“Buy more books. Read more books. Give more books as presents. Get more books from the library. More books is always a good thing.” –Gabino Iglesias
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2022: The Year In Review
Each December, I always take the time to examine the ups and downs I experienced over the past year. What follows is my personal and professional review of 2022. I:
* Produced/edited hundreds of breaking news stories about the global coronavirus pandemic, the 2022 Winter Games in Beijing, Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, the 2022 election cycle, the fall of Roe v. Wade and the transformation of U.S. women into second-class citizens, the resignation of British Prime Minister Boris Johnson and the rise and fall of British Prime Minister Liz Truss, the assassination of former Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, the death of Britain’s Queen Elizabeth II, Hurricane Ian, numerous mass shootings, outbreaks of the bird flu, monkeypox, polio and the return of influenza and many celebrity deaths.
* Promoted to deputy editor at HuffPost.
* Relaunched A Bit Of Good News.
* Penned at least 20 journal entries. Must do better next year.
* Sort of maintained two Instagram accounts: @thejadewalker and @catsofjade.
* Read 61 books and completed the 2022 GoodReads reading challenge
* Read numerous magazines, including Cook’s Country, Cooks Illustrated, Bake From Scratch, Smithsonian Magazine, Scientific American, The Saturday Evening Post, The Writer and TeaTime Magazine.
* Watched at least 73 TV shows and 64 movies and listened to many podcasts.
* Participated in The Society of Professional Obituary Writers, the New Hampshire Writers Guild, the New York City Writers Group, the South Florida Freelancers Group, the Authors Guild, the Writers Guild of America East and the Silent Book Club, Manchester, NH chapter.
* Made 10 bottles of vanilla.
* Planted a large container garden, three bushes and a tree.
* Spent months searching for our next home. Alas, between the rising interest rates, the lack of available housing stock and the increase in prices, we had no luck. The search continues.
* Mourned the death of my friend, author/editor Bev Walton-Porter.
* Tried to get more sleep. Failed miserably, due to stress.
* Had our cat Pepper fixed.
* Continued to wear these damn braces.
* Decorated the front and inside of our house for Halloween and dressed up as a handmaiden.
* Decorated the front and inside of our house for Christmas and mailed more than 35 Christmas cards.
* Tried many recipes. New favorites include: Sheet pan buttermilk pancakes, fried banana bread bites, a new version of pumpkin pie, mini caprese salad bites, cranberry cream tart, spritz cookies and Richard Sax’s cloud cake.
* Wrestled with perimenopause, in all its hot-flash glory. A winner has not yet been determined.
* Suffered from at least 20 migraines and lost 44 days of my life to pain. Average headache duration: 52 hours. Began using a Cefaly treatment, which surprisingly, helped.
* Worked my 32nd year as a journalist.
* Celebrated our 13th wedding anniversary.
* Turned 49.
Goals for 2023
* Purchase a new home with several acres of land.
* Improve my baking/cooking skills.
* Work on my fiction.
* Read at least 50 books.
* Sleep at least 7 hours a night.
* Win the lottery.
* Focus more on thriving rather than just surviving.
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My top 10 favs of 2022: A year spent reading, watching and listening to stories
Over the past year, I consumed 61 books, 73 TV shows, 64 movies and many podcasts. These were my favorites.
(Note: Not all were released during the past 365 days.)
