2022 Books

I lowered my reading goal this year. I wanted to be more present. Instead of shooting to read 100 books, my goal was to read 50 books. I've finished 52 books so far this year and have read 18,028 pages. I still have time to finish the 53rd book, but we'll see. I spend less time reading heavy and heartbreaking books. I read more light books that make me belly laugh. This year, that’s what I needed. 

We spend a lot of time at the library! It's the best. 

My kids and husband are book lovers too.

The shortest book I read this year was: “The Priesthood Power of Women” By Barbara Morgan Gardner. It’s only 159 pages, but it led to a riveting discussion at book club.

The longest book I read this year was: “Saints #3: Boldly, Nobly, and Independent.” This book is 757 pages. It was a monster. I did learn a lot about faith and was flabbergasted and heartbroken to read about how black members of the church were treated. What faith one family had after being told they could no longer attend.

My average book length this year was 346 pages.

The “most shelved” book I read this year was “To Kill a Mockingbird” By Harper Lee. What brilliant writing.

The “least shelved” book I read this year was “The Hollywood Dropout” By Kiri Case. I was friends with Kiri in High School and she published a book! I have so much respect for her! I binged Kiri’s book in a day and thought it was cute.

My average rating for 2022: is 4.0 stars. And some say I’m a harsh critic…

The highest-rated book on Goodreads that I read is, “Know My Name” By Chanel Miller. This was a very difficult read for me. Chanel is raw in her writing with details about her horrific rape at Stanford University. I don’t think I would recommend this book to most people but I appreciate the perspective and vulnerability.

My first review of the year was about the book: “Irreversible Damage: The Transgender Craze Seducing Our Daughters” By Abigail Shriner. I wrote on Goodreads: “This book was extremely informative and I shared a lot of what I learned with my husband. The title is awful and sometimes the tone of the writing bugged me, but I’m glad I read it.” I don't write reviews often and sometimes rating books is stressful for me. 

Rom Coms that got my approval:

• “Almost American Girl” By: Robin Ha
• “The Party Crasher” By: Sophia Kinsella
• “Just Haven’t Met You Yet” By: Sophie Cousens
• “Book Lovers” By Emily Henry. It wasn’t just me that thought this book deserved a standing ovation. It won the romance category on the Goodreads choice awards this year! 
• “Nora Goes Off Script” By: Annabel Monaghan
• “Eight Nights of Flirting” By: Hannah Reynolds
• “Maybe One Day” By: Debbie Johnson
• “Amelia Unabridged” By: Ashley Schumacher

Heavy Books Worth the Heartache:

• “The Woman They Could Not Silence: One Woman, Her Incredible Fight for Freedom, and the Men Who Tried to Make Her Disappear” By: Kate Moore
• “The Warsaw Orphan” By: Kelly Rimmer

Books in a Series you should check out:

• I read the first book in the Inheritance Games series last year. This year I read The Inheritance Games #2: “The Hawthorne Legacy” and The Inheritance Games #3: “The Final Gambit” By: Jennifer Lynn Barnes. Quick and fun.
• These books are near the top of my favorite books this year if not at the very top. “Finlay Donovan is Killing It—#1” and  “Finlay Donovan Knocks ‘Em Dead— #2” The third and final book comes out January 31 and I’m giddy thinking about it. I never do this, but I think I’ll pre-order this one which says a lot.

More books I cherished: 

• “The Good Sister” By: Sally Hepworth
• “Iona Iverson’s Rules for Commuting” By: Clare Pooley
• “The Book Woman of Troublesome Creek” By: Kim Michele Richardson (This one had a slow start for me, but picked up and was worth it). 
• “The Reading List” By: Sara Nisha Adams
• “This Time Tomorrow” By: Emma Straub

Hot titles you might see while browsing the store: 

Many of these books aren’t PG-rated and I did some skipping.

• “Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, and Tomorrow” By: Gabrielle Zein. Goodreads Choice Awards Winner for the fiction category. I had mixed feelings about it.
• “It Ends With Us” By: Colleen Hoover. Pass.
• “The Love Hypothesis” By: Ali Hazelwood. Skip a bit and you’ll enjoy the rest.
• The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo” By: Taylor Jenkins Reid. Interesting storyline, but graphic.
• “Verity” By: Colleen Hoover. Don't bother.
• “The Maid” By: Nita Prose. Goodreads Choice Award Winner for the mystery and thriller category. Read it!
• “Beach Read” By: Emily Henry. Meh? 
• “Lessons in Chemistry” By: Bonnie Garmus. Yes! Women rule.
• “Remarkably Bright Creatures” By: Shelby Van Pelt. Different and fabulous. 

