Play Book Tag discussion

After carefully reading the instructions, please post your top 10 titles for this year in a post below between now and January 3rd. Any book that is included must have been read (as opposed to published) in 2022.

If you would copy the format I use in my example below, that would be great.

You do not need to post your top ten in any specific order, but you are certainly free to do so, but please don't include numbers in your list.

We'd love to hear your comments on your top 10. Please post them below your list.

If you must make a change to your list after it is posted, please just note it by editing your existing post at the bottom to read:

EDITED: date, changed Title A to Title B

For fun, please post your least favorite title of the year at the bottom of your message.


****EXAMPLE ONLY**** Please post your choices using this exact same format.

Bad Blood: Secrets and Lies of a Silicon Valley Startup - Carreyou
Born a Crime - Noah
The Heart's Invisible Furies - Boyne
A Ladder to the Sky - Boyne
Educated - Westover
The Collector - Fowles
Blood Meridian - McCarthy
Do Not Say We Have Nothing - Thien
Three Little Words - Rhodes-Courter
From a Low and Quiet Sea - Ryan

Comfort Me With Apples - Valente
The Empress of Salt and Fortune - Vo
The Dutch House - Patchett
How Lucky - Leitch
Pet - Emezi
Interview with the Vampire - Rice
Blackbird House - Hoffman
King and the Dragonflies - Callender
MEM - Morrow
Silver in the Wood - Tesh

My lowest rated book this year (2 stars) was A Mind of Her Own - McLain

Oh, I've been waiting for this! By order read:

The Martian - Weir
The House in the Cerulean Sea - Klune
Madame Bovary - Flaubert, trans. Lydia Davis
Love, Death & Rare Books - Hellenga
Narrowboat Summer - Youngson
An Artist of the Floating World - Ishiguro
The 7-1/2 Deaths of Evelyn Hardcastle - Turton
In the Distance - Diaz
The Lincoln Highway - Towles
Migrations - McConaghy

EDITED 12/23/22 - CHANGED Lab Girl to Migrations

I actually have 17 presently on my Top Ten 2022 Shelf - here's a link for the others - some only have 4 stars, though all listed here have 5 stars.

The Lydia Davis translation of Madame Bovary is as close to reading the original french as I think you can get and it was marvelous. The Narrowboat Summer and The House in the Cerulean Sea were such enchanting magical joys. Many of the others had an originality together with engaging plots, settings, and characters that totally hooked me from the beginning. Others, like the Diaz and Ishiguro created stories that illuminated an historic time and place in a new way for me, one that touched me deeply. All are reads I think about even months later.

My least favorite, the worst book all year: Well I have a 3 way tie:

Behind the Mask by A.M. Barnard a/k/a Louisa May Alcott - awful just awful writing and all
The Ice Queen by Alice Hoffman - what was Hoffman thinking????
The 7 Husbands of Evelyn Hugo by Taylor Jenkins Reid - though I rated it less harshly than the first 2, the farther I get from reading it, the more I disdain it and find it makes me angry for being so inadequate.

Top Ten Books

The Sentence - Erdrich
Violeta - Allende
Black Cake - Wilkerson
True Biz - Novic
Chilean Poet - Zambra
Little Faith - Butler
Dinners with Ruth: A Memoir of Friendship - Totenberg
Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, and Tomorrow - Zevin
Plainsong - Haruf
Search - Huneven

*Weirdest Book I've read (but not my least favorite) - Sourdough by Sloan

Honorable Mentions

Our Souls at Night - Haruf
Foster (Short Story) - Keegan
Bel Canto - Patchett
Let it Rain Coffee - Cruz

*The Personal Librarian – Marie Benedict and Victoria Christopher Murray
*Cloud Cuckoo Land – Anthony Doerr
*Honor – Thrity Umigar
*The Diamond Eye – Kate Quinn
*The Lincoln Highway – Amor Towles
*The Keeper of Happy Endings – Barbara Davis
*Mad Honey – Jodi Picoult
*Remarkably Bright Creatures – Shelby Van Pelt
*The Hidden Palace – Helene Wecker
*The Color of Ice – Barbara Linn Probst

In order read:

The Nesting Dolls - Adams
Migrations - McConaghey
Little Fires Everywhere - Ng
Last Call - Okrent
Call Us What We Carry - Gorman
The Man Who Died Twice - Orman
Search - Huneven
Braiding Sweetgrass - Kimmerer
Giovanni's Room - Baldwin
Still Life - Sarah Winman

