruce, and I need to get another copy of the book to let my mom read it too (I gave my copy to my aunt).

Top 5 Tuesday #67: Top 5 covers of 2021

Top 5 Tuesday is a weekly meme created by Shanah, the Bionic Book Worm, and now hosted by Meeghan at Meeghan Reads.

---

This week’s topic:

Top 5 covers of 2021

(What are some of your favourite covers that you have seen this year? Maybe these were reprints, redesigns or alternate covers that came out this year, or maybe they are brand new books.
Whatever they are, tell us all the pretties you have been coveting.)

I love a meme about book covers 😊 and I’ve been looking forward to one like this all year, lol! My favorite thing about December is looking back on all the things I read in the year and chatting about the best of the best.

Well, here are my favorite covers of books I read this year.

The Ruthless Lady’s Guide to Wizardry by C.M. Waggoner

The Ruthless Lady’s Guide to Wizardry is a gaslamp fantasy novel about a poor fire witch who lucks into the chance to make some money by serving as a bodyguard, along with other women, to protect a young lady from being assassinated before her wedding. I read this early in the year with Millie from Milliebot Reads and really enjoyed it. The protagonist is one of my favorites that I’ve encountered this year.