Sunday Salon: 2022 in review

I know that we are more than halfway through February, but I haven't had time before this week to share my statistics for 2022 yet! And you know I love a good statistic, so I didn't want to not do them. So, better late than never, is my 2022 in review post

My Goodreads challenge target for 2022 was 55 books, which was one book per week plus a couple of extras. In the end, I exceeded this and read a total of 60 books for the year, which was 12051 pages. I am aiming for 60 books this year too!

Let's get into the stats.

I do tend to read a lot of new books so no real surprises with the numbers below. The oldest book I read was Alice in Wonderland, which I read thanks to Cook the Books.

Genre wise, there are no surprises that my reading is dominated by historical fiction, general fiction and contemporary romance. It is a bit of a surprise to see a horror read on there! That's unusual!

My best reading months were February and October. Pretty sure February won't be up there in this years stats. At least I hope that there are better months! was August. 

One of the things that has changed for me over the last couple of years is the way that I read. If we look back a few years, most of my reading would have been paper books, then audio and then finally the occasional e-book. However, that has completely swapped around with the vast majority of my reads being digital this year. It surprises me that I completed 9 audiobooks this year. Last year I only finished 3 audiobooks whch I attributed to the fact that I spent most of my year working at home and therefore don't have a lot of listening time. The same is true this year and yet I finished a lot more.

A new statistic for this year is keeping track of whether I own or borrowed a book, or if it was a book that I received for review purposes

I have been blogging a very long time now. This is my eighteenth year and yet today is the first day it has occurred to me to include posts per month in my annual stats

Some other stats:

I read 34 new to me authors in 2022, which is 57%. I think that is a good thing, but it also means I am not getting through many backlist books from authors I have already read. So I guess there are pros and cons both ways.

The authors who I did read multiple books by were Maggie Christensen with 7 books, and Ella Carey, Toshikazu Kawaguchi, Jo Thomas and Karen Swan with 2 books each. 

I don't do a lot of rereads at the best of times. This year my only reread was Hogfather by Terry Pratchett which is seemingly becoming an annual event during the festive season. 

As always my reading is always skewed to read a lot more women authors than men but I read many more than usual men this year with 49 books by female authors and 11 by males. 

Another skew that I have in my reading is towards Australian authors. This year 40% of my reads were by Australian authors, which is a pretty big portion and is about the same as last year. I don't really see this changing.

The last graph I wanted to share is for ratings. My go to rating of a book I enjoyed is 4 out of 5 and this is once again reflected in the gradings for the year.

These were the two books that I gave 5/5 to!

So there is it is....my 2022 reading year in review!

Sunday Salon: 2021 in review

I do love a good graph, so it's always fun when we get to the end of a reading year and we look back to see what the patterns of our reading year are in graphical form.

In 2021 I set my Goodreads challenge total at 75, which unfortunately I didn't reach. I ended up with 53 books for the year, which I am happy with. It basically means I am tracking at a book a week. Gone are the heady reading years where I read more than 200 books in a year but this feels more balanced. And that is what I am striving for now in my life. In fact, balance is my word of the year for 2022! The biggest thing I need to balance is between work and home, but there are also a lot of things happening this year so there will be plenty of other things that I need to remember balance if I am not going to exhaust myself.

Anyway, enough about 2022. Let's focus back on the reading stats for 2021. There are a few surprises in amongst them, and then there are some expected results. The first of those is my tendency to read new books rather than back list. The oldest book I read was published in 1996, and that was a reread of Hogfather by Terry Pratchett.

Genre wise, there are no surprises that my reading is dominated by historical fiction, contemporary fiction and contemporary romance. If you had of told me 5 years ago that I would have a year when I would only read romance with a contemporary setting, I would have laughed. Back in the day I read all historical romance with an occasional contemporary set novel. These days, it's turned around completely. One thing that is slightly surprising it is that I read 4 sci-fi novels. I am generally not a sci-fi reader, but 3 of the Murderbot books in quick succession helped fill this number out!

