Tag: 2022

Top Ten Tuesday: new-to-me authors I discovered in 2022

GoAnnelies - In Another Era14 Comments

It’s been a while since I participated in the TTT, hosted by That Artsy Reader Girl. But I always tend to participate when this topic is on: new authors I’ve read in the previous year. I did read lots of books from authors I haven’t read anything from before, but today I choose 10 authors I want to read even more novels from.

  1. Jennifer Saint

I read both Elektra and Ariadne from this new voice in greek myth retellings. I loved both books and look forward to her new release ‘Atalanta’.

2. Miranda Malins

Also a relatively new author. I read Malins’ second book ‘The rebel daughter’ about Bridget Cromwell. I want to read her other book covering Frances Cromwell, the youngest daughter. And I’m curious what she’ll write about next. Another member of the Cromwell family or a whole other period?

3. Michelle Moran

I loved Nefertiti and want to read Morans other books about Ancient Egypt. She also wrote a book about Madame Tussaud and Napoleon’s second wife Marie-Louise for example.

4. Kate Quinn

Having finally read something from Kate Quinn, I want to get my hands on her other WOII and, more importantly, Ancient Rome and Borgia novels as this are time periods I find even more interesting.

5. Frances Quinn

Another Quinn :), I don’t need to say anymore that I loved this book. I already bought The smallest man and hope that Frances soon publishes a next novel.

6. Elodie Harper

And another new name in the historical fiction genre. Harper brought Ancient Rome to life and I’m excited to see if she chooses the same setting after finishing her ‘The wolf den’ trilogy.

7. Sarah Penner

The lost apothecary didn’t make it to my top ten, but I enjoyed this dual timeline novel. An ideal summer read. I already have Penner’s next book ‘The London Seance Society’ as a review copy for this year.

8. S.J. Parris

Heresy was the first book in a series surrounding Giordano Bruno in Elizabethan England. I enjoyed this mystery and want to try the next book ‘Prophecy’ somewhere this year.

9. Lars Mytting

When you can bring a small rural Norwegian community alive, you can craft a good story. Lars Myttings writing stands out and is different from other books. Again, there is a sequel novel I’m planning to read this year.

10. Stuart Turton

If we talk about being different and standing out, that’s exactly how I would call my experience of Turton’s second novel ‘The devil and the dark water’.

What new authors did you discover in 2022?

Advertisement

My bookish 2022 in numbers

GoAnnelies - In Another Era1 Comment

As always, I’m happy to receive my Goodreads year in books but I also keep some other metadata (century, country, language and format) in my bullet journal. In this blogpost I take you through my stats.

General

  • I read 46 books in 2022. That’s two less than last year, but still a very high number. And obviously enough to exceed my reading target of 40.
  • Those 46 novels accounted for 18.863 pages.
  • On average, the books I read were 410 pages long. That’s a bit higher than last year (402). I like big books and I’m not sorry about it :).
  • The longest books were Anna Karenina (803p.) and When Christ and his Saints Slept (784p.). The thinnest was The Trial by Kafka (255p. but it felt longer ^^).
  • My average rating was 3,6 stars. I always tend to end up around this number.

Format

  • I borrowed 20 books from the library, read 21 books on my Kindle e-reader and only 5 books from my physical shelves.
  • 11 of these Kindle books were review copies from Netgalley, my favourites being ‘Stone blind‘ and ‘That bonesetter woman‘
  • Let’s say I bought or received more than 5 physical books :p. I bought four books in London, two from a gift card and received two books as a gift from my boyfriend. I have no idea how many e-books I bought. And I probably forget a few.
  • I read 12 books in Dutch and 34 in English.

Genre & rating

  • I read 5 classics, but stopped reading for the Classics Club as I wasn’t enjoying it anymore. My private life is quite filled at the moment with the construction of my house and I just need lighter entertainment at the moment.
  • All 41 remaining books fall under the broad genre of ‘historical fiction’.
  • I gave four books five stars’ and only one book ‘The trial’ two stars. Although I have the feeling there were a few books that also weren’t my cup of tea at all. Maybe I was less picky this year.

