Books in 2021 and 2022

NOTE: I drafted this post on January 3 of 2023, and somehow never got around to publishing it. As I mention in the post, I’ve really leaned into my reader era this year (for various reasons) and am hoping to share more bookish content on my socials moving forward. Coming back to this post in November, I think I did find a bit more balance this year in terms of novels, delving into fantasy and modern romance, but did not read much non-fiction. I’ve been keeping track of my reading this year on Storygraph, and considering my book count is over 200 already, I will probably do just a highlights or standouts post at the end of the year.

Seeing as my first blog post was a list of the books I read in 2017, it feels hard to abandon this tradition. As you can see, I didn’t read enough to warrant a post in 2021, and then in the second half of 2022 I fell deep into the quicksand of historical romance audiobooks. I’m hoping I can return to a more balanced bookshelf in 2023.

Here are the books I read in 2021, as far as I can gleam from my Overdrive history and my very cobwebby memory.

• Akata Witch – Nnedi Okorafor
• Akata Warrior – Nnedi Okorafor
• The Midnight Library – Matt Haig
• Dune – Frank Herbert (reread)

In August of 2022 I finally watched Bridgerton on Netflix, which prompted checking out the books. Little did I know this would ignite a crazy dive into historical romance, mostly on audiobook. They helped tremendously to make mundane chores (laundry, dishes, cleaning) more enjoyable and walks more entertaining. But first, a nod to the few books not of the romantic variety.

Non-Historical Romance in 2022:

• The Song of Achilles – Madeline Miller
• Ready Player Two – Ernest Cline
• The Sandman Volume 1 – Neil Gaiman
• Persuasion, Pride and Prejudice – Jane Austen (reread)
• Don’t Keep Your Day Job – Cathy Heller
• The Art of the Travel Journal – Abbey Sy

And on to Historical Romance, organized by author and series

Julia Quinn

• Bridgerton series (8 books)
• Rokesby series (5 books)
• Smythe-Smith Quartet series (4 books)
• Bevelstoke series (3 books)
• Two Dukes of Wyndham series (2 books)
• Agents of the Crown series (2 books)
• Lyndon Sisters series (2 books)
• Ladies Most series (2 books)

• Four Weddings and a Sixpence
• Dancing at Midnight (Splendid series book 1)

Tessa Dare

• Girl Meets Duke series (4 books)
• Castles Ever After series (4 books)
• Spindle Cove series (7 books)
• Stud Club Trilogy (3 books)
• Wanton Dairymaid Trilogy (3 books)

• The Scandalous, Dissolute No-Good Mr. Wright
• How to Catch a Wild Viscount
• How the Dukes Stole Christmas (TD, Sarah MacLean, Sophie Jordan, Joanna Shupe)
• His Bride for the Taking

Lisa Kleypas

• The Wallflowers series (5 books)
• The Hathaways series (5 books)
• The Ravenels series (7 books)
• Bow Street Runners (3 books)

• Dreaming of You
• Then Came You

Sarah MacLean

• Love by Numbers series (3 books)
• The Rules of Scoundrels (4 books)
• Scandal & Scoundrel (3 books)
• Bareknuckle Bastards (3 books)

Mary Balogh

• Westcott series (3/10 books)
• – Someone to Love
• – Someone to Hold
• – Someone to Wed
• Bedwyn series (6 books)
• The Mistress series (2 books)

Sophie Jordan

• The Duke Hunt series (3 books)
• The Rogue Files series (7 books)
• The Debutante Files series (2 books)

Thanks in large part to Rosalyn Landor’s amazing narrations, I went from less than five books in 2021 to over 120 in 2022.

And finally, in my annual nod to valiant effort, below are some books I started and didn’t finish. A few of these I will return to in 2023.

• Why Fish Don’t Exist – Lulu Miller
• The City of Brass – S.A. Chakraborty
• The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo – Taylor Jenkins Reid
• Four Thousand Weeks – Oliver Burkeman
• Go Tell the Bees That I am Gone – Diana Gabaldon

Books in Books in 2015 and 2016, 2017, 2018, 2019, 2020