As usual, I wait until Jan 1 or 2 to post mine, as I want to get in all my books this year before deciding on my top ones. :-)

The Boys in the Boat - Brown
The Dutch House - Patchett
How High We Go in the Dark - Nagamatsu
Klara and the Sun - Ishiguro
The Lincoln Highway - Towles
NOS4A2 - Hill
Piranesi - Clarke
Plainsong - Haruf
Project Hail Mary - Weir
These Precious Days - Patchett

I wanted to note that I read fully 1/2 of these as part of the PBT Favorites Challenge. And many of my "runners-up" also came from that challenge.

It was a good year for good books!

In no particular order.

NOS4A2 - Hill
Project Hail Mary - Weir
Bloodline - Rollins
Beartown - Backman
Dark Lover - Ward
And Then There Were None - Christie
Back of Beyond - Box
Razorblade Tears - Cosby
House in the Cerulean Sea - Klune
Madame Tussaud, A Novel of the French Revolution - Moran

I had a lot of least favorite books but the one that stands out because I just finished it is
Love the One You're With - Giffen

LibraryCin wrote: "As usual, I wait until Jan 1 or 2 to post mine, as I want to get in all my books this year before deciding on my top ones. :-)"

Ditto

Olivermagnus wrote: "In no particular order.

NOS4A2 - King - ..."

NOS4A2 is by Joe Hill (Stephen King's son)

Book Concierge wrote: "

NOS4A2 - King - ..."

NOS4A2 is by Joe Hill (Stephen King's son)"

Thanks BC. I know that but I wasn't paying attention.

In no particular order!

A Gentleman in Moscow - Towles
The Priory of the Orange Tree - Shannon
Blood and Sand - Gardner
Braiding Sweetgrass - Kimmerer
The Poisonwood Bible - Kingsolver
This Much is True - Margolyes*
A Tale for the Time Being - Ozeki
She Said - Kantor and Twohey
The Defence - Cavanagh
The Last Supper - Shrager+

* Audio recommended!
+ Yes, the TV chef!

Worst has to be Waverley - Scott (0.5 stars!)

This was really hard because I had quite a few 5 star books this year and I hated eliminating any of them. Here is my final

Briefly, A Delicious Life – Nell Stevens
The Oregon Trail: A New American Journey – Rinker Buck
The Sentence - Louise Erdrich
Haven – Emma Donoghue
Horse – Geraldine Brooks
After Story – Larissa Behrendt
An American Marriage - Tayari Jones
The Violin Conspiracy - Brendan Slocum
Moon and the Mars – Kia Corthron
Project Hail Mary – Andy Weir

Honorable mentions

The Only Plane in the Sky: An Oral History of 9/11 - Garrett M. Graff
Mercury Pictures Presents – Anthony Marra
The Sun Is a Compass: A 4,000-Mile Journey into the Alaskan Wilds - Caroline Van Hemert
Salt Lick - Lulu Allison
The Boys in the Boat: Nine Americans and Their Epic Quest for Gold at the 1936 Berlin Olympics – Daniel James Brown
The Lotus Eaters – Tatjana Soli
Unearthing The Secret Garden: The Plants and Places That Inspired Frances Hodgson Burnett – Marta McDowell
The Thirty Names of Night - Zeyn Jpukhader

Worst read of the year was my first of 2022 and from the title it should have been wonderful

A Year of Marvellous Ways -Sarah Winman

The Immortal King Rao – Vara
The Colony – Magee
We Measure the Earth with Our Bodies – Lama
The Winter Soldier – Mason
The Seven Moons of Maali Almeida – Karunatilaka
The Sparrow – Russell
Project Hail Mary – Weir
The Gift of Rain – Tan
Glory – Bulawayo
Speak – Hall

Note: The Gift of Rain is by Tan Twan Eng. Tan is his surname.

My least favorite by far is: The Old Devils by Kingsley Amis, which is basically about a group of older people drinking to excess and sleeping around.

I read so many great books this year that it was hard to pick only ten. So, taking a cue from Booknblues...

