2022 was a diverting year of reading. The 65 books I’ve logged in Goodreads during the last twelve months run the gambit from general nonfiction to YA literature, memoir to fantasy. While I enjoyed them all to varying degrees, there were some clear stand-outs. Here they are:
Historical fiction and literary adaptations are quickly becoming my favorite sub-genres of fiction, especially well-written ones relating to the Early Modern Period. Maggie O’Farrell’s Hamnet was my first read of 2022; it set the bar extremely high. O’Farrell’s writing is lush; her imaginative speculation of life for Shakespeare’s family during a time of plague is equal parts tangible and fantastical. While reviews of this novel are mixed, my only criticism is that it was too short. I’m looking forward to reading O’Farrell’s newest novel A Marriage Portrait in 2023.
Annie Gartwaite’s Cecily is a work of historical fiction, one that is extremely well-researched and beautifully written. Cecily, the wife of the Duke of York, finds herself in a precarious situation during the infamous Wars of the Roses. With her options restricted due to her gender, Cecily must navigate the complex politics of the English court and wield power in the only ways that are available to her. Garthwaite’s novel brings a fresh new perspective to well-known historical events.
I was pleasantly surprised by this novel. While I had read the accolades for Anthony Doerr’s previous novel All the Light We Cannot See, neither its description nor the description of Cloud Cuckoo Land appealed to me. Thankfully, it was a novel chosen by a book club that I have recently joined, so I read it just to be social; one of my best book decisions this year. Cloud Cuckoo Land is ultimately about the power that a text has to unite people separated by place and time. It is artfully written. If you struggle with alternating narrative perspectives then the beginning of this novel might be a bit difficult to follow, but stick with it. You won’t be disappointed.
I first heard about this book through one of the podcasts that I listen to on the medieval period. It’s not all that recent of a book – it was published in 2014 – but the premise sounded interesting. It’s a mystery thriller set in 14th-century London. The protagonist John Gower, a friend of Geoffrey Chaucer (author of Canterbury Tales) is tasked with uncovering the truth about a set of prophecies and a plot to kill King Richard II. The reader follows Gower from the highest courts to the lowest slums of London as he investigates. With the skill and authority of a medieval scholar/writer, Bruce Holsinger writes 1385 London to vivid relief.
Horse might just be my favorite book of the year. It was definitely the one that generated the best discussion at book club. I’m still not quite sure how author Geraldine Brooks successfully wove tales about an art historian and discarded painting, a Kentucky racehorse and his enslaved caregiver, and the Smithsonian Museum and a miscatalogued skeleton into a single piece of literature with such finesse. The novel will leave the reader thinking long after the last page about our nation’s complicated and unsavory past and the modern manifestations of this legacy. Horse lovers, art enthusiasts, and science nerds will all find something to love in this well-written tale.
It’s December 31st and I just finished reading A Gentleman in Moscow. Wow! What a great way to end the year. (Sorry Geraldine Brooks! Horse is now my second favorite book of the year.) There is so much to say about this wonderful novel, but I’ll start with the fact that the summary on the book’s cover doesn’t do it justice. The book is about more than just one man’s journey to be a “man of purpose.” In my opinion, it is more about finding purpose in life’s daily interactions – but that makes it sound like a self-help book and it’s definitely NOT. The entire plot, which spans a few decades, takes place within the walls of Moscow’s Metropol Hotel. Yet despite this limited setting, the novel is expansive. Towles is erudite, yet his writing is not the least bit pretentious. The protagonist, Count Alexader Illyich Rostov, is a pure delight.
For the Love of Books 