MY FAVORITE BOOKS – FICTION 
1. “The Hidden Palace” by Helene Wecker2. “Child Zero” by Chris Holm
3. “The Kaiju Preservation Society” by John Scalzi
4. “Upgrade” by Blake Crouch
5. “Shadow Deal” by M.L. McKnight
6. “Death Moon” by Michael La Ronn
7. “Mortal Terms” by Michael La Ronn
8. “Snake Eyes” by Hillary Monahan
9. “Three Parts Dead” by Max Gladstone
10. “Oddball” by Sarah Andersen
(Honorable mentions: “Running Blind” by Lee Child, “Fairy Tale” by Stephen King, “Cold Hard Magic” by M.L. McKnight, “Spirit Chaser” by M.L. McKnight and “Suicide Kings” by Stephen Blackmoore)
MY FAVORITE BOOKS – NONFICTION 
1. “In Love: A Memoir of Love and Loss” by Amy Bloom2. “On Animals” by Susan Orlean
3. “The Premonition: A Pandemic Story” by Michael Lewis
4. “A Walk Around the Block: Stoplight Secrets, Mischievous Squirrels, Manhole Mysteries & Other Stuff You See Every Day (And Know Nothing About)” by Spike Carlsen
5. “Lily and the Octopus” by Steven Rowley
6. “If You Ask Me (And of Course You Won’t)” by Betty White
7. “Finding My Voice” by Nadiya Hussain
8. “The Beauty of Dusk” by Frank Bruni
9. “The Soul of an Octopus: A Surprising Exploration Into the Wonder of Consciousness” by Sy Montgomery
10. “My Life From Scratch” by Gesine Bullock-Prado
(Honorable mentions: “100 Things We’ve Lost to the Internet” by Pamela Paul, “Funny Farm: My Unexpected Life with 600 Rescue Animals” by Laurie Zaleski, “Ten Tomatoes That Changed the World” by William Alexander, “The Nineties” by Chuck Klosterman and “About Time: A History of Civilization in Twelve Clocks” by David Rooney)
Overall reading ratio: I read 17,927 pages. Books were split 65% fiction to 35% nonfiction and 55% female authors to 45% male authors.
MY FAVORITE TV SHOWS 
1. The Great British Baking Show
2. Sandman
3. Stranger Things
4. Escape to the Country
5. Gardeners’ World
6. Love Your Garden
7. Julia
8. Ted Lasso
9. The Repair Shop
10. Men In Kilts
(Honorable mentions: Evil, The Great British Baking Show: Celebrity Edition, Nadiya Bakes, The Great American Baking Show, For All Mankind, America’s Test Kitchen — At Home, The Morning Show, The Gilded Age, Marvelous Mrs. Maisel, Penelope Keith’s Hidden Villages, The Confession, Mike and Molly, Ghosts, Ghosts (UK), Kim’s Convenience, Jack Reacher, Junior Baking Show and Welcome to Wrexham.)
MY FAVORITE MOVIES 
1. The Last Bus2. Mrs. Harris Goes To Paris
3. The Loneliest Whale: The Search for 52
4. Becoming Cousteau
5. George Carlin’s American Dream
6. Luck
7. Sea Beast
8. Hello, Bookstore
9. Mr. Harrigan’s Phone
10. The Dig
(Honorable mentions: Jerry & Marge Go Large, The Last Movie Stars, Introducing Selma Blair, Free Guy, CODA, Ghostbusters: Afterlife, Thor: Love and Thunder, The Adam Project, How to Survive a Pandemic, The Unbearable Weight of Massive Talent, No Time to Die and Being the Ricardos)
MY FAVORITE PODCASTS 
1. The Vinyl Cafe2. GrimmCast
3. Small Town Dicks
4. Naked Lunch
5. Against the Rules
6. BBC Gardeners’ World Magazine Podcast
7. Wait Wait… Don’t Tell Me!
8. Christmas Past
9. Sue Perkins: An Hour Or So With….
10. David Tennant Does a Podcast With…
(Honorable mentions: Clear + Vivid With Alan Alda, The Christmas Stocking, Nocturne, The Book Case, Criminal, Death, Sex & Money, Backstory, Awards Chatter, Sidedoor and The Anthropocene Reviewed)
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Tales from my book club
The Manchester, NH chapter of the Silent Book Club used to meet in person, twice a month, at a local bookstore/cafe. Since the coronavirus pandemic began, our members have continued to gather via Zoom. Just like before, we chat about books and then read in silence for a whole hour. There are no assigned titles — we read what we want — and recommendations are freely shared.
It is, quite simply, the perfect club for bibliophiles, introverts and people who just want to meet with others without having the pressure of required reading.
Here is our chapter’s favorite books of the year:
There’s probably a local chapter of the Silent Book Club near you. If you’re interested in joining, click here.
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Bookish adventures and novel treats
John Green, author/podcaster/vlogger/nerdfighter, recently shared a fabulous story about one book’s unlikely survival. Check it out:
Has a book ever crossed your path in an unlikely fashion? Let me know in the comments. And watch this space to learn about the most prized book in my collection.
