I am so happy to say that 2022 was the fifth year of gemsbooknook…
I set myself some goals for the year and I am so excited to say that I have reached most of them. I hoped to complete my Goodreads goal of reading 100 books, writing 70 book reviews, writing 30 Wacky Wednesday posts, and writing 20 Sunday Session posts, getting 450 followers and 13000 viewers on my blog.
The only goal I didn’t reach this year was my Goodreads reading goal of 100 books. It is the first time in almost a decade that I haven’t read 100 books so I am a little disappointed, but starting tomorrow I will focus on my 2023 reading goals and let go of 2022.
I have kept up with my Facebook page, Twitter account, Instagram account, and Pinterest account to accompany my blog. I have been kept pretty busy with all of these accounts, but I have loved every second.
I even participated in my sixth Bookmas, now that was awesome, hard work, but awesome.
I have kept up with my Sunday Sessions post; I have really loved writing them. It is a bit of a wacky idea where I just write whatever I want. From rants to poetry or whatever else takes my fancy. I am hoping to keep it up in 2023.
I have Instagram posts to accompany my blog posts and I have added a few Bookmail posts throughout the year as well.
Not only have you all helped me to achieve my blog goals for 2022 but your likes and comments have kept me motivated to do my best with every post or review.
I love being a member of the Hachette Books Bloggers database, and I am looking forward to continuing that into 2023.
gemsbooknook wouldn’t be what it is without all of you. Thank you so much for your support in 2022, it really has meant the world to me. I look forward to bringing you more content in 2023.
Welcome to my December Wrap Up. I had a great reading month in December, finishing 23 books (1 book off my TBR). I also received 1 ARC this month.
I have reviews up or coming up for these books so as usual this is just going to be a brief rundown on each book I read.
Without further ado, let’s get into my December Wrap Up:
Yule Not Open This Book by Andy Lee: This book was great. I have read a few books from Andy Lee’s Do Not Open This Book series, so as soon as I saw this book I knew I had to have it. It was fun, funny, and festive, which is everything I hoped it would be. Given how much IO enjoyed this book I truly believe it will bring many laughs to young children and their families. I am really glad I got this book to add to my ever-growing Christmas Book collection.
Moonology Diary 2022 by Yasmin Boland: I have mixed feelings about this book. I started off the year quite enjoying it but as time went on I found the prompt sections to be repetitive which started to disappoint me. I also found the space to write your daily rundown far too small to fit any real information. While I liked the idea of this book I think a few things could be altered to make this great. In saying that if you are into Moonology you should probably check out 2023’s Moonology diary.
A Die Hard Christmas by Doogie Horton: This book was great. I love Christmas books and Christmas movies so this book ticked both of those boxes. Re-telling the story of Die Hard while using the lyrical prose of A Night Before Christmas, this book was both creative and hilarious. I had more than a few genuine laugh-out-loud moments whilst reading this book and I am so happy to now have it as part of my Christmas Book collection.
Harry Potter And The Order Of The Phoenix: Illustrated Edition by J.K. Rowling: This book was everything I hoped it would be and so much more. I loved re-reading this book with the added bonus of fantastic illustrations. The illustrations perfectly capture the story, characters, and fantastic scenes being explored throughout this book. I honestly don’t have a bad word to say about this book and I am very excited to add it to my collection.
Dreamer by Dami Im: I thoroughly enjoyed this book. I remember watching Dami Im win X-Factor and then seeing her perform at Eurovision so I was excited to read this book. I really liked learning about Dami’s journey to singing as well as her struggles; it made me feel quite connected to her. I also found reading about the inner working of the music industry truly fascinating. I am really glad that I decided to read this book.
Spaceboy by David Walliams: I am a massive fan of David Walliams so I was very excited to get my hands on this book. Thankfully it well and truly lived up to my high expectations. As always with David Walliams’ books, this one was sweet, funny, and had a great cast of bizarre characters. One of the this that surprised me with this book was that it was set in America; which is unusual for David Walliams’ book; and I personally love this change of setting. If you have a Middle-Grade reader in your life, get them this book.
