Here it is, the post that everyone has been waiting for! Books in review for 2022. The good news for the year is that I still haven't read a book as bad as Eugene Sue's The Wandering Jew, which I finished at the end of 2020 and still cannot believe how bad the last 700 pages were. I'll let go of that someday, but not yet.
In 2022, I read 53 books, totaling 19,111 pages. I wish I could say that the book per week average meant that I took a measured approach and read a little every day, but that was not at all how it worked. Instead, I end up finding a few good books and missing plenty of nights of solid sleep due to staying up too late into the night. I binge on books.
I didn't have a top 10 list this year -- I didn't read as many great books as I did in 2021. I read a lot of books this year that didn't stick with me -- I finished them, returned them to the library, and then promptly didn't think about them again. So instead of a top 10, I've listed a few notable books below.
-Far and away, the best book of the year was Kate Quinn's The Diamond Eye. Fantastic story of an amazing woman fighting as a sniper in the Soviet army and then becoming best friends with Eleanor Roosevelt. Cannot recommend this one highly enough.
-I stumbled across Abir Mukherjee's A Rising Man, and then read the next three books in the series. It's a post-WWI British detective working in India. The mysteries are good stories, but the standout quality of these books is the sense of place Mukherjee is able to provide through his writing. Beautifully written books that make you feel as though you are there, which is all the more amazing given that India and Ohio have slightly different climates.
-Charles Mann's The Wizard the Prophet was a very interesting read. He focuses on two fundamentally different approaches to the environmental movement. The Prophets focus on a doom and gloom approach, predicting the end of the world, while the Wizards are focused on the ways technology help overcome the environmental challenges we face. This is a book you read that makes you think about how you see the world and what kind of approach you'd take to challenges.
-Suzanne Simard's Finding the Mother Tree is a reminder of how amazing nature is. Trees care for one another, which should force us to think deeply about the forest as a living organism more than a collection of different plants. Perhaps if we were to take that approach, we'd hesitate before removing forest for developments and enter such realms with appropriate reverence.
-The Secret Race, by Tyler Hamilton, was impossible to put down. Hamilton detailed his usage of steroids as a world-class bike rider, and the careful steps taken to stay ahead of drug testers. I'd never realized the pressure to do steroids, and Hamilton made me think about my opinions about those who use them, especially in a world like cycling, where it is impossible to be competitive without steroids.
-Peng Shepherd's The Cartographers was a fun exploration of how maps change the world. Do maps have power to create reality?
-I finally read Erik Larson's Devil in the White City, about a serial killer during the Chicago World's Fair. The part about preparing for the World's Fair and building a ferris wheel was amazing. The part about the serial killer was terrifying. Overall, it seems like everything Larson writes is worth reading and well-written.
-I read a bunch of Anthony Horowitz's writing this year, including the three James Bond novels that he wrote. It seems like he's turning out a book a month! All of his mysteries are fun adventures.
That's the list for the year. As always, the world expanded when I read, and I got to escape reality every time I turned a page. I look forward to what I'll dive into this year!