My best reading month was August. Not sure why I got more reading done in that month, but I did!

One of the things that have changed for me over the last couple of years is the way that I read. If we look back a few years, most of my reading would have been paper books, then audio and then finally the occasional e-book. However, that has completely swapped around with the vast majority of my reads being digital this year. The fact that I only finished 3 audiobooks is representative of the fact that I spent most of my year working at home.

Some other stats:

I read 25 new to me authors in 2021, which is 47%. I think that is a good thing, but it also means I am not getting through many backlist books from authors I have already read. So I guess there are pros and cons both ways.

The authors who I did read multiple books by were Maggie Christensen with 6 books, Viola Shipman, Martha Wells and Ella Carey with 3 each and Susanna Kearsley and Maisie Thomas with 2 books.

I don't do a lot of rereads. This year I reread two books. One was The Winter Sea by Susanna Kearsley, one of my all time favourite books, and the other was The Hogfather by Terry Pratchett. It is interesting that both of these were audiobooks that I listened to.

As always my reading is always skewed to read a lot more women authors than men. This year was no exception with 49 books by female authors and only 4 by males. However, 3 of those books were by Viola Shipman, who writes names under his grandmother's name, so if we were just looking at names, it would be one male author.

Another skew that I have in my reading is towards Australian authors. This year I read 41% of my reads were by Australian authors, which is a pretty big portion. I don't really see this changing.

The last graph I wanted to share is for ratings. My go to rating of a book I enjoyed is 4 out of 5 and this is once again reflected in the gradings for the year.

These were the four books that I gave 5/5 to!

The Rose Code by Kate Quinn (review) and 

The Warsaw Orphan by Kelly Rimmer

The Dressmakers of Yarrandarah Prison by Meredith Jaffe (review) and 

The Cartographer's Secret by Tea Cooper

I was going to add some Storygraph stats but they aren't really complete. Must do better on that this year. I also think this post is long enough without more!

So there is it is....my 2021 reading year in review!

Reading Reflections: What I read in January

I know I am going to sound old when I say this, but where on earth has January gone? How can we be a month into the year already? It doesn't really seem possible, but it is.

I managed to read 5 books during the month, three of which were part of the same series.

Here's what I read:

An American in Paris by Siobhan Curham - WWII and Paris! You know that is my jam! Review here

The first three books in the Granite Springs series by Maggie Christensen, an Australian author. The good thing about this series is that it is a  rural romance series which features older characters, which is lovely to read!

The Prenup by Lauren Layne - I read this in one setting. It's just one of those fun reads that you can inhale!

Pretty sure the shortest month of the year will fly by too!

Reading Reflections: What I read in September and October

I didn't get around to posting my reading wrap up for September so this month I bring you a bumper two month edition!

Here's what I read in September and October. Where I have already reviewed the book I have added a link. I am quite impressed by how many reviews there are! And by how much I read in October. That is almost back to my blogging glory days totals!

September

The Women's Pages by Victoria Purman 4 (Australian Author)
The Tolstoy Estate by Steven Conte 5  (Australian Author

The Wreck by Meg Keneally 4.5 (Australian Author)
Paris Time Capsule by Ella Carey 3.5 (Australian Author)
Serenity's Song by Cathryn Hein 4 (Australian Author)

The Second Marriage by Gill Paul 3

October

Letters from Berlin by Tania Blanchard 4.5 (Australian Author)

Flying the Nest by Rachael Johns 4.5 (Australian Author)

Turn of the Screw by Henry James 3

A Nanny Called Alice by Barbara Hannay 4 (Australian Author)

The House by the Lake by Ella Carey 4 (Australian Author)
The Heirloom Garden by Viola Shipman 5

Beach Read by Emily Henry 4.5

The Sun Down Motel by Simone St James 4 

Those Who Are Loved by Victoria Hislop 3.5

The Exiles by Christina Baker Kline

I am linking my post up to the Monthly Wrap up which is hosted at Feed Your Fiction Addiction

Reading Reflections: August 2020

I a little bit surprised to see that I read quite so many books this month. But I do need to be honest and confess that a couple of these were quite short!

