This year was a great reading year for me! Not only did I read more books than I remember reading at any point in adulthood, but I really enjoyed the books I read. According to my year end stats on Storygraph, my average star rating (out of 5) was 3.91. I think a few things contributed to this success. First of all, I think I’ve gotten better and better at choosing books that are a good match for me. This is probably in part due to just reading more and fine-tuning my likes through a larger pool, but also due to the book podcasts I listen to, which have put a bunch of great books on my radar. Listening to the hosts discuss books has also helped me to articulate my own reading tastes more clearly. It should be no surprise then that knowing myself as a reader has helped me select books that will be a good fit. Secondly, I am prioritizing reading more than before. Stopping the Apple News scrolling and picking up a book instead has resulted in reading a lot more. As a literacy coach, I always read more in the summer, when I have more time. This past March I had Covid, and I did a lot of reading that week, too — maybe the most of any single week all year. And finally, this year I sacrificed some of my commute to listening to audiobooks instead of listening to podcasts. I’ve found that I really enjoy listening to middle grade on audio. I also enjoy funny essays this way. I did not record stats on how many audio reads I did this year, so the pictures below are incorrect (I must have accidentally selected the audio book for a few titles when tracking). Audio is definitely a smaller percentage of what I read, at about ten titles this year out of 82. But that’s ten titles more than I might have read otherwise! I wanted to try out making a Top Ten Book of 2022 list, but I just couldn’t decide. It would have been easier to make a top five list. I was pretty clear on about half of the list, but narrowing down my favorites to those last open spots proved too challenging. Interestingly, not all my five star books made it onto my Top Books of 2022 list, but some that didn’t get five stars at the time did. It’s always interesting to see what sticks with you over time. As I sorted through my top reads, I found myself assigning superlatives of a kind to some of the books. So I thought I’d share those first, and then list my Top Reads. Following the list are the pictures of all the books I read this year.
Top Overall Book: The Overstory by Richard Powers. I put off reading this for a few years because of its length (ever since 2020 I’ve felt timid about longer books) but I LOVED it. I put so many book darts on places where the writing was gorgeous or the idea was brain-rattling that I think the book now weighs a pound more.
Book I most wanted to crawl inside: Psalm for the Wild-Built by Becky Chambers. I didn’t know cozy sci-fi was a thing. This was a book I read during Covid, and it was definitely the highlight of that time. It is a little snack of a book — so short — and I wanted desperately for it to keep going. If I could have snapped my fingers and gone to this world I would have, in a heartbeat.
Best nonfiction nature writing: Wild Spectacle tied with Ecology of a Cracker Childhood, both by Janisse Ray (cheating, I know). I copied down so many quotes from these books. Simply beautiful writing that captures a sense of place and a sense of wonder about the natural world.
Best audio, which also happened to be best middle grade: Over Sea, Under Stone, by Susan Cooper. I knew of these books as a child, but I never read them. I wish I had, because child Jennifer would have loved them. I read the first three of the series this winter, and this one (the first in the series) was my favorite.
Best seasonal read: To the Bright Edge of the World, by Eowyn Ivey. Eowyn Ivey is the author of The Snow Child, an outstanding book I read a few years ago. This one also has a wintery setting. Between the snowy exploration and the otherworldly elements, this was a perfect winter read last year.
Best memoir: No Cure For Being Human, by Kate Bowler. This book is powerful and beautiful - a meditation on life and how we live it, prompted by a dreadful diagnosis.
And now my list of top reads, in no particular order:
Top Reads of 2022
- The Overstory, by Richard Powers
- Psalm for the Wild-Built, by Becky Chambers
- Tuesday Mooney Talks to Ghosts, by Kate Racculia
- To the Bright Edge of the World, by Elwyn Ivey
- Unlikely Animals, by Annie Hartnett
- The Swimmers, by Julie Otsuka
- Over Sea, Under Stone, by Susan Cooper
- The High House, by Jessie Greengrass
- No Cure for Being Human, by Kate Bowler
- Matrix, by Lauren Groff
- The Sentence, by Louise Erdrich
- Lessons in Chemistry, by Bonnie Garmus
- & 14. Wild Spectacle and Ecology of a Cracker Childhood, by Janisse Ray
I loved every single one of these reads, and feel so fortunate that their pages found their way into my hands (and ears) this year!
