Here we are–the last of my 2022 review posts! I’m grateful I was able to finish this project up. Incidentally, I read my 100th book for 2023 just yesterday, so I will have many more reviews to write next year, though I’ve decided they aren’t going to go on this blog. Instead, I’m going to put them on Kindle Vella, since I need more content for that platform. So if you want to continue following my reading thoughts, be sure to check them out there!

In the meantime, here are my last 6 reviews for 2022. As has happened before, I got to this point and somehow had even two books left on my list, so I had to go through all the past posts for the whole year and figure out which ones I’d missed, so some of these will be out of order.

And you thought I was done with the Mary Russell and Sherlock Holmes series reviews! But for some reason, I missed books two and three when going over my list. I think since I’d read them before, the Goodreads shelf did something weird with the order, but anyway–here’s book #2.

I read this one many years ago, and liked it overall. It was a bit odd as a mystery and leaves some questions unanswered, but I appreciated Russell’s ability to keep an open mind about things she naturally wanted to believe in. I also really liked the growing romance between Holmes and Russell–sweet, in their own peculiar way, without being overdone.

Back to the 3rd book in the series–this one was just okay. I liked seeing the relationship between Holmes and Russell now that they are married, but the story was so forgettable that even after reading it twice I’m struggling to recall much about it.

I do know that I was a bit annoyed by the whole “letter of Mary” thing itself, the centrality of an archeological find that supposedly lists Mary Magdalene as an official disciple of Christ. The idea that this would upend all of Christianity just felt silly to me. All of Christ’s twelve closest disciples were men, and I believe that’s for a reason, but no one denies that he also had female followers and disciples and that He cared for women, one of whom was Mary Magdalene. So that just kept rubbing me the wrong way the whole book.

I’m not sure how I missed this one as I was going through last year’s books, but I read it early in the year. Re-read, I should say–I don’t even know how many times I’ve gone through this one. It’s one of my very favorite books, but it had been years since my last read-through, and I thought it was high time I revisited it now that I’m in a new season of life as a mother of small children.

It was as good as ever. Watching Katherine grow from a sincere but foolish young girl through life changes and hardship to become a truly disciplined and devoted follower of Christ feels so realistic and relatable, and every time I read it I relate to a different part of her journey. And it always encourages me to, as the title suggests, continue stepping Heavenward, day by day.

This was our last book club book for the year, and was my second time reading this one. I could definitely see myself reading it again at some point. It’s extremely thought-provoking and made for great book club discussion. It’s one of those books that really sticks with me, with a clever and powerful premise.

I love Wilde’s writing in general, though I will admit that I was more innocent the first time I read it and didn’t perceive it as borderline homoerotic as I did the second time. Learning more about Wilde’s life confirmed that this was likely intentional, and the excessive and flowery devotion between men in the story made me uncomfortable. But that aside, it’s such a good picture (no pun intended) of the effect that sin has upon us, God’s design in that impact and its limiting potential, and what it would be like if those effects weren’t there.

Another Agatha Christie–certainly not the last. This was another one I picked off the list of best Christie books to read, and it was indeed a good one. I was surprised by the ending and drawn into the mystery which is, again, really all I’m looking for.

Fun fact–as I continued reading Christie in 2023, I came across one of her Hercule Poirot short stories that, as I read it, just felt so familiar. Sure enough, I looked and found that that story, Yellow Iris, was later expanded into the novel Sparkling Cyanide, something she did with several of her shorter works.

Last book of the year was yet another Agatha Christie book. I don’t recall why I only gave this one three stars–I found the solution surprising and fairly satisfying. I do know, however, I was annoyed by the “adoption doesn’t really count as being family” and “controlling parents are the worst thing ever and ruin your entire life” tropes that I’ve since found are fairly common in Christie’s works. So maybe that knocked a star off of my rating.

I know it wasn’t my favorite, but I still enjoyed it. Clearly enough to propel me into reading a ridiculous amount of Christie in the next year…

And that does it for 2022! Thank you so much to everyone who has gone over these with me. Tell me, do you have reading goals for 2024? Any specific books you really want to get to?

And again, if you want to continue along with me on these mini-reviews of my vast and varied reading life, check out my upcoming Kindle Vella release for 2023 reads.

In the meantime, happy New Year to all!