The weather has been particularly fine lately and I’ve been enjoying some time reading in the Adirondack chairs on our front porch (see photo above). I realized I zoomed past the half-way mark of the year without asking you how you are doing on our Reading Challenge for this year! Please tell me!

I’m on track to finish by the end of the year, but my reading seems to be all over the place right now. I’m reading many different things but not really finishing anything. In the list below, I link to my review (for 4 or 5 star books), or tell you where I am regarding the book. The numbers without titles are where I’ll be directing my reading in the rest of the year. Not sure about my favorites yet but have some strong contenders!

So far, I’ve already completed 35 of my goal of 52 for the year. Right now, I am simultaneously reading nine more. This is where I am for those that are curious or need ideas:

Reading Challenge for 2022:

Favorite Fiction (also listed in their category):

(1)

Favorite Non-fiction (also listed in their category):

((2)

Substancial Fiction:

1. Shantaram (my review)
2. China: the Novel (long; 1/2 way through)
3. The Lincoln Highway (my review)
4. The Priory of the Orange Tree (my review)
5. House at the Edge of Night (1/2 way)
6. Friendship Point (just started)
7. Lessons in Chemistry (my review)
8. Matrix (my review)
9. Remarkably Bright Creatures (my review)
10. Love Songs of W.E.B. Dubois (long; not quite finished)

11.

12.

Breezy Fiction

1. Last Duke Standing (good but horrible cover)

2. Bookstore of Second Chances (my review)

3.  Bloomsbury Girls (my review)

4. Miss Eliza’s English Kitchen (three stars)

5. The Summer Place (2 stars)

6. Last Garden in England (my review)

7.  House in the Cerulean Sea (my review)

8. 

Series:

1. Cafe By the Sea (3 stars)

2. Endless Beach (3 stars)

3. Christmas on the Island (2 stars)

(4) Christmas at the Island Hotel (2 stars)

Mystery:

1.

2. The Lost Apothecary (3 stars)

YA Book

1. What I Carry (my review)

(2.) Salt to the Sea (August book club book)

Fable, Fairy Tale, or Allegory:

1. Friedman’s Fables (bad)

Memoir

1. Educated (deeply affecting chronicle of abuse)

2.

3.

Essays:

1. These Precious Days (my review)

Cookbook:

1.  In Praise of Veg 

Poetry:

1. Ain’t Burned All the Bright (my review)

(2.) Love Poems for God (Sept book club reading several a day this summer)

Spirituality:

1. Pray Like a Gourmet (my review)

2. Amazing Grace: Toward a Vocabulary of Faith (1/2 way)

Art:

1.  Art Materials (1/2 way)

2.

Life Lessons:

1. Thoreau and the Art of Life (not finished)

2.

Non-fiction:

1. Splendid and the Vile (my review)

2. Paradise in Plain Sight: Lessons from a Zen Gardener (my review)

3. How Creativity Rules the World (just started)

4.

5.

6.

7.  What You Think of Me is None of my Business (three star)

8.  Make Food Simple (okay)

Illustrated Non-fiction:

1. Conscious Creativity (my review)

1. Expressive Sketchbooks (my review)

Professional Development:

1. Ram and the Thicket (1/2 way)

2.

3.

Let me know what you are loving reading or what you think I should read in my remaining gaps on this list!