Happy New Year’s Eve!! I’ve never done a year in review post but I thought I’d give it a try today. As I think back on the year, I have to smile! We got back to more activities, but still made time to be at home together. I got into a rhythm on the blog and made some new blogger friends. So here’s how the year went by the numbers.

Sunshine & Books

When I sat down to look at my blogging stats for 2021, I realized that Wednesday’s post was my 700th post! I can’t believe I didn’t know that was coming. Thanks for reading post 702 today!

• Posts – 206
• Views – 86,043
• Comments – 1,116
• Total Words – 138,300+
• Most Popular Post – Key Lime Crush
• Most Popular Book Post – Summer Beach Reads 2021

This makes me want to say thank you to all the readers in 74 different countries! I started this blog as a fun way to keep track of what we’ve been doing, share books I love, and connect with others. I don’t write it to get clicks or reads or comments. I’ve made some great blogging friends and have so much fun with Sunshine & Books!

Books

I read a lot of great books this year. I have always been a reader, but this year I branched out and read some audiobooks. I think that reading nonfiction books on audio may be my favorite way to read them! I have a list of books to listen to next year and the first one is nonfiction. I have made a Goodreads goal for the past five years. I don’t use it to motivate me to read, but I love to see my stats at the end of the year. This year my goal was to read 60 books. I read 67, maybe 68 if I finish one more today.

Now for the hard part, trying to name my favorite books of the year. This is like trying to pick a favorite kid. Honestly, it depends on the day. 😂. In no particular order, here are the books I really enjoyed this year:

• The Christmas Bookshop by Jenny Colgan
• Christmas in Peachtree Bluff by Kristy Woodson Harvey
• The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo by Taylor Jenkins Reid
• When Stars are Scattered by Victoria Jamieson and Omar Mohamed
• Reunion Beach
• The Last Thing He Told Me by Laura Dave
• Golden Girl by Elin Hilderbrand
• The Good Sister by Sally Hepworth
• Class (#1) and Rules (#2) from the Little School by the Sea series by Jenny Colgan
• Blush by Jamie Brenner
• Sunrise by the Sea by Jenny Colgan
• Malibu Rising by Taylor Jenkins Reid
• The Sixth Wedding by Elin Hilderbrand

I’m linking up with Steph and Jana for the end of the year Show Us Your Books. If you’re looking for all of the books I read this year, check out my Books 2021 page. There is also a link at the bottom of that page to my year in reading 2017, 2018, 2019, and 2020.

Sunshine

When I was naming my blog, I picked sunshine for two reasons. The first being that I LOVE the sunshine. Any time I can get some sunshine on my cheeks makes me happier. The second is that I think of the sunshine as the good part of anything that happens. This year had a lot of sunshine. I shared some of my favorite moments, trips, and phrases of 2021 in Monthly Musings yesterday. To sum it up, we felt comfortable getting together with friends and family. We went back to school full time, though I wouldn’t mind a virtual Wednesday or two. The kids were back to their activities. We had a lot of fun together as a foursome. Our home addition was finished. We have a great space to spend time together and we have a mudroom! We celebrated holidays and birthdays. We tried new things and stopped doing the things that didn’t make us happy. All in all, 2021 was a good year, full of sunshine!

I’ve been procrastinating this post for a few days because I thought it was going to be hard to narrow it all down, but it was really just fun. It was great to go back and see a year full of sunshine and books! I hope you have a great end of this year and start to next year full of sunshine and books!

What’s Up Wednesday
Monthly Musings

Linking up for Friday Favorites