Somewhat unsurprisingly, I did not hit my target of 65 books in 2021.

I barely read anything at all for about four months of it, because my brain was just not in a reading sort of place. I eventually accepted this and let myself enjoy playing games on my Switch and on Board Game Arena instead.

I read 50 books in the end, which still isn’t a bad total for the year, all things considered.

For 2022, I have decided to stick with 50 as a target. It’s less than one a week average, but still a nice round number and a bit of a challenge.

The first books I am reading this year are:

Wilder Girls by Rory Power (Audible Audiobook Version)

I heard lots of great things about this one when it came out (in 2019…), whilst also managing to hear basically nothing on what it’s about, so I’m sort of going in blind, other than the cover and the blurb.

I’ve only listened to the first chapter so far, so I have no idea what is going on, but it is very intriguing already.

It’s been eighteen months since the Raxter School for Girls was put under quarantine. Since the Tox hit and pulled Hetty’s life out from under her.

It started slow. First the teachers died one by one. Then it began to infect the students, turning their bodies strange and foreign. Now, cut off from the rest of the world and left to fend for themselves on their island home, the girls don’t dare wander outside the school’s fence, where the Tox has made the woods wild and dangerous. They wait for the cure they were promised as the Tox seeps into everything.

But when Byatt goes missing, Hetty will do anything to find her, even if it means breaking quarantine and braving the horrors that lie beyond the fence. And when she does, Hetty learns that there’s more to their story, to their life at Raxter, than she could have ever thought true.

Blurb from GoodReads.com

The House In The Cerulean Sea by T. J. Klune

I started this in December, after a friend loaned it to me when I had Covid. I didn’t quite have the brain to focus then, so restarted it in January and I am really loving it.

I’m about 3/4 through it now, and it is giving me all the warm and fuzzies but with the background threat of mild peril lurking. It has been a truly lovely read to start the year with, plus it has yellow sprayed edges – you know I love me some sprayed edges 😛

He expected nothing. But they gave him everything . . .

Linus Baker leads a quiet life. At forty, he has a tiny house with a devious cat and his beloved records for company. And at the Department in Charge of Magical Youth, he’s spent many dull years monitoring their orphanages.

Then one day, Linus is summoned by Extremely Upper Management and given a highly classified assignment. He must travel to an orphanage where six dangerous children reside, including the Antichrist. There, Linus must somehow determine if they could bring on the end of days. But their guardian, charming and enigmatic Arthur Parnassus, will do anything to protect his wards. As Arthur and Linus grow ever closer, Linus must choose between duty and his dreams.

Blurb from GoodReads.com

Did you get any new books for Christmas? What are you looking forward to reading this year?