Recently, I started working on a blog post about books and places and what our own geography brings to stories we read. I’ll post it eventually, but seeing that it’s been over a year since I posted, my long absence from this space seemed worth acknowledging first1.
As I told a friend at the end of 2022 in explaining why I no longer set a reading goal for the year, I try not to treat things I do for my own enjoyment as homework. Yes, writing on a schedule is a good idea for a blog, but I don’t want to manufacture stress by imposing arbitrary deadlines on myself. My life has plenty of stress already, and the external factors that cause it don’t need help from me. So letting one month go by without posting something turned into two, turned into more, turned into the summer. And just like that, writing about books for this blog was simply not something I did anymore.
How long does it take to form a habit? I don’t know, but it took less time than whatever that is for other demands on my time last year to leave none for writing. I still thought about it, though. I even talked myself out of it a few times.
Did I really want to go back to a blog that I was bound to be forced to abandon again?
Yes, it turns out. So here I am again, making no promises about how often I will post or how long it will be before something else takes over my life and pulls me away indefinitely.
Since I missed the end-of-year/start-of-year best of lists, I’ll start my 2023 campaign with that I read last year and what stayed with me. It’s almost April, which means it’s almost May, which means it’s almost summer. If you want to get a head start on your list of poolside reads, here you go . . .
The okayest books
The Women I Love by Francesco Pacifico
The Lost Kings by Tyrell Johnson
The Twelve Monotasks by Thatcher Wine
Not bad but I was expecting more
Hamnet by Maggie O’Farrell
Furia by Yamile Saied Méndez
Where the Crawdads Sing by Delia Owens (Audiobook)
Pleasant surprises
Less by Andrew Sean Greer
Malibu Rising by Taylor Jenkins Reid
Books I liked that made me feel something
Good Intentions by Kasim Ali
Heart Sick by Jessie Stephens
Don't Say We Didn't Warn You By Ariel Delgado Dixon
God of Mercy by Okezie Nwoka
Books I loved that made me feel something
Ghosts by Raina Telgemeier
Our Little World by Karen Winn
Fiona and Jane by Jean Chen Ho
I Am Not Your Perfect Mexican Daughter by Erika L. Sanchez
Books I liked that taught me something
The Body: A Guide for Occupants by Bill Bryson
Braiding Sweetgrass by Robin Wall Kimmerer
Books I Ioved that taught me something
The Three Mothers: How the Mothers of Martin Luther King, Jr., Malcolm X, and James Baldwin Shaped a Nation by Anna Malaika Tubbs (Audiobook)
Caste: The Origins of Our Discontents by Isabel Wilkerson
My favorite books of 2022
The Holly: Five Bullets, One Gun, and the Struggle to Save an American Neighborhood by Julian Rubinstein
Clap When You Land by Elizabeth Acevedo (Audiobook)
Four Treasures of the Sky by Jenny Tinghui Zhang
School for Good Mothers by Jessamine Chan
What the Fireflies Knew by Kai Harris - my top favorite
To myself, mostly, since it otherwise went unnoticed.
Love your categories!