The Best Things I Read This Year

January 2nd, 2022Posted by Nancy

I did A LOT of reading this year. I suppose being stuck at home during a pandemic will do that for you.

Total books read: roughly 160

Fiction: 62% Non-Fiction: 38%

Below are some of the ones I liked best, in no particular order. While I read fewer non-fiction titles, more of them stuck with me as memorable.

BEST FICTION – SF, Fantasy, Horror

Plain Bad Heroines, Emily Danforth

In That Endlessness, Our End, Gemma Files. Gemma managed to make me afraid of Airbnbs, old houses, downtown Toronto, writing groups, and Northern Ontario. Plus numerous other things. Thanks, pal.

Severance, Ling Ma – which pairs nicely with Everything You Ever Wanted, Luiza Sauma

The Ministry for the Future, Kim Stanley Robinson

The Fisherman, John Langan

A Desolation Called Peace, Arkady Martine

The Empress of Salt and Fortune and When the Tiger Came Down the Mountain, Nghi Vo

Witness for the Dead, Katharine Addison (plus a reread of The Goblin Emperor)

Temporary, Hilary Leichter

Living Alone, Stella Benson

BEST FICTION – Other

The Corner that Held Them, Sylvia Townsend Warner

The Queen’s Gambit, Walter Tevis

The Leftovers, Thomas Perrotta

Interior Chinatown, Charles Yu

The Hearing Trumpet and The Collected Stories, Leonora Carrington

The Weekend, Charlotte Wood

Leonora in the Morning Light, Michaela Carter

BEST NON-FICTION – Politics, Society, and Related

Our Own Worst Enemy, Tom Nichols

A Libertarian Walks Into a Bear, Matthew Hongoltz-Hetling

The Fifth Risk, Michael Lewis

The Sum of Us, Heather McGhee

Empire of Pain, Patrick Radden Keefe

Everything Now ,Rosencrans Baldwin

The Next Supper, Corey Mintz

Uncanny Valley, Anna Weiner – pairs very nicely with the novel Sourdough, Robin Sloan

BEST NON-FICTION – Art, Music, Literature

Villa Air-Bel, Rosemary Sullivan

On Freedom and The Art of Cruelty, Maggie Nelson

The Lonely City, Olivia Laing

Putting it Together, James Lepine

Where am I Now? Mara Wilson

Beeswing, Richard Thompson

My Rock ‘n’ Roll Friend, Tracey Thorn

Astounding, Alec Nevia-Lee

BEST NON-FICTION – Science, Nature and History

A Honeybee Heart has Five Openings, Helen Jukes

Kindred, Rebecca Wragg Skyes

The Story of More, Hope Jahren

The Demon-Haunted World, Carl Sagan

Field Notes from an Unintentional Birder, Julie Zarankin

A World on the Wing, Scott Weidensaul

Against the Grain, James Scott – pairs very nicely with The Dawn of Everything, David Graeber and David Wengrow

The Anarchy, William Dalrymple

Alexander Hamilton, Ron Chernow – pairs nicely with Eliza Hamilton, Tilar J. Mazzeo

The Verge: Forty Years that Shook the World, Patrick Wyman

Hero of Two Worlds, Mike Duncan

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