You Were Made for Me by Jenna Guillaume - 4/5 (Australian)

A super fun read where a couple of young girls create the perfect boy!  Read my review here.

The Switch by Beth O'Leary - 4/5 (Audiobook)

As soon as I saw that this was available as part of Netgalley's new offering of audiobooks and their app. I enjoyed the book and the performance but the app was a bit glitchy. Read my review here.

The Roommate by Dervla McTiernan - 4/5 (Australian Authors)

This is a prequel to the Cormac Reilly series, featuring a young garda Cormac Reilly as he investigates a murder in Dublin. This one is/was available from Audible for free for members.

The Secrets of Saffron Hall by Clare Marchant - 4/5

Ooopss. I swear I had posted the review for this book but it seems that maybe I only wrote this in my head. Must get onto writing it for real. I love a good dual timeline, and a story of a building with a long hidden history and this book had both!

Matilda Next Door by Kelly Hunter - 4/5 (Australian author)

I really enjoy Kelly Hunter's books at the best of times, and I have previously enjoyed all the books set in the small town of Wirralong. This is the first book in the new quartet called the Outback Brides Return to Wirralong. I am really looking forward to reading the last two books!

Maeve's Baby by Fiona Macarthur - 3.5/5 (Australian author)

No I didn't make a mistake in the last paragraph. I already read the second book in the quartet. I actually completely forgot that I preordered this entire series so it was something of a surprise when this one dropped onto my Kindle, but I did enjoy reading both off these stories over the course of one weekend.

The Last Charm by Ella Allbright (3.5/5)

This is one where I knew that I haven't yet finished the review. I mean I have an opening paragraph, I have a bit near the middle and some of the ending. Just need to fill in the gaps really! Watch this space.

The Deadly Hours by Susanna Kearsley, Anna Lee Huber, Christine Trent and CS Harris (4/5)

This is a collection of  4 stories that follows a cursed watch through history from the 1700s through to the 1940s. I read this because I love Susanna Kearsley, and this story actually feature characters from a couple of her previous books. I enjoyed the last two books but the Anna Lee Huber was the one I enjoyed the most. It clearly is part of a series, and I don't read series out of order but still!

I am linking my post up to the Monthly Wrap up which is hosted at Feed Your Fiction Addiction

Reading Reflections: July 2020

July felt like a very slow reading month for me. I am not sure why. I think it is partially as a result of us going back into lockdown and I just felt unsettled. Who knows. Maybe August will be better. Maybe not.

Here's what I did read

The Goldminer's Sister by Alison Stuart 5/5 (Australian Author)

I thoroughly enjoyed this book as you can see from my review here. Only my second 5/5 read for the year.

Something to Talk About by Rachael Johns 4.5/5 (Australlian Author)

Rachael Johns is one of my go to authors. Even when I wasn't reading I would read her books. This is the follow up book to Talk of the Town, set in a small town in country Western Australia.

Tiny White Lies by Fiona Palmer 3.5/5 (Australian Author)

Two families decide to go on a roughing it holiday to get away from their normal lives, but this may lead to lots of secrets being revealed.

Miss Graham's Cold War Cook Book by Celia Rees 4.5/5

I read this for a blog tour and I am so glad that I got the chance to read it as it was a very unusual book from the setting to the events in the book. You can read my review (and see a recipe for a Beesting cake) here.

James and the Giant Peach by Roald Dahl 4.5/5

I feel like I am cheating a bit by counting this as a book read, but the reality is that it is not dissimilar to listening to an audiobook. Listening to Taika Waititi and his celebrity friends perform this book is nothing less than pure delight. This is also yet another opportunity to share the first video. If you haven't yet watched this, treat yourself because it is a delight.

