Happy New Year!

2022 New Release Reading Challenge

The 2022 New Release Challenge is a year-long challenge in which we aim to read books released in 2022.  Brandee and Linda at the Unconventional Bookworm Blog are the hosts of the challenge. There is one post on the top of their homepage for all review links for the year, where the link is open for books you read and review each quarter. While I read 55 new release novels in 2021, I am signing up at the New Release Newbie Level which requires me to read between 1 and 30 books.

There is a 2022 Release shelf on Goodreads and a Facebook Group for the New Release Challenge, to have a place where we can keep up with each other, cheer each other on, and get to know each other better. It is also a place where we can help each other find even more new releases. For those of you who have participated in the challenge before, it’s the same group as before.

The rules for the 2022 New Release Challenge are simple:

• Books have to be released and reviewed in 2022.
• Other challenges can be used as well. Books can count towards more than one challenge, as long as the ones you use for the 2021 New Release Reading Challenge qualify to the other rules.
• The minimum length for a book to qualify is 100 pages, it can be in any format though, physical, e-book, ARC or audiobook.
• The New Release Challenge is open from January 1 through December 31, 2022 and sign-ups are open until September 1, 2022.
• You don’t have to be a blogger to participate, you can link to your review on Goodreads or Booklikes instead.
• If you want to spread the love, please use #2022NewReleaseChallenge on Twitter.

There are five levels  in the 2022 New Release Challenge:

1. 1-30 books per year – New Release Newbie (my challenge level)
2. 31-60 books per year – New Release Pro
3. 61-100 books per year – New Release Veteran
4. 101-200 books per year – New Release Enthusiast
5. 200+ books per year – New Release Obsessed

Top Ten Books I Want in 2022

Several of my favorite authors will be publishing their latest novels in 2022.  We readers wait all year for new books from our favorite authors and then they are read in a day or two. The waiting begins again.  It's an awful affliction to have.

Top Ten New Authors

I read 99 books this year by new (to me) authors. Some were more special than others. These ten have me excited about the future.

Edward Rutherford (historical fiction)

Charles Finch (historical fiction)

Stacy Green (psychological thriller)

Alka Joshi (India fiction)

Balli Kaur Jaswal (India fiction)

Elzbieta Cherezinska (historical fiction)

Ronald Balson (historical fiction)

Jess Ryder (mystery)

Karen McQuestion (mystery)

Sharon Mitchell (mystery)

Top Ten Book Covers 2021

My top ten book covers for 2021 are all from graphic novels. I am surprised that the fiction books I read did not have covers as phenomenal as these.  In past years I did not have any comic covers on the list so this is a first for my blog.

Primer is my best book cover for the year. I love its colorfulness and the girl known as Primer has a curious look on her face that's appealing. As an artist, I am always drawn to these colorful covers.

Top Ten Books of 2021

I read 154 books in 2021!  99 of the authors were new to me.  I primarily read historical fiction, mysteries and graphic novels but also read a few science and political books.  My top ten list combines my favorites from all genres.  Here they are:

10. Twisted Tea Christmas (cozy mystery)

9.  Primer (comic)

8.  Hemlock (cozy mystery)

7.  Superman Smashes the Klan (comic)

6.   Peril (politics)

5.  Dominus (historical fiction)

4.  The September Society (mystery)

3.  Tunnels (graphic novel)

2.  Defending Britta Stein (historical fiction)

And my number 1 book is:  China (historical fiction)

2022 Library Love Reading Challenge

The sixth annual Library Love Challenge hosted by Angel’s Guilty Pleasures & Books of My Heart is back.

Rules:  

The Challenge runs from January 1, 2022 – December 31, 2022.  You can join anytime.  The sign-up will remain open until Dec. 31st, 2022.

The goal is to find your love of your local library and to read at least twelve (12) books from the library, but you can read more.  While twelve is the minimum; there is no maximum limit. See the different levels below and pick the one that works best for you.

Any format will work for this challenge (prints, ebooks, or audios); as long as you checked it out from the library, it counts.

Books can be any genre (fiction, nonfiction, romance, fantasy, mystery, thriller, horror, etc.). Crossovers from other reading challenges are allowed, including re-reads.  The goal is to support your local library and save money.

You do not have to be a book blogger to participate; you can track your progress on Goodreads, Facebook, LibraryThing, etc. As an added bonus: We’re offering up FOUR GIVEAWAYS plus a few surprise giveaways throughout the year (2022) with this Challenge.  The main giveaways will be posted for (Jan., Feb., & March), (April, May, & June), (July, Aug., & Sept.), & last (Oct., Nov., & Dec.).  A linky will go up on both Angel’s Guilty Pleasures and Books of My Heart; where you can leave your links for the reviews on your library books you have read.  So make sure to stop by to enter.  More details in the giveaway section below. 

