For the last few years I have counted how many books I read each year. This is easy because my Goodreads app keeps track of my books. The app also suggests other books I might like as well as letting me see what some of my friends are reading. The book reviews on the app are very helpful. I also keep a list of books read alphabetized by author. I keep this list because I have certain authors I really like and sometimes I can’t remember if I have read a book by them or not.
In 2021 I read over 120 books. I’m not sure exactly how many because I am writing this on December 22, so I still have time to read a few more before the end of the year. My goal for the year was 105 and I clearly met and surpassed that goal. I’m afraid to set my goal for 2022 much higher because two books a week is close to my average.
Of the 120 books I read in 2021, I wrote book reviews on the blog about four of them: “Overground Railroad” by Candacy Taylor, “Group” by Christie Tate, “Invitation to Pilgrimage” by John Baille, and “We Came, We Saw, We Left” by Charles Wheelan. I haven’t written too many book reviews on the blog lately because you aren’t particularly interested in reading them. If you want to see my book reviews or ratings of books, you can become my friend on Goodreads.
I gave four out of five stars to most of the books I read in 2021. I enjoyed them, but they weren’t the best books I had ever read. Some books got three stars, usually because they bogged down with too much information. Two books only got two stars, which is really rare for me. Usually if I’m not enjoying a book I will stop reading it. The average length of the books I read was 318 pages (Goodreads told me). The longest book was 800 pages, “His Very Best: Jimmy Carter, a Life” by Jonathan Alter. Although I really admire Jimmy Carter, the book had much more than I ever wanted to know.
Of the 120 plus books I read, I gave 25 of them five star ratings. Several of them were classics like “Jane Eyre” by Charlotte Bronte and “The Good Shepherd” by CS Forester. 2021 was also my year to read the Bible through again and it always gets five stars. Four of the books were by my favorite authors, but the books represented some of their best writing. I have read all the books in the Rockton series by Kelley Armstrong and “A Stranger in Town” was a great addition. The “In Death” series by Nora Roberts are always must-reads but they are getting a little old. “Faithless in Death” was a breath of fresh air.
I read four of the books that got five stars because they were information that was helpful to working at Fort Union Trading Post. They are not books I would recommend to a general reader, but I sometimes recommended them to visitors at Fort Union who wanted to know more. The best book was “On the Upper Missouri: The Journal of Rudolph Friederich Kurz, 1851-1852,” edited by Carla Kelly. If you ever want to know what life at a fur-trading post was like, this is an excellent journal.
Four of the books that got five stars were memoirs. “Three Weeks with my Brother” by Nicholas and Micah Sparks described a fast trip around the world. The Sparks brothers explored their relationship, their memories, and hit places on their lifetime bucket lists together. I would love to do something like that with my brother and sister and their spouses. “Between Two Kingdoms: A Memoir of a Life Interrupted” by Suleika Jaouad is a powerful book. Suleika describes her diagnosis of cancer at the age of 22, her battle with the disease, and then her struggle to return to “normal” life. Her matter-of-fact style of writing kept me engrossed through the whole book.
Some of the books that got five stars surprised me with how much I enjoyed them or how engrossing they were. My friend Wendy recommended “Sensible Shoes” by Sharon Garlough Brown. It is a Bible Study disguised as a novel and, at first, I thought it was trite and simplistic. But, as I continued to read it, I appreciated how Brown showed the complexity of really growing as a Christian. If you are interested in struggling and growing in your faith, I recommend this book.
Another book that surprised me was “Yellow Wife” by Sadeqa Johnson. This book caught my eye when it was nominated in Historical Fiction on Goodreads for the Goodreads Choice Awards. It didn’t win its category, but I thought it was a fascinating book and extremely historically accurate. The story is poignant, courageous, and heroic at the same time. It speaks to the pull of freedom in the lives of all enslaved people.
“People We Meet on Vacation” won the Goodreads Choice Award in the Romance category. It got five stars from me. Even though it was a lighter read, it still touched on the deeper issues of maintaining a lasting friendship and what it means to love someone. The whole story was very satisfying as it unfolded piece by piece.
Those are some of the books I read in 2021. How about you? What book did you read this last year that you really enjoyed? Maybe I will add it to my reading list for 2022.