Setting and era

These are the countries in which my books took place:

  • England: 25 books
  • France: 5 books
  • Italy: 4 books
  • Greece: 4 books
  • United States: 2 books
  • Egypt: 1 book
  • Australia: 1 book
  • Norway: 1 book
  • Belgium: 1 book
  • Indonesia: 1 book
  • Turkey: 1 book

It’s funny because it’s exact the same number of books set in England and France as last year. I read more books set in Italy and in general read about three more countries. However, diversity in the countries I read about is something I still want to work on. I hope to get more different countries at the end of 2023.

As always, diversity is there in the overview of the centuries in which my books were set:

  • B.C.: 4 books (Ancient Greece and Egypt)
  • 1st century: 2 books
  • 10th century: 1 book
  • 11th century: 1 book
  • 12th century: 1 book
  • 13th century: 1 book
  • 14th century: 1 book
  • 15th century: 4 books
  • 16th century: 6 books
  • 17th century: 6 books
  • 18th century: 5 books
  • 19th century: 5 books
  • 20th century: 4 books
  • 21th century: none

The 16th and 17th century top this list. I’m happy to see that after a few years where I didn’t read a lot of 16th century or Tudor books anymore, that I was back at it this year. The 17th century is always a bit of an unexpected result but I guess just a lot of books get published set in that era. For next year, I hope to keep such good numbers in the B.C. and Ancient Rome eras, because I always love to read about ancient times and the Romans.

People

These are some of the historical people I read about for the first time this year.

I’m happy with my 2022 reading year and I’m looking forward to what 2023 will bring.

Do you keep track of your reading stats?

November recap

GoAnnelies - In Another Era2 Comments

Time for the penultimate update of 2022. Can’t believe that I’m writing this 🙈.

Read(ing)

I finished another 4 books this month. Nefertiti was definitely my favourite of them. Great introduction to this period of Ancient Egypt. I had quite a diverse reading month, especially because they weren’t all set in England this time.

Number of pages read: 1.465 pages
Number of books finished: 4
Favorite read: ‘Nefertiti‘
Centuries visited: B.C., 16th century, 17th century, 19th century
Countries visited: England, Schotland, Indonesia, Egypt and Tasmania/Australia
Currently reading: Miss Austen by Gill Hornby
Next up: who will tell? 😀

Reviewed

Added to my TBR

How was your reading month?

October recap

GoAnnelies - In Another EraLeave a comment

And yet another month has passed! Although I did finish 4 books, this wasn’t my best reading month. I was ill twice which prevented me from reading and the books I read didn’t always turn out as I hoped they would. Nonetheless, October is also the month that I passed my Goodreads reading challenge and abandoned my classics club for a while.

Read(ing)

I read three new-to-me authors and one book of my favourite author. North and South was my 40th book of the year and so my Goodreads challenge is now finished. I believe this is a week or two later than last year. I knew that I would finish 40 without problem. But I don’t want to add more pressure in raising my challenge.

North and south was a classic from my classic club list. And, however, this isn’t a bad book – I did enjoy it at times-, I can now say that I’m done with reading difficult language books for a while. Especially when they’re slow in pace. I’m just too busy with building my own house and life lately to be able to ‘work’ again while reading.

Number of pages read: 1.465 pages
Number of books finished: 4
Favorite read: ‘The honey and the sting‘, although it’s not my favourite Fremantle
Centuries visited: B.C., 17th century, 19th century and 20th century
Countries visited: England, France and Greece
Currently reading: Nefertiti by Michelle Moran (I love it so far)
Next up: no idea yet!

Reviewed

Added to my TBR

  • Little by Edward Carey is one of those books that has peaked my interest at a few times and that I want to borrow from the library some day.
  • Black drop by Leonora Nattrass, looks like an interesting new series for me to try out

What was your favourite read in October?

September recap

GoAnnelies - In Another Era1 Comment

September means getting back into routine when halfway the month you start to realize that time feels to move a lot quicker than during Summer. So when I started writing this recap, I thought it was a bad reading month. I didn’t read that much, did I? But no worries, I managed to read a normal amount of books. It’s just my imagination.