The Magic Misfits: The Fourth Suit by Neil Patrick Harris: I have been waiting to rea this book since I finished its predecessor, and let me tell you it was well worth the wait. I loved getting to catch up with the characters I had grown to love and I adored following them in their wacky adventure. One of the this I loved most about this book; and series, are the puzzles that the reader gets to complete with the characters. If you have a Middle-Grade reader in your life, get them this book.
Christmas Re-Reads 1:
I have read this book before; I love reading and re-reading Christmas books.
My Special Christmas Adventure by Julia Wilson: This is one of my all-time favourite books. it was a gift from my Nan and Pop when I was a kid and I read it every year on Christmas eve. As this is my first Christmas without my Nan, reading this book this year was an emotional experience for me. This personalized book contains a magical Christmas story with myself, my sister, and my cousin as the characters. Every year it fills me with Christmas Spirit and I look forward to reading it every year. I love it each and every time that I read it.
Christmas Re-Reads 2:
As I have read these books before and I have reviews for them, I will just include the links to the reviews if you would like to check them out.
It’s Bookmas 2022 Day 12 and that means it’s time for my Favourite Book of 2022!
Drum roll, please…
The Little Wartime Library by Kate Thompson
I LOVED THIS BOOK!
I will provide the synopsis and then we can talk more about it.
The Little Wartime Library by Kate Thompson
‘London, 1944.
Clara Button is no ordinary librarian. While the world remains at war, in East London Clara has created the country’s only underground library, built over the tracks in the disused Bethnal Green tube station. Down here a secret community thrives: with thousands of bunk beds, a nursery, a café, and a theatre offering shelter, solace, and escape from the bombs that fall above.
Along with her glamorous best friend and library assistant Ruby Munroe, Clara ensures the library is the beating heart of life underground. But as the war drags on, the women’s determination to remain strong in the face of adversity is tested to the limits when it seems it may come at the price of keeping those closest to them alive.’
I read this book pretty early in the year, yet as soon as I started compiling my favourite books of 2022 this book was the first book to come to mind. After going through some of my favourite reads I couldn’t forget the impact this had on me and how it made me feel.
I am a massive fan of Historical Fiction; especially World War Two Historical Fiction, so I had high hopes going into this book. Even with such high hopes, this book blew me away. I loved everything about this book; the plot, setting, characters, and writing.
The fact that this underground Library actually existed is something that I loved learning about. I can’t imagine living through war and the Blitz, so the idea that people decided to set up a library to bring some normality to those that were living in these extreme situations was a really beautiful thing to read about.
As this is historical fiction it is only inspired by the actual library, so there are a lot of different stories taking place around the library which made for a great reading experience. I love that we didn’t just have one story being told but that we got to see how different people were affected by the war and how they worked together to survive.
The thing that elevated this book to the top of my favourites list was the amazing characters. There were so many characters dealing with their own traumas while learning from and helping each other was equal parts heartwarming and heartbreaking to read about.
Kate Thompson has done a fantastic job with this book. With so many wonderful elements perfectly woven together by lyrical, cinematic writing that radiated emotion off the pages. Everything about this book was utterly stunning, making for a truly wonderful reading experience.
I honestly don’t have a bad word to say about this book and I am so happy to be naming it my Favourite Book of 2022.
That’s it for Bookmas Day 12!
Bring us to the end of Bookmas 2022!
I hope you have all enjoyed Bookmas 2022 as I really enjoyed putting it together for you.
Wishing you all a wonderful Christmas and a Happy New Year!
It’s Bookmas 2022 Day 11 and that means it’s time for my Favourite Historical Fiction of 2022!
Drum roll, please…
The German Wife by Kelly Rimmer
I LOVED THIS BOOK!
I will provide the synopsis and then we can talk more about it.
The German Wife by Kelly Rimmer
‘Berlin, 1930—When a wave of change sweeps a radical political party to power, Sofie von Meyer Rhodes’s academic husband benefits from the ambitions of its newly elected chancellor. Although Sofie and Jürgen do not share the social views growing popular in Hitler’s Germany, Jürgen’s position with its burgeoning rocket program changes their diminishing fortunes for the better. But as Sofie watches helplessly, her beloved Berlin begins to transform, forcing her to consider what they must sacrifice morally for their young family’s security, and what the price for their neutrality will be.
