My 2022 in Books
I gave this the same thrilling title I did last year, changing only the year. And it’s gonna be a pretty similar post, in that it’ll take too long to write, I’ll be frustrated throughout the whole process, unhappy with the overall results, and very few (if any) people will end up reading it.
And yet I feel compelled to write it.
I read a lot of books last year. 69 books. And yes, I chose 69 because it felt both manageable and funny. And it was! Barely and kinda, respectively. 69 books though! More than a casual reader, less than a lot of avid readers. But the only person useful to compare myself to is me, and 69 books is a lot for me. A lot for me to read, and a lot to try to sum up in one post at the end of the year. But I did it. Am doing it. I want this to be both an interesting read for someone who happens upon this page, and also a decent archive for my own personal use. Hopefully, I don’t fall into the trap of trying to force one thing to be two things and end up with something no one is happy with. Like when Instagram decided it had to be TikTok too.
Except for a few authors who are big (or dead) enough to withstand the blast of my white-hot criticism, I’m going to try to stay focused on what I liked and enjoyed. I’m also going to attempt to refrain from overusing tepid words like “like” and “enjoy” that I like and enjoy employing so often.
So far, so bad.
So, here we go. I’m starting with some of my favorites, then talking about a lot of titles I’m happy I read— some of which might have made the top of the list in other years— grouped together into categories that make sense to me. And I saved the books that were disappointments and/or I struggled with for the bottom. So if you’re into that kinda stuff, go ahead and scroll down now. The rest of us will meet you down there.
The Stand-Outs!
The Dawn of Everything— If I only recommend one book of all 69 I read this year, this might be it. Its size and subject might be daunting, but it’s one of the most user-friendly non-fiction books I’ve read. And the subject matter is enlightening and inspiring.
Not the End of the World— I love it when an author can somehow write what is definitely fantasy and yet stay in the “regular” literature section of the bookstore or library. I’m going to try to read at least one Kate Atkinson book every year.
Flowers for the Sea— Just an excellent use of the novella format. Perfectly paced, intense, and strange, with the right balance of story and world-building. I liked everything about this despite the actual content being uncomfortable and upsetting at times.
I’m Glad My Mom Died— I'm glad her mom died too. Sadly, it was the only way she'd be able to get out from under her shadow and influence and have a chance of moving on with her life.
Olympians: Dionysos: The New God— the 12th and last in a series of books retelling the more famous stories of the Greek Gods. I almost didn’t put this one here because it’s a kids’ book, but that’s a silly reason not to include it. I’m really recommending the whole series here, especially if you like graphic novels, have a kid in your life you’re trying to get into the Greek myths, or just want a fun and fresh take on these old stories.
Hollow— One of the strangest things I’ve read in a long time. And I read the new collection of George Saunders stories this year.
Hard to believe this guy wrote something weird.
The 90s—A fun and interesting take on the decade I did a lot growing up in. I like Klosterman’s style. People complained that it wasn’t inclusive enough. But he’s not a historian. He writes pretty subjectively from his own perspective. You either like it or you don’t, but I don’t think you can fault him for being who he is. I get it, sometimes he’s too straight, too masculine, or too sports-focused for my taste. He may be too white for others. But it’s like, don’t go to a burger place and complain there isn't pizza on the menu. It is what it is and what it is is well done. Unlike the burgers, which are medium rare.
This is How You Lose the Time War— I think I had to read this book three times before I read it once, but in a good way.
George Saunders and David Sedaris were the authors who defined my year in a positive way.
I received Saunders’ A Swin in a Pond in the Rain for my birthday in 2021 and salooooowlllly made my through it over the end of that year and the first half of 2022. And I loved being in it. Like “the 90s” above, I don’t think it’s for everyone but it was definitely for me. And then Liberation Day, his collection of short stories, was one of the last books I read in 2022. I didn’t have a lot to say about it at the time and I haven’t come up with anything particularly insightful to add since then. His vision of the near future often leaves me feeling a bit sad. One story began in a way that felt like it was going to be a retread of a much earlier story. But I was proved wrong in an incredible way.
I read three Sedaris books throughout the year, sort of picking up where I began to leave off with Saunders. Starting with a collection of diary entries, A Carnival of Snackery, moving on to Let’s Explore Diabetes with Owls, and ending with Holidays on Ice, Sedaris was a near-constant presence throughout the year. He frustrates me at times and yet I still wanna be like him if and when I grow up.
The Satisfyingly Good!
Roger Zelazny and Samuel Delaney (my easily confused brain thought these were the same dude for a few years because their last names sound somewhat similar), two well-established fantasy authors who I’d never read before finally made their way to the top of my TBR pile. Thinking about them together, it’s interesting that each represents a distinct aspect of what I love about the fantasy genre. Zelazny was cozy and familiar (his book even heavily featured familiars!), while Delaney’s story was weird and unsettling, almost dream-like at times.
And that leads us nicely into the next section because both authors ended up finding a home in one of the three…
Themed months of 2022!
In February, to celebrate Black History Month, I read a handful of books by Black authors. (It was kinda cheating because I’d been wanting to read most of these anyway).
The Einstein Intersection— This was the Delaney, the author I was just talking about! I’ll probably read Dhalgren… eventually. But I might wait until 2024 (look at me making long-term plans for books!).
Fledgling— probably my least favorite Octavia Butler, but, being Octavia Butler, I still dug it. Parts of it didn’t click for me. Ms. Butler always talks frankly about sex (great!) and often it’s weird sex (that’s cool too!) but this one had an adult/child (presenting) sexual relationship. And the fact that the childlike one But even beyond that the world-building felt a little incomplete. A little too sparse. But really, I think it’s just that I’m a bigger fan of her other stuff. And if she had lived long enough to complete the series I may have ended up liking this one more retroactively, as I did with her Patternmaster.
The Fifth Season— I don’t know if I’m ready to commit to the rest of the trilogy. Sometimes it feels good to take a little break from a world and see if the memory of it entices you enough to return and find out what happens next.
An Abolitionist’s Handbook— It’s weird to read a book that isn’t really “for you.” Even weirder when you find out the author might have been up to some amoral/shady financial shenanigans. I’m glad I read it but I think there might be better ways to understand the work and experience of people in and around the BLM community.
In October, the agreed-upon spooky month, I read some spooky/scary books:
From Blood Like Garnets
The Grip of It— Engaging and spooky but the ending left me wanting either more answers or fewer questions
The Last House on Needless Street—Solid, effective read.
A Night in the Lonesome October— As I said above, this was a cozy little book. I don’t quite get why people read this every year, other than that the chapters are parceled out by the date and it’s like a literary Halloween advent calendar. They’re all varying lengths so it’s not even like you can settle in for a half hout every night or whatever. I’ll definitely be checking out more of Zelazny, but not this one again, I don’t think.
Blood Like Garnets— Wonderful little short story collection accompanied by fitting illustrations. Didn’t quite make it to the top of the list this year but I’ll be looking out for more stuff from Leigh Harlen
Tortured Souls— More on this down, way down, below.
Hollow— This is the same “Hollow” I talked about above, way above, up top.
Dracula— A classic!
And in November I did what I somewhat clunkily called “Novella-ember.” It was fun to barrel through 7 books in about twice as many days, but it was a symptom of trying to meet what was— especially by that part of the year— an unreasonable goal.
Flowers for the Sea— This is the same “Flowers for the Sea” I talked about above, way above, up top!
Drowned Country— the second part of “The Greenhollow Duology.” I read the first one, Silver in the Wood, earlier this year, which I liked a lot more than the follow-up— so much so that it may have landed in the top section had I refrained from continuing on. DC wasn’t bad, it just tried to do much in too little space and fell into the trap of leaving me wanting both more and less.
A Clutch O’ Classics!
Dracula, as I so subtly alluded to above, is indeed a classic, and like Frankenstein, it’s well-written, slow-moving, and is a lot more focused on the human characters reacting to and deadline with the “monster” than the monster itself. It’s a strange sort of power, to have read the source material for what spawned 100s or possibly 1000s of other stories found in movies, cartoons, TV shows, and other books. This year I’ll probably include “The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde” in my Halloween reading and/or “The Haunting of Hill House”
Other “classic” books I read this year:
The Communist Manifest— Good to have read it, but I wouldn’t recommend it. As with the “Abolitionist’s Handbook” above, this wasn’t written “for me” and there are probably better ways to understand the basics of Communism. It’s like 150 years old and wasn’t really written with “rando future person” in the 2000s to casually pick up and plow through. It’s a reaction to what was the current state and much of the language and references are confusing and/or above my head, with a lot of contexts just assumed to be already understood. I think the ideas are still relevant (obviously) and I’m going to keep learning about Communism and, once again. I’m glad I drew “straight from the source.”
Classic Myths to Read Aloud— How this guy managed to suck so much excitement from these stories while dumbing them down into these dry retellings and then convincing the world that these are now good for children is a huge mystery to me. People claim their kids like them, and I say, “good for them.” But I bet someone is lying in a lot of those homes. Or maybe their kids are boys, so at least when something interesting finally happens they can get a little more invested in the goings-on. I’m not going to accuse anyone of sexism; I don’t want to get into that argument. It is what it is. But “what it is” is a lot of guys making choices and going on adventures and a lot of women hanging around and maybe helping them once in a while— at best. The most enjoyable moments were when my daughters and I had fun poking fun at the predictability of these stories. “Lemme guess, they die, right?”
It’s a bummer because I love these myths and there is so much more to them than what we get from this book, like in the George O’Connor series I talked about in the “Stand Outs.
This brings me to the other books I read out loud to the girls. I don’t think this was the last year I’ll ever do that but, sadly, we’re getting close to the end of that era. My oldest only sat through some of these. And I think she might be done completely by this point. So it’s just the younger one now (until/unless I figure out a way to get them both hooked again on something this summer) but we had a pretty good run. In addition to the myths one above, I read to them:
Bips and Roses (Zoey and Sassafras, #8)
Wishypoofs and Hiccups (Zoey and Sassafras, #9)
At first, I was like, “Whoa, I can’t believe I only read 5 books to them this year!” And then I remembered that there were other books I read to them (like the Phoebe and Her Unicorn books) that I didn’t feel like adding to my “challenge.” I was too focused on a dumb number and what “counted” toward it instead of just recording the books I read. Plus the mythology one was a bit of a slog and took forever (like a few pages every day or two for months). And the Cardboard Kingdom ones I read many times (and in a variety of voices for the characters). But still. There were years I read like 200 different books to them, and many of those titles were read many times over. Just countless hours of reading. Lol, it makes my throat hurt to remember it. So let’s move on to the other…
Comics and graphic novels I read in 2022:
The Art of Living: Reflections on Mindfulness and the Overexamined Life
Bloom County: Brand Spanking New Day— I loved returning to Bloom County, but I’ve stalled out on the third collection. Breathed seems to be a liberal dude, but he’s also of a “certain generation” and seems to have some “old school” opinions that began to rub me the wrong way.
Lola Vendetta y los hombres— Learning Spanish has been an exercise in getting a chance to read authors from different parts of the world and in their own words (I’m not even translations of these exist), and yeah, Raquel Riba Rossy, a cartoonist from Barcelona fits that bill, and I love it. She’s joined Liniers in becoming my go-tos for Spanish reading.
Cuatro Cuentos— A Liniers book.
Posters— Another Liniers book!
A Few Short Story Collections:
The World of Dew— So good! I don’t know why I didn’t leave a review. I may have to borrow this again (or even buy it) to revisit some of the stories and write one up.
That We May Live— Above I talked about (or at least alluded to) how wonderful it is to engage with authors’ work in their original language. But sometimes you have to admit to yourself that it’ll be a long long while before you’ll understand Chinese and reach for that translation.
Love, Dishonor, Marry, Die, Cherish, Perish—Such a “shoot for the moon” ambitious idea that I loved it even though it feels a little rushed and didn’t always work for me. Even when I wonder why these stories had to be written as a poem and I struggled to parse the meaning of the sentences I was like “yeah, but he did it, didn’t he? He really did. it.” (If you really wanna drive yourself up the wall, check out the many reviews in which the good readers of the Goodread community offer poetry of their own, to varying degrees of success.)
A Few Fantasy and Sci-Fi Titles:
After I went on for a bit last year declaring my love for fantasy books I’d thought this year’s page would be riddled with them. You’ll see why it isn’t in the bottom section, but here are a few that I did enjoy:
Artificial Condition The Murderbot Diaries #2
Rogue Protocol The Murderbot Diaries #3 — Reading #4 this year!
The Chosen Twelve— Just realized that all my favorite sci-fi this year has cute robots in it.
The Heroes— Ambercrombie joins Octavia Butler as someone I read at least once a year.
And a Few That I Don’t Even Feel Like Mentioning, So I Won’t:
Well—
Okay-
But Why Though—
The Disappointments!
Pachinko— Yes, that Pachinko. The one that everyone loves. It’s not that it’s bad. It just wasn’t the “profoundly moving” experience I was led to believe I’d have. The first chunk of the book is great, and then it loses steam, richness, cohesiveness, and eventually my interest.
Food of the Gods— Sometimes you have to accept an author just isn’t for you. It took forever to get into her style and I found the story not worth the effort.
Forest Mage— Rereading this review I had such high hopes! I was into the first one so much I overlooked everything I disliked about this one and assumed it was all a big set up for an amazing conclusion. So much so that I eagerly jumped into…
Renegade's Magic— And I was sorely disappointed, frustrated, and let down. I’m also annoyed at myself for not reading the series that Hobbs is best known for first. But I read Shaman’s Crossing and I was like “wow if this is her weak stuff I’m in for a treat!” But I should have stopped there. Or at least taken a break between the second and third books. Instead, I hung out with someone trapped and helpless inside their own body as they observed the person controlling their body eat and meander around the forest.
Tortured Souls: The Legend of Primordium— I don’t know if I’ll ever read a Clive Barker book again. His other stuff is probably better— it almost has to be by definition— but it’ll be a while before I can read something of his without remembering this goofy-ass garbage that someone decided could be sold as a book.
Conclusion.
I read what can best be described as 69 different books over the course of 2022. And as exhaustive as I’m sure this felt to read— let alone write— l left out a bunch. And not just “the Few That I Don’t Even Feel Like Mentioning,” above. There was also “Danny, the Champion of the World,” which I hadn’t read since I was a little kid, and Writing Without the Muse, which I used in my attempt to get myself to write more and write better.
But that’s how these things go sometimes: blog posts, books, and life in general. You start off with promise and enthusiasm, but by the end you get tired and it’s not as easy to keep going as it was when you started. You begin to forget things and leave parts out. And then what do you get for your troubles? I’ll tell you what. A lot of loose ends and an abrupt ending