Read(ing)

I finished 4 total different books. I didn’t like ‘My brilliant friend’ and ‘Ithaca’ as much as I hoped I would. But Essex Dogs and Heartstone both could make it to my end of year list of favourite books. Heartstone might also become one of my favourite parts of the Shardlake series.

Number of pages read: 1.869 pages
Number of books finished: 4
Favorite read: ‘Heartstone‘, but it was difficult to choose that one over Essex dogs
Centuries visited: B.C., 14th century, 16th century and 20th century
Countries visited: France, England, Italy and Greece
Currently reading: Kate Quinn’s ‘The Alice Network’
Next up: might pick up a classic or something from my psychical shelves

I was very distraught to hear about the death of Hilary Mantel. Although I still need to read ‘The mirror and the light’ and I didn’t like her ‘A place of greater safety’, I love her Thomas Cromwell series. I believe her to be a great author and it is sad to lose her this soon.

Reviewed & blogged

Added to my TBR

  • Winter in Madrid by S.J. Sansom, to try some of his other work
  • Lamentation because of course I’m looking forward to reading the next Shardlake installment
  • I bought a copy of The marriage portrait. I haven’t read anything by O’Farrell yet (no not even Hamnet)

How was your month?

20 books of Summer: the recap

GoAnnelies - In Another Era2 Comments

I’m not ready yet to say goodbye to summer, but it’s time to do a recap on my ’20 books of summer’ challenge. This challenge is hosted by Cathy of 746 books and the idea is to create a list of 20 books to read and review between the 1st of June and the 31st of August. Here you can read my sign-up post with my original list of twenty books.

I’m happy to announce that I managed to read 12 books during the last three months. Ten of them are from my original list, I also read two extra review copies. Last year, I stranded at 14 books, but that was because my holidays got cancelled, while this year I went abroad for two weeks during this three-month-period. And when I’m on holiday, I tend to read a lot less than usual. So, in the end I’m quite happy with my result.
These are the books I’ve read:

My favourite reads were ‘That bonesetter woman’, ‘Stone blind’ and ‘The price of blood’. I enjoyed participating in this challenge (thanks Cathy for hosting!) and I’m looking forward to join again next year.

Did you finish this challenge?

August recap

GoAnnelies - In Another Era4 Comments

As August was the last month of ’20 books of Summer’ (recap coming up soon), I worked through my list. Although, I also had my Summer holidays and didn’t read every day, I’m really happy with the books I’ve read this summer. Some of them will no doubt make it to my favourites list at the end of the year.

Read(ing)

I finished 4 books during August, all of them from my ‘20 books of summer‘ list. I loved Mrs England and enjoyed Weir’s book about Anne Boleyn a lot. But nothing beats a good Nathalie Haynes book. Stone blind is just pure perfection.

Number of pages read: 1.602 pages
Number of books finished: 4
Favorite read: ‘Stone blind‘
Centuries visited: B.C., 14th century, 16th century and 19th century
Countries visited: England, Italy and Greece
Currently reading: ‘Essex dogs’ by Dan Jones, it’s great so far!
Next up: no idea yet

Reviewed

Added to my TBR

Have you read anything by Nathalie Haynes yet?

June recap

GoAnnelies - In Another Era5 Comments

June was a month of ups and also many downs. I went to London for a week and really enjoyed being on a trip after two long covid years (and I bought a few books in the Waterstones, and with a few I mean a lot 😅). But there was also some bad news this month. So, I did read but not as much as I hoped.

Read(ing)

I managed to finish 4 books and I’m in the middle of two more. Quite a good start of my 20 books of summer challenge. As ‘Lord John and the hand of devils’ was almost as a whole finished in May, I don’t count it for my list. At the moment I’m at 3/20 after one month out of three. Still some work to do :).

I’m slowly getting through Cloud cuckoo land. It’s not the kind of book that I normally read, but I’m very curious to see how all the layers of the story will unfold. The heretic wind is a fast read about the life of Mary Tudor. I didn’t like it at first, but I’m enjoying more now that I’m in the second half of the book.

