welcome to #readingwrapped2k22

(look i know it's not a real thing but it should be and i wanted a way to push a bunch of book recommendations all in one place neatly at the end of the year ) 

1. the book that now lives rent-free in my head

the priory of the orange tree - samantha shannon

okay so like, i got this slightly on a whim because i'd heard of it and it sounded like the kind of thing i'd like - but i didn't know and i'm usually very picky about buying books. and omg honestly?? i love it. so much. i'm waiting so impatiently for the prequel-sequel to come out. it's got everything: expansive worldbuilding, brilliant 3d characters - including a whole host of excellent female characters - great writing, a real rollercoaster plot, and, of course, dragons cool enough to make grrm jealous. it was billed as feminist lord of the rings and while i get that analogy because of the more fantastical, mythological feel perhaps to it, to me it seemed more like a more fantastical, feminist game of thrones - but it's not really alike enough to either series for a really good comparison tbh

just read it, seriously!!

2. the book that surprised me the most

the forty rules of love - elif shafak

i really didn't expect to like this book. at all. it was another whim buy and i fully expected that it would be too fluffy, too light, too eat-pray-love-type-ish for me - but i actually really liked it?? there was something really solidly real and relatable about the protagonist and something really lovely about following her journey from the beginning to the end. it felt kind of like a journey of self discovery but later - when it's harder to do that and things are so much bigger and so much more serious (because house, husband, kids, etc.) and your first step is to understand that you're feeling anything at all, not just what it is that you're feeling. i don't think it's exactly changed my reading habits haha - i think it's more of a one-off case, or perhaps just this author?? - but it was a really good surprise  

3. the book that disappointed me the most

where the crawdads sing - delia owens

so. this book. i tend to like stories like this: stories about small town life, with mysterious, lonely characters and a plot that runs in two timelines and slowly unravels bit by bit to reveal the full picture. and it had had so much hype that it sounded really, really good and i just... i couldn't, i really couldn't. i can see how a lot of people would like it but it didn't really work for me. i didn't really find it that interesting or gripping and i found myself reading it really quickly just to get through it rather than because i was hooked on it

(a lot of my issues with this book and a lot of my disappointment with it came from spoiler-related things so i've tried to be non-spoiler-y here. if you're curious about the full spoiler-heavy version, just message me ) 

4. the book i learned the most from

river kings - cat jarman

this is a non-fiction history book about a brooch. only it's not just that. the author tells the story of the vikings and other medieval scandinavian peoples - their lives, their trade links, their migration and travel patterns, their society - by following the path of a brooch uncovered at a viking burial site in england all the way across the world (literally). it's not that long a book but it's so expansive and such a cool way to tell something like history too - plus she tells you about the new technologies used in investigating burial sites and artefacts and remains, as well as the history, so that you feel you understand not just what they thought when they did the tests but why they thought that too. it's just really, really good and it was so so fun to read  

5. the book i read the quickest

everyone knows your mother is a witch - rivka galchen

this novel follows astronomer and mathematician johannes kepler's mother as she's accused of witchcraft in her town in germany. it's quirky and wise at the same time and the protagonist and narrator - kepler's mother - narrates everything with a very strong and opinionated voice, from her view of the people around her to her thoughts on her family and the whole crisis she finds herself wound up in. for all it's about a witchcraft trial, it's not a sad book or a violent book and there's no hint of anything supernatural, just the voice of a little old lady who lives alone with her cow  it's a short book which helps with the quick reading time haha but it was super easy to come back to time and time again even if it wasn't something i literally couldn't put down

6. the book i read the slowest

black and british - david olusoga

i... am still working on this one haha. in my defence it's pretty long and while david olusoga is a brilliant writer and obviously an incredible historian, it's very detailed and i don't want to rush through it and feel like i've missed things. it's just one of those books that's kind of... dense  but i am determined to finish it before the end of the year!! 

7. the worst book i read in 2022

chronicles of the black company - glen cook

i didn't really enjoy this one tbh. it's been on my to-read list for a while and it was a bit disappointing (but there was no hype so there was nowhere for it to fall, unlike crawdads). it was kinda hyped on the back as being a real anti-hero fantasy epic, following the lives and fortunes of a company of mercenaries. which sounds like, exactly my type of book. but ugh, i just didn't really like it that much. i can't even really pinpoint one thing in particular that annoyed me about this book, it was just sort of... a lot of general stuff, yk?? 

tl;dr: i do not recommend pls read something else

8. the best book i read in 2022

still life - sarah winman

this book omg tHIS BOOK  i adored this book when i read it and i know it's going to be one of those books i read again and again because it's just... it's everything?? it's a bit serious but it's spotted with a very gentle, dry kind of humour, it's beautiful, it's evocative, it's lyrical, it's solemn and sometimes painful but ultimately so full of hope and life, and it's just... genuinely phenomenal. it starts with a pair of soldiers and a middle-aged woman meeting each other outside florence during wwii, during the allied advance but it's not about the meeting as such - though everything starts there - it's really a story about finding your family and finding a home someplace you perhaps would never have thought of and the ways people fall in love, whatever kind of love it is, and change each other and for all the title is still life, it's so fundamentally a book about people and i just.. i really, really love it