2022

2022 in Books

Teal banner with the title "2022 in books", with teal and purple flower decorations around it

I feel a bit late to the party of 2022 recaps, but I didn’t want to do it until it was truly over. 2022 has been a busy year for me, as you can read in my personal note from last month, but in the middle of all that, it’s the year I read the most in probably ever. (maybe I read more in highschool? but who knows. I didn’t count it then. And even so, I don’t think so).

In spite of reading very little in October and December, I read 150 books overall! I think this is best represented by my reading bookshelf :

Hand-drawn books over 2 pages of a notebook, forming a large bookshelf. The books are coloured in, in many colours, numbering 150 books. There are decorative stickers of plants, teapots and books.
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Art reveal for The Red Scholar’s Wake, by Aliette de Bodard

Thumbnail: a teal background with flowery decorations. On the left, a black rectangle in the shape of a book cover, with white question marks on it. On the right, the text: "Art reveal: The Red Scholar's Wake"

Very excited today to take part in an art reveal for The Red Scholar’s Wake by Aliette de Bodard, which came out from Gollancz yesterday and can be found in all your favourite shops. In case you missed it, you can also find my review here.

The Blurb

‘So romantic I may simply perish’ Tasha Suri, award-winning author of THE JASMINE THRONE

LESBIAN SPACE PIRATES. Enough said.’ Katee Robert, NYT bestselling author of NEON GODS

Xích Si: bot maker, data analyst, mother, scavenger. But those days are over now-her ship has just been captured by the Red Banner pirate fleet, famous for their double-dealing and cruelty. Xích Si expects to be tortured to death-only for the pirates’ enigmatic leader, Rice Fish, to arrive with a different and shocking proposition: an arranged marriage between Xích Si and herself.

Rice Fish: sentient ship, leader of the infamous Red Banner pirate fleet, wife of the Red Scholar. Or at least, she was the latter before her wife died under suspicious circumstances. Now isolated and alone, Rice Fish wants Xích Si’s help to find out who struck against them and why. Marrying Xích Si means Rice Fish can offer Xích Si protection, in exchange for Xích Si’s technical fluency: a business arrangement with nothing more to it.

But as the investigation goes on, Rice Fish and Xích Si find themselves falling for each other. As the interstellar war against piracy intensifies and the five fleets start fighting each other, they will have to make a stand-and to decide what kind of future they have together…

An exciting space opera and a beautiful romance, from an exceptional SF author.

And without further ado… the art!

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Small reviews: Space Operas

Teal title card with the headline: "small reviews: Space operas", a darker blue border and flowery decorations

I’ve always considered myself primarily a Fantasy fan, but it turns out that I end up reading – and enjoying – a lot more scifi, and in particular space operas, than I originally expected. And then getting overwhelmed with all the ones I want to review. So this is my attempt at a snapshot of all the Good Stuff I’ve read and didn’t have time/spoons to review but that I think really deserve a read.

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ARC review: The Red Scholar’s Wake, by Aliette de Bodard

Teal banner with stylised flower decorations. On the left, the cover of The Red Scholar's Wake, showing two women holding hands at the bay window of a spaceship looking out into space. The ship is in red and purple tones, with the sky in dark blues and pale pinks. The ship interior is intricately decorated, with red fish sculptures at the top framing the window (and book title).
On the right, the blog post title: The Red Scholar's Wake, by Aliette de Bodard.

I’ve got a few reviews out about Aliette de Bodard’s work already (like Fireheart Tiger, or Seven of Infinities), so is it any surprise that I wanted to read Red Scholar’s Wake? I was very excited to get approved for the ARC. I buddy-read it with my friend Tessa and I was so glad to have someone to scream to about it. Thanks to Netgalley and Orion Publishing for giving me a free copy in exchange for an honest review.

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Small reviews: Mermaids edition

If you remember, back in late April I decided to do a Mermay-challenge where I’d read the mermaid related books I owned. It did not go very well, I read maybe 1 of the books on my TBR and then 1 from the library. But I’ve also read a bit more since then and thought I’d give them a bit of a spotlight.

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Small Reviews: all the good stuff from the past month(s)

I have read so many good books since… June? July? That I didn’t find the time or energy to review. Ideally I’d want to give each of them a big, long, gushing post, but as I keep postponing that and my memory becomes wobbly on the details, I figured it’s better to write SOME review than none at all!

I read upwards of 20 books in July, and I did kind of burn myself out in the process – and then lots of personal, health, and work related things happened so I’ve been putting the blog on an involuntary hiatus, but reading remains my primary hobby and I want to share with you all the good stuff I read in the meantime! I will likely do a few of these instead of cramming them all in the same post.

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ARC review: The Book Eaters, by Sunyi Dean

I received an audio ARC of the Book Eaters, but I didn’t have much time to listen to audiobooks the last two weeks, as I was with family most of the time. So I started this audio a while back now and very slowly. But as the story picked up (and I was back home) I just couldn’t stop listening and actually read most of it over 2-3 days!

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Follow the Rabbit-Proof Fence

I was first exposed to this book in highschool English class, when I was still at a pretty low level of English, and had no clue there were even Indigenous people in Australia. I did not even really understand the concept of a rabbit proof fence, it always seemed so wild to me it had to be fictional. We read extracts (I understood maybe a word in ten), watched a scene or two of the movie, and bits of a documentary about Indigenous Australians and the tough conditions they had to live in due to systemic racism. I

It stayed with me, but how hard it had been to read compared to other book extracts we read that year, also stuck with me, so I never really looked into it more. I assumed it was beyond my level, written to be very obscure, as some nonfiction books can be.

Fast forward to this year, I’ve been living in Ireland for about 4 years and I don’t remember how it came to mind but I decided I had to read it again and see if I still found it hard.

I got it from the library and, my friends, it is so short? About 150 pages. And yet it’s one of the most impactful books I read this year.

I wanted to talk about this book, but at the same time I don’t want to do a straightforward review. I’m a white woman, living in Europe, and approaching this topic from a willing-to-learn perspective* but this is not my lived experience at all and I don’t want to be over here trying to pass a judgement on what I’ve read. Instead, let me just tell you about it (or tell you about the topic through this book).

What is Follow the Rabbit Proof Fence?

tw: colonialism, racism, prison, kidnapping, child abuse, mentions of rape

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