The best books I read in 2022. This collage took me way too long to make.
I read 25 books in 2022, meeting my Goodreads goal on the nose. I read some excellent books this year. Clicking on the links will take you to my full review of that book.
Unscripted, by Nicole Kronzer, 2020. An excellent YA novel that follows Zelda as she navigates the toxic masculinity of an improv comedy camp. Kronzer gives us vibrant portraits of a fun cast of characters as she examines what it means to be a trailblazer.
The Age of Innocence, by Edith Wharton, 1920. A biting portrait of Gilded Age New York society, Wharton’s protagonist is the romantic Newland Archer. Newland’s romanticism is directly in conflict with the society around him. A beautiful and haunting work of art.
I’m Your Man: The Life of Leonard Cohen, by Sylvie Simmons, 2012 (updated edition 2021). Leonard Cohen’s music may be something of an acquired taste, but I’ve long been fascinated by Cohen’s music and poetry. Sylvie Simmons does a terrific job of examining Cohen’s life and art and painting a portrait of this complex man.
The Short Stories of F. Scott Fitzgerald, Edited by Matthew J. Bruccoli, 1989. I read many books of F. Scott Fitzgerald’s short stories this year, including all of his original collections. Of Fitzgerald’s original collections, I might pick All the Sad Young Men as my favorite, for the beautiful, gut-wrenching punch of “The Rich Boy,” “Winter Dreams,” “Absolution,” and “’The Sensible Thing.’” The Short Stories of F. Scott Fitzgerald is a career-spanning compendium that puts forth a compelling argument for the beauty and continued relevance of Fitzgerald’s writing. Fitzgerald was a writer blessed with a remarkable gift: the ability to write perceptively about his own time, and yet his writing transcends his own time as his words echo down the generations to us all these years later. In every story, no matter how contrived the plots may sometimes be, there are sentences and phrases that will take your breath away and will remind you of the power and beauty of the written word.
The Rise and Fall of Charles Lindbergh, by Candace Fleming, 2020. A YA biography of “the Lone Eagle,” this is a fantastic portrait of a complicated and flawed individual. Fleming does a superb job of leading us through Lindbergh’s life-often using quotes from Lindbergh’s own writing, as well as the writings of his wife, Anne Morrow Lindbergh. This book also led me to two other excellent books I read this year, both by Anne Morrow Lindbergh: Gift from the Sea, and North to the Orient, an account of Charles and Anne’s 1931 flights on which she was his co-pilot and radio operator.
We Were Dreamers: An Immigrant Superhero Origin Story, by Simu Liu, 2022. Liu, known for his ground-breaking role as Shang-Chi, and for the Canadian sitcom Kim’s Convenience, wrote a superb book about his parents’ immigrating from China to Canada in the 1990’s, and his own upbringing. Much more than a typical celebrity memoir, We Were Dreamers is an excellent examination of what it means to be the child of immigrants.
Losing Mum and Pup (2009) and Has Anyone Seen My Toes? (2022) both by Christopher Buckley. Losing Mum and Pup is Buckley’s memoir about the deaths of his parents, just 10 months apart. It is a book both deeply funny and deeply moving. I lost my own Pup in December of 2021 and listening to Buckley reading the audiobook of Losing Mum and Pup was a way of revisiting some of my own memories about my Dad. Buckley’s most recent book is the very funny Has Anyone Seen My Toes? A novel set during the current pandemic, Buckley successfully echoes the rhythms of life during that strange time. And someone really needs to take inspiration from Buckley and start a fast-food chain called Hippo King.
Lefty & Tim: How Steve Carlton and Tim McCarver Became Baseball’s Best Battery, by William C. Kashatus, 2022. Steve Carlton is my favorite baseball player, so I have to put this dual biography of Carlton and his “designated catcher” Tim McCarver on this list. Kashatus does a fantastic job of examining how Steve Carlton became one of the greatest pitchers ever, winning 329 games, 4 Cy Young Awards, and striking out 4,136 batters.
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