Saturday, December 31, 2022

Favorite books read in 2022




In 2022 I was fortunate to be able to finish 63 books, 41 fiction and 22 nonfiction.  Nine of those books were children's or young adult lit.

That is a total of 17,930 pages.  Here are the books I rated as excellent and as enjoyable:



Excellent Fiction


The Vanishing Half, by Brit Bennett, published 2020.  352 pages.


Meet Me at the Museum, by Anne Youngson.  Published 2018.  277 pages.


A Single Thread, by Tracy Chevalier.  Published 2019.  318 pages.



Excellent Nonfiction


How the Word Is Passed: A Reckoning with the History of Slavery Across America, by Clint Smith.  Published 2021.  The text ends at 288 pages.  With endnotes 353 pages.


Winter: Five Windows on the Season (The CBC Massey Lectures Book 2011), by Adam Gopnik.  219 pages of main text.  Total 274 pages. 


The Heartbeat of Wounded Knee:  Native America from 1890 to the Present, by David Treuer.  Published 2019.   455 pages (text); 512 pages including endnotes.



And some others I enjoyed quite a lot:

Essays of E.B. White, by E.B. White, published 1977 (essays were first published in various publications from 1934 through 1977).   346 pages.


The Three Escapes of Hannah Arendt: A Tyranny of Truth, by Ken Krimstein.  A graphic biography. Published 2018.  233 pages. 


Joy in the Morning, by P.G. Wodehouse.  Published 1946. 229 pages.


Miss Buncle Married, by D.E. Stevenson.  Published 1936, 352 pages.


The Thursday Murder Club By Richard Osman. Published 2020. 355 pages.

 

The Marble Staircase, by Elizabeth Fair.  Written 1950s?, published 2022.  210 pages.

 

Tess of the D’Urbervilles, by Thomas Hardy. Published 1891.  256 pages.

 

The Maid, by Nita Prose.  Published 2022.  280 pages.


The Christmas Train, by David Baldacci.  Published 2002. 273 pages.



Some second readings

Pride and Prejudice, by Jane Austen.  Published 1813. 


The Night Watchman by Louise Erdrich.  464 pages.  © 2020.  (Pulitzer prize winner).  


Born a Crime, by Trevor Noah.  Published 2016.  289 pages.


A Christmas Carol, by Charles Dickens, originally published 1843. 



Some of my reading stats, from thestorygraph.com

StoryGraph says that I have read 65 books, but maybe it is counting books I entered but didn’t finish.  StoryGraph seems to count as “classic” any book written before roughly 1950.  Okay. 


My top five genres for 2022 were “classics”, literary, historical, mystery, and history.  The only reason I read two thrillers is because of book club.






Creepily, the Washington Post also informed me that I had read 13,218 of their pages in 4,903 articles. I am pretty sure I did not read that many articles, although I might have clicked on that many articles.





5 comments:

Bibliomama said...

I also loved The Vanishing Half. I love Adam Gopnik, but haven't read Winter yet, and this also reminds me that I have always meant to read Hannah Arendt and never have, so moving her up in the queue (and that I need to start my book roundup posts). I hope you had a good holiday season.

Anonymous said...

This is quite a lot of books! I think you should be proud of your achievement. How many of your top books did you read because of book club?

Unknown said...

HI Carolyn, I also read A Christmas Carol and The Legend of Sleepy Hollow each year, at the ends of December and October respectively. I also read a slew of books. I'll have to see what my favorites would have been.

Common Household Mom said...

@anonymous Three of the six "excellent" books were for book clubs. Two of the 7 "enjoyed" books and all of the second readings were for book clubs. Book club really helps me expand my reading choices.

Melissa said...

It's pretty cool how you have documented your reading stats this way! And I was pleased to see I've read many of the same titles. We deviated most on nonfiction.
Pretty cool reflection on a year in reading!