Best Books of 2022

 As usual, I am doing my "best books" post.  These are books I read in 2022, although all came out in different years. They are in the order I read them, not prioritized.  

** = Highly Recommended

**Leave the World Behind, by Rumaan Alam

A family decides to rent a vacation house for a week in a remote area of New York State. It is the perfect house, beautifully furnished, with a pool and hot tub.  The only problem is that it is so remote that they don’t have cell phone access; there are no houses in sight; and it is very confusing to get to the location. They do have internet and TV, so they feel connected to the world in those normal ways. They had been warned about the isolation, so were not particularly concerned.  After all, they wanted to get away from everything as a family and just have a relaxing time alone.  All goes well until a series of unexplained happenings, not horror type things, just weird things, happen, and they get unexpected visitors.  I won’t tell more because it will give away too much.  I highly recommend this.  It is a fascinating mystery, where no crime occurs.

**Jack, by Marilynne Robinson

I really liked this novel by Pulitzer-Prize winning author Marilynne Robinson.  The main character is a white, down-on-his-luck, sometimes homeless man with a drinking problem.  However, he is highly literate, having come from an upstanding family and from spending a lot of time in libraries due to his lack of good living arrangements.  He is surviving on the margins in this way until he happens to meet a beautiful, young, well-educated black woman, and they fall in love. A large part of their attraction is a shared love of poetry and literature.  Although the time frame of the novel is not specific, it appears to be in the 1930’s, when their love is not only disapproved of by society, it is also against the law.  How the relationships forms and how they navigate the consequences in a society dead-set against their love is the crux of the novel.  This was an Oprah’s Book Club novel. I recommend it too. I also recommend another Marilynne Robinson novel I’ve read: Housekeeping. Very good, too.

Wintering, The Power of Rest and Retreat in Difficult Times, by Katherine May

Hard to explain this book, read during a time of rest and retreat due to the pandemic.  Ms. May’s difficulties were personal, not external, but her thoughts are relevant, nonetheless.  Her definition of “wintering” is valid:  “Wintering is a season in the cold.  It is a fallow period of life when you’re cut off from the world, feeling rejected, sidelined, blocked from progress, or cast into the role of an outsider.”  She tells her personal journey with its many explorations, detours, and dead ends, each of which is an interesting story in and of itself.  No huge revelations or epiphanies at the end.  Like all of us, I hope, she comes through it all able to move forward to the future as a more grounded, aware person.

**Anxious People, by Frederik Backman

Fun, easy read about a bank robbery that goes all wrong, ending up in a hostage situation in an apartment that is being shown for sale.  The premise doesn’t sound funny, but it actually is in some ways.  There is, however, a serious backstory that is gradually revealed about the characters.  I recommend this.  You will like it. It is the fourth Backman book I’ve read.  None are going to win the Nobel Prize for Literature, but they are thoroughly entertaining.

**Think Again: The Power of Knowing What You Don’t Know, by Adam Grant

In this excellent book, Adam Grant distills his research on develop the habits of thinking again—thinking like a scientist-- not a preacher, politician, or prosecutor.  He gives practical illustrations on how to have more meaningful discussions around disagreements and how to be more effective in persuasion.  This is a very readable and valuable book, especially at this time of polarization, where screaming at each other on social media seems to be the norm. Along with many other pieces of practical advice, he says to “approach disagreements as dances, not battles.”  Alan and I both read and really liked this book.  We recommend it.

Oh William!, by Elizabeth Strout

I read this because I liked Strout’s Olive Kittridge so much.  It is an ok, very readable, and quick book. I read it in one long evening. It follows another of Strout’s  reoccurring characters, author Lucy Barton, as she deals with an aging but lovable philanderer ex-husband, the father of her two grown daughters. There are many flashbacks to events covered in Anything is Possible, which covers Lucy’s very unhappy young life.  It helps to have read it, but it isn’t necessary.  She tells about the important, formative things. So the two books are sort of bookends—youth and old age of the same character—similar to Olive Kittridge and Olive Again, if you’ve read those.

Women in Black, by Madeleine St. John

Fun, quick read.  Young woman in Sydney, Australia takes a Christmas job in a high-end department store while she waits for her grades on exams, which will determine if she will go to the university.  She is assigned to the cocktail dress/model dress department, where she meets Magda, the charismatic, beautiful doyenne overseeing the couture dresses, as well as the other women who work in the store.  It is her first experience away from a loving but sheltering mother and non-supportive father.  Her world is opened as she starts socializing with Magda and her husband, both “continentals,” with much more worldly attitudes.  

