Last time I read this many books in one year I was probably in my teens, if even that. When I was studying in the Uni, I had little energy to read anything beyond the exam books (but of course I did, a dozen books a year, perhaps). When the kids were little, I had little time for myself, between the fulltilme job and family, and what time I did have, was late at night when I was exhausted. Still, I did read maybe that dozen books a year (disregarding all the kids’ books I read to them). Gradually, when they grew older, I started to have more time for reading and I think some sort of average was 35 books per year, for a long time.

Kids are all adults and living their own lives now. We have our dogs, we have our routines, we have our together time, but I seem to find more and more time to read. Last year it was 82 books (30 948 pages), year before that 63 books (24 563 pages), while the year before that was right at the average of 35 books. This year I have read 102 books, a total of 39 304 pages, books ranging from 56 to 868 pages long, with an average book length of 385 pages. There’s still almost a week left of the year. I’ll surely finish at least my current Kindle read by then, A Fate of Flame by Tessonja Odette (49% read currently), potentially even another one. I doubt I’ll reach 40 000 pages, though.

Let’s take a look back on my reading year, with Goodreads’ Year in Books as our guide, and see some highlights and my book picks, month by month. A little bit of insight and maybe even reading tips to the likeminded.

January

The pick: The Very Secret Society of Irregular Witches (Sangu Mandanna)
A fun, sparkly, and warm story, where the magic could be found equally in witching and finding a love and a place to belong. I loved this so much I looked for more books by Mandanna, got a couple to my Kindle too, only to realize they are essentially totally kids’ books, not even YA, so I haven’t really gotten to them. I’m sure one day I will – I don’t really have any scruples regarding reading kids’ books, when I get to the mood.

The meh, the almost-DNF: The Witch of Willow Hall (Hester Fox)
A dreary gothic story with potential for so much more. None of the themes were really explored to their full potential, not the witchiness, not the love story, not really even the tragedies.

The predictable: 22 Seconds (James Patterson & Maxine Paetro)
I mean, you know what you get, and you get that and nothing more, nothing less. Good entertainment, guaranteed mystery.

The indie surprise: The Glory Box series (Claudia Marcin)
With indie, you never know what you get. Many I have DNF:d, most have been ok, some have been diamonds in the rough. This series was definitely in the diamond category. A scifi mystery series with an ending even I couldn’t predict until at the very end, right before the revelation. Sincere recommendation!

The new discovery: The Wee Free Men (Terry Pratchett)
i.e. the Tiffany Aching storyline of Pratchett’s Discworld series, also my very first of Pratchett apart from Good Omens (cowritten by Pratchett and Neil Gaiman) which I read in 2022. More accurately, I finally started Wintersmith (which I’d randomly picked from a used books table at the Helsinki Book Fair in 2021) in January, immediately realized I loved the writing AND that the story I was reading started in the middle of a longer story. In fact, exactly the middle, as Wintersmith is book #3 of the 5 Tiffany books. So I put my bookmark in that one and ordered the other 4 books from Amazon and started from the beginning with this one, The Wee Free Men. And loved it. Fun adventures and a bit of suspense in a fantasy world. Obviously went on to read them all, which segues us to February.

February

The sweetest: And Every Morning the Way Home Gets Longer and Longer (Fredrik Backman)
More of a short story than a novel, it is the story of a grandpa losing his battle agains Altzheimers, of his days inside his memories, of moments with his grandson. Warm and heartfelt, sweet while bitter. A piece of life.

The lightest: Mystery of Thorn Manor (Margaret Rogerson)
I loved the first Thorn book, Sorcery of the Thorns. I didn’t not love this sequel, but it most certainly wasn’t a novel with a fullblown plot or anything. I mean, it didn’t pretend to be either. It’s a book that would probably bear the number 1.5 if the Thorns were to become an actual series, which I doubt they will. It’s a lightweight, entertaining, and fun novella with bubbly magic.

The domestic (Finnish): Taikuri ja taskuvaras -trilogy (Anniina Mikama)
February was quite a bit of a YA month for me, between the Tiffany Achings, Thorns, and this Finnish scifi/fantasy series. I liked the series quite well, and in my opinion it got better as the story unfolded, book 3 being the best of the trilogy,

March

The pick: My Grandmother Asked Me to Tell You She’s Sorry (Fredrik Backman)
A Backman-kind-of sweet story that tastes like life. The grandma who, in her death, ties everything and everyone together after years of disparaging between people who really should just love each other, be a family even if they actually aren’t one. The little girl, the granddaughter, who serves as the glue and ribbon, by being the executor of grandma’s letter-legacy. Sweet and heart-warming, true Backman quality.

