Writers who impressed me this year include Helen DeWitt, Percival Everett, Claire North, Elif Batuman, Rivka Gelchen, Carys Davies, George Saunders, and Suzette Mayr.

• 23 were borrowed from the public library
• 2 have Canadian authors
• 9 were chosen due to personal recommendations from friends
• 1 was being reread
• 13 are ebooks

• Perrin, Valérie. Fresh Water for Flowers
• Mayr, Suzette. The Sleeping Car Porter
• Chou, Elaine Hsieh. Disorientation
• Everett, Percival. Dr. No: a novel
• Foley, Lucy. The Paris Apartment: a novel
• Garmus, Bonnie. Lessons in Chemistry: a novel
• Sanders, George. Liberation Day: stories
• Murakami, Haruki. Novelist as a Vocation
• Winman, Sarah. Still Life: a novel
• Everett, Percival. The Trees: a novel
• Henry, Emily. Beach Read
• Powers, Richard. Bewilderment: a novel
• Powers, Richard. Orfeo: a novel
• Wilson, Kevin. Now Is Not The Time To Panic: a novel
• Everett, Percival. Telephone: a novel
• Ellis, Warren. Nina Simone’s Gum
• Tevis, Walter. The Queen’s Gambit
• Strout, Elizabeth. The Burgess Boys: a novel
• Ayoade, Richard. The Book That No One Wanted To Read
• Strout, Elizabeth. Amy and Isabelle: a novel
• Smith, Ali. Companion Piece: a novel
• Davies, Carys. West: a novel
• Marche, Stephen. On writing and failure, or, on the peculiar perseverance required to endure the life of a writer
• Galchen, Rivka. Everyone Know Your Mother Is A Witch
• Davies, Carys. The Mission House: a novel
• Porter, Max. Shy: a novel
• Link, Kelly. White Cat, Black Dog: stories
• Hay, Elizabeth. Snow Road Station: a novel
• Friedman, Elyse. The Answer to Everything: a novel
• Batuman, Elif. The Idiot
• Godden, Salena. Mrs Death Misses Death
• Ayoade, Richard. Ayoade on Top
• Tomine, Adrian. Shortcomings
• Everett, Percival. I Am Not Sidney Poitier: a novel
• Wells, Martha. Witch King
• North, Claire. House of Odysseus
• Ayoade, Richard. Richard Ayoade Presents: The Grip of Film by Gordy LaSure
• Aoyama, Michiko. What you are looking for is in the library: a novel
• Henry, Emily. Happy Place
• Wells, Martha. System Collapse
• Driver, Minnie. Managing Expectations: a memoir in essays
• Rovelli, Carlo. White Holes
• Everett, Percival. Assumption
• DeWitt, Helen. The Last Samurai

My reading numbers are down again this year. Too many out of town obligations, I guess. But at least I read some wonderful books and not too many duds. As per usual I’ve posted short reviews on each of the books I read on LibraryThing.

Writers who impressed me this year include W.G. Sebald, Gwendoline Riley, Claire-Louise Bennett, and Chinua Achebe. Special mention for Muriel Spark, seven of whose books I devoured this year happily.

Stats from my 2022 reading list:
• 23 were borrowed from our public library
• 5 have Canadian authors
• 7 were chosen due to personal recommendations from friends
• 1 was being reread
• 10 are ebooks

Books read in 2022 (51):

● Whittall, Zoe. The Spectacular: a novel
● Fraser, Jackie. The Bookshop of Second Chances: a novel
● Heiny, Katherine. Early Morning Riser: a novel
● Le Tellier, Hervé. The Anomaly: a novel
● Achebe, Chinua. Things Fall Apart
● Vila-Matas, Enrique. Mac and His Problem
● Spark, Muriel. The Ballad of Peckham Rye
● Spark, Muriel. The Finishing School
● Bennett, Claire-Louise. Checkout 19
● Spark, Muriel. Loitering With Intent
● Tyler, Anne. French Braid: a novel
● Spark, Muriel. Aiding and Abetting
● Gardam, Jane. Crusoe’s Daughter
● St. John Mandel, Emily. Sea of Tranquility
● Spark, Muriel. The Abbess of Crewe
● Humphreys, Helen. And a Dog Called Fig: Solitude, Connection, The Writing Life
● Spark, Muriel. A Far Cry From Kensington
● Kawakami, Hiromi. People From My Neighbourhood
● Barnes, Julian. Elizabeth Finch
● Natsukawa, Sosuke. The Cat Who Saved Books
● Rovelli, Carlo. There Are Places in the World Where Rules Are Less Important Than Kindness and other thoughts on Physics, Philosophy and the World
● Modiano, Patrick. Sundays in August
● Austin, Emily. Everyone In This Room Will Someday Be Dead: a novel
● Henry, Emily. Book Lovers
● Lipscomb, Benjamin J.B. The Women Are Up To Something: How Elizabeth Anscombe, Philippa Foot, Mary Midgley, and Iris Murdoch Revolutionized Ethics
● McCall Smith, Alexander. The Sunday Philosophy Club
● McCall Smith, Alexander. Friends, Lovers, Chocolate
● Runyon, Damon. Guys and Dolls and other writings
● Snyder, Carrie. Francie’s Got a Gun
● Sean Greer, Andrew. Less Is Lost
● McCall Smith, Alexander. The Right Attitude to Rain
● McCall Smith, Alexander. Emma: a modern retelling
● Sebald, W.G. The Rings of Saturn
● Coll, Susan. Bookish People: a novel
● Riley, Gwendoline. My Phantoms
● Henry, Emily. The Love That Split The World
● Walter, Jess. The Angel of Rome and other stories
● Kawakami, Mieko. All The Lovers In the Night: a novel
● North, Claire. Ithaka
● Spark, Muriel. The Comforters
● Nunez, Sigrid. Salvation City: a novel
● Nunez, Sigrid. What Are You Going Through