Optional Reviews: Write a review to enter the giveaway – 2 sentences or an essay, whatever works for you, but there is a minimum of 2 sentences.  Not sure what to write?  How about something like, “The plot was a delight, but the characters didn’t capture me.” “I enjoyed the story and really liked the characters.” Please use #LibraryLoveChallenge when sharing your reviews, library pictures, etc…

 Levels: 

• Dewey Decimal: Read 12 books
• Thrifty Reader: Read 24 books (my personal challenge)
• Overdrive Junkie: Read 36 books
• Library Addict: Read 48 books
• Library Card on Fire: Read 60+ books 
•  

If you are interested, there is a Goodreads Group for the Library Love Challenge, where we talk, share, and discuss the books we snagged/read during the 2022 Library Love Challenge – Click Here

2022 What's In A Name Reading Challenge

The 15th annual What’s in a Name challenge is on! In years past, this challenge was hosted by Charlie at The Worm Hole.  Andrea at the Carolina Book Nook took over in 2019 and she is hosting again next year!

Rules:

1)    The challenge runs from January 1, 2022 to December 31, 2022. You can sign up any time, but only count books that you read between those dates.
2)    Read a book in any format (hard copy, ebook, audio) with a title that fits into each category.
3)    Don’t use the same book for more than one category.
4)    Creativity for matching the categories is not only allowed, it’s encouraged!
5)    You can choose your books as you go or make a list ahead of time.
6)    Sign up with a link to your WIAN challenge page/post, not your main blog URL. 

The categories below are links to each category sign up link.  Add your book review for each category so we can see what you’ve read and discover ideas as needed.  In 2022, choose 6 books that have titles that contain a:

(Click on the links for more examples and info)

• Compound word

• Speed 

• Person and their description

• Mythical being

• Season 

• Color

I have some ideas on what I want to read but note I am prone to change my mind daily.  Here are the books that I probably will be reading for the challenge:

The Spyglass File by Nathan Dylan Goodwin

Fast Girls by Elise Hooper

The Reluctant Fundamentalist by Mohsin Hamid

Why Mermaids Sing by C. S. Harris

Hawaii One Summer by Maxine Hong Kingston

Purple Lotus by Veena Rao

2022 Finishing the Series Reading Challenge

It’s back for another year!!  This challenge is focused on finally finishing those series that you’ve started but not yet completed.  It was previously hosted by Bea’s Book Nook, but Celebrity Readers has been hosting it since 2018.  I am proudly rejoining this challenge in 2022 at the B List Series Finisher Level which requires that I read books from 5 to 8 series.  Some of the series that I read that I expect to see new books published for in 2022 include the Somershill Manor medieval mystery series by S. D. Sykes, the wine country cozy mystery series by Ellen Crosby, Anna Castle's Francis Bacon Mysteries, Sujata Massey's Perveen Mistry series, Alison Stuart's Harriet Gordon historical mystery series and Cleo Coyle's coffeehouse mystery series.  Alka Joshi's Jaipur trilogy will conclude next year too.  In addition, I need to work on completing Nathan Dylan Goodwin's Morton Farrier Geneological Mystery series which is set in England, Susan Finley's Tangled Roots historical geneology series, and Janet Macleod Trotter's India Tea series. 

guidelines:

• The challenge will run from January 1st, 2022 to December 31st, 2022.  Books must be read during this time frame to count.  Sign up is open from now until December 1st, 2022, so you may join even just for the last month of the year.
• Series can be already completed as well as still ongoing.  For ongoing series, the goal is to catch up to the most recent book published by the end of 2022.
• We don’t care if you have only 1 book or 10 books to read in order to finish your series, as long as you’ve started the series before 2022 (ie read at least one book in the series), it counts.  Re-reads are not required.
• Any format and length of book counts – print, ebook, audio, ARC, etc.
• Series can be any length (even if it’s just a Duet).
• Crossovers from other challenges are totally acceptable!
• Reviews are not required, but highly encouraged.

new this year:

A side Finishing the Anthology challenge has been added to the challenge this year!  For this side challenge, you must have read at least one story in the anthology prior to 2022, and then obviously finish it this year (I don’t care if you DNF a story, as long as you give them all a try).  There are a few “read an anthology in a year” type challenges, but what the host was really looking for, and thus far hadn’t found, was one where you’d already started the anthology and just want to get it off your TBR once and for all.

how to play:

