2022 in Reading
Fiction, non-fiction, TV adaptations, chapter books, graphic novels, picture books
2022 was the year I got my reading momentum back, after losing focus and motivation to the overwhelm of COVID (which incidentally I have for the first time right now). I decided to read less of what I felt like I sometimes should, and just read whatever title piqued my interest in the moment. This often included picking up random books on display at the library, stoop finds, and often making a foray to a neighborhood bookstore—shout to Terrace Books, Powerhouse on 8th, Books are Magic, Greenlight, Center for Fiction, and Community Bookstore—when in need of a meander, just to see what was new or recommended.
I read a lot about parenting from many lenses—new mothers navigating isolation, the decision not to have kids, pregnancy loss, parenting as a political act, the history of women artists’ relationship to motherhood, new fatherhood. I started reading books written by men again. I read YA books that had been adapted to TV. I read two Bridgerton books because why not? I read poetry and memoirs and essays and a fair amount of non-fiction. Hua Hsu’s memoir Stay True was my favorite book of the year.
I didn’t grow up as a kid-with-my-nose-perpetually-in-books but I’ve become an adult who always has a book in my bag. Here’s what I read this year, with *** next to my most recommended.
Fiction
A Lie Someone Told You About Yourself by Peter Ho Davies, an intimate meditation on choosing not to have a child.
Crossroads by Jonathan Franzen. 1971, dysfunctional family, a difference of generational values in a faceoff.
Cleanness by Garth Greenwell — a queer American teacher navigates his life in Sofia, Bulgaria.
Second Place by Rachel Cusk, a woman invites a famous artist to use her guesthouse, and he’s not the guest she imagined.
***The Life of the Mind by Christine Smallwood, an adjust professor hides her miscarriage from her boyfriend and wrestles with her own ideas of success
***We Want What We Want, stories by Alex Ohlin — just a great collection of short stories
I Love You But I’ve Chosen Darkness by Claire Vaye Watkins, a modern escape-from-motherhood tale
Afterparties, effervescent stories by Anthony Veasna published posthumously about Cambodian-American life in California
The Idiot by Elif Batuman, the first of two books about Harvard freshman, Celine, navigating relationships, love, her own place in the intellectual world
***Women Talking by Miriam Toews *adapted to a movie but I haven’t seen it yet
***The Friend by Sigrid Nunez, about a woman’s unlikely relationship to her mentor’s giant dog, who she comes to take care of after he passes
***The Swimmers by Julie Otsuka, a gorgeous novel about a group of people who only know each other from swimming at a pool, which transitions into an incredible story about aging, memory, and parent-child relationships.
People from my Neighborhood by Hiromi Kawakami, a collection of linked and often fairy-tale-like stories of people who all live in a neighborhood in Japan
Wildcat by Amelia Morris, a new mother navigates the social dynamics of the LA elite
The Buddha in the Attic by Julie Otsuka traces the journeys and lives of Japanese picture brides who arrive in SF.
Fleishman is in Trouble by Taffy Brodesser-Akner *adapted to TV and currently watching, about the recently divorced Upper-East-Siders, Toby and Rachel, and what happens when Rachel seemingly disappears into thin air.
Non-Fiction
***On Immunity: An Inoculation by Eula Biss, an examination of the vaccination debate that feels like it could have been written in 2021 (but was written in 2014)
***Having and Being Had by Eula Biss. I’ve thought about this book more than any other this year, about our relationship to things, work, and money.
The Baby on the Fire Escape by Julie Phillips, a history and profiles of artists and their relationship to motherhood. Ever conflicted.
***Essential Labor by Angela Garbes. Mothering is a political act, argues Angela Garbes, in this compassionate and personal book.
The Invisible Kingdom: Reimagining Chronic Illness by Meghan O’Rourke, an examination of how our medical system fails to address the complexities of chronic illness and how to reframe the questions around it.
***Strangers to Ourselves: Unsettled Minds and the Stories that Make Us by Rachel Aviv, an incredible series of portraits of the way diagnosis and labeling can shape the narrative (and self-narrative) of health/mental health.