**he Midnight Library, by Matt Haig

Nora is a young woman who has had great promise.  She could have been an Olympic swimmer, a rock star, a glaciologist—all wonderful possibilities.  She has a university degree in philosophy, and a great many talents.  Yet she has not pursued any of them to success.  In fact, she is still in her home town, spiraling deeper into depression, unable to do anything truly productive.  Finally, one night, she decides to take her own life.  It is at that point, in the “limbo” between life and death, that she is transported to a huge library, overseen by Mrs. Elm, the kindly librarian from her elementary school.  She is presented with a book of regrets and given an opportunity to pursue any option that she wishes.  She can see and live what would have been her life if she had taken that path.  That is just the beginning, as she moves through and actually lives for a while all the many ways her life could have evolved. Hint:  Parallel universe theory plays an important part in this.

I found it an absorbing tale. Despite its fantastic story line, the author told a story of depression --the consequences of trying to please others so much that one can lose track of what is really wanted in life. 

When We Were Orphans, by Kazuo Ishiguro

Strange story of a boy in Shanghai in the 1930’s.  His parents disappear under bizarre circumstances and he is sent to England to live with an aunt.  He fulfills a childhood fantasy to become a famous detective and works on trying to figure out what happened to his parents. Eventually, he thinks he has some leads to follow up on, and he returns to Shanghai just as the Japanese are attacking the city at the beginning of WW II.  He has many adventures as he tracks leads through the war-torn city. I am leaving out a lot of important things, but this is somewhat of a mystery story.  It was written by the author of Remains of the Day, but it isn’t as compelling.  I did want to finish it to find out what happened to the parents.

The Madness of Crowds:  A Novel”, by Louise Penny

Interesting murder mystery that takes place in Quebec right at the end of the coronavirus epidemic.  Chief Inspector Gamache and his team are charged with protecting a noted statistician, who has set off a polarizing movement around the world.  Her theories are controversial, to say the least, and there are those who adore her and those who abhor her. Her arrival in the small town of Three Pines to give a lecture sets off a chain of events that trace back over many years.  An absorbing story, although somewhat complicated and difficult to follow sometimes as the various theories and threads are pursued.

**A Painted House, by John Grisham

Definitely not the usual Grisham book.  The protagonist is an eight-year-old boy living on a cotton farm in Arkansas with his parents and grandparents.  This is before mechanical harvesting, so they rely on seasonal labor to do the back-breaking job of picking the cotton.  They hire two groups of labors:  a large group of Mexicans, and an extended family from the hills.  As expected in a Grisham novel, violence ensues.  Also, the area must deal with flooding.  I won’t tell more, except to say that it is an excellent novel, one I enjoyed, and I think you will, too.

I Feel Bad About my Neck and Other Thoughts on Being a Woman, by Nora Ephron

Short, often hilarious snippets of memory about Ephron’s colorful life.  Each will captivate you, making you want more.  I read it in one evening, disappointed when it was over.

The Book of Lost Names, by Kristin Harmel

WW II historical fiction, although based on similar true characters.  A young French Jewish woman becomes an accomplished forger of documents, helping hundreds, if not thousands, of people, especially children, escape the Nazis into Switzerland.  Because she gives them new gentile identities, she finds a way to secretly preserve their original names, so they have a possibility of being able to return to their families after the war.  It is kind of a chick book, with a female heroine, a love story, and mild adventure.  It was a quick, interesting book, though, which I enjoyed.  Thanks to Rosemary for recommending it.

**The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time: A Novel, by Mark Haddon

The protagonist is an autistic teenager with a special gift for math.  His eccentricities, if that is what autism can be called, cause great difficulty for his parents, who cope with it in their own ways. A whole string of events is started when the boy finds a dog that has been killed with a pitchfork.  He decides that he will investigate and find the “murderer.”  Things don’t go well. Recommended.

**Priestdaddy, by Patricia Lockwood

Very hard book to explain.  It is a memoir of someone who grew up in a very bizarre family.  Her father was one of very few men allowed into the priesthood after having a family.  He was a very eccentric person, to say the least, and the family had to deal with many strange things as he moved around from parish to parish.  A lot of the book is hilarious.  However, there is a darker undercurrent that looks at the Catholic church with stark reality. For a more comprehensive review, see https://www.kirkusreviews.com/book-reviews/patricia-lockwood/priestdaddy/.