In the first three months of the year, I read 66 books. I’m staying on track with my new goal to read 22 books in each month of 2022, so the volume of what I’m reading is pretty high.
I thought I would share my top five books from this first quarter in case you want to add any of them to your to-read pile. (Remember you can check out my YouTube channel to hear me talk about what I’m reading each month or connect with me on Goodreads to follow my reading in real time.)
Here are my top five reads from Q1 (in no particular order):
- Less by Andrew Sean Greer: In an attempt to avoid attending his ex’s upcoming wedding, novelist Arthur Less engages in a multi-country trip. The humor in this book, combined with the travel narrative of the main character, make this a fun and funny read. I read this on audio and can recommend that medium as well.
- Finlay Donovan is Killing It by Elle Cosimano: I’ve already recommended this book to so many people. The basic premise is that there is a woman who writes romantic suspense and has a meeting with her editor at a restaurant. While talking with her editor, another woman overhears their conversations and gets the mistaken impression that the writer is a hit woman. The plot unfolds in pretty humorous ways from there.
- The Stand by Stephen King: A classic of plague literature, this book tells the story of the survivors of an illness that kills off most of humanity. Each chapter switches perspectives among different characters until many of those characters connect in the same community. Since this is Stephen King, there is an evil force at play, but I found the plot to be, overall, pretty believable. The audio book narration of this was also great.
- Middlegame by Seanan McGuire: In this book, Roger and Dodger are twins that were separated at birth, raised separately, but who remain connected through a telepathic communication channel in their brains. Roger is skilled in language and Dodger is skilled in mathematics. If you like metaphysical puzzles, this is a book for you. This is also another book that I can recommend on audio.
- Mistborn by Brandon Sanderson: This is the first book in a series set in a world where some people are allomancers with special powers that come from “burning” certain metals. The mistborn are those who have the capacity to gain powers of all the metals. I loved this book — the author did a great job of building the world in an accessible way that kept me engaged and wanting to know how everything would turn out. I can also recommend this one on audio.
What are some of your favorite books from the first few months of this year?