I am linking my post up to the Monthly Wrap up which is hosted at Feed Your Fiction Addiction

Reading Reflections: June 2020

Here we are...half way through the year already! How did that happen?

June was not a bad reading month for me. A bit of historical fiction, a bit of contemporary fiction, some Australian authors, some not.

Here's what I read:

The Palace of Tears by Julian Leatherdale - 4.5/5

This is the first book I read by Julian Leatherdale, who was an Australian author. The book was inspired by a hotel in the Blue Mountains just outside Sydney. I thoroughly enjoyed this one and am definitely intending to read the other two books that were published before he unfortunately passed away earlier this year.

Normal People by Sally Rooney - 4/5

I had so many thoughts about this book, and then the TV series which I also watched this month, and yet I haven't written any of them down yet. I actually listened to this one on audio which I think helped because I didn't have to notice that the speech marks were missing. A brief summary of my thoughts - what makes this literature instead of young adult fiction?

The Silk House by Katye Nunn - 4/5

This is the first book I have read by Katye Nunn but it won't be the last. I did a joint review of this one with Bree from All the Books I Can Read. You can read our thoughts here.

Aria's Travelling Bookshop by Rebecca Raisin - 3.5/5

Books, food and France. What more can you want?

Henrietta's War by Joyce Dennys 4.5/5

If I had to pick a best book of the month it would be this one. The irony is that this book has been on my bookshelf for more than 10 years, and in the end I only picked it up because I featured it as part of a Top Ten list. This book is a series of letters that were published during WWII and were then put together in a collection. The writer is writing to her childhood friend who is off fighting the war and she shares a series of anecdotes about life in her small village.

The House on Boundary Street by Tea Cooper 3.5/5

Part of the reason I mentioned the hotel when I talked about the Julian Leatherdale's book is because the same hotel is mentioned in this book. I do have a review half written on this book. Just need to finish it. I did enjoy some of the information about Sydney in the 1920s.

The New Beginnings Coffee Club by SamanthaTonge 4.5/5

This was my middle of the night read last week. It was also my first book by this British author. My library doesn't seem to have any more but I will be keeping my out for her books going forward.

I am linking my post up to the Monthly Wrap up which is hosted at Feed Your Fiction Addiction

Reading Reflections: May 2020

It's a sign of age that you get to the end of each month and can't help but think where did that month go. Of course, maybe it feels a bit like that even more than usual now.

Here's what I read this month. I am trying something new for this week and am going to write a one or two line blurb about each book.

Magic Study by Maria V Snyder 4.5/5 - Reread

This is the second book in the Chronicles of Ixia series, and was a reread for me. I don't reread very often but it was worth it! I did review this (kind of) back in 2007 when I read it the first time.

Postmistress by Alison Stuart 4.5/5 - Australian Author

I have owned books by this author for years and I finally read one! And I am going to be reading another very soon! (Review here)

The Wallflower Wager by Tessa Dare 4/5

Tessa Dare's books are always fun and this was no exception. Now I need to wait for the next book in the series to come out.

The Bookshop on the Shore by Jenny Colgan 4/5 Audiobook

I was listening to The Good Turn and decided to go for something a bit lighter. I do admire the way that that Jenny Colgan gives you a lighter story but still covers off on quite difficult subjects.

Fire Study by Maria V Snyder 4.5/5

Book number three in the Chronicles of Ixia series. The next book moves away from focusing on Yelena and Valek so it will be interesting to see how the next book compares to this original trilogy.

The Good Turn by Dervla McTiernan 4.5/5 Australian Author

This series is so good, and in this book some of the subplots that have been part of the atmosphere come to a head and so it will be very interesting to see what happens next.

The Railway Girls by Maisie Thomas 4.5/5

My first blog tour in a very long time! (Review here)