Books I read in 2022
I read 24 books for fun in 2022, which is less than half of what I read last year but still adds up to two books a month. Not bad considering I had a baby in April and he demanded much of my time! (In the most adorable way, of course.)
The books I enjoyed most this year were well-written, character-driven stories, like French Braid, an intergenerational family story (my favorite kind) and Piranesi (wonderfully weird). Unusually, I did not read much fantasy or sci-fi this year.
My two book clubs chose a wide variety of reads. We’ve come to realize that the best book club choices are what a reviewer would call “juicy,” ones where you can intensely like or dislike the main characters. The Gifted School isn’t a book I’d read again, but it was great fodder for our Zoom discussion.
Only four of the books I read were by men; the other 20 were written by women.
The list
Bold = faves (doesn’t include rereads)
* = rereads
Book clubs’ choices
- A Snake Falls To Earth (Darcie Little Badger)
- Florida (Lauren Groff)
- French Braid (Anne Tyler)
- Hamnet (Maggie O’Farrell)
- I Feel Bad About My Neck (Nora Ephron)
- The Gifted School (Bruce Holsinger)
- The Lager Queen of Minnesota (J. Ryan Stradal)
- The Viscount Who Loved Me (Julia Quinn)
- Where the Crawdads Sing (Delia Owens)
Everything else
- Anxious People (Fredrik Backman)
- Clark and Division (Naomi Hirahara)
- Commonwealth (Ann Patchett)
- Drunk on Love (Jasmine Guillory)
- I’ll Show Myself Out (Jessi Klein)
- It Happened One Summer (Tessa Bailey)
- Jurassic Park* (Michael Crichton)
- Mad About You (Mhairi McFarlane)
- No Judgements (Meg Cabot)
- No Offense (Meg Cabot)
- No Words (Meg Cabot)
- People We Meet on Vacation* (Emily Henry)
- Piranesi (Susanna Clarke)
- The Night Bookmobile (Audrey Niffenegger)
- To Marry and To Meddle (Martha Waters)
I must also admit that there were plenty of books that I read maybe a quarter of before losing interest or needing to return to the library, like Mexican Gothic and The Winners.
Children’s books I enjoyed reading
I’m not counting these among the books I read this year, but these are the books that I love reading to baby Oscar the most. Mostly, I enjoy reading him books in rhyme with beautiful illustrations.
- The Gruffalo (Julia Donaldson and Axel Scheffler)
- I Love You Sun, I Love You Moon (Karen Pandell and Tomie dePaola)
- Red House, Brown Mouse (Jane Godwin and Blanca Gómez)
- Moonlight Prance (Serena Gingold Allen and Teagan White)
- Sunrise Dance (Serena Gingold Allen and Teagan White)
He just learned how to turn pages this month with his tiny little baby hand. I’m really proud!
Previously: Books I read in 2021, 2020, 2019, 2018, 2017, 2016, 2015, 2014, 2013, 2012, 2011, 2010, 2009.