Best Books of 2022

So many books you've probably already read...

Yes, these lists are everywhere. And yes, I read them all. It’s the only list that I will compulsively read even if I know dang well I’m not reading 99.9% of what The Guardian says I should. It’s a small act of rebellion.

This year I unintentionally read a whole slew of classics I have never read. Usually not for any particular reason. Most of these I tried at some point, but changing a college class, having a baby, or something else stopped me from finishing all 1,000 pages. I have to say that none disappointed me, and all made me take a deeper breath in the air that is human experience.

I will say that two things helped me finish these tomes: audiobooks and reading slowly with book podcasts.

Audiobooks because I spent a lot of time in the garden doing very repetitive tasks that take forever and for a lot of fun mental health reasons I was trying to limit outside voices in the spring and my spiritual director said no more podcasts. Also, driving kids everywhere all the time and attending Mass an hour away. I drive a lot.

What usually puts me off long classics is that they take forever and I really like reading books quickly. I need a finished book hit at least once a week. I’m an addict. So reading classics alongside book podcast (both from Close Reads!) forces me to read more slowly, but at the same time feel accomplished. I will usually have the audiobook going or set aside a little extra time somewhere in the week to read that week’s section. It feeds my weird affinity for competition, but also keep me interested enough to continue reading for a long time. (Not making my top ten included Tess of the d’Ubervilles, and The Tenant of Wildfell Hall.)

I’m not numbering them in order of best to worst because it was hard enough to figure out which ten were the best. And it’s the week between Christmas and New Years-I’m not doing extra work.

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The Talented Mr. Ripley by Patricia Highsmith

As someone who prides themselves on reading widely in the mystery and thriller genre, I couldn’t believe I hadn’t read Highsmith at all until this year. My “Highsmith Summer” got off to a bang with Mr. Ripley which was so much more sinister and finely plotted than the movie. Her word craft is so good, and her ability to keep ratcheting up the suspense was killer. She’s not cozy and not a writer for the sensitive reader, but I highly enjoyed each of the books I read by her this year. Could also have put Strangers on a Train in this spot.

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Mr. Wilder & Me by Jonathan Coe

A completely delightful book about the real Billy Wilder, director of such masterpieces like Some Like It Hot, which at the same time alludes to the complexity of the deep suffering of Europe during the 20th century. I’m an old film fan so I found all the name dropping and film making wonderful, but really this is a book that tells a good story about a complex man and the woman who ends up working for him during a summer in the 70s.

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As I Lay Dying by William Faulkner

I did not know what to expect from this novel, but whatever it was I was completely wrong. I did not anticipate it being a family drama in this way, and did not think it would rip me open so brutally. Faulkner does so much in such a small amount of time it is amazing. I need to reread it. Probably could have reread it as soon as I finished.

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The Netanyahus by Joshua Cohen

This book is such a strange interplay of memory novel, academic satire, and intense look at Israeli history that it is a strange one to describe to people. But I enjoyed it because it really read like no other book I’ve read recently. I laughed out loud, I was revolted then impressed by characters, I loved the writing.

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Kristin Lavransdatter trilogy by Sigrid Undset

This was maybe my third or fourth read through the entire three books and I can safely say they continue to get better the more you read them. I continue to be in awe os Undset’s ability to make medieval Sweden imminently relatable. The psychological insight that Undset had is incredible. I kept reading and kept seeing myself in characters, relationship patterns, and how an entire life of faith can develop and change. It feels painfully close at times because of how well the joys and sufferings of motherhood and marriage are described. Even though I’ve read it before it’s still one of the best things I read all year.

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Agatha Christie: An Elusive Woman by Lucy Worsley

I love Agatha Christie, I love literary biographies. But I am putting this book on the list because it is a compelling biography that tries to give as much Christie as it can. I really enjoy Worsley’s angle of women in society at the time and their economic reality; she does spend a bit too much time on Christie’s famous disappearance in 1926, and spends a lot of time criticizing Christie’s writing. But because of her emphasis on Christie’s personality and joys inside and outside of writing, her love of homemaking—and home buying, her unique position as a woman at the top of her industry at a time when no other woman was, the book becomes an enjoyable read.

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Anna Karenina by Leo Tolstoy

2022 was the year I made it through the entire book! Technically I started it way back in the summer of 2021, but finishing this book felt like a terrific accomplishment. I always had quit right after Anna leaves Karenin, but reading the entire way through tells a truly incredible story. I was surprised how sympathetic I was towards Anna at times, but truly believe Tolstoy isn’t out to make her a modern heroine, but to make a larger commentary on the meaning of marriage to individuals and society. His insight is remarkable at many times and of course, his building of story through time is perfection.

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East of Eden by John Steinbeck

I hate that I had not read this book before this year. I can’t believe how much I enjoyed it. I’ve liked Steinbeck in other forms before, but I don’t think I would have ever said I loved his work. But East of Eden I love. What I love about it is that I can’t tell you what I love about it. It isn’t the characters who I don’t believe are written to be likeable, or the story which at times I wish played out differently, but the combination of all these different elements to tell a foundational story of what it means to be a human being in a fallen world.

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My Name is Asher Lev by Chaim Potok

I had no idea what this book was about, but it basically ripped my heart out and then threw it back at me. It is a book about art, beauty, family, faith, belonging, sacrifice, and so much more. The story of a boy growing up in a Hasidic Jewish community in Brooklyn who is a type of genius of art and what that means to his own experience, his family, his community, and ultimately coming to grips between the extreme tension of creating art within his faith. This book is simply about so much that I can’t stop thinking about it. I think I’ll have to reread it several times to even come close to plumbing its depths.

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The Girls of Slender Means by Muriel Spark

Whenever I think I can’t enjoy Muriel Spark more I read another one of her books. And then I’m proven wrong. Her writing has an almost indescribable sense of humour; a quirkiness that borders on the macabre, but in a dry, British way. It’s a sense of humour I love, and which is incredibly hard to find and non-existent in the deadly, boring, post-modernist world we live in today. Spark can bring this sense of humour yet still write about the deep pain of war, the difficulties of faith, detailed character flaws, and the triumph of grace within in it. The Girls is peak Spark; a post-war London house full of single women trying to make ends meet, find love, and encounters with Truth. It’s probably as close to a perfect novel as they come.

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Honorable mentions include, Laurus, The Genesis of Gender, The Thursday Murder Club, and Trust.

As you can see I really need to be reading more non-fiction, but since the pandemic and my anxiety and reading of other non-fiction has risen I’ve not found the urge to pick up smarter things! Hopefully in 2023 I will get to more good, thoughtful non-fiction and be the better for it.

I’m currently trying to finish up a couple books I have on the go for my year end book tally, and trying to take advantage of most of my waking hours not being taken up with homeschooling and driving people places.

One thing for sure is the new year will be filled with books, and that’s a joy that can always be counted on!

• Christy