2022 Reads

Between November 15 2021 and November 15, 2022

I read…

83 Books (although some I didn’t read all the way through, and some were audiobook listens rather than reading)

Of which: 14 were non-fiction

14 were Advance Reader’s Copies

18 were westerns

And 2 were in French

Here were my favourite books…

The Storm in the Barn by Matt Phelan – a graphic novel written for children, set during the Great Depression in the dust bowl, about a boy who tries to find the rain that will make everything all right again.  Winner of the Scott O’Dell award for historical fiction. I grabbed a copy of this book from the library and read it three times over a weekend.

Fight Night by Mariam Toews – I’m always excited when there’s a new Toews to read. This book follows a girl named Swiv, expelled from school, age nine, and her relationship with her grandmother and mother while they await the arrival of a brother or sister for Swiv. I read this at the end of 2021, and wrote the following comment about it on my Goodreads: Laugh out loud, and get teary. Stay up late to read it all at once. See that 172 people are waiting for your library copy of this book from one of your favourite authors, and feel hope for humanity. A great read to end the year.

East of Eden by John Steinbeck – This was a book I read with an online book club this year, and I’m glad that I did. Don’t be unduly intimidated by the book’s length, it’s worth it!

A Garden from a Hundred Packets of Seed by James Fenton – Not what I expected (I was thinking poetry or short stories) but I enjoyed reading this little ramble through a garden to celebrate the summer solstice. Nice.

Le Sablier by Edith Blais (I read this in French, I believe you could read it in English as “The Weight of Sand: My 450 Days Held Hostage in the Sahara”)

I enjoyed reading this history of a woman with a lovely spirit who was kidnapped by jihadists and escaped with love still in her heart!

Dark Echoes of the Past by Ramón Díaz Eterovic (translated from Spanish)

Apparently, there is a television series that is very popular in Chile following the adventures of the detective we meet in this book, which is one of a dozen or so books with the same hero. I hope there will be more English translations so that I can read them some time. I got an e-book copy of this book from Netgalley. Everything is quite wonderful here – the fantastic noir style, with the occasional funny bits, the hero who talks to both his cat and his writer, the allusions to the crime writers and their heroes who have come before, which do not quite overwhelm us but wink at us instead. And for someone not well versed in Chilean history, that this novel calls on relatively recent historical crimes in that country is also both interestingly done and informative.

The Orenda by Joseph Boyden – I picked up a copy a few months ago and gosh I’m glad that I read it – it’s an almost-first-contact saga set in 17th century proto-Canada, told from three different viewpoints – a Huron soldier, an Iroquois girl who is taken captive, and a French missionary priest. It is adventurous, violent, sympathetic fiction and made for compulsive reading, with a bit of magic? thrown in. Nominated for a bunch of awards up here in Canada about a decade ago when it came out.

Ride the Pink Horse by Dorothy B. Hughes

I want to acknowledge that a lot of people will be uncomfortable with the racial slurs the protagonist of this novel employs, particularly as the story sort of hits you with them in the first couple of pages. I understand how some people might feel it’s best to put the book down at that point. I wondered myself. I would encourage you not to do it, to keep reading. Part of the story is our protagonist’s growing (although flawed) willingness to see people different from himself as people… It is also an enormously fun, atmospheric, super-noir crime story which absolutely delighted my film noir admirin’ heart. As a writer, I was making notes of some of the nice lines to savour (and perhaps steal from a little.) I hope to read more of Dorothy M. Hughes work now that I’ve read this book and I expect I’ll want to re-read this one some time.

Additional shout outs for: Supper with the Stars – With your host Vincent Price by Peter Fuller, and Jenny Hammerton

This is a cookbook (collecting recipes from Vincent Price and people who were in movies with him) for which I tested a few recipes, and I hope to work in collaboration on projects with Jenny in the future.

For other writers: The Organised Writer: How to Stay on Top of All Your Projects and Never Miss a Deadline by Antony Johnston

Jenny Hammerton recommended this book to me, and it’s quite useful. I’ve been using some of its suggestions to help me out these past few months

Best listen I had this year: Seven Years of Darkness by You-jeong Jeoung

A mystery-thriller from South Korea, a darkly entertaining ten hours or so.

And two good re-reads: Passage of Arms by Eric Ambler and The Children of Men by P.D. James

Plans for the next year of reading? I will likely continue to read a western genre novel each month, and I’m thinking of adding a French book a month and a hardboiled or noir book a month as well!

I’d like to tackle a few titles that have been sitting on my “for later” list at the library – which is something I think I’ve said before…

What were your favourite reads this year? Any books you’re particularly looking forward to reading next year?