Honorable Mentions:
The Cruel Sea – Monsarrat
A Ladder to the Sky – Boyne
Washington: A Life – Chernow
Seven Steeples – Baume
The Italian Teacher – Rachman
What We Fed to the Manticore – Kolluri
The Master – Tóibín
The River of Doubt: Theodore Roosevelt's Darkest Journey – Millard
The Farming of Bones – Danticat
Underland: A Deep Time Journey – MacFarland

Edited and reposted on page 3

Favorite Books read in 2022
Here are some books that delighted, moved, informed, puzzled, or impressed me this year.

When McKinsey Comes to Town: The Hidden Influence of the World's Most Powerful Consulting Firm - Bogdanich
The Year of the Flood - Atwood
Sorrow and Bliss - Mason
The World That We Knew - Hoffman
The Round House - Erdrich
Search - Huneven
Sea of Tranquility - St. John Mandel
The Winners - Backman
[The last two keep changing!]
Cantoras - de Robertis
True Biz - Novic

Honorable mention

Small Things Like These - Keegan
The Many Daughters of Afong Moy - Ford
If I Stay - Forman
These Precious Days: Essays- Patchett
Animal, Vegetable, Miracle: A Year of Food Life - Kingsolver

Least Favorites:
The Very Secret Sex Lives of Medieval Women
We are the Weather -Foer - The first half was great, the second half was a mess

Ranked 1-10

The Measure - Erlick
Finding Me - Davis
Lessons in Chemistry - Garmus
The Guncle - Rowley
Pressure is a Privilege: Lessons I've Learned from Life and the Battle of the Sexes - King
It's What I Do: A Photographer's Life of Love and War - Addario
Untamed - Doyle
The Handmaid's Tale - Attwood
Havey Milk: His Lives and Death - Faderman
A History of the World in 6 Glasses - Standage


These are the top 10 books I read this year ranked 1-10. I normally lean toward non-fiction but had several favorites that were fiction. Several of these were read because they were something I found for the monthly tag. Thank you PBT for getting me out of my normal reading habits and helping me discover new, good books.

All 5 Star reads


Facing the Mountain - Daniel James Brown
Black Hawk Down - Mark Bowden
Horse - Geraldine Brooks
The Caine Mutiny - Herman Wouk
Checkmate In Berlin - Milton Giles
Under Heaven - Guy Gavriel Kay
A Question of Honor - Lynne Olson
Kon Tiki - Thor Heyerdahl
The Secrets Between Us - Thrity Umrigar
The British Are Coming - Rick Atkins

Honorable Mention- 5 Star Fantasy (last book in 5 stars series)

The Price of Spring - Daniel Abraham
Blood of Dragons - Robin Hobb


Worst books-all 2 Stars. Which just goes to show that the Queen-of-not do-finish does finishing some books that she is tempted to throw at the wall

Ramses Son of Light - Christian Jacq
The Legend - David Gemmell
Red Island House - Andrea Lee
Gay Lord Robert - Jean Plaidy
Stone of Farewell - Tad Williams

The Winners - Backman
And Now She's Gone - Hall
A Good Girl's Guide to Murder - Jackson
Carrie Soto is Back - Reid
The Perfect Couple - Hilderbrand
The Paris Apartment - Foley
The First Lady - Patterson
I was Here - Forman
Wish you were Here - Picoult
The Christie Affair - Gramont

Olivermagnus wrote: "Book Concierge wrote: "

NOS4A2 - King - ..."

NOS4A2 is by Joe Hill (Stephen King's son)"

Thanks BC. I know that but I wasn't paying attention."

Almost made the same mistake!

Interesting to see how different everybody's lists are.

Kelly, I loved the Christie Affair. It was number 11 or 12 for me. I have another five or 10 books that could have equalled any of the ones on my list.

Okay, 5 star books this year, new-to-me and repeats so I might reach 10! Some are not going to be contenders, obviously. Other than the first one, this is in reverse order of when I read them in 2022. Exactly 10 five star reads and not likely to get another since that makes less than one in 10. Six were new, but I "cheated" and read an author I love for three of them.