Other books I finished:

• "Funny You Should Ask” By: Elissa Sussman
• “All Joy and No Fun: The Paradox of Modern Parenthood” By: Jennifer Senior
• “Piranesi” By: Susanna Clarke
• “Beasts of Extraordinary Circumstance” By: Ruth Emile Lang
• “Sitting Pretty: The View from my Ordinary Resilient Disabled Body” By: Rebekah Taussig
• “Upstairs at the White House: My Life with the First Ladies” By: J.B. West
• “Crying in H Mart” By: Michelle Zauner
• “The Alice Network” By: Kate Quinn
• “The Judge’s List (The Whistler #2)” By: John Grisham
• “Almond” By: Soh Won-Pyung
• “The Stranger in the Lifeboat” By: Mitch Album
• “The Wife and the Widow” By: Christian White
• “We Were Liars” By: E. Lockhart
• “Jefferson’s Sons” By: Kimberly Brumaire Bradley
• “Keep it Together, Kikongo Carter” By: Debbi Michiko Florence
• “Emmy & Oliver” By: Robin Benway
• “The Boy Who Harnessed the Wind: Creating Currents of Electricity and Hope” By: William Kamkwamba, Bryan Mealer
• “Out of My Heart” By: Sharon M. Draper

I’ll aim to read another 50 in 2023. What was your favorite book this year? Tell me and maybe I’ll add it to my list (fantasy might take some convincing). I understand if you can't narrow it down to just one favorite. 

Medical Probs

In October, we had Parent Teacher Conferences. James enjoys school and I was eager to hear how he was doing. We made conferences a family event and all of us attended. It wasn’t the conference I  envisioned or hoped for. Although yes, James scored high on kindergarten testing which wasn’t a surprise, some issues came up. The conference ran long. James' speech was mentioned,  also his poor handwriting (and possibly the need for occupational therapy), and his trouble focusing. Lots of James’ work that the teacher showed us was unfinished. Apparently getting James to sit still and work in class was a challenge. I knew that James had his name written on the “uh-oh board” one day since he told me, but I didn’t realize he was struggling and felt a little blindsided. We decided to head to the pediatrician and discuss the possibility of James having ADD. This is something I’ve always wondered about. After consulting the doc, Andrew and I had to fill out assessments about James’ behavior and his teacher filled one out too. It was determined that James does have ADD/ADHD. 

We started James on medication. Our pediatrician’s son also takes this medication and his firsthand experience was very beneficial. James takes the lowest dose possible. Luckily James does not have to swallow a pill. We put a powder in his breakfast in the mornings. The drug can affect sleep and appetite, but fortunately, James’ body has adjusted well. (He only lost 1 pound after a month on the medication and losing 4-5 pounds is expected.) After hearing about the challenges at school and learning that ADD can affect James’ self-esteem and cause more irritability and anger, I was fully on board with preventing that. Andrew agreed especially since James couldn’t really write. One night, it took 25 minutes to get James just to write his name on his homework. We have seen giant improvements with James and so has his teacher. I am proud of him! I recently got a phone call from the speech pathologist at the school. She is going to assess James’ speech and work with him. James’ teacher no longer thinks James needs to be evaluated for occupational therapy though which is a huge win. Now that he can focus, he can write. Maybe James will get to do the Chinese Immersion program at school next year like he’s been hoping for after all.

My health challenges have been plentiful this year, but the most recent problem has been super aggravating hives. These started in October around the time of James’ diagnosis. The hives were all over my entire body and even went up my neck onto my face at times. Falling asleep was tricky because I was so itchy. The hives were bad enough to wake me up during the night. I went to a primary care doctor and he thought the hives might be caused by stress. He put me on a prescription, but the hives returned ruling out stress. I scheduled an appointment with an allergy specialist (who happens to be in our ward and live on our street). He was booked out pretty far, but I could finally see him this week. I’m relieved. I didn’t end up having to do an allergy test. I guess my skin is so sensitive it would have been hard to read the test results. I'm not allergic to my toothpaste like detective Jenna thought. I learned the term for my sensitive skin is dermatographia. I can take over-the-counter pills to help ease the hives and you better believe I got those pills into my system as soon as possible. Just because I have this skin condition now, doesn’t mean I’ll deal with it forever. The doctor did ask if I’ve had Covid-19 recently and said that hives are a common lingering side effect. There’s no way to know exactly what is causing the hives, but I am thrilled to have a plan moving forward. Stay away hives! Forever.