Raising Raffi by Keith Gessen, essays on new fatherhood
***Stay True: A Memoir by Hua Hsu about growing up in California, and a formative friendship made and lost during college.
***Bright Dead Things, poems by Ada Limon
Books adapted into shows and movies
Bridgerton: The Duke & I by Julia Quinn
Bridgerton: The Viscount Who Loved Me by Julia Quinn
Normal People by Sally Rooney (re-read)
Conversations with Friends by Sally Rooney (re-read)
The Summer I Turned Pretty, We’ll Always Have Summer, and It’s Not Summer Without You by Jenny Han
I’m currently reading Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, and Tomorrow by Gabrielle Zevin and have Screaming on the Inside by Jessica Grose on deck.
Some chapter books I enjoyed reading aloud to my kids this year
All five books in Judy Blume’s Fudge set, including Tales of a Fourth Grade Nothing, Otherwise Known as Sheila the Great, Superfudge, Fudge-a-Mania, and Double Fudge
We also blew through her The Pain and the Great One Set which is full of all kinds of little sibling dynamics (sometimes too many), and is very lovable.
Kallie George’s Heartwood Hotel Series, including A True Home, The Greatest Gift, Better Together, and Home Again, a very sweet series about a group of animals who run a hotel in a tree.
Ghost, from Jason Reynold’s Track series
Astrid Lindgren’s classic, Pippi Longstocking. Never hate a classic!
The Clementine series by Sara Pennypacker + Marla Frazee which is full of earnest girl-troublemaking.
And we’re currently loving Karina Yan Glaser’s The Vanderbeekers series, about five endearing siblings who live in a brownstone in Harlem, which I foresee taking us into next year.
Graphic Novel picks by Ada (who is 7)
Frankie’s World by autistic Irish comedian Aoife Dooley
Be Prepared by Vera Brosgol, about being the misfit kid at summer camp
The 3-book Olga series from Elise Gravel. (Mom adds: Ada also loved If Found … Please Return to Elise Gravel, a child-friendly peak into a an artist sketchbook)
Mr. Wolf’s Class series (5 books) by Aron Nels Steinke about the adventures of a new teacher and his students
Stargazing by Jen Wang, about friendship, finding a bff who is your opposite, a medical scare, and navigating this as a kid.
Science comics, especially Rocks & Minerals, Solar System, and Coral Reefs.
Bake Sale and New Shoes by Sara Varon, who makes perfect books for kids.
The Aquanaut by Dan Santat….when your dad is lost at sea, and all is not what it seems.
Otto, A Palindrama by Jon Agee (cause if your name is Ada you’re born to love palindromes)
Picture Books
The Sato the Rabbit books (three of them) is a collection of perfect vignettes by Yuki Ainoya. Endlessly imaginative in all their simplicity.
Everything created by Shinsuke Yoshitake is worth reading again and again
Out of a Jar and In a Jar by Deborah Marcero are two great books about feelings
Doctor De Soto (classic!) by William Steig for pre/post dentist experiences
Mr. Watson’s Chickens by Jarrett Dapier was a bedtime favorite for quite some time and is a perfect read aloud.
Once Upon an Alphabet by Oliver Jeffers was the book I’d find my kids sitting with and laughing on a Saturday morning
Mr. Coats by Sieb Posthuma is a work of art and incredibly sweet.
We read Extra Yarn by Mac Barnett and Jon Klassen at least two hundred times and then constantly made little jokes about it.
Julian was obsessed with Joe Todd-Stanton’s Marcy and the Riddle of the Sphinx and walked around saying “I want to read about the finks” for weeks.
Hope you, too, had a great year in reading. As always, would love your recs (in any category!). Thanks for reading.
Excellent recos, noting so many of these on my "stuff to read" list, and many more on SuperAuntie gifts for my Ada-age niece and nephew in the year ahead, thank you!
I just had a thought about a great children's series. It's called Bad Kitty by Nick Bruel. It's about a cranky cat and her adventures with her dog sibling, a neighbor, and several cats with crazy personalities. Some of them are picture book, some are more chapter book/comic book so I think they work for smaller kids and bigger kids.