Number of pages read: 1.651 pages
Number of books finished: 4
Favorite read: The house with the golden door
Centuries visited: 1st century, 13th century, 14th century, 16th century, 18th century and 20th century
Countries visited: England, Italy, France and Greece (Constantinople)
Currently reading: The heretic wind and cloud cuckoo land
Next up: No idea yet 🙂 But I have the ’20 books of summer’ list to guide me

Reviewed

Added to my TBR

  • Sepulchre by Kate Mosse
  • The master of Measham Hall, this book was in every bookshop in London on display. I didn’t buy it, but it seems interesting
  • I still need to try Damian Dibben’s Tomorrow, but his newest book ‘The colour storm‘ seems even more my cup of tea.

How is your summer reading going?

20 books of summer 2022: my list

GoAnnelies - In Another Era13 Comments

I’ve been looking forward a lot to Cathy’s announcement of 20 books of summer. Not only because summer is my favourite season and reading while trying not to spill my sun cream, or even better ice cream, on my book is one of my happy places. This is just such a nice challenge in which a lot of other book bloggers are taking part and encourage each other.

Have you never heard of 20 books of summer before? Well, the good thing is that there are almost no rules 😅. The concept is to compile a list of 10, 15 or 20 books. And then read and review these books before the 1st of September.

All the fun is off course in creating the list and in not sticking to it 😛. But well, I created my list at the beginning of May and decided to list 20 books. And then aim to read at least 10 of them. Last year I finished 14 books during summer, which is A LOT. Mainly because I didn’t go on holiday in 2021 and thus spent a lot of my free time to reading. This year, I know I won’t have the same amount of time, so I’ve set the bar a lot lower for myself. 10 books will do.

This is my full list of books, in a random order.

  • Mrs England by Stacey Halls (Kindle copy)
  • Cloud cuckoo land by Anthony Doerr (physical copy)
  • Labyrinth by Kate Mosse (library)
  • The price of blood by Patricia Bracewell (Kindle copy)
  • City of masks by S.D. Sykes (Kindle copy)
  • And then there were none by Agatha Christie (for the classics club, physical copy)
  • The house with the golden door by Elodie Harper (Netgalley ARC)
  • The seven husbands of Evelyn Hugo by Taylor Jenkins Reid (library)
  • Heartstone by S.J. Sansom (library)
  • The heretic wind by Judith Arnopp (Kindle copy)
  • The honey and the sting by Elizabeth Fremantle (physical copy)
  • The devil and the dark water by Stuart Turton (library)
  • Anne Boleyn, a king’s obsession by Alison Weir (library)
  • North and South by Elizabeth Gaskell (for the classics club, Kindle copy)
  • The puritan princess by Miranda Mallins (Kindle copy)
  • The royal secret by Andrew Taylor (library)
  • A column of fire by Ken Follett (physical copy)
  • Stone blind by Nathalie Haynes (Netgalley ARC)
  • The reindeer hunters by Lars Mytting (library)
  • Circe by Madeline Miller (physical copy)

I’m curious to see where this challenge will end for me. Bring on the summer.

Have you made your list yet? With which book do I need to start my challenge?

April recap

GoAnnelies - In Another Era5 Comments

Hi all, April was a crazy month at work, so I had slightly less time for reading. I stopped reading classics for a while and just worked my way through a library haul of some more recent books.

Read(ing)

The wolf den was definitely my favourite book of the month. It is set in the ancient city of Pompeii and tells the story of 5 women in a brothel who are trying to survive. Next, I discovered the existence of stave churches in 19th century Norway and read about the Wars of the Roses in the next installment of the Kingmaker series. At the moment, I’m finishing Ariadne, a Greek myth retelling that I’m enjoying a lot so far.

Number of pages read: 1.540 pages
Number of books finished: 3
Favorite read: The wolf den
Centuries visited: 1ste century, 15th century and 19th century
Countries visited: England, Italy and Norway
Currently reading: Ariadne by Jeniffer Saint (almost finished)
Next up: Probably ‘I, Eliza Hamilton’, as it was on my TBR for 2022.

Reviewed

Watched

  • I’ve started watching ‘Poldark’ again. It seems I forgot some things about season 1.

Added to my TBR

What have you read in April?