Hi, everyone!!
I will see you on the other side of the Holidays in 2025. However, I most likely won't be able to resist reading after the New Year so don't be surprised if I come back early!!
Happy Holidays and Happy Reading!!
Dorothea 💜
Thursday, December 19, 2024
booksbydorothea 2024 Annual Book Blog Wrap-up
Hello, all!
This is the booksbydorothea 2024 Book Blog Wrap-up!
SPECIAL NOTE: Many books I read are ARCs (Advance Reader Copies). ARCs are usually published many months after I have read and reviewed them. It also means some books could be read and reviewed in one year and published the following year. The books that I have included in the booksbydorothea Best Books of 2024 are books I have read in 2024 regardless of when the book has or will be published.
booksbydorothea BEST BOOKS OF 2024
If you want more specific and detailed information about the Nominees, Finalists, and Winners, you can check it out HERE.
18 total books vied for booksbydorothea Best Books of 2024.
EBOOK WINNER:
All We Were Promised by Ashton Lattimore
AUDIOBOOK WINNER:
Somewhere Beyond the Sea by TJ Klune
2024 GOODREADS STATISTICS
2024 Goodreads Book Goal: 100
2024
Goodreads Book Total: 93
I will continue with a goal of 100 for 2025 as it is a good stretch goal. My biggest issue is that my Pages Read differs greatly from the Goodreads calculation. Also, audiobooks are not included in the calculations at all.
2024 MONTHLY WRAP-UPS
Here are all of the links to the 2024 Monthly wrap-ups!
January 2024: LINK
February 2024: LINK
March 2024: LINK
April 2024: LINK
May 2024: LINK
June 2024: LINK
July 2024: LINK
August 2024: LINK
September 2024: LINK
October 2024: LINK
November 2024: LINK
December 2024: LINK
HELPFUL LINKS
Glossary: LINK
Book Ratings: LINK
2024 TOTAL STATISTICS:
Now for all of the statistics of 2024!
It is all so fascinating to me, but you may find it boring so feel free to skip
this!
Biggest Takeaway
This is the first year I have read more audiobooks than any other type of book. I really enjoy listening to memoirs and autobiographies as audiobooks.
2024 total books (ALL book types)
TOTAL: 93 physical, ebooks, and audiobooks
2024 Ebooks
TOTAL: 38 ebooks
2024 Audiobooks
TOTAL: 55 audiobooks
2024 Personal Books
TOTAL: 0 personal books
2024 Library books (ebooks/audiobooks)
TOTAL: 53 Library ebooks
2024 Amazon Prime First Reads books (First Reads) (also counted as ebooks)
TOTAL: 10 First Reads ebooks
2024 ARCs (Advance Reader Copy) (also counted as ebooks)
TOTAL: 30 ARCs
2024 Total Listening Time (audiobooks)
TOTAL: 365 hours, 56 minutes Listening Time
2024 Pages Read
TOTAL: 21,956 Pages read
2024 BOOK RATINGS
Overall book rating
4.24 stars
5.0-star books
4.5-star books
TOTAL: 27 books
4.0-star books
TOTAL: 23 books
3.5-star books
TOTAL: 11 books
3.0-star books
CLOSING
I hope I have been helpful by
suggesting and recommending the books I have read. If you think so, please share booksbydorothea with anyone who would enjoy it!! I would appreciate any referrals to friends or family to share my love of reading more broadly!
Note: I will be on a holiday break from social media and blogging from December 20, 2024, through January 5, 2025. I will resume blogging and social media on January 6, 2025.
Please join me in 2025 for more adventures in reading!!
Happy Holidays and Happy Reading!
Dorothea 💜
booksbydorothea Best Books of 2024
Hi, everyone!
This is booksbydorothea Best Books of 2024! Notice that it is BOOKS, plural not singular. There is more to come in the next few paragraphs about this.
There is a big change to booksbydorothea as Best Books of 2024 will no longer recognize only one book. Instead, seven books will be highlighted in the ebook and audiobook categories.
There will be one winner and six runners-up in each category to better showcase the fabulous books available. It will now be called the booksbydorothea Best Books of 2024.
Next year, I will include the best monthly audiobook and ebook (if available) in my monthly wrap-ups. Unfortunately, I didn’t do that for 2024.
