Here are the books I read in 2022, in order of my reading them. All books with a * I recommend, those with ** I highly recommend.

1. *The Viscount Who Loved Me (reread) – Julia Quinn
2. **Love and Other Words – Christina Lauren
3. **The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue – V.E. Schwab
4. *To Sir with Love – Lauren Layne
5. It Ends with Us – Colleen Hoover
6. Falling for Your Best Friend’s Twin – Emma St. Clair
7. Falling for Your Boss – Emma St. Clair
8. *At Last – Jill Shavis
9. The Stopover – T.L. Swan
10. *The Deal – Elle Kennedy
11. *Glitter and Glue – Kelly Corrigan
12. *Burn for You – J.T. Geissinger
13. *We Shouldn’t – Vi Keeland
14. **American Dirt – Jeanine Cummins
15. *Book Lovers – Emily Henry
16. *The Idea of You: A Novel – Robin Lee
17. **Lessons in Chemistry – Bonnie Garm
18. Truth or Tequila – Donna Schwartze
19. *Something Wilder – Christina Lauren
20. *Shipped – Angie Hockman
21. *An Offer from a Gentleman (reread) – Julia Quinn
22. The Honey-Don’t List – Christina Lauren
23. *Start Without Me – Gary Janetti
24. **Nora Goes off Script – Annabel Monaghan
25. *To Sir Phillip, with Love (reread) – Julia Quinn
26. *Part of Your World – Abby Jimenez
27. Romancing Mister Bridgerton (reread) – Julia Quinn
28. Verity – Colleen Hoover
29. *The Dead Romantics – Ashley Poston
30. Only When It’s Us – Chloe Liese
31. *The One – John Marrs
32. Half-Blown Rose – Leesa Cross-Smith
33. We Do What We Do in the Dark – Michelle Hart
34. Meant to Be Mine – Hannah Orenstein
35. The Midcoast – Adam White
36. **Tomorrow and Tomorrow and Tomorrow – Gabrielle Zevin
37. *This is How it Always Is – Laurie Frankel
38. Scattered Showers – Rainbow Rowell
39. *The Hotel Nantucket – Elin Hilderbrand
40. *I’m Glad My Mom Died – Jennette McCurdy
41. **Killers of a Certain Age – Deanna Raybourn
42. *The Love Hypothesis – Ali Hazelwood
43. The Silent Patient – Alex Michaelides
44. **Bomb Shelter: Love, Time and Other Explosives – Mary Laura Philpott

I listed my favorite books of 2022 in my last post, but I’d like to add two:

1. Killers of a Certain Age is a very fun read. Four women who work for the Museum, an elite network of assassins, are on a retirement trip when they foil a plan to assassinate them. Toggling between when they were first recruited, their missions and, ultimately, to them trying to survive is an exciting ride!
2. Bomb Shelter I promoted before reading because I knew it would be great and it was. I laughed out loud, I teared up a lot, I commiserated and related to many things and I loved the book – it was terrific.

One more bonus book – our friends’ 11-year-old daughter self published The LGBTQ+ Handbook: How to Spot Rainbows (click title for link) to help simplify and explain the modern LGBTQ+ world. It’s well-done and very helpful to people of every generation.

Grammar help

I know you didn’t ask for it but here it is anyway. I saw this great article and thought I would share it. Are you using the past tense of some common verbs correctly? Bonus question, is it “I need to lay down” or “I need to lie down?” Check here.

Movies

Below are the movies I saw last year that I merited an A- or above:

1. The French Dispatch A
2. Coda A
3. King Richard A-
4. The Lost City A-
5. Everything Everywhere All at Once A-
6. Top Gun: Maverick A-
7. The Eyes of Tammy Faye A-
8. Marcel the Shell with Shoes On A-
9. Bullet Train A-

My daughter and I went to see Avatar: The Way of Water (A-). If you have any interest in seeing it at all, go see it in the theater. Much like the new Top Gun, it is essentially a redux of the original but I loved the first movie when it came out and this one is great too. Also, if you like fish/aquariums this is your movie! It is visually stunning.

TV

I feel like I’m always behind with the streaming shows, but I have finally caught up a little so now I have some breathing room. I haven’t LOVED anything so I’ll keep quiet until I do. Although I did really enjoy season 2 of “Only Murders in the Building” and am looking forward to season 3, especially after seeing the new cast members. And wahoo “Ted Lasso” is coming this spring!!

Let me say again how much I do enjoy “Ghosts” on CBS. So far so good with the new show “Will Trent” on ABC.

If you are a music fan, may I suggest you check out this year’s Rock & Roll Hall of Fame Induction Ceremony (on HBO Max). (Sidebar – the past shows are terrific too.) This year’s ceremony was in person and was incredibly entertaining, from the very professional filmed histories, the impressive live performances to the star-studded crowd – it is super fun. Inductees were Pat Benatar and Neil Giraldo, Duran Duran, Eminem, Eurythmics, Carly Simon, Lionel Richie and Dolly Parton. Also worth watching is an amazing speech by John Mellencamp (F**k antisemitism!) inducting his attorney Allen Grubman. It’s awesome and it’s linked here so you can watch it.

