2022 in Books

The calendar has turned and a new year is upon us, and so it is time for my annual post about my reading in the past year.

Unfortunately I don't have much to say this year. 2022 was not the best reading year ever. Somewhere between a book slump, lots of non-reading stuff going on, and a couple of disappointing DNFs, I didn't read as much as I have in the past couple of years. I also confess that I didn't track my books read the way I did the past couple of years so I don't have any stats for you this year; but I've already created my 2023 spreadsheet and will try to track myself better over the next 12 months.

I can't compile a top ten list this year, so instead let me award a couple of accolades (or not):

Favourite Non-Fiction: Permanent Astonishment (Tomson Highway)

I love Tomson Highway's story-telling style - as I read this book, I could hear his voice reading it to me in my head. This is a memoir of growing up in northern Canada, on the Manitoba side of the junction of Manitoba, Saskatchewan, and the Northwest Territories. He writes of the love of his family, his delight in the land, and the joy he finds in language. He writes of his time in a residential school (including a few pages about the abuse he experienced), but my overall impression of this book was of delight. It also made me want to go back and re-read Kiss of the Fur Queen, since it is a fictionalized account of his family. (I had an opportunity to hear him speak live this year at a recording of one of the Massey Lectures in Fredericton, but I haven't read that book yet.)

Favourite Fiction: The Heart Principle (Helen Hoang)

This book hit me in all of the feels - when I started reading it, I couldn't put it down. It was actually sitting on my TBR stack for more than a year before I picked it up - I had read some reviews that it was "heavy" emotionally so I was waiting for the right time - but when I started to read it, it was the sort of book that chewed me up and spat me out as a different person. It is a story of family, of love, of healing, of music, of burn-out, of asking what is the next best thing.

Favourite Local Interest Book:  The Miramichi Fire (Alan MacEachern)

I heard Alan MacEachern interviewed on CBC about this book, so when he was the keynote speaker at a conference I attended in June, I picked up a copy at the conference bookstore and had it autographed. His writing style is very engaging (a pleasant surprise in a history text that I worried might be dry), and the content gave me insight into the history of the province I now call home.

Favourite Work-Related Book:  The Theology of the United Church of Canada (ed. Don Schweitzer, Rob Fennell, Michael Bourgeois)

I'd had this book on my bookshelf since it was first published in 2019, but hadn't moved beyond skimming the table of contents and a couple of chapters until this spring. Working as a TA for Rob Fennell when he taught United Church Doctrine (online) at AST last winter was the nudge that I needed to finally dive into it. Each chapter covers a different doctrinal topic and is written by a different theologian in the United Church so each chapter has a different feel, but together they make an incredible resource for the church.

Most Disappointing DNF:  State of Terror (Hillary Rodham Clinton and Louise Penny)

I love Louise Penny's books (though I didn't read any of her Gamache books this year and have two that I haven't read yet), but I just couldn't get in to this one. I was looking forward to reading this one and borrowed it from the library, but after 2 renewals I just wasn't able to get in to it and had to return it to the library. I gave it a good try - I was about half-way through - but though the writing was excellent, the plot (and the US politics) just didn't grab me.

And I think that's about it for this year. The good news is that 2023 seems to be off to a good start as I'm part-way through two excellent books at the moment (Born a Crime by Trevor Noah and Fayne by Ann-Marie MacDonald).

I wish all of you a year of happy, engaging, illuminating reading!