The doggo: Love, Clancy (W. Bruce Cameron)
It’s the doggo, Clancy, telling the story of humans - his and a few other ones – and their often incomprehensibly (to the dog-mind, anyway) complicated relationships and goings-on. That, and a bit of butt-sniffing and doggo-love. A lovely read, while it didn’t inspire me to get more of Clancy.

The LGBTQ+ love: Delilah Green Doesn’t Care (Ashley Herring Blake)
At this point, maybe I’ll begin by stating that I am bisexual (and actually polyamorous by nature if not in practise, at least not currently), and I would love to see more queer in books. I don’t pick books based on the sexuality of their characters, but sometimes I get tired of the heteronormative in romance, and even more the one true love (even when being torn between two love interests, making me scream “just have them both in a V and be done with it!”) trope. Polyamory is quite difficult to find in mainstream (i.e. not indie) lit, and the few indie titles I’ve tried, went to the DNF category for other reasons. Gay love (guys or gals), however is starting to be a bit more common, while still mostly only in their own genre, at least where main characters are concerned.
Anyway, Delilah Green is most certainly lesbian, and starts the delightful three book series by Blake, where a queer trio finds their loves (oh yes, still the one true love thing). Things get a bit steamy in these books, so if it’s not your thing, don’t pick them up. I loved these for romantic reads – the third one in December when it was published.

The grand finale: Chain of Thorns (Cassandra Clare)
This book ended The Last Hours trilogy, which has spanned over three years, at least? It also ended the Shadowhunters era, as after this book Clare moved on to create a new and different fantasy world, one I’ve yet to delve into (Sword Catcher, on my TBR, in my Kindle, waiting). IMO, the Shadowhunter books were getting a bit tired, a bit repetitive, so a good time to say goodbye,

The segue: Fractured Fables 1 & 2: A Spindle Splintered & A Mirror Mended (Alix E Harrow)
Looking for more of Alix E Harrow after The Ten Thousand Doors of January (my probably very favorite book of 2022), I found these Fractured Fables where the protagonist travels through (and fixes as she goes) a myriad of variations of the story of the Sleeping Beauty, until stumbling into a puzzling version of Snow White. This duo of fairy tale retellings plunged me head on to the next month(s) of Twisted Tales.

April

The three in one: White Haven Witches, books 1-3 (T.J. Green)
So, actually three books counted as one, so technically book count of the year should be 2 books higher… Anyway, a fun, witchy, and even romantic fantasy mystery series, the books 4-9 (in two 3 book sets) of which are waiting in my Kindle for the right moment to dive back into the quirky world of Avery and Alex and the rest of the White Haven Coven.

The doggo: A Spot of Trouble (Teri Wilson)
Dalmatians do it again: bring together two people who otherwise would’ve never. Light and fun, and full of dognanigans!

The best Twisted of April: What Once Was Mine (Liz Braswell)
The first Twisted Tale I got. Oh, I ordered a total of 10 of them – not quite all of them, but most, leaving out those I didn’t like/haven’t read in their original, erhm, Disney original, form. I was almost tempted to continue on to the Disney Villains series, but decided to pass. Anyway, What Once Was Mine is the retelling of Rapunzel, and the best one I read in April, but also right at the top of them all.

May

The most expected: In the Lives of Puppets (TJ Klune)
The most recent book from one of my very favorite (and very queer) authors, TJ Klune. A book that was supposed to be published in September of 2022, but ended up coming out only in May 2023, due to Klune changing publishers (which also resulted in full new beautiful editions of my maybe favorite Klune series, the Green Creek quadrology, which I promptly proceeded to order as they come out, even though I’ve read the series in Kindle already).
Oh so the Puppets. A bit of a scifi book, and also sort of loosely a retelling of Pinocchio, putting it right into the theme of things in May 😀 Not my favorite Klune book, but certainly guaranteed Klune goodness!

The best Twisted of May: As Old As Time (Liz Braswell)
Obviously, Beauty and the Beast, this one. And a lovely version it was too! I actually 5-starred several of the tales in May, but I think this one is my pick of them as my favorite in May.

