My Year in Reading: A List of Ratings

My Year in Reading: A List of Ratings
By Alexis Mercer


Time is a funny thing. The year 2022 brought many games, practices, and commitments for my kids during the day, not to mention my job and all the other things that come with life in general that can’t be avoided. Which left me less time than ever to read and write for pleasure. We all have to make choices about how to spend those minutes that seem to keep ticking on ever quicker with each passing year.


I did, however, manage to keep my eyes open (sometimes much too late despite knowing the consequences for the next day) to read 27 books between January and December. One or two I even ignored said responsibilities to finish due to their magic pull of literary genius.


The reviews? I just didn’t get to enough of those. But in lieu of individual reviews, I thought it might be worthwhile to just publish a list of all the books I read this year. With each book I read and list in my notebook, I add a star rating. Between one and five stars. Every once in a while a book so wonderful that five stars doesn’t seem enough, I’ll add a heart or two for emphasis.


For comparison, in 2021 I read 26 books (hmmm maybe I am just always this busy and forget from year to year?) and only two books received the elusive five stars plus a heart rating: The Rose Code by Kate Quinn and The Extraordinary Life of Sam Hell by Robert Dugoni.


I read some epic books in 2022, as a whopping five books earned five stars and hearts.


One though? One book exceeded all expectations and earned a new category never before recorded in my notebook since I started keeping track four years ago. This book was so abysmally terrible it earned zero stars. I even wrote zip, zero, zilch after the lack of stars to ensure I remember it not a mistake.


You’ll see a pattern in my reading and likes, I’m sure. I love a well developed character. I enjoy a unique story without it being bizarre to the point of confusion. Historic fiction gets me hooked, especially with a strong female lead who found a way to break barriers in her own way. And some of the titles are “beachy” reads for those times when I don’t have much brain power, but want to laugh or follow a character I have been reading for years.


As soon as I finish reading the book I write its title and author down. I also rate it quickly, so the stars and hearts listed below were my initial reactions after closing the book for the last time. Certainly there would be changes to the ratings were I to go back and think about the lasting memories of the stories. But there is something to be said for that first thought after finishing a book.


So here it is. Hopefully you’ll find something you might put on your list for 2023: with endless possibility to up the book total above the previous year’s tally.


(Chronological in the order I read them.)

• Matrix by Laura Groff (4 stars)
• Pretty Things by Janelle Brown (5 stars, 2 hearts)
• The Lincoln Highway by Amor Towles (5 stars)
• Drift by LT Ryan (4 stars)
• Project Hail Mary by Andy Weir (5 stars)
• Book Lovers by Emily Henry (3 stars)
• My Year of Running Dangerously by Tom Foreman (5 stars)
• A Sunlit Weapon by Jacqueline Winspear (5 stars, 2 hearts)
• The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo (3 stars)
• The Dictionary of Lost Words by Pip Williams (5 stars)
• 22 Seconds by James Patterson (5 stars)
• The Marsh King’s Daughter by Karen Dionne (5 stars)
• Quiet in Her Bones by Nalini Singh (5 stars, 3 hearts)
• A Madness of Sunshine by Nalini Singh (5 stars, 3 hearts)
• Can’t Hurt Me by David Goggins (4 stars)
• Dream Town by David Baldacci (4 stars)
• The Huntress by Kate Quinn (5 stars)
• The It Girl by Ruth Ware (4 stars)
• The Hike by Susi Holliday (3 stars)
• Tomorrow and Tomorrow and Tomorrow by Gabrielle Zevin (5 stars)
• Going Rogue by Janet Evanovich (5 stars)
• The Diamond Eye by Kate Quinn (5 stars, 2 hearts)
• No Plan B by Lee Child (5 stars)
• Once There Were Wolves by Charlotte McConaghy (5 stars)
• The Energy Bus by Jon Gordon (3 stars)
• The Noise by James Patterson (0 stars, zip, zero, zilch)
• Wrong Place, Wrong Time by Gillian McAllister (5 stars) (also wrote OMG! by this one)