It’s been a long time. I know. I wonder if I have any readers left? Like many of you, the past couple of years with the pandemic and associated isolation and then re-entry into mostly normal life took its toll on me.

I’ve stopped doing some things I once enjoyed. They don’t really appeal to me any more. I’ve taken up other activities. I’ve slowed down. A lot. I relish being alone now much more than I used to, and I find that I need that downtime.

And although I’m three books behind on my reading goal for this year (and that’s another thing I’m not sure I’ll do again- set a goal for reading. Which is funny, because that’s how this blog got started… but I digress), the one constant with all this upheaval has been the companionship of books.

I was in Highlands, North Carolina this weekend, and I was able to visit Shakespeare & Company Booksellers. The door was open, and as we walked towards it, I noticed it had that bookstore smell. You know what I mean. The store itself was quaint and cozy and a little cluttered, but in that comforting way that makes you just want to browse. Stu was working yesterday, and we talked about books, author signings, and authors we recommend. I made myself stop at buying only four books. I came away with Southern Shamrock by Lee Lyons (who lives just down from my friends in Highlands), Moonrise by Cassandra King, The Ballad of Frankie Silver by Sharyn McCrumb, and The Last to Vanish by Megan Miranda.

Wandering in that bookstore made me miss the blog. I decided that when I got home today, I would sit down and write a post.

I won’t go back and review every book I have read this year, but I will list them here and I will be reviewing again going forward. Despite being on a laptop all day for work, writing about the books I’ve read lets me use my brain in another way.

Here is the list and my Goodreads rating for the books I’ve read so far this year.

The Rose Code by Kate Quinn- 5 stars

Jesus and John Wayne: How White Evangelicals Corrupted a Faith and Fractured a Nation by Kristin Kobes Du Mez- 4 stars

Vladimir by Julia May Jones- 3 stars

The Huntress by Kate Quinn- 4 stars

A Good Neighborhood by Therese Anne Fowler- 4 stars

The Golden Couple by Greer Hendricks- 4 stars

The Cul de Sac by Joy Fielding- 3 stars

Sometimes I Lie by Alice Feeney- 3 stars

Our Kind of Cruelty by Araminta Hall- 3 stars

The Paris Apartment by Lucy Foley- 3 stars

The Verifiers by Jane Pek- 3 stars

The Other Family by Wendy Corsi Staub- 3 stars

My Friend Anna: The True Story of a Fake Heiress by Rachel DeLoache Williams- 4 stars

The Library Book by Susan Orlean- 4 stars

Trailed: One Woman’s Quest to Solve the Shenandoah Murders by Kathryn Miles- 4 stars

The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo by Taylor Jenkins Reid- 4 stars

Reinventing Cybersecurity by Jasmine Henry and others- 4 stars

Blowing My Cover: My Life as a CIA Spy by Lindsay Moran- 3 stars

Mother Dear by Nova Lee Maier- 3 stars

Local Woman Missing by Mary Kubica- 3 stars

I finished two books this weekend, and they will get reviews.

If you’ve read any of the ones I’ve read this year, what did you think? And what are you reading that I need to put in queue?