The least liked Twisted: Once Upon a Dream (Liz Braswell)
The book I least enjoyed of all of the Twisted Tales was the retelling of the Sleeping Beauty. I don’t know, I’ve never been a huge fan of the original story, either, and this one simply didn’t hit the spot with me, at all.

The new author: Reflection (Elizabeth Lim)
Also at the top of my Twisted Tales picks is this retelling of Mulan, which also lead me to seek more books by its author, Elizabeth Lim. We’ll meet Lim again in my July books.

The curiosity invoker: Unbirthday (Liz Braswell)
I believe I have read (or listened to) Alice in Wonderland, the original story, as a kid. I’ve obviously seen a movie or two, most certainly the most recent ones with Johnny Depp as the Mad Hatter. I was sure I had a version of the book in my library in Finnish. I couldn’t find it when I looked for it. Anyway, all this reading of the retelling and looking for the book that doesn’t seem to exist and thinking about the story and trying to remember it and how the retelling fits into things, I ended up getting the original book and reading it in August.
This book was also in in the top 5 of the Twisted for me, and it concluded my Twisted reading for the time being. One still awaits on the shelf.

The DNF: Borderline Personality Disorder Workbook (Daniel J. Fox)
Self-help. I usually don’t go for self-help anyway. This one I got 2/3 through, I think, reading one chapter per weekend or so, doing the excercises too. I wanted to help myself. Then I realized I really do have all the tools; the book wasn’t giving me anything new. Also, getting my ADHD diagnosis, starting the medication, going through the process of discovery of my neurodivergency – autistic traits on top of ADHD – removed most of specifically BPD related issues, leaving only what is explained by said neurodivergency. Can’t say going through the book as far as I did was futile. It just became redundant at this point in time and life.

June

The most expected: Atlas – The Story of Pa Salt (Harry Whittaker & Lucinda Riley)
Lucinda Riley died of cancer before completing her story of Pa Salt and the seven sisters. It undestandably took her son Harry some time to put together the tome of a book, that concludes the story and finally reveals what we readers had only been guessing at by way of the few clues given in the sisters’ books. Well worth the wait! Grand book, grand finale for the saga!

The FanFic: The Late Mrs. Willoughby (Claudia Gray)
The second book in Grays Austen based stories starring the autistic eldest son of Mr. Darcy and Elizabeth, and the eldest daughter of Catherine and Henry Tilney (of Northanger Abbey) – combining my two favorite Austens! – and featuring a set of characters from different Austen novels; this one mainly restricted to those of Sense and Sensibility, though, while the first one, The Murder of Mr. Wickham brought together basically all of the main protagonists. Yes, I loved this like I loved the first one, and next summer should see a third one published.

The gateway book: Daughter of the Moon Goddess (Sue Lynn Tan)
Or maybe Reflection was the gateway? Be as it may, when looking for more books by Lim, I also found this book, book one of a duology, and for whatever reason started my stint into to Chinese mythology based books with this, not one of the Lims (which follow in July and August). Excellent fantasy, this duology, and those of Lim, if you ask me.

The pick: The City of Dreaming Books (Walter Moers)
Found this (as so many others) in the Bookaholics FB group, was fascinated, got it in paper, read it, loved it. Which set me on the path to get all of the Moers books, which are only six altogether; 5 of them stories from Zamonia (this is book 3 of them, all of them standalone stories), one a bit different, but we’ll get to that in December.

July

The magical realism: Book Charmer (Karen Hawkins)
Just a touch of magic, some warmth and caring, a town to save, and a bit of romance. The first book in the Dove Pond series of magical realism and romance combined. Sweet and easy reading.

The disappointment: Last Unicorn (Peter S. Beagle)
Somehow I expected a lot from this book, it came so highly praised, but I was disappointed. Kinda like I was disappointed by The Neverending Story. There’s some similarities in the style and the story building, and I simply could not love either, as much as I would’ve wanted.

The longest book of the year: The Priory of the Orange Tree (Samantha Shannon)
I’d like to say it was a fabulous saga. And in many ways it was. However, it was a bit unnecessarily long, in my opinion, and I would’ve enjoyed it more had it been just a tad more concentrated. Same goes for the second book prequel. Still, I did enjoy reading them.

August

The pick: Midnight at the Blackbird Cafe (Heather Webber)
Another find from the Bookaholics. Another author who spins a bit of magic into real life real world stories of love and friendship and finding one’s home. I loved this book, and I loved the other Webber I read this year, well, in August as well, At the Coffee Shop of Curiosities.