Ordinary Grace - William Kent Krueger
Hostile Intent - Lynette Eason
Song Yet Sung - James McBride
Elizabeth is Missing - Emma Healey
A Gentleman in Moscow - Amor Towles
Home From the Vinyl Cafe - Stuart McLean
Secrets From the Vinyl Cafe - Stuart McLean
Pride and Prejudice - Jane Austen
Vinyl Cafe Unplugged - Stuart McLean
All the Light We Cannot See - Anthony Doerr

Worst 3 books- 1 star books only although there are some 2 star contenders --note that the first two are authors I have given 5 stars to in the past and that Doerr is on both lists:


Give the Dark My Love - Beth Revis
Cloud Cuckoo Land - Anthony Doerr
Miranda Warning (A Murder in the Mountains #1) - Heather Day Gilbert

Deacon King Kong -- McBride
The Absolute True Diary of a Part Time Indian -- Alexie
Cloud Cuckoo Land -- Doerr
The Lincoln Highway -- Towles
Anxious People -- Backman
The Island of Missing Trees -- Shafak
Fahrenheit 451 -- Bradbury
The Outsiders -- Hinton

Least Favorite-- The Sea Wife -- Gaige

Most Unusual-- No Fear Shakespeare Hamlet graphic novel -- Babra

I have to wait to post my list as I think The Winners, which I'm reading now, might make it to my top 10.

Finding Chika - Albom
The Pale Faced Lie -Crow
The Blessing of the Animals -Gonzalez
Finding Me - Davis
Deadly Target- Adams
E.R. Nurses- Patterson and Eversmann
The Curse of the Mummy: Uncovering Tutankhamun's Tomb - Fleming
The Boys - Howard & Howard
Being Mortal-Gawande
Morality For Beautiful Girls -Smith


Least favorite titles--
Nonfiction--Vagos, Mongols, and outlaws - Falco
Fiction--Prodigal Summer -Kingsolver

Bodies of Water - T. Greenwood
Hour of the Witch - Chris Bohjalian
The Great Unexpected - Dan Mooney
The Hidden One - Linda Castillo
The Maid - Nita Prose
Winter Garden - Kristin Hannah
A Street Cat Named Bob - James Bowen
Starfish - Lisa Fipps
Crying in H Mart - Michelle Zauner
Tomorrow and Tomorrow and Tomorrow - Gabrielle Zevin

Least favorite, and the only read under 3 stars:

Get a Life Chloe Brown - Talia Hibbert

The Kaiju Preservation Society - Scalzi
Yes, I'm Hot in This: The Hilarious Truth about Life in a Hijab - Fahmy
The Wolves of Leninsky Prospekt - Armstrong
The Curse of Chalion - Bujold
Get a Life, Chloe Brown - Hibbert
Night of the Mannequins - Jones
A (Very) Short History of Life on Earth: 4.6 Billion Years in 12 Pithy Chapters - Gee
A Master of Djinn - Clark
The Verifiers - Pek

No 5 star star reads this year, just 4 or particularly enjoyable 3 stars. Going to crack down for 2023.

anarresa wrote: "The Kaiju Preservation Society - Scalzi
Yes, I'm Hot in This: The Hilarious Truth about Life in a Hijab - Fahmy
The Wolves of Leninsky Prospekt - Armstrong
The Curse of Chalion - Bujold
Get a Life,..."

The Master of Djinn was definitely on my runner-up list and I love seeing your History Walk read made it!

Not in a particular order-

Lonely Castle in the Mirror- Tsujimura
The Bone Ships- Barker
Where the Drowned Girls Go- McGuire
Rotten to the Core- Kinsey
Bayou Book Thief- Byron
Dead and Gondola- Claire
A Master of Djinn- Clark
Peanut Butter Panic- Flower
The Untold Story- Cogman
Being Mortal- Gawande

Least favorites:
I Spy a Psychic Eye- Brass
Big Freedia: God Save the Queen Diva!- Freedia

In no particular order:

Palace of Treason - Matthews
Nick - Farris Smith
Groundskeeping - Cole
Mr. Mercedes - King
Razorblade Tears - Cosby
Five Decembers - Kestrel
Constant Gardener - le Carre
The Swimmers - Otsuka
How Lucky - Leitch
Bel Canto - Patchett

Lease Favorite: Travels with George - Philbrick

In no particular order

Rose Code - Quinn
Lincoln Highway - Towles
A Lady in the Smoke - Odden
Deacon King Kong - McBride
Dinner with Edward - Vincent
Persuasion - Austen
The Guncle - Rowley
Born a Crime: Stories from a South African Childhood – Noah
Klara and the Sun – Ishiguro
The Bean Trees – Kingsolver

Least Favorite - The Confederacy of Dunces - Toole

The Midnight Library - Haig
Anxious People - Backman
Dear Emmie Blue - Louis
A River Enchanted - Ross
Every Summer After - Fortune
The Love Hypothesis - Hazelwood
The Magnolia Palace - Davis
Fangirl - Rowell
Rock Paper Scissors - Feeney
Nine Perfect Strangers - Moriarty

The first three books on my list garnered 5 stars, the next five books 4.5 stars, and the last two 4 stars. My books are in order with the top being my absolute favorite this year.

