(Finally!) Wrapping Up the 2022 Fifty Books Challenge!

 

"Enclosed Content Chatting Away In The Colour Invisibility" by Anouk Kruithof, 2009

I logged more reviews in 2022 than in 2021, but still didn't quite make it to fifty, but still, what a year in books!

I'm shocked because more people are reading now than ever and I've realized I'm going to have to make a FAQ page (that will come eventually!) now and I'm just so grateful for all of you. This is a long-form blog in the 2020s and yet I seem to strangely be gaining readers and believe me when I say I don't take it for granted even for a second. You reach out to me on social media, you leave comments here, and you help fulfill part of what I wanted in this project, which is to talk about the books I've read (and books in general) with other people. Even if you don't talk to me, either through social media, elsewhere, or leaving a comment here, I still appreciate your reading more than you possibly ever know. Of all the places to spend time on this here internet, you chose here. Thank you so much!

What a year! Alice Hoffman was lovely about my reviews of her work on social media again (I don't post about reviews to get the attention of authors, but it's still quite dazzling whenever it happens), one of the books featured (notice I said featured, not reviewed) was by a dear friend (!!!!!), and there were so many wonderful stories I read that informed me and captured my attention and were wonderful and made me think, and I'm delighted to revisit them again here. I also got to read many I've been wanting to read forever, and even if some books weren't worth the wait, some really were and they're the ones that matter.

I also want to shout out some books that I read this year that didn't make it here, in part because some of them I've read before and some I wasn't sure I'd read, but there were also plenty that were new to me, and all were incredibly entertaining. I'm talking about the amazingly prolific Mary Downing Hahn, who's talented enough to write scary stories for a YA audience that will still frighten a jaded, true crime-consuming adult. I loved her books as a child and I'm happy to report they hold up wonderfully well as an adult and she's vastly added to her resume.

And there were some books that absolutely frustrated me in a way that feels historic and that I'm going to remark upon separately, books so bad they convinced me I could write a better book, so I am (!!!!!). That in and of itself is something for which to be grateful, certainly. That and I think some of you out there love the ones I hate more than you do the ones I love (and I'm not going to lie; sometimes it's satisfying to rip into a bad book, at least it makes up for wasting my valuable time with the book itself).

I should say in the interests of fairness, I am excluding a book from consideration that was a special edition, as it was written by a friend of mine (a fact I will keep mentioning and you can't stop me) and thus wouldn't be fair to categorize it.

But without any further ado, let's get down to it!

Favorite Books:

When We Were the Kennedys: a Memoir From Mexico, Maine

Nine Perfect Strangers

Room

Apples Never Fall

The Grownup

Delicious! (with caveats)

Sharp Objects

Where the Crawdads Sing (with some MAJOR caveats)

The House of the Spirits

Haywire

The Soul of a Woman

Happy-Go-Lucky with some BIG caveats, and it's complicated.

Bohemian Magick

The Witch Haven

The Fault in Our Stars

Green Angel

Hour of the Witch

¡Hola Papi!: How to Come Out in a Walmart Parking Lot and Other Life Lessons

The Ugly Cry: a Memoir

The Once and Future Witches

Educated


Least Favorite Books:

The Book of Magic (Alice Hoffman, I love you and your work, but this isn't a sequel to Practical Magic, it's a whole other book.)

Queering Your Craft: Witchcraft From the Margins

POSSESSED: The Life of Joan Crawford

The Hundred-Foot Journey

Homicide at Rough Point

Melania and Me

It Gets Worse

Missing Witches



Books That Made Me Want to Stare Disapprovingly at the Author Until They Apologize:

Queering Your Craft: Witchcraft From the Margins

Nine Perfect Strangers

POSSESSED: The Life of Joan Crawford

Apples Never Fall

A Killer By Design

The Modern Witchcraft Guide to Fairies

Delicious!

Where the Crawdads Sing

Helter Skelter

The Hundred-Foot Journey

Happy-Go-Lucky

Homicide at Rough Point

Melania and Me

It Gets Worse

Sheila Levine is Dead and Living in New York

Missing Witches

Barack and Joe


Books That Felt Like a Sisyphean Ordeal:

The Book of Magic

Witchery: Embracing the Witch Within

Queering Your Craft: Witchcraft From the Margins

POSSESSED: The Life of Joan Crawford

A Killer By Design

The Modern Witchcraft Guide to Fairies

Helter Skelter

Homicide at Rough Point

Melania and Me

It Gets Worse

Missing Witches

Barack and Joe


Books That Helped Me Look at the World in a New Way:

Rodham

When We Were the Kennedys: a Memoir From Mexico, Maine

Apples Never Fall

Sharp Objects

The House of the Spirits

Helter Skelter

Haywire

The Soul of a Woman

Bohemian Magick

The Fault in Our Stars

Sheila Levine is Dead and Living in New York

Missing Witches

The Ugly Cry: a Memoir

Educated


Books I've Already Recommended to People:

When We Were the Kennedys: a Memoir From Mexico, Maine

Room

The Grownup

Sharp Objects

The House of the Spirits

Haywire

The Witch Haven

Hour of the Witch

Educated


Most Disappointing Books:

The Book of Magic

Witchery: Embracing the Witch Within

Midnight at the Blackbird Café

POSSESSED: The Life of Joan Crawford

A Killer By Design

The Modern Witchcraft Guide to Fairies

Helter Skelter

The Hundred-Foot Journey

Happy-Go-Lucky (I said it was complicated!)

Homicide at Rough Point

The Story Sisters

Sheila Levine is Dead and Living in New York

Missing Witches



Most Depressing (as in Sadness-Inducing) Books:

When We Were the Kennedys: a Memoir From Mexico, Maine

Room

A Killer By Design

Sharp Objects

The House of the Spirits

Haywire

The Fault in Our Stars

The Story Sisters

Green Angel

¡Hola Papi!: How to Come Out in a Walmart Parking Lot and Other Life Lessons

The Ugly Cry: a Memoir

The Once and Future Witches

Educated


Most Uplifting Books:

When We Were the Kennedys: a Memoir From Mexico, Maine (Yes, both depressing and uplifting; it's THAT good.)

Nine Perfect Strangers

Apples Never Fall

The Soul of a Woman

Bohemian Magick

Green Angel

Educated



Books I Feel Like It's Important or Culturally Significant for You to Read at Least Once:

When We Were the Kennedys: a Memoir From Mexico, Maine

Room

A Killer By Design

The House of the Spirits

Helter Skelter

Haywire

The Fault in Our Stars

Green Angel

Sheila Levine is Dead and Living in New York

Educated



The Author/s Should Pay My Therapy For How Badly I Raged About Their Books

Queering Your Craft: Witchcraft From the Margins

POSSESSED: The Life of Joan Crawford

Happy-Go-Lucky (David Sedaris, you have a lot of goodwill being David Sedaris, please do not take it away.)

Homicide at Rough Point

Melania and Me

Missing Witches


Any Books Not Mentioned Yet?

Everyone Knows Your Mother is a Witch


Finally, as always, absolutely none of this Challenge would have been possible without the Matron Saint of This Blog, the one and only Queen Claudine! Not only was it her idea for me to have a blog just for my reviews, she encouraged me to start this project back up, reads and comments my reviews regularly (even if they're books that are definitely not her thing), and buys me books for the Challenge as well as even bookmarks! She is my most Constant Reader and I love her because she is the Queen. ALL HAIL THE QUEEN! ♡

Thank you all for your patience in it taking me longer this year to process the reviews (and subsequent wrap-up). I cannot wait to tell you all about what I'm reading in 2023!