• Declare your intentions to participate in this challenge somewhere on the internet!!  You do not need to be a blogger to participate, there are many ways to declare.  You could write a blog post, create a reading challenge page, create a Goodreads shelf containing series you hope to finish, post about it on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, etc.
• Some things you could include (but that aren’t required):
  • A link to the challenge page so that others may find us and join the fun as well (feel free to download the button at the top to use in your posts).
  • A list of series you hope to read for this challenge.  You could even get fancy and list the length of the series, or the books you’ve already read, etc.
  • The level you are aiming for.
• This year only one link up will be posted for the whole year.  This is where you can add links to your reviews or any wrap-up/overview posts you wish to share.
• Go forth and READ!!  And have fun!!
• Use the hashtag #FinishingTheSeries2022 on any social media to keep up with other participants!

the levels:

Participants are offerred 3 different “Celebrity” levels of achievement for this reading challenge:

C-LIST SERIES FINISHER ⇒ COMPLETE 1-4 SERIES.

B-LIST SERIES FINISHER ⇒ COMPLETE 5-8 SERIES.

A-LIST SERIES FINISHER ⇒ COMPLETE 9+ SERIES.

Wrap-Up of the 2021 Historical Fiction Reading Challenge

I signed up to read 50 books for the 2021 Historical Fiction Reading Challenge. I read 43 books by 21 new to me authors. The time periods that I read about covered 5 BC to the 1970s. The settings covered European and Asian cities. Here.is a list of the books that I read:

A Rising Man by Abir Mukherjee

Death and the Maiden by Ariana Franklin

The Glass Ocean by Beatriz Williams

Vendetta by C. DeMelo

Now and Then Stab by Anna Castle

The Binding by Bridget Collins

America's First Daughter by Stephanie Dray

Midnight at Malabar House by Vaseem Khan

The Lost Daughter by Gill Paul

The Art Collector's Daughter by Derville Murphy

The Girl in the Painting by Tea Cooper

The Woman in the Green Dress by Tea Cooper

The Tea Planter's Daughter by Janet Macleod Trotter

The Lantern Boats by Tessa Morris-Suzuki

Murder in Venice by Maria Luisa Minarelli

The Henna Artist by Alka Joshi

The Most Beautiful Girl in Cuba by Chanel Cleeton

Midnight Fire by P. K. Adams

Apricots by Sally Christie

Portrait of Peril by Laura Joh Rowland

Beneath an Indian Sky by Renita D'Silva

My Dear Hamilton by Stephanie Dray

China by Edward Rutherford

The Bombay Prince by Sujata Massey

The Secret Keeper of Jaipur by by Alka Joshi

Dominus by Steven Taylor

The Dying Day by Vaseem Khan

The First Actress by C. W. Gortner

The French House by  Helen Fripp

The Stationery Shop by Marjan Kamali

The Stolen Lady by Laura Morelli

A Tapestry of Light by Kimberly Duffy

The Widow Queen by Elzbieta Cherezinska

The Good Death by S. D. Sykes

White Ivy by Susie Yang

Defending Britta Stein by Ronald Balson

The Flower Boat Girl by Larry Feign

Prayers of the Dead by Priscilla Royal

Berlin and Betrayal by Susan Finley

Master Wycliffe's Summons by Mel Starr

The Rabbi's Wife the Bishop's Wife by David Jacobson

Anticipation by Melodie Winawer

The Samurai's Daughter by John Healey

Brigid of Kildare by Heather Terrell

Favorite Book:  China    

2nd Favorite Book:  Defending Britta Stein

Least Favorite Book:  The Flower Boat Girl

Brigid of Kildare

The publisher's summary:  

In Fifth Century Ireland:  Brigid is Ireland's first and only female priest and bishop.  Followers flock to her Kildare abbey and scriptorium.  Hearing accounts of Brigid's power, the Church deems her a threat and sends Decius, a Roman priest and scribe, on a secret mission to collect proof of Brigid's heresy.  As Delcius records the unorthodox practices of Brigid and her abbey, he becomes intrigued by her.  When Brigid assigns Delcius a holy task - to create the most important and sacred manuscript ever made - he finds himself at odds with his original mission and faces theist difficult decision of his life. 

In the modern day:  Alexandra Patterson, an appraiser of medieval relics, has been summoned to Kildare to examine a reliquary box believed to belong to St. Brigid.  Hidden within the sacred box is the most beautiful illuminated manuscript Alex has ever seen.  Even more extraordinary is the contents of the manuscript's vellum pages, which may have dire repercussions for the Catholic Church and could very well rewrite the origins of Christianity.  