The sweetest: The Reading List (Sara Nisha Adams)
A warm and sweet story revolving around books that bring people together and resonate and console their readers separately. A list of books, left in secret by an avid reader, to be found by those they chose as receivers. I love books about books, and this wasn’t an exception, even though the books on the list were not exactly up my street.

The domestic (Finnish): Katariinanpyörä (Johanna Valkama)
Going back in history, to the time when Jaakko Ilkka, the hero of the Nuijasota (The Cudgel War, or rather the uprising of peasants in North-West Finland in 1596-97) had been beheaded, leaving his wife a widow. The book is otherwise fully fictive – nobody really knows much about his family – and takes the reader through Middle Age Finland, to Turku. Quite an enjoyable book, this one. I didn’t like the second book, Kuningatarlaiva (which started my September), quite as well.

September

The pick: The House at the Edge of Magic (Amy Sparkes)
As one can guess from the cool covers, it’s YA. But it’s FUN! A whole lot like The Moving Castle, but definitely no copycat. These are books of pure magical fun and mayhem. There may be a fourth book coming out at some point.

The political memoir: Maailmanparantajan muistelmat (Risto Isomäki)
The memoir of an environmental activist, a do-gooder, a journalist. Extremely interesting book, and while I don’t subcribe to his ideology as is, I can’t very well not acknowledge the good he and his posses have done. The book reminded me of the importance of balance, and that people like Risto are important drivers of balance in the world. The book also sparked a curiosity or interest in colonialism and how it pushed the third world into the poverty ridden state it was and mostly still is. It prompted the purchase of the book Late Victorian Holocausts: El Niño Famines and the Making of the Third World by Mike Davis. Still on my TBR, waiting for the right moment.

October

The memoir: Muistista piirretty kaupunki (Elena Chizhova)
The story of Elena and her foremothers, the saga of a St. Petersburgian family before and after it was Stalingrad and Leningrad. The glamour and the beauty of the city as much as the ugly and the poverty. The exodus and the come-back. A city you can leave but that never leaves you.

The shortest of the year: Old Possum’s Book of Practical Cats (T.S. Eliot)
I.e. the book that became Cats, the musical. A book of cat poems. Bought because it was referred to in The Distant Hours (Kate Morton). I got another copy of this one for my son for Christmas.

The most miserable: Wuthering Heights (Emily Brontë)
No worries, I won’t go into all of my dislike here, you can read all of that in my previous post (the last part of). Suffice to say, that despite the gloom, despair, and misery on me, this one actually is solely responsible for several new books on my TBR and in my library, all of which are still waiting, though. Perhaps next year?

The three in one: The Fair Isle Trilogy (Tessonja Odette)
Um yes, another book of three in one, so what’s the actual count now? 106 books? Fairies, humans, war, romance. All the makings of a thoroughly enjoyable fantasy book. You know, I believe there’s a word used for romance between the fae and humans, and while trying to google it, I came across some peculiar q&a’s like: “are fairies monogamous?”. I mean, like, what?

November

The pick: Hex and the City (Kate Johnson)
Some more romantic witchy fun mystery found in the Bookaholics group. Why is it that the witchy just makes it just so much more fun to read?

The doggo: A Dog Day (Walter Emanuel)
Another shorty. Just a terrier going through a day in a very different time and age than ours. Not exactly to my liking, but I’m mentioning it since, well, dog.

The most expected: Dirty Thirty (Janet Evanovich)
Evanovich is getting old, and book releases are less and further apart than before. Still a enjoyable reads, though, still as much fun! I just wish Steph would find a way to go poly for good with Morelli and Ranger. I mean, she really already is, so why not make it official?

The autobio: The Woman in Me (Britney Spears)
While I liked all three autobios I read in November, Britney’s gets the mention if only because it was such a mind-blowing experience to read about the circumstances of her father’s take-over of her life and career. Absolutely baked my noodle. More about this book, too, in the aforementioned previous post.

The finale: A Curse For True Love (Stephanie Garber)
This was the third and final book of the Once Upon a Broken Heart trilogy, which matured and grew better together with the protagonist. The best book of this trilogy.

December

The pick: The Lost Bookshop (Evie Woods)
Humm… another book you can read more about in the previous post 😏 A lovely magical realism duo-storyline book. Maybe my favorite of the year. Or was that the City of Dreaming Books?