My least favorite book was Keep Moving: Notes on Loss, Creativity, and Change by Maggie Smith. I gave it 3 stars so I didn't hate it by any means.

Verity - Hoover
All the Light We Cannot See - Doer
Our Souls at Night - Haruf
Salt to the Sea - Sepetys
Into Thin Air - Krakauer
Between Shades of Gray - Sepetys
Carrie Soto is Back - Reid
The Summer Place - Weiner
Ordinary Grace - Krueger
Homegoing - Gyasi

Worst Read - Mean Baby by Blair

Favorites in no particular order:

This Tender Land - Krueger
Remarkably Bright Creatures - Van Pelt
Tomorrow, and tomorrow, and tomorrow - Zevin
The Change -Miller
Agent Josephine: American Beauty, French Hero, British Spy - Lewis
One for the Blackbird, One for the Crow - Hawker
Billy Summers - King
The Ghost Map: The Story of London's most terrifying epidemic - Johnson
Lessons in Chemistry - Garmus
We carry their Bones: the search for Justice at the Dozier School for Boys - Kimmerle

Honorable mentions:
The Naturalist - Mayne
Love & Saffron - Fay
The Fire in the Glass - Benson
Mandy - Edwards
Why Fish don't exist: A Story of Loss, Love and the Hidden Order of Life - Miller

Not for me:
The Maid - Prose
Fifty Words for Rain - Lemmie

In no particular order:

Let's Get Physical: How Women Discovered Exercise and Reshaped the World - Friedman
Why We Swim - Tsui
Wild Rescues: A Paramedic's Extreme Adventures in Yosemite, Yellowstone, and Grand Teton - Grange
The Dearly Beloved - Wall
Spying on Whales: The Past, Present, and Future of Earth's Most Awesome Creatures - Pyenson
The Charm Offensive - Cochrun
Downriver: Into the Future of Water in the West - Hansman
The Appeal - Hallett
She Who Became the Sun - Parker-Chan
Building the Cycling City: The Dutch Blueprint for Urban Vitality - Bruntlett & Bruntlett

A really nonfiction heavy list this year! Most of the fiction reading I did was pretty escapist light reading, so it was fun but not especially memorable.

Not for me:
Something Wilder - Lauren

forsanolim wrote: "In no particular order:

Let's Get Physical: How Women Discovered Exercise and Reshaped the World - Friedman
Why We Swim - Tsui
Wild Rescues: A Paramedic's Extreme Adventures in Yosemite, Yellowsto..."

So happy to see you have She Who Became the Sun on the list! My Feminerdy Book Club read it in 2021 and we were all so thrilled with it!

I just want to say, that I just finished The Winners, which clearly was a five star read and as a set of three would make my Top Ten for Life!

But I am not changing my top ten for 2022. It's too hard. I already had to throw out many honorable mentions, some of which made others top ten lists. I think it will start my Top Ten Contender List for 2023. I never included the honorable mentions. But was happy to see some of them emerge on others lists. I do see a lot of Lincoln Highway and Remarkably Bright Creatures which pleases me.

I never shared my least favorite. I think what comes to mind is how gravely disappointed I was with the Book of Names by Kristen Harmel. That was surprisingly off to me. But so many wonderful reads, I have had a great year! And that is because of you guys. Goodreads has completely helped me curate my lists so I largely read winners, and toss the rest. It's becoming harder and harder to select just ten.

Theresa wrote: "anarresa wrote:

I love this group because I read books I never would have found, or are reminded of lost favorites.
The history walk novel took a long search to find a good link and a request from a random library.
I might have seen Hippert on a romance display but never would have picked it up.
I think I missed Curse of Chalion back in the 90s, but favorite authors reminded me of her.
Already have a bunch of other novels to try for 2023

I had to remove my 5-star re-reads to whittle it down to 10.