I loved this book but had many questions about fact versus fiction as I was reading.  This novel has alot of information on how illuminated manuscripts are created.  Since I have been studying ancient manuscripts for 2 years I wanted to find out more about Brigid's manuscript, which is referred to in the book as the first illuminated manuscript in history.  Her manuscript was used as a guide for the sixth century Book of Kells.  I have never heard who or where the first illuminated manuscript came from before reading the book and later research showed me that they began being produced in the 500s AD.  That matches with Brigid's life time as she lived until 525.  Note that there are earlier illuminated manuscripts, some literature and some Muslim, but they were not Christian manuscripts.  The general definition of illuminated manuscripts these days is a manuscript with Christian themes.  After finishing the novel I headed over the Wikipedia for more information about Brigid.  There I read that most scholars do not believe that St. Brigid existed.  The reason is that the stories about her are fantastical, such as she healed people of physical ailments.  Since I am not a Catholic I had never heard of Brigid before but if she did not exist how did she come to be a Roman Catholic Saint?  Wikipedia cites her birth and death dates and places. If she never existed where did this information come from?  The book states that she was born in the 450s which is when this story begins.

Another fact versus fiction item that I had to research was that allegation that the veneration of Mary, mother of Jesus, began with Brigid.  The only authentic information I found was that the first image of Mary as "The Virgin Mary" was created in the 5th century in  Gaelic lands.  The author gives us a portrait of how the veneration of Mary began, with a Brigid who wonders why the people around Jesus were all men.  Why were there no woman of influence?  Why were the women around Jesus portrayed as whores and serving girls?  While Brigid was growing up, she read a heretical book that her mother owned titled The Gospel of Mary the Mother.  Brigid is captivated by the strong and wise Mary in this gospel and long after she joined an abbey, she hired the Roman scribe Decius to create an illuminated manuscript that glorified Mary.  Further along in the book we read that the Roman Church attempted to crush this idea about Mary but as the belief in Mary began spreading throughout Europe, Rome gave in and began to teach the veneration of Mary.  Rome was nearing its end and did not want to upset the faithful. 

The Gospel of Mary the Mother is an actual text written around 150 AD.  It was basically rewritten later in the 2nd century in the Protevangelium of James. (another actual 2nd century manuscript).  James enhances the role of Mary by describing her birth as miraculous, her childhood as one of incredible knowledge and wisdom and that she was taught faith in the Temple for 9 years. Her childhood as portrayed in the Protevangelium has no parallel in the New Testament and contradicts Jewish customs at the time but the fact that the author wove these details into her story is incredible. I was entranced by all these details and couldn't wait to finish the book to do some research. However, I knew that the process of creating an illuminated manuscript in the novel was spot on.

When I first began to write this review I intended to point out that the extensive playing with the facts outweighed any enjoyment I had from reading the novel. However, the author had me researching various parts of her novel for 2 hours. That alone makes this a 5 out of 5 star book.

The Samurai's Daughter

Soledad Maria, called Masako by her father, is a child of two worlds. Born in Seville in the seventeenth century, she is the daughter of a beloved Spanish lady and a fearsome warrior sent to Spain as a member of one of the most intriguing cultural exchanges in history.  After her mother's death, Soledad Maria and her father set out to return to Japan, though a journey across the world can never be without peril.  Once they return, even their position in her father's home is not secure. As they try to stay one step ahead of those who would harm them, Soledad Maria finds herself grappling with not only the physical challenges of her many voyages, but with who she is, which legacy to claim - that of a proper Spanish lady or of a samurai - and which world she can really call home.

This is a captivating story, one that continues the author's The Samurai of Seville novel, published in 2017.  It was hard to put down so I read straight through the night in order to finish reading it. I particularly enjoyed reading about their travels to and from Japan by two different routes which brought the scenery and cultures of the entire world into view. While traveling to Japan they traveled through Greece to Turkey and on to China. On their return trip to Spain, they crossed the North American continent and encountered peoples that they had never heard about before. Soledad Maria had to pretend to be a boy in order to prevent being abused and as a result learned the skills of warfare the most women of the era never gained. 

I loved this one!  5 out of 5 stars.

2022 Chunkster Reading Challenge

I am rejoining the Chunkster Reading Challenge again next year.  I have always loved large books, especially those hard cover ones that I can hold.  Ebooks don't do much for me when I am reading a chunky. There is something satisfying about holding a big book.

Challenge Rules:  

1.  The challenge runs the calendar year from January 1, 2022 through December 31, 2022.

2.  Books must be 450 pages or more to be considered a chunkster. 

3.  Any book qualifies for the challenge. It can be an adult book or young adult book.

4.  The books can be hard copy, e-books, or an audio book.

5.  Rereads are welcome as are crossovers with other challenges. 

6.  A blog is NOT required to participate. 

7.  There is no set number of books to read.