The non-fiction: Remainders of the Day (Shaun Bythell)
In a way not much to shout about – a day-to-day diary of running The Bookshop in Wigtown, the booktown of Scotland. Then again, it painted a patchy but alluring image of the town, its goings-on, and the day-to-day life surrounded by books. It made me want to go and stay in the Open Book AirBnB for a week or few to run the bookhop just for fun. It made me start planning my dream world tour, jotting down places I’d like to go, routes I’d like to travel. All because of Wigtown.

The curiosity invoker: Mansikkatyttö (Lisa Strømme)
Ah, one more reference to the previous post 😂 Actually the book that originally sparked the writing of said post. This book mixes history and real historical characters with fiction in a way that had me googling for more info on the subject and the paintings and finding a love of sorts for the works of Edvard Munch.

The non-Zamonian Moers: A Wild Ride Through the Night (Walter Moers)
The only Moers book that is not of the world of Zamonia. Fantasy as it is, an action packed journey that could be just a dream, but maybe it wasn’t…?! The story is based on a set engravings by illustrator Gustave Doré, who also is the 12yo protagonist of the book. Apparently this was written before the Zamonia-books, but wasn’t published until after them. Still, it was the hardest to get.

Wrap-up and a what now

Sometimes I can easily pick a best read of the year. Most years not. This year, not so easy. The nominees would be:

• The Lost Bookshop (Evie Woods)
• The City of Dreaming Books (Walter Moers)
• Midnight at the Blackbird Cafe (Heather Webber)
• The Very Secret Society of Irregular Witches (Sangu Mandanna)

While this year was heavily fantasy – I do seem to drift more and more to the fantastical worlds as the years go by – and quite a bit of light romance, there were plenty of excellent historical drama / family saga kind of books and autobios in the mix, not all of them mentioned. Doesn’t mean I didn’t value or enjoy the reads – I really did! They just go into the comfortably good middle. Kate Mortons, always a pleasure. Bios and autobios, truly intriguing. The rest of the Moers Zamonias I read, and the Chinese mythology books I didn’t go into specifically, I loved. The bulk of the fantasy and romance I read, superb in my world.

I believe next year will be a similar mix of a lot of fantasy, a bunch of romance, some historical/family saga or other drama reads, some (auto)bios and other non-fiction, including at least the Brontë sisters book, the making of the third world book, and the book I got for Christmas: Putinin alttaripoika (Putin’s altar boy) by Juha Meriläinen – a contemporary political book about the nationalistic and religious games and motives behind the war in Ukraine.

Currently, I’m readung A Fate of Flame (Tessonja Odette), which is the last book in the Prophesy of the Forgotten Fae trilogy, and The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue (V.E. Schwab), which has been in my library for a couple years now, I think. The Fate I will definitely finish before the year is out, Addie Larue, probably not. I’ve got all these blog posts to write and work to do and dad to visit and floor to floor and whatnot taking up a lot of my daily time 😂 While I kinda would love to just read and read and read, it’s good to live and do things sometimes, right? And some things don’t really even ask 😏

My TBR is currently 129 books (and that is only books I already OWN). Last year at this point it was 104 books. Or was it 116? Less than now, anyway. So did I read my way through those 100+ books already? Are the 129 all new ones? Nope, nah-ah. The way it works is, I read two books at the same time, always: one in Kindle, the other in paper, and I pick my books by mood – when I finish one, I select the next one in that format.

I constantly find new interesting books in the Bookaholics group, in bookstores, and through books I read. The new and shiny usually cut in line and get read before the ones that have been on the list for longer. I do get to them, I get to all books eventually (unless I die first), but if they sort of pass their window of opportunity, it may take me quite some time to get in the right mood for them again.

So, only time will tell what I end up reading next year 🤷‍♀️

[Edit 1.1.2024: I actually DID finish both A Fate of Flame and The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue, the latter one yesterday evening. Addie LaRue actually goes right there to the top reads of the year, wonderful tale of life and love and the love of life!

This put my book count to 105 (plus 4 as two were three in one books 😉) and the page count actually did exceed 40 000, even disregarding the maybe 50 pages I didn’t read of the one DNF. A Fate of Flame was longer than I thought – with Kindle, the page count is a bit hazy. I’m starting my reading year 2024 with The Brontê Sisters by Catherine Rayner (the paper book) and Assistant to the Villain by Hannah Nicole Maehrer (the Kindle book).]