2022: A Year in Books

Happy New Year, everyone! As is tradition, below you'll find the list of books I read in 2022. They are presented in the order I read them, with letter grades for each one indicating overall enjoyment (and my personal favorites are highlighted in blue). As you can see, I really ran the literary gamut this time around: contemplative sci-fi, adventurous YA, classics from the Western canon, nuanced nonfiction, and of course, 3 novels by the incomparable Stephen King. 

I read slightly less than usual in 2022, only completing 20 novels instead of my usual goal of 25. Am I disappointed in myself? A little. But I'm taking comfort in the fact that 2022 was one of the busiest years in recent memory, and now that 2023 is here, I'm going to seriously buckle down. Will I hit my goal of 25 books for the new year? Maybe, maybe not. In the meantime, I strongly urge you to set a reading goal of your own! Even if you turn up short - perhaps way short - you'll still have read something, right? And reading is always a win. 

1.) Brian's Return by Gary Paulsen ... B+ 

2.) The Running Man by Richard Bachman ... B- 

3.) Broken Monsters by Lauren Beukes ... B 

4.) Gwendy's Final Task by Stephen King and Richard Chizmar ... B- 

5.) Sea of Tranquility by Emily St. John Mandel ... C+ 

6.) Forward by Andrew Yang... B

7.) I'd Like to Play Alone, Please by Tom Segura ... B 

8.) The Silence by Don DeLillo ... C 

9.) A Man Without A Country by Kurt Vonnegut, Jr. ... C- 

10.) Joey Pigza Swallowed the Key by Jack Gantos ... A+ 

11.) Bunnicula: A Rabbit Tale of Mystery by Deborah and James Howe ... B 

12.) Songs of Innocence and of Experience by William Blake ... A- 

13.) South and West by Joan Didion ... A 

14.) The Old Man and the Sea by Ernest Hemingway ... A+ 

15.) The Yellow Wallpaper by Charlotte Perkins Stetson ... A+ 

16.) The Ones Who Walk Away from Omelas by Ursula K. Le Guin ... B 

17.) The Monster of Elendhaven by Jennifer Giesbrecht ... A 

18.) America, A Redemption Story by Sen. Tim Scott ... A 

19.) The Pearl by John Steinbeck ... B 

20.) The Dark Half by Stephen King ... B+