Now for the exciting reveal of the Nominees (all books were 5-star reviews):
2nd ANNUAL booksbydorothea BEST BOOKS NOMINEES OF 2024:
All We Were Promised by Ashton Lattimore (January) (ebook) LINK
Miss Morgan's Book Brigade by Janet Skeslien Charles (February) (ebook) LINK
The Lost Story by Meg Shaffer (March) (ebook) LINK
How To Read a Book by Monica Wood (April) (ebook) LINK
Here One Moment by Liane Moriarity (May) (ebook) LINK
The Friday Afternoon Club (June) (audiobook) LINK
The Bookstore Wedding by Alice Hoffman (July) (ebook) LINK
The Briar Club by Kate Quinn (August) (ebook) LINK
The Moment of Lift by Melinda Gates (September) (audiobook) LINK
When We Flew Away by Alice Hoffman (October - TIE) (ebook) LINK
Junie by Erin Crosby Eckstine (October - TIE) (ebook) LINK
The Unexpected Diva by Tiffany L Warren (November – TIE) (ebook) LINK
Somewhere Beyond the Sea by TJ Klune (November – TIE) (audiobook) LINK
On Living by Kerry Egan (December) (audiobook) LINK
Additional audiobook nominees not included on the original nominee list:
Connie by Connie Chung (October) (audiobook) LINK
Be Ready When The Luck Happens (October) (audiobook) LINK
The Third Gilmore Girl by Kelly Bishop (October) (audiobook) LINK
Sonny Boy by Al Pacino (October) (audiobook) LINKIt is now time for the FINALISTS:
2nd ANNUAL booksbydorothea BEST BOOKS OF 2024 FINALISTS:
EBOOKS
All We Were Promised by Ashton Lattimore
The Lost Story by Meg Shaffer
The Briar Club by Kate Quinn
When We Flew Away by Alice Hoffman
Junie by Erin Crosby Eckstine
The Unexpected Diva by Tiffany L. Warren
AUDIOBOOKS
The Moment of Lift by Melinda Gates
Connie by Connie Chung
Be Ready When The Luck Happens by Ina Garten
The Third Gilmore Girl by Kelly Bishop
Sonny Boy by Al Pacino
Somewhere Beyond the Sea by TJ Klune
NOW for the TWO big reveals - drumroll, please!! booksbydorothea Best Books of
2024 (ebook and audiobook) are:
2024 BEST EBOOK:
All We Were Promised by Ashton Lattimore (ebook)
This will not be
another review of this beautiful, enlightening, intelligent book. However, this
book left me gobsmacked (a new British term for me) for a very long time. It
was emotional to discover what I thought happened after former enslaved people
crossed the Mason-Dixon line was wrong. It was whitewashed!
In Philadelphia, there were enslavers allowed with their enslaved people even though Pennsylvania was a “free state”. There were loopholes in the state law that permitted enslavers to travel to Philadelphia with specific enslaved people for up to six months. So it was just a game of switching enslaved people to the South before the six months were up to ensure that they had their “rotating" enslaved staff.
Overall, this historical novel is about free Black people, escaped enslaved people, and enslaved people trying to make a life in a city that was not welcoming to Blacks, period.
Read this book – I cannot recommend it more! It was one of my first reads of 2024 and I have thought about it ever since.
2024 BEST AUDIOBOOK:
Somewhere Beyond the Sea by TJ Klune
Again, this will not be a rehashing of my first review. However, note that this book is a sequel to The House in the Cerulean Sea. I read both books as audiobooks.
But this audiobook was something special and brilliant! The audiobook was narrated by Daniel Henning who is superb and brings life to each character and narrated the prequel. I recommend reading the prequel first before this book.
The incredible characters include children who are a gnome, a wyvern, a green blob, a werewolf-Pomeranian, a sprite, and a yeti! The adults are a phoenix, a sprite, and "some naughty and some nice" humans!
The biggest takeaway from this book is that everyone is important in their unique style and way – even magical creatures. I love that the story includes chosen families, LGBT+ and BIPOC characters, and that good triumphs over evil!
Listen to this book (and the prequel) – I cannot emphasize how good the story highlighted by the narration is! This book is pure joy!
FINAL NOTES
The original review for each nominee is the LINK next to the title and author under NOMINEES. Click on the specific book link to get to that book review!
Congratulations to the nominees, finalists, and winners!! These are all fantastic books that I highly recommend!!
My final booksbydorothea blog post will be the Annual Wrap-up for 2024 which will be posted shortly.
Thank you so much for joining me on this wonderful journey of reading and listening to great books in 2024! Please join me again in 2025!
Happy reading and Happy Holidays,
Dorothea 💜
Wednesday, December 18, 2024
December 2024 - Monthly Wrap-up
Hello, everyone!!
I am cutting the book reading month and book reading year short this year with the culmination of the Goodreads challenge results! My monthly wrap-up for December 2024 ends today, December 19th.
December was a month
for audiobooks ONLY! There were so many good audiobooks released towards the
end of the year I needed to take a break from ebooks.