In reverse order of reading but otherwise in no particular order:

The Winners - Backman
The Winter of the Witch - Arden
The Girl in the Tower - Arden
The Golden Enclaves - Novik
Other Birds - Allen
The Green Mile - King
Fox Creek - Krueger
Aristotle and Dante Dive into the Waters of the World - Saenz
Kon-Tiki - Heyerdahl
The Dark Hours - Connelly

Worst book(s) of the year: I had 3 which I rated 2 stars, my lowest rating of the year. They are all cheesy romances - I can't remember which one was the worst, and they're not worth trying to remember to figure out which.

The Matchmaker's Replacement - Rachel Van Dyken
The Matchmaker's Playbook - Rachel Van Dyken
Goalkeeper: A Moo U Hockey Romance - Andi Burns

annapi wrote: "I had to remove my 5-star re-reads to whittle it down to 10.

In reverse order of reading but otherwise in no particular order:

The Winners - Backman
The Winter of the Witch - Arden
The Girl in th..."

I just learned that there is a movie of Aristotle and Dante Discover the Secrets of the Universe. I think it was shown at a film festival or maybe in Canada but not yet in the US. It was produced by Lin-Manuel Miranda, who was absolutely perfect in narrating both books in this series.

Robin P wrote: "I just learned that there is a movie of Aristotle and Dante Discover the Secrets of the Universe..."

Ooh! I will have to find that!

And I thought the sequel was even better than the first book.

I rounded a new-to-me book up to 5 stars after reading it, so just replaced the first re-read 5 star book with it, but then we have until January 3 before they are added up, correct?

All Systems Red - Wells
Artificial Condition - Wells
Rogue Protocol - Wells
Exit Strategy - Wells
Network Effect - Wells
Fugitive Telemetry - Wells
Gideon the Ninth - Muir
Harrow the Ninth - Muir
11/22/63 - King
From Here to Eternity - Doughtry


I realize my reading favorites from 2022 are very one note - Reading slowed down and changed drastically for me this year. My husband and I welcomed our first child into the world April of this year and I've been surviving on very short and fast paced audio books ever since!

Nicole wrote: "All Systems Red - Wells
Artificial Condition - Wells
Rogue Protocol - Wells
Exit Strategy - Wells
Network Effect - Wells
Fugitive Telemetry - Wells
Gideon the Ninth - Muir
Harrow the Ninth - Muir
1..."


Totally approve the Martha Wells and Gideon the Ninth. They are among my favorites from when I have read them - all highly rated. I have not yet read Harrow the Ninth but very soon.

@Nicole, congratulations on becoming a mother! That's so exciting!

Congratulations - that's so wonderful!!!!!

Other Birds – Allen
The House in the Cerulean Sea – Klune
Suburban Dicks – Nicieza
John Adams – McCullough
The Keeper of Lost Things – Hogan
Shadow and Bone – Bardugo
Firekeeper’s Daughter – Boulley
Upgrade – Crouch
The Poet – Connelly
Shadow Man - Drew


Worst read The Zookeeper's Wife - Ackerman, my only 2 star read of the year so overall a good reading year.

Best reads:

Assassin's Apprentice - Hobb
Klara and the Sun - Ishiguro
Sea of Tranquility - St. John Mandel
In the Dream House - Machado
The Pillars of the Earth - Follett
Cloud Atlas - Mitchell
Apples Never Fall - Moriarty
A Game of Thrones - Martin
Four Lost Cities: A Secret History of the Urban Age - Newitz
Reign of Terror: How the 9/11 Era Destabilized America and Produced Trump - Ackerman

Not all of these are 5 star reads, but more which ones really stuck with me as an overall positive or thought-provoking experience, regardless of my judgment of its craft.

Worst reads:

Necrocope - Lumley

1 star and DNFed halfway through because I was having such a miserable time. Horribly juvenile writing and very gross male gazey sex scenes and just... ick.

Runner up for worst is:

Fledgling - Butler

2 stars for feeling like an extremely underbaked first draft, made worse by the fact that it was by Octavia E. Butler, who has written one of my favorite books of all time. Everyone is capable of a dud, it seems like. 🙃

Nicole wrote: "My husband and I welcomed our first child into the world April of this year and I've been surviving on very short and fast paced audio books ever since!"

Congratulations, NIcole! For novella-length books I recommend Lois McMaster Bujold's Penric and Desdemona series, starting with Penric's Demon. Quick, easy and entertaining!

And soon you'll be looking for books to read aloud to the little one if you haven't started already - my favorites were Lynley Dodd's Hairy Maclary series, starting with Hairy Maclary from Donaldson's Dairy, and of course the Slinky Malinki series.