What really knocks me out is a book that, when you’re all done reading it, you wish the author that wrote it was a terrific friend of yours and you could call him up on the phone whenever you felt like it. That doesn’t happen much, though.
― The Catcher in the Rye
I have been stumbling around trying to figure out how to share the books that I have read this year. And then, yesterday, dear Bonny lit the path with her brilliant post of her reading! Thank you so very much, Bonny!
This year, I set my “reading goal” at 60 books and while I have read many more than 60 books… the number is not a thing for me at all. Rather, I am looking to spend a year with books that “knock me out” as it were… thank you Mr. Salinger for that. And yes, books that make me wish the author was a friend… oh gosh, I wish this so often. I had a year of those kinds of books… knock out books that left me wishing that the authors were all my friends!
The other “big thing” for me this year was the fact that there were so few 5-star books. I tried to set myself on a better path for book ratings… and this year most of the books I deeply loved, the “knock outs” were 4-star books. I think this is a very good thing… because it elevated those 5-star books a bit higher… which a 5-star book should be!
And so let’s begin with some of the best of the best, shall we?
Knock Out’s, most certainly (and I absolutely do wish I was friends with every.single.author listed!!)
- Flights and The Books of Jacob by Olga Tokarczuk
- Liberation Day: Stories by George Saunders
- Happy Go-Lucky by David Sedaris
- Time Pieces: A Dublin Memoir by John Banville
- Now Is Not the Time to Panic by Kevin Wilson
Books to warm your heart for days on end
- Foster and Small Things Like These by Claire Keegan
- The Shell Seeker’s and Winter Solstice by Rosamund Pilcher
- Everything I read this year by Elizabeth Strout (I read both of the Olive stories and Lucy by the Sea)
- Maureen by Rachel Joyce
- Remarkably Bright Creatures by Shelby Van Pelt
- Cutting for Stone by Abraham Verghese
- The Transit of Venus by Shirley Hazzard
- Agatha of Little Neon by Claire Luchette
- Still Life by Sarah Winman
- Crying in H Mart by Michelle Zauner
Books that Changed My Life, Opened My Mind, and Educated Me in all The Very Best Ways
- Everything I read by Julie Otsuka this year (and I read The Swimmers, When the Emperor Was Divine, and The Buddha in the Attic)
- The Home Place: Memoirs of a Colored Man’s Love Affair with Nature by J. Drew Lanham
- Setsuku’s Secret: Heart Mountain and the Legacy of Japanese American Incarceration by Shirley Ann Higuchi
- Gathering Moss: A Natural and Cultural History of Mosses by Robin Wall Kimmerer
- Young Mungo by Douglas Stuart
- How The Word Is Passed: A Reckoning with the History of Slavery Across America by Clint Smith
- A Little Life by Hanya Yanagihara
- The Love Songs of W.E.B. Du Bois by Honorée Fanonne Jeffers
I am currently reading an ARC of Maggie Smith’s memoir that will be out early next year. It is incredible and, if I finish it this week… it will be the best book memoir I read all year. It is so insanely good… I don’t want it to end, so I am rationing the reading to make it last! Do yourself a favor… pre-order it ASAP!
There you have my 2022 reading… it was such a very good year!
Now, a tiny post script for the Year of Gnomes. Gnoelle has made it very clear that she is but one of three siblings. Yes, triplets. And I need to get knitting PRONTO to bring her siblings to life. I am on it, Gnoelle! I am not sure I can get them done before the New Year…it would be something to Knit Three Gnomes in December! All I can do is try, hahaha!
As always, if you wrote a post to share please leave your link below and thank you!
I think I will be back on Friday…but if I am not, it simply means that the knitting has overtaken the blogging! Haha!
You have had a terrific year in reading and I see many books that I will need to add to my own list! I may start with A Little Life. I’ve always been “afraid” to read it but it’s time I faced my fears. I also agree with Mr. Salinger and have often wished that I could call authors up and ask them about their characters and books. Here’s to another wonderful year in reading in 2023!
And I’m thrilled that Gnoelle will have siblings. Your gnomes are the best and I’m anxious to see two more!
What a great year in books, Kat! I share many of your “top rated” books on my best-of list this year. Here’s to many more good reads in 2023! XO (Love that Salinger quote! So perfect.)
I find the five-star rating system for books to be really frustrating sometimes; there are so many books that I loved that I read this year but I just couldn’t give them a five-star rating (like Young Mungo — that book has haunted me, but I found some parts of it so troubling that I couldn’t give it five stars). I’ve tried to keep the five-star rating for books that I loved and could see myself rereading as well as tell everyone else I know to read.
I wish you good luck in knitting Gnoelle some siblings!
You did have a very good year of reading (which is not yet finished!!). I love that I get so many book suggestions from you and other bloggers. My TBR list has expanded by leaps and bounds. I have yet to tally up what I read this year (because it’s NOT over yet – haha) and I don’t set goals for reading (other than to enjoy what I read). Now I can’t wait to meet Gnoelle’s siblings!!
So enjoyed the gnomes and delighted there are siblings to come. I am very impressed with the number of books you have read. I thought I read a lot but I’m still in the 50s. Currently reading Still Life. Took me a while to get into, but now that I have I love it.
I can easily see how a gnome is from a triplet scenario! May your needles FLY!!
Gnome triplets – oh my. I look forward to seeing them. You have had a banner year of reading. It’s so interesting to see what others are reading.
I love these categories, Kat. What a great reading year! Thank you for the heads up on Maggie Smith’s memoir. I’ll have to see if it’s on order at my library and get in line!
Unlike many of you, I read largely for escapism, although occasionally I dip into a nonfiction subject that sounds interesting and even a fiction book that affects me. This post has prompted me to create my “books read in 2022” list from Goodreads. I keep an Excel s/s that records all the books I have read, including audiobooks and books I did not finish, since 2002. (Yes, I am, a bit anal. What else is new?) When I finish the list I will post it on my blog.