My best book for December 2024 is an audiobook – On Living by Kerry Egan.
2nd ANNUAL
booksbydorothea BEST BOOKS NOMINEES OF 2024:
All We Were Promised by Ashton Lattimore (January) 5
stars (ebook)
Miss Morgan's Book Brigade by Janet Skeslien Charles
(February) 5 stars (ebook)
The Lost Story by Meg Shaffer (March) 5 stars
(ebook)
How To Read a Book by Monica Wood (April) 5 stars
(ebook)
Here One Moment by Liane Moriarity (May) 4.5 stars (ebook)
The Friday Afternoon Club (June) 5 stars (audiobook)
The Bookstore Wedding by Alice Hoffman (July) 5 stars (ebook)
The Briar Club by Kate Quinn (August) 5 stars (ebook)
The Moment of Lift by Melinda Gates (September) 5 stars (audiobook)
When We Flew Away by Alice Hoffman (October - TIE) 5 stars (ebook)
Junie by Erin Crosby Eckstine (October - TIE) 5 stars (ebook)
The Unexpected Diva by Tiffany L Warren (November – TIE) 5 stars (ebook)
Somewhere Beyond the Sea by TJ Klune (November – TIE) 5 stars (audiobook)
On Living by Kerry Egan (December) 5 stars (audiobook)
GOODREADS READING GOAL:
My goal is to read 100
books in 2024. As of December 19th, I have read 93 books, or 93% of my goal. So I did really well this year with a big goal!
DECEMBER 2024 STATISTICS:
5 total books
0 ebooks; 5 audiobooks; 0
physical books
0 books were an ARC
(Advance Reader Copy)
5 books were library borrows
0 books were purchased
0 books were an Amazon
First Reads
0 books were a Book Club
Girl
Audio listening time in December:
52 hours, 23 minutes
Pages read in December:
0 pages
Average review rating: 4.15
stars
DECEMBER BOOK RATINGS with
BOOK COVERS:
5.0-star book (1)
On Living by Kerry Egan (audiobook) LINK
4.5-star book (2)
Lovely One by Ketanji Brown Jackson (audiobook) LINK
Cher: The Memoir (Part I) by Cher (audiobook) LINK
4.0-star book (1)
If Jewels Could Talk by Carol Woolton (audiobook) LINK
3.5-star book (1)
Brothers by Alex Van Halen (audiobook) LINK
3.0-star book (0)
If you want to read my
full review of any of these books, there are individual review links for each
ebook or audiobook next to the book title and author. Click on the link to get to that specific book review!!
Please note that my Best Books of 2024 and my Annual Wrap-up for 2024 will be posted shortly.
Happy reading and Happy
Holidays!
Dorothea 💜
P.S. You can
find out more about my book ratings HERE.
My Year in Books 2024 Goodreads
Hi, everyone!!
The end of 2024 is coming fast and furious! The Goodreads "My Year in Books 2024" has been updated. So here are my results!
There were a few interesting statistics:
- Pages read: 28,937 which is less than last year.
- Books read: 93 - the same as last year.
- Shortest book: 25 pages
- Longest book: 550 pages
- Average book length in 2024: 311 pages
- Average book rating in 2024: 4.1 stars - the same as last year
Note: Goodreads does not include the time listened to audiobooks. This would be a nice feature to add!
If you want to check out booksbydorothea "My Year in Books 2024" data, it is available HERE.
What an honor to be among the "Top 10% Reader"! NOTE: This is based on the NUMBER of books.
Not surprisingly, my top genres are: Historical Fiction, Nonfiction, and Memoir!!
Check out YOUR Goodreads "My Year in Books 2024"!! To find it:
- Go to your Goodreads app on your phone or to the website on your computer.
- Log in, if necessary.
- FOR COMPUTERS
- Click on the "Your Year in Books 2024" banner towards the top-middle of your screen.
- Your 2024 information will populate the screen.
- In the upper left corner under "Your Year in Books 2024" is a small "Go to previous year" link. Click on this to compare and/or contrast to previous years!!
- FOR PHONES
- Click on the Home icon (little house) and then click on the My Books icon (little book).
- Scroll all the way down to "2024 Year in Books". Click on it.
- Your 2024 information will populate the screen.
- In the upper left corner under "Your Year in Books 2024" is a small "Go to previous year" link. Click on this to compare and/or contrast to previous years!!
My ebooks and audiobooks are complete for 2024. The Goodreads "My Year in Books 2024" was a perfect stopping point with the approaching holidays. However, I will be back at it in January 2025.
Tomorrow, I will publish my December 2024 blog wrap-up! Please look for it!
Happy reading,
Dorothea 💜
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