WHAT I READ IN 2022

Every year I enjoy this last post of the year, where I tot up everything I’ve read. It makes me feel like whatever else has been going on, at least I have not been totally wasting my time. I like looking at the pictures, which remind me where I have been physically, but even more looking at the titles, which remind me of where I have been not-physically. Greenland in the 1950s? Italy in the 1250s? Ohio in the opiod crisis? Stockholm in the middle of someone’s insane crush? I counted up and 15 countries are represented. To my surprise I also read a large majority of female writers (43 of the 69), and for the first time ever a big chunk was memoir or non-fiction. Best of the year was:

MY FIRST THIRTY YEARS by Gertrude Beasley, a mild-alteringly angry and inspirational memoir about overcoming poverty and the patriachy (before they catch up with you and throw you in an insane asylum)

MY PHANTOMS by Gwendoline Riley, which is a lacerating examination of a woman’s relationship with her mother. Small talk has never been so excruciating. Deservedly on many best-of lists this year

MRS PALFREY AT THE CLAREMONT by Elizabeth Taylor, a wonderfully funny and sad novel about the steely optimism needed to face old age

MICHEL THE GIANT: AN AFRICAN IN GREENLAND by Tete-Michel Kpomassie, a book about how you can live the life of your wildest and most eccentric dreams. Written by someone who should be considered an African ICON.

WILFUL DISREGARD by Lena Andersson, which shows how love can be madness, and not in a cute fun way. Shows how easy it is to slip into mania, be it a about the second coming, hand washing, or, as in this case, about a boy

That’s just the short list, not even getting into THE MERCHANT OF PRATO (most complete documented account of a Medieval life) I’M GLAD MY MOTHER DIED (memoir of child star), or GIOVANNI’S ROOM (being gay not easy).

That was 2022. I’m surprised I didn’t read more, given how long I was sick with Covid. But I guess reading takes a certain kind of focus. Here’s to a better 2023.

Full list:

1. BURMESE DAYS by George Orwell
2. THE GREAT FIRE by Shirley Hazzard
3. SMALL THINGS LIKE THIS by Claire Keegan
4. EAT PRAY LOVE by Elizabeth Gilbert
5. MY FATHER’S DIET by Adrian Nathan West
6. THE PURSUIT OF LOVE by Nancy Mitford
7. EILEEN by Otessa Moshfegh
8. REVOLUTIONARY ROAD by Richard Yates
9. THE GRASS ARENA by John Healy
10. MY PHANTOMS by Gwendoline Riley
11. FLUDD by Hilary Mantel
12. THE RUIN OF ALL WITCHES by Malcolm Gaskill
13. ORIGINAL SINS by Matt Rowland Hill
14. I’M GLAD MY MOM DIED by Jeanette McCurdy
15. THE HOUSE BY THE DVINA by Eugenie Fraser
16. THE GROWING PAINS OF ADRIAN MOLE by Sue Townsend
17. MY FIRST THIRTY YEARS by Gertrude Beasley
18. OCTOBER’S CHILD by Linda Bostrom Knausgard
19. HAPPY ALL THE TIME by Laurie Colwin
20. SISTERS BY A RIVER by Barbara Comyns
21. THE KRAKEN AWAKES by John Wyndham
22. QUARTET IN AUTUMN by Barbara Pym
23. SELECTED STORIES by Dorothy Parker
24. GIOVANNI’S ROOM by James Baldwin
25. ACTS OF INFIDELITY by Lena Andersson
26. THE CHRYSALIDS by John Wyndham
27. MEATY by Samantha Irby
28. MISS PETTIGREW LIVES FOR A DAY by Winifred Watson
29. CARNIVAL OF SNACKERY by David Sedaris
30. THE MINISTRY OF FEAR by Graham Greene
31. THEIR SOULS AT NIGHT by Kent Haruf
32. CODES OF LOVE by Hannah Persaud
33. MARY BARTON by Elizabeth Gaskell
34. WILFUL DISGREGARD by Lena Andersson
35. WE ARE NEVER MEETING IN REAL LIFE by Samantha Irby
36. PERSUASION by Jane Austen
37. NOTES ON A SCANDAL by Zoe Heller
38. THE SECRET DAIRY OF ADRIAN MOLE AGED 13 AND 3/4 by Sue Townsend
39. FIRST LOVE by Gwendoline Riley
40. THE SHOOTING PARTY by Isabel Colegate
41. THE NEW ME by Halle Butler
42. A TIME TO BE BORN by Dawn Powell
43. THE VET’S DAUGHTER by Barbara Comyns
44. A GLASS OF BLESSINGS by Barbara Pym
45. SINS OF MY FATHER by Lily Dunn
46. THE SHELTERING SKY by Paul Bowles
47. KLARA AND THE SUN by Kazuo Ishiguro
48. LADDER OF THE YEARS by Anne Tyler
49. THE MERCHANT OF PRATO by Iris Origo
50. YOUNG MUNGO by Douglas Stuart
51. IN THE DISTANCE by Hernan Diaz
52. THE IDIOT by Elif Batuman
53. MICHEL THE GIANT: AN AFRICAN IN GREENLAND by Tété-Michel Kpomassie
54. HOW GREEN WAS MY VALLEY by Richard Llewellyn
55. DID YOU HEAR MAMMY DIED by Seamas O’Reilly
56. GONE WITH THE WIND by Margaret Mitchell
57. STOLEN FOCUS by Johann Hari
58. OF LOVE AND HUNGER by Julian MacLaren-Ross
59. MRS PALFREY AT THE CLAREMONT by Elizabeth Taylor
60. EMPIRE OF PAIN by Patrick Radden Keefe
61. LUSTER by Raven Leilani
62. DEVOTION by Madeline Stevens
63. THE BEAUTIFUL AND THE DAMNED BY F Scott Fitzgerald
64. LOVE IN THE BIG CITY by Sang Young Park
65. TRAVEL LIGHT, MOVE FAST by Alexandra Fuller
66. THE VIRGIN SUICIDES by Jeffrey Eugenides
67. IN A SUMMER SEASON by Elizabeth Taylor
68. THE BEST OF ME by David Sedaris
69. BEST YEAR YET by Jenny Ditzler