Music

My daughter played me a lot of Lizzy McAlpine while she was home. I liked everything I heard but I especially liked “Hate to Be Lame” – click title to listen.

Thanks for reading and here’s to a healthy and entertaining 2023!!

Happy December! People have been asking me for recs and I realized that the timing of my end of year summary blog posts has not been ideal. In January, I post all the books I’ve read and then list my top 5 or so. Since I pride myself on making recommendations to be helpful and THIS is the time people would actually be purchasing books, either for themselves or as gifts, I am going to change things around a bit. Below are my favorite books of the year that I’ve read so far. I know there are only a couple weeks left in December, but I always go on a family trip the first week of winter break and I save up for/bring lots of books on this trip, many of which I’m sure I will love (including one written by a good friend so I’m going to recommend it anyway because 1. I loved her last book 2. I love her so I know I will love it and 3. You should buy it because she’s awesome).

So here we go, my favorite books (linked below) that I’ve read in 2022 thus far:

1. Tomorrow and Tomorrow and Tomorrow – Gabrielle Zevin   Zevin also wrote The Storied Life of A.J. Fikry, and if you haven’t read that – please do. I wrote about it in a post a few years ago – it was my favorite book I read in 2017 (even though it came out in 2014). It’s also now a movie for rent on Amazon Prime but I haven’t seen it yet. This current novel is not as mainstream a topic (video game creators, don’t be afraid) but I loved it.
2. Lessons in Chemistry: A Novel – Bonnie Garm   I wrote about this one in my last post so please scroll down for my thoughts.
3. American Dirt – Jeanine Cummins   I also wrote about this one in my last post.
4. The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue – V.E. Schwab   This one was discussed two posts ago.
5. The One – John Marrs   Take a simple DNA test and get matched with your soul mate thanks to the discovery of the gene that pairs you with the person meant for you. Test results have led to the breakup of countless relationships/marriages, but wouldn’t it be worth it? Depends on the secrets your true love has I suppose. Creepy and suspenseful and interesting to ponder. (The One is also a one-season series on Netflix from 2021 that I have not watched yet.)

Top Beach Reads (or lighter fare but still great):

1. Love and Other Words – Christina Lauren   Also discussed two posts ago, but let me say again how much I loved this book. I know this style of books is not for everyone but do not discount a lighter read. Good writing is good writing; it should be appreciated and lauded.
2. Nora Goes Off Script – Annabel Monaghan   Nora is a romance channel screenwriter whose latest script is picked up for the big screen and then filmed on location in her 100-year-old-home starring a former Sexiest Man Alive. I bet you can’t guess what happens next. Well, maybe you can, but it won’t be exactly what you think and who cares? It’s so so good.
3. Book Lovers – Emily Henry   Scroll down to previous post.
4. To Sir, with Love – Lauren Layne   A little You’ve Got Mailish but that’s ok. Still a fun read.
5. Part of Your World – Abby Jimenez   This is a sweet book about two very different people, a big city ER doc and a small town carpenter, who fall for each other.

Bonus rec that I haven’t read yet because I’m saving it for my trip so I can pass it around to my family members but think you should purchase as a holiday gift for everyone you know:

Bomb Shelter: Love, Time, and Other Explosives – Mary Laura Philpott   I have linked it to her local bookstore so you can help support them when purchasing! Win win!!

Movies to watch on a plane if you are traveling or for when you’re just looking for some fun entertainment whilst hanging at home:

1. Obviously Top Gun: Maverick
2. Bullet Train  Five assassins aboard a super-fast train, including Brad Pitt, have interweaving missions. It’s clever, funny and super violent but in such an over-the-top way that it’s almost ok.
3. Marcel the Shell with Shoes On – SO sweet!!
4. Tenet  This movie got upended by Covid. If you haven’t seen it yet, you should, and you really need to pay attention.
5. The Lost City  If you love Raiders of the Lost Ark and Sandra Bullock, this is your movie.

Apps:

I have two interesting (free and linked below) apps for you.

1. Yuka – This one my friend Nancy’s son who lives in LA told me about. It allows you to scan personal care products using their barcodes and rates them from 0 (poor) to 100 (excellent) so you can see how healthy they are for you, based on their ingredients. Be prepared to feel like you should be throwing away everything currently on your sink counter.
2. Soon – I have lists everywhere; on post it notes, in my (paper) calendar, and especially on my Notes app. These lists are for the books I’ve read, the books I want to read, the tv shows I “should be” watching, the restaurants that have been recommended to me, etc. My college friend Jenny told me she had the app for me! Soon has all these categories and more (hotels, stores, museums, etc), you just add your items to the appropriate list – all in one nice app.

TV

The one show I’m going to recommend here because your whole family can watch together is “Be My Guest With Ina Garten” on the Food Network. Who doesn’t love Ina? In each episode she invites a (famous) friend over. First she prepares something for them, then they chat a bit, then they make something together. She had me at the first episode of season 2 wherein she made Frozen Palomas for Faith Hill. YUM.

I wish you all a wonderful, safe, healthy and super fun holiday!!