I am not a particularly discerning reader. If it looks interesting to me, I’ll read it. I like magic and alternative realities and history and romance and real life and completely unreal life.
I take on challenging books that make me rethink my whole life as equally as books that glide down easy and make me snort with laughter. I love discovering an author and then finding out I’m late to the game, so they have a whole backlist of books waiting for me (Gabrielle Zevin, I’m looking at you!).
In 2022, I read 87 books. It was a particularly bountiful year. I’m so lucky to have experienced so many lives and stories.
Favorite Literary Fiction
Horse – Geraldine Brooks
The Office of Historical Corrections – Danielle Evans
Lessons in Chemistry – Bonnie Garmus
Olga Dies Dreaming – Xochitl Gonzalez
Matrix – Lauren Groff
The Midnight Library – Matt Haig
Yellow Wife – Sadeqa Johnson
The Anomaly – Hervé Le Tellier, translated by Adriana Hunter
We All Want Impossible Things – Catherine Newman
Detransition, Baby – Torrey Peters
Tomorrow and Tomorrow and Tomorrow – Gabrielle Zevin
Favorite Fun Reads
Book Lovers and People We Meet on Vacation – Emily Henry
The Wisteria Society of Lady Scoundrels – India Horton
The Christie Affair – Nina de Gramont
Project Hail Mary – Andy Weir
Favorite Nonfiction: Memoir & Essay
What My Bones Know: A Memoir of Healing from Complex Trauma – Stephanie Foo
Essential Labor: Mothering as Social Change – Angela Garbes
Sometimes I Trip on How Happy We Could Be – Nichole Perkins
Where the Language Lives: Vi Hilbert and the Gift of Lushootseed – Janet Yoder
Favorite Nonfiction Where I Learned Something New
Emotional Inheritance: A Therapist, Her Patients, and the Legacy of Trauma – Galit Atlas, PhD
Bittersweet: How Sorrow and Longing Make Us Whole – Susan Cain
Midnight’s Furies: The Deadly Legacy of India’s Partition – Nisid Hajari
Good Inside: A Guide to Becoming the Parent You Want to Be – Dr. Becky Kennedy
In 2023, I’m taking on a new challenge – transcribing my 27 years of handwritten reading lists into an Excel spreadsheet. This data entry project is full of happy surprises and wistful recall. It is also totally boring and will take me forever to complete.
Please share your 2022 favorites with me!