Twenty years later, Jürgen is one of the many German scientists offered pardons for their part in the war and taken to America to work for its fledgling space program. For Sofie, this is the chance to exorcise the ghosts that have followed her across the ocean and make a fresh start in her adopted country. But her neighbors aren’t as welcoming or as understanding as she had hoped. When scandalous rumors about the Rhodes family’s affiliation with Hitler’s regime spreads, idle gossip turns to bitter rage, and the act of violence that results will tear apart Sofie’s community and her family before the truth is finally revealed.’
When I read the synopsis for this book I knew I would enjoy it, I just hadn’t expected to love it as much as I did. I was also surprised by the fact that I knew little about the German scientists moving to America after the War. I don’t know if my lack of knowledge comes from the fact that I am Australian so it isn’t part of my history or if it is because the subject isn’t very well known in general.
I always find stories that make you think about what you might have done in a particular historic situation really interesting and eye-opening and this book had that in spades; from the decisions made in Nazi Germany, the decision to move to America, and the choices that the Americans made in regards to their new German neighbors. All of these different situations raised so many moral questions that were just so difficult to answer.
One of the things I loved most about this book was getting to have so many different characters that had their own experiences that shaped them into who they were. Getting to see this progress and understanding why these characters acted the way they did was really fascinating to me. I also loved that the characters had their own emotional reactions to each individual situation and circumstance.
I honestly don’t have a bad word to say about this book and I am very happy to be naming it my Favourite Historical Fiction of 2022.
It’s Bookmas 2022 Day 10 and that means it’s time for my Favourite Non-Fiction of 2022!
Drum roll, please…
The School that Escaped the Nazis by Deborah Cadbury
I LOVED THIS BOOK!
I will provide the synopsis and then we can talk more about it.
The School that Escaped the Nazis by Deborah Cadbury
‘By 1931, Anna Essinger had read Mein Kampf and knew that Hitler’s worldviewwas violent and utterly destructive and that many of her pupils in her small progressive school in Herrlingen, Germany were in terrible danger. She decided that in order to offer them a refuge, and a future, she must first move her school entirely out of the Nazis’ reach. So, she did just that, creating a safe haven in Kent, England.
Anna and the first seventy children escaped Nazi Germany in 1933, but in time she would accept waves of increasingly traumatized children from Germany, Austria, Czechoslovakia, and then Poland as the crisis spread. Some children had, by the time they reached Essinger, been violated by five years of escalating deprivations. For those who escaped the camps and ghettos, Essinger offered the only salvation that mattered, in the words of a student: “a great deal of love and determination to help us.”‘
As someone who has read a lot about WWII, I was genuinely surprised that I hadn’t heard this story before picking up this book. Now that I have read it I honestly believe this is a story that everyone needs to hear about.
One of the things that I loved most about this book was seeing the true humanity that shone through. To see so many wonderful people put themselves at risk to protect the young people in their care was such a beautiful thing. I also love that we go to hear from the children who were a part of this school as adults and learn about how their lives turned out and how they feel about their time at the school.
Given the horrors that were happening across Europe at this time, seeing these kids have some normality was something that I never thought I need to read about. The way the adults cared for the kids and the way the kids formed friendships and bonds while helping each other through some truly heartbreaking situations was something that everyone involved deserves to be proud of.
This is one of those books that was equally heartwarming and heartbreaking. I laughed, I cried, and ultimately I finished this book feeling completely satisfied. I knew the topic of this book would be of interest to me but I hadn’t expected how much I would connect with and love this book.
I honestly don’t have a bad word to say about this book and I am very happy to be naming it my Favourite Non-Fiction book of 2022.
It’s Bookmas 2022 Day 9 and that means it’s time for my Favourite Australian Book of 2022!
Drum roll, please…
My Gallipoli by Ruth Starke
I LOVED THIS BOOK!
I will provide the synopsis and then we can talk more about it.
My Gallipoli by Ruth Starke
‘From the shores of Anzac Cove to the heights of Chunuk Bair, from Cape Helles to Gurkha Bluff, the Gallipoli Peninsula was the place where thousands of men from sixteen nations fought, suffered, endured, or died during the eight months of occupation in 1915. For each of them, their families,and their nurses, Gallipoli meant something different. Their voices emerge from the landscape and across the decades with stories of courage, valour, despair, and loss.’
This book was both moving and visually stunning. I picked this book up earlier in the year and have re-read it many times already. I have always had an interest in the Gallipoli campaign so when I saw this book I knew I had to have it. I wish this book was around when I was a child as it gives a great amount of information both about the men who fought in the Gallipoli campaign as well as those that were left at home.
Ruth Starke did a fantastic job of capturing this time in history and relating it to a modern reader. The story was easy to follow and understand for young readers while introducing emotional situations in an approachable way. One of the things that stood out for me was the way in which this book; while aimed at young readers, is both entertaining and informative in a way that makes it relevant for readers of all ages.
Adding to Ruth Starke’s moving writing are Robert Hannaford’s utterly stunning illustrations. The bright and bold illustrations capture the story perfectly and elevate this wonderful book to a whole new level. Robert Hannaford has done a fantastic job in showing both war and the lives of everyday Australians during this time in a way that will intrigue young readers without being graphic and over the top.
While most Australians know the story of Gallipoli I still believe that every Australian should read this book. It should be in all primary schools around the country. For those who don’t know about the Gallipoli campaign, this book is the perfect introduction to this moment in history that is perfect for all ages.
I honestly don’t have a bad word to say about this book and I am so very happy to be naming it my favourite Australian Book of 2022.
It’s Bookmas 2022 Day 8 and that means it’s time for my Favourite Sequel of 2022.
Drum roll, please…
Fantastic Beasts: The Secrets of Dumbledore: The Original Screenplay by J.K. Rowling
I LOVED THIS BOOK!
I will provide the synopsis and then we can talk more about it.
Fantastic Beasts: The Secrets of Dumbledore: The Original Screenplay by J.K. Rowling
Professor Albus Dumbledore knows the powerful Dark wizard Gellert Grindelwald is moving to seize control of the wizarding world. Unable to stop him alone, he entrusts Magizoologist Newt Scamander to lead an intrepid team of wizards, witches, and one brave Muggle baker on a dangerous mission, where they encounter old and new beasts and clash with Grindelwald’s growing legion of followers. But with the stakes so high, how long can Dumbledore remain on the sidelines?
The official screenplay of Fantastic Beasts: The Secrets of Dumbledore is the ultimate companion to the film, and invites readers to explore every scene of the complete script penned by J.K. Rowling & Steve Kloves. Special features include behind-the-scenes content and commentary from David Yates, David Heyman, Jude Law, Eddie Redmayne, Colleen Atwood, and more.
I am a massive Harry Potter fan, but in all honesty, I haven’t really loved the screenplays so I didn’t go into this book with high hopes; I was just excited to be back in the Wizarding World. I don’t know if it was my lack of expectations but I thoroughly enjoyed this book; it was easily my favourite of the Harry Potter screenplays.
I think that the fact that this book focused heavily on Dumbledore added to my enjoyment of the story. I loved getting to see a young Dumbledore; both the aspects of his personality that I fell in love with during the original Harry Potter series, as well as getting to see a younger and at times more carefree character.
One of my favourite things about this book was that we got to return to Hogwarts. Hogwarts is such a magical place and returning to it was a homecoming for me. I also loved getting to see Hogwarts through the eyes of Jacob as his reaction reminded me of the first times I read about Hogwarts and then saw it on screen as a child.
J.K. Rowling and Steve Kloves did a fantastic job with this book. The story was fresh, entertaining and of course magical. The return to Hogwarts and the introduction of younger versions of love characters were wonderful and felt true to the original source material. While the layout of this book made it really easy to read and picture the scene being described.
I honestly don’t have a bad word to say about this book and I am so happy to be naming it my favourite Sequel for 2022.
gemsbooknook 