Favorite Books of 2022

“I went away in my head, into a book. That was where I went whenever real life was too hard or too inflexible.”
― Neil Gaiman, The Ocean at the End of the Lane

In 2020 and 2021, I set a goal of reading 100 books. I fell short both years.

For 2022, I set a goal of 52 books. I finished 101! However, few made the favorites list. Lots of mediocre reads this year.

A good chunk of them were read during recovery from back surgery. In fact, I re-read two series during that time (The Boneyard series by Jefferson-Bass and the Barbara Holloway series by Kate Wilhelm). I also re-read three of James Herriot’s books after falling in love with the PBS series. They did such a good job of casting! And his books are always on my most-recommended list.

I lean towards mysteries and historical novels. I can’t get through a book with a lot of foul language. I don’t care for romantic novels. So, from my conservative point of view here are my highest rated reads from 2022 in the order in which I read them:

The Nightingale by Kristin Hannah (a heart-breaking but well-written story of WWII)
Three Sisters by Heather Morris (another excellent story of three sisters in the Nazi prison camps)
Emily’s House by Amy Belding Brown
The Family Plot by Megan Collins (some foul language, but I couldn’t stop listening to it!)
Tears of Amber by Sofia Segovia (emotionally hard to read but an excellent book)
The Ocean at the End of the Lane by Neil Gaiman (I am not a fan of fantasy and this one tipped too much into horror but his writing style is just beautiful! I saved several quotes from this book because they spoke to my heart!)
The Winners by Fredrick Backman (Excellent story but too much foul language)

I quickly went through every Three Pines book by Louise Penny in spite of cringing at the foul language. Her characters are so well developed. I am pleased to see the Amazon Prime series is staying fairly close to the books.

There were two more books I loved but want to mention them with a caveat:

Take My Hand by Dolen Perkins-Valdez — This is an excellent book. The author is definitely pro-abortion, which I am not, but deals well with the aftermath of it for men and women.
Feeding the Soul by Tabitha Brown — While I disagreed with some of her opinions I found this to be an excellent book, too. I agreed with almost everything she said. You must get the audio version of this book as her personality makes it an even more enjoyable read.

Books I started but just couldn’t make myself finish:

Thursday Murder Club by Richard Osman– boring
The Paper Palace by Miranda Cowley Heller — raunchy
Greenlights by Matthew McConaughey– foul language and boring
Commonwealth by Ann Patchett — too confusing
The Bullet by Iris Johansen — I used to love the Eve Duncan books but the last few have been disappointing and I just couldn’t plod my way through this one at all.