Final Friday reading 12/29 + best/worst of the year

[charlatti]

Happy last Friday of the year? What have you been reading this week?

QOTW: What were your favorite and least favorite books this year?

[travella]

I finished Nothing More Dangerous, by Allen Eskens 5* and The Tie That Binds by Kent Haruf, 3*.  I didn't enjoy reading this book, but I have a feeling it will stick with me so I gave it 3*.  I am currently reading Saving Emma by Allen Eskens. 

Qotw:

Best Book of the Year: Nothing More Dangerous- I didn't want to put this book down and it had a lot of emotion. 

Worst Book of the Year (That I finished): I Will Find You by Harlan Coben - this book was so bad it made me angry, something only a couple books have accomplished.  This book was infuriatingly cheesy and it's like the author knew there were issues, but didn't care to fix it b/c he kept justifying all the unrealistic happenings.

[tacokick]

I abandoned a audiobook this week like 4 hrs in which seems like a waste! I really need to find a new series to listen to in the car.

Best/worse (not a complete list)

Some of these have no note but me writing “bad” or “bad! bad! bad!” lol

How to Survive Everything by Ewan Morrison

Congratulations, The Best Is Over! By R. Eric Thomas

Come & Get It by Kiley Reid

Testimony: Inside the Evangelical Movement That Failed a Generation by Jon Ward

Charm City Rocks by Matthew Norman

At Least You Have Your Health by Madi Sinha

Windfall by Wendy Corsi Staub

Mother, Nature: A 5,000-Mile Journey to Discover if a Mother and Son Can Survive Their Differences by Jedidiah Jenkins

Everything I Learned, I Learned in a Chinese Restaurant: A Memoir by Curtis Chin


I also started and did not finish 192 books so far this year! So imagine how bad they were.

I enjoyed:

The Blackhouse by Carole Johnstone

Scorched Grace by Margot Douaihy

Exile by Jane Harper

Owner of a Lonely Heart: A Memoir by Beth Nguyen

Before We Were Innocent by Ella Berman

Sleeping with Friends by Emily Schultz

Closer by Sea by Perry Chafe

Mister Magic by Kiersten White

The Good Ones by Polly Stewart

She Taught Me Everything by Amy Smith

Burn Baby Burn by Meg Medina

The Wedding People by Alison Espach

Invitation to a Banquet: The Story of Chinese Food by Fuchsia Dunlop

Woman No. 17 by Edan Lepucki

[charlatti]

Currently reading Point of Origin by Patricia Cornwell. I’ve never read any of hers before; the story is interesting but the writing feels oddly stilted at times.

QOTW: Worst of the year was The Last One by Will Dean, which I found both boring and irritating. Best I’ve narrowed to three: All the Sinners Bleed by S.A. Cosby, The Covenant of Water by Abraham Verghese, and All the Light We Cannot See by Anthony Doerr.

[Vespasia]

I read The Unmaking of June Farrow and The Dead Take the A Train. I enjoyed both but the first one didn't quite live out up to my expectations and the second exceeded them.


QOTW: I feel like 2023 was a year of middle of the road books, no new lifelong favorites but I didn't really hate anything either.

Favorites:
Starter Villain
Ink Blood Sister Scribe
Starling House
A House with Good Bones (and really everything by T. Kingfisher)
The Light Pirate (mostly because it has stuck with me)

Least Favorites:
House of Rot and Ruin (disappointing compared to the first book)
The Silent Companion (boring)

I have a love hate relationship with Fourth Wing and Iron Flame


 

[CrazyLucky]

I just finished The Girls of the Stilt House. I really liked it. I'm on to I Am Not Your Perfect Mexican Daughter.

My favorites of the year were a Man Called Ove and The House on the Cerulean Sea.
My least favorites were I have a Few Questions For You and Leslie F'ing Jones.

I read 45 books this year, which is pretty good for me. Last year I read 21.

[dearprudence]

Finished A December to Remember which was fine. Still reading Sugar and Snow.


QOTW: What were your favorite and least favorite books this year?
Favorites:
- Poison for Breakfast
- How to Read Now
- My Lady Jane
- Ten Thousand Stitches
- The Mermaid
- The Boston Girl
- Tripping Arcadia
- The Woman in the Library
- Would Like to Meet
- My Husband
- Masters of Death
- The After Life of Holly Chase

Least Favorite:
- The Bostonians

[mrspez07]

I’m trying to get through my audio book (Just Mercy) and one more read book (Watch Me Disappear by Janelle Brown) before the clock ticks over. I’m going to finish the audio book.

Best:
Looking for Jane by Heather Marshall
Take My Hand by Dolen Perkins-Valdez

Worst (out of ones I finished, there’s were quite a few on my DNF finish list):
Templar Legacy by Steve Berry

[estrellita]

Finished Icebreaker and wasn't a fan. Sorta cute but so many plot holes and things I thought were pointless. Just picked up Highly Suspicious and Unfairly Cute and so far I really don't like the FMC 😂 We leave in a week from tomorrow for vacation, so I'm hoping to get through it before then so I can bring a different one!

Best of 2023:
As Long as the Lemon Trees Grow
A Court of Mist and Fury and A Court of Silver Flames (ACOTAR #2 and #5)
Queen of Shadows (TOG series, all good, but this was my favorite)
House of Earth and Blood (Crescent City #1, yes I read ALL her books so far this year other than CC #2 but I'll read that soon 😂)
Lessons in Chemistry
Yours Truly

Worst of 2023:
Romantic Comedy
Pageboy (specifically the writing)
Icebreaker
The Collected Regrets of Clover

[tcu2003]

I’m reading Banyan Moon by Thao Thai right now.

Recap of 2023 reading. I read 179 books, which is far and away the most books I’ve read in a year since I started tracking via Goodreads in 2011 or so. In 2022, I only read 38 books, and 41 in 2021. Last year I made a conscious effort to spend less mindless time on my phone and try to read more, and it paid off. That said, I also read a ton of free kindle unlimited books that I didn’t love, so gave a lot of 2* reviews. Here are some of my favorites from 2023:

The Wishing Game by Meg Shaffer
The 1619 Project: A New American Origin Story by Nikole Hannah-Jones
Fourth Wing by Rebecca Yarros
Clytemnestra by Costanza Casati
Beyond the Wand: The Magic and Mayhem of Growing Up a Wizard by Tom Felton
Memphis by Tara M Stringfellow
Love and Other Words by Christina Lauren
Love, Theoretically by Ali Hazelwood
World of Wonders by Aimee Nezhukumatathil
You Got Anything Stronger by Gabrielle Union
The Reunion by Kayla Olson
Taste: My Life Through Food by Stanley Tucci
The Light We Carry by Michelle Obama
The Sum of Us; What Racism Costs Everyone and How We Can Prosper Together by Heather McGhee
Carrie Soto Is Back by Taylor Jenkins Reid
The Love Hypothesis by Ali Hazelwood
The Spanish Love Deception by Elena Armas


Some of my least favorites were:
Most of The Billionaires of Manhattan series by Annika Martin (not sure why I kept reading them)
A Love Catastrophe by Helena Hunting
So That Happened by Katie Bailey
You’ll Never Believe What Happened to Lacey by Amber Ruffin
A Not So Meet Cute by Meghan Quinn
Hidden Order by Brad Thor
Stealing Home by Grace Reilly
Meant to Be by Emily Giffin
This Time Tomorrow by Emma Straub
All Grown Up by Jami Attenberg

[krystee]

tacokick I’m bummed to hear that about the Kiley Reid book!



I read 126 books this year.

My favorites (not in order):
The Last Devil to Die, Chain Gang All Stars, Hide, Go as a River, Fairy Tale, The Berry Pickers, Legends & Lattes, The Seven-Year Slip, and The River We Remember.

Least favorites:
I am embarrassed to say this, but I DNF Tom Lake after four pages. I could tell it would be very slow paced, and I wasn’t in the mood. I may revisit it later. Also DNF Louise Penny’s second Gamache book because of intense fat shaming (not just one fat-shaming character, which is fine if it’s needed for plot and the character is meant to be awful), but multiple characters AND the general narrative voice).

[tacokick]

Jan 1, 2024 16:46:42 GMT -5 krystee said:

tacokick I’m bummed to hear that about the Kiley Reid book!



I read 126 books this year.

My favorites (not in order):
The Last Devil to Die, Chain Gang All Stars, Hide, Go as a River, Fairy Tale, The Berry Pickers, Legends & Lattes, The Seven-Year Slip, and The River We Remember.

Least favorites:
I am embarrassed to say this, but I DNF Tom Lake after four pages. I could tell it would be very slow paced, and I wasn’t in the mood. I may revisit it later. Also DNF Louise Penny’s second Gamache book because of intense fat shaming (not just one fat-shaming character, which is fine if it’s needed for plot and the character is meant to be awful), but multiple characters AND the general narrative voice).

I too had to DNF the second Gamache book for the same reason! I was disappointed because that series was going to be my new long audio book binge.

The Kiley Reid book was excruciating. It was an ARC but I doubt they changed anything for publication. I only finished it because I couldn’t see how it kept going.