As usual, I’ll just share all the books I read last year since the list isn’t much longer than ten. And as usual, most of them are book club books*. I didn’t get a ton of outside reading in and I also somehow mostly stopped reading nonfiction which I’ll take a look at this year. And though I’m at least a year behind due to holding for paperbacks, you can check out the critic’s best of 2022 here.
- The First Bad Man by Miranda July* – My review was ‘it’s not not weird.’ Book club overall was amused and we had a great discussion, overall it wasn’t my fave.
- Night Boat to Tangier by Kevin Barry* – Two ‘old’ dudes reminiscing as they wait for a daughter, meh, book club may have liked this more than I did.
- The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo by Taylor Jenkins Reid* – I missed book club for this one but thought this older starlet telling her story to a writer was fun.
- Klara and the Sun by Kazuo Ishiguro* – Generally favorable discussion of a unique narrator and her intriguing perspective with limited POV.
- All Her Little Secrets by Wanda M. Morris* – This was a fun book club in that we enjoyed talking about all the things we hated about this book including the so dumb protagonist.
- All the Light We Cannot See by Anthony Doerr – A between book club book took me a bit to wrap up around reading, not for lack of interest, a compelling journey with our two main characters during the Nazi occupation of France.
- Severance by Ling Ma* – For me this was a little ‘too soon’ with the pandemic parallels but I also found the office humor more real than humorous, book club enjoyed it.
- The Long Way to a Small, Angry Planet by Becky Chambers* – A somewhat interesting setup of different aliens but not enough story or character, etc. mostly I am totally over the first of a trilogy, make a book a book even if there’s more.
- The Idiot by Elif Batuman* – Some appreciated the book more than others (me less so), decent moments but could have used more editing and story, amused but no LOL for me.
- Harlem Shuffle by Colson Whitehead* – I enjoyed this tale of a man looking at how to live an honest life in 1960s NY, or is he?
- (March by Geraldine Brooks*) – I actually read this book ages ago but honestly didn’t remember, and decided my not remembering wasn’t a sign to reread.
- Blonde by Joyce Carol Oates* – I truthfully finally finished this today, at 738 pages it’s hard for me not to suggest some culling, an interesting look but for a fictionalized version felt like more Marilyn insight was warranted.
- The Netanyahus An Account of a Minor and Ultimatelyeven Negligible Episode in the History of a Very Famous Family by Joshua Cohen* – I was sick for this book club but think the gist which I agree with was that it was a fun fictionalized look into 1950s upstate New York college though at times got a bit academic.
- Breath by James Nestor – My dentist recommended this and while interesting and jam-packed with history more intrigued by trying some of the breathing exercises in the appendix, which I didn’t really follow through with.
- Essentialism by Greg McKeown – Very readable and pretty in sync with the Less is More philosophy I work with so many of my clients on, and of course, continue to try to focus on myself.
- Negotiating with Your Kids by Alice Shikina – A fun addition to the negotiating class, a short book about negotiating with the younger set, with illustrations by her mom.
What were your faves last year?
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