What I Read in December & 2022 Reading Plans 📚

Let's talk about all of the books I've read recently, plus my future reading plans. Grab a cup of tea and pull up a seat. x

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MY BOOKS:

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Things mentioned:

The Archive of Alternate Endings by Lindsay Dragar*
All Dogs Are Blue by Rodrigo de Souza Leao
Mrs Caliban by Rachel Ingalls*
Lark by Anthony McGowan
One Love Chigusa by Soji Shimada*
The Therapist by Nial Giacomelli*
The Annual Migration of Clouds Premee Mohamed*

Strange Beasts of China by Yan Ge
Someday at Christmas by Lizzie Byron

Mrs March by Virginia Feito
Mrs Bridge by Evan S. Connell
Mr. Bridge by Evan S. Connell
Mrs. Dalloway by Virginia Woolf

Fingersmith by Sarah Waters
The Woman in White by Wilkie Collins

Convenience Store Woman by Sayaka Murata
There's No Such Thing As An Easy Job by Kikuko Tsumura

The Secret History by Donna Tartt
English Monsters by James Scudamore

The Book of Strange New Things by Michel Faber
The Sparrow by Mary Doria Russell

Follow Me To Ground by Sue Rainsford
Greensmith by Aliya Whiteley

All The Names Given by Raymond Antrobus
Honorifics by Cynthia Miller
Julia and the Shark by Kiran Millwood Hargrave & Tom de Freston

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WHO I AM

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Where to find me:

This video contains no sponsored content. Books marked with * were sent to me for an honest review.

[jocelyndun]

My favorite read of 2021 was definitely "Drive Your Plow Over the Bones of the Dead" but I would be surprised if you haven't read that yet!

[jacquelinemcmenamin]

Best books of 2021
Great Circle by Maggie Shipstead
Cloud Cuckoo Land by Anthony Doerr
Small Things Like These by Claire Keegan
Unsettled Ground by Claire Fuller
The Power of the Dog by Thomas Savage
We Begin At The End ( best thriller)
Standard Deviation ( funniest book)
A Ghost in the Throat by Doireann Ni Ghriofa
Hidden Valley Road
Empire of Pain

[eringolive]

Under the Whispering Door is definitely the book that is sticking with me the most from 2021. I think I read it in the perfect point of my grief.

[HaleyShealy]

Lindsey Drager was my creative nonfiction professor in undergrad! She is an amazing teacher and always gave such wonderful nuggets of wisdom. Glad you enjoyed it and will try more by her!

[thesocialpalm]

So looking forward to your favorites video! And to reading The Therapist - the premise sounds fantastic!

My favorite book of the year is one I highly recommend as an audio book: The Thursday Murder Club (& the second book of the series, the man who died twice, was really good too). The narrator’s voice really gives life to the characters and it’s cool to have elderly people as the main characters, with personalities you get to discover as the story progresses. I’m also a big fan of a cozy murder mystery and didn’t see the twists in this one coming. Other favorites include: A Tale of the Time Being by Ruth Ozeki (TW for suicide attempts & bullying / physical violence though), A Dog’s Life by Peter Mayle (so funny and cute, a nice read when going through a rough time) and the stunning The Boy, the Mole, the Fox and the Horse by Charles Mackesy - the artwork is just so beautiful and the story so soothing, a little like a more zen Winnie the Pooh in a way.

[kopratic]

Oh! I also read Strange Beasts of China in 2021. It wasn't a favorite, but I really appreciated the style and prose. Another book I read in 2021 that has stuck with me was The Miracles of Ordinary Men by Amanda Leduc. It's about a man who suddenly sprouts wings that cause him lots of pain, but hardly anyone can see the wings; so people don't believe him about his pain. And then there's a woman who has lost her brother and ends up in a destructive relationship with her boss.

[ryanvale]

My favourite book of this year is probably Too Bright to See by Kyle Lukoff. It's a middle grade story dealing with grief, growing up and gender identity. It follows a 12 year old grieving for their uncle while also getting ready to start middle school and living in a haunted house

[rebeccamaclean]

One of my favorite books I read in 2021 was Hell Of A Book. I loved the structure and humor.

[lilith-cj]

Some of my favorite reads in 2021 were: My Friend Dahmer by Derf Backderf (I read this after watching the movie), The Long Call (Two Rivers #1) by Ann Cleeves; Kate Chopin short-stories: "The Story of an Hour", "Desiree's Baby" and "A Matter of Prejudice" (I never read Kate Chopin before); Conan Doyle short-stories: "The Adventure of the Dying Detective", "That Little Square Box", "The Brown Hand" and "The Case of Lady Sannox".

[cottagechaos]

My favourite was a novella called But You Did not Come Back (translated from the French) It is non-fiction and it is a letter written from the author to her father. They both went to Auschwitz but he did not come back.

[tahinitofu]

Favourites of 2021: The boy, the fox, the mole and the horse and also the audio books for the Agatha Christie's Poirot series. I've been slowly working through them. Some have aged worse than others but their still great.

[rebecca]

I think you have read some of these but my 5* reads this year were:
- if I had your face, frances cha
- piranesi, susanna clarke
- never let me go, kazuo ishiguro
- the nakano thrift shop, hiromi kawakami
- set me on fire: a poem for every feeling, edited by ella risbridger
- lonely castle in the mirror, mizuki tsujimura
- the dangers of smoking in bed, mariana enriquez

[mxrumphius]

My very favorite book of the year was The Psalm for the Wild-Built by Becky Chambers. It's a beautiful novella about what it means to be a person, what it means to exist, and how to wrestle with the life you thought you wanted not necessarily actually being the life you wanted. There's also so much tea! And it's a great audiobook. I ended up reading it three times last year?!

[jorjastonej]

Thank you for introducing me to Nicci French. I’m hooked and I’ll continue with them through 2022. A few of my favs in 2021 were The Sentence by Louise Erdrich. Erdrich herself owns a bookshop and this book features a bookshop haunted by one of its obnoxious customers. You’ve mentioned not being ready for pandemic books yet, so a warning there. My kids live at the heart of civil unrest in May 2020 after the murder of George Floyd so I had a deep interest in Erdrich’s POV as an author living in the heart of her city thru this period too. Here, it’s from the Native American perspective. If not this, Erdrich’s previous book about her grandfather or any of her books are fantastic. But the bookstore does have quite the ghost! Also, more for fun and history of cookbook writing in England, I enjoyed Miss Eliza’s English Kitchen by Annabel Abbs. Whatever you read this year, enjoy!!! I look forward to your insights ✨

[indubitablyzara]

It's hard to pick just a few, but I think my favorite books of 2021 were Iron Widow by Xiran Jay Zhao, Matrix by Lauren Groff, and The Master and Margarita by Mikhail Bulgakov.

[eloisereads]

It wasn’t a new book this year but my favourite of 2021 by far was The Giver of Stars by Jojo Moyes. This was such a shock to me but I loved it!

[jarrahcummings]

My favorite books of the year were Nothing To See Here by Kevin Wilson and The House In The Cerulean Sea by TJ Klune. They both explore the concept of found family through magical realism.

[mollyllewellyn]

one of my favourite reads of 2021 was chouette by claire oshetsky, a dark, modern day fable on motherhood, disability, queerness, ableism, difference, devotion and the ferociousness of a mother’s love ✨🦉

[lilith-cj]

Thanks a lot, Jen! I learn English on my own and now I watch your videos with English subtitles and in 0.75 speed, because you're very articulate and friendly, and you read interesting and varied books! I wish you all the best in 2022.

[ElizabethHopkinson]

Some of my favourite reads of 2021:
The Writer’s Map by Huw Lewis-Jones (illustrated non-fiction)
The Island of Happiness: Tales of Madame D’Aulnoy (illustrated by Natalie Frank)
The Voyage of St Brendan by A B Jackson (poetry)
The Lotterys Plus One by Emma Donoghue (middle grade)
Dear White Peacemakers by Osheta Moore (non-fiction)
The Blue Rose by Kate Forsyth (fairy tale influenced historical fiction)
The Prince and the Dressmaker by Jen Wang (graphic novel)
Loveless by Alice Oseman (YA fiction)
The Constant Rabbit by Jasper Fforde (satirical urban fantasy)
Rohingya Folktales by Mohammed Rezuwan & Alex Ebsary
Pilgrims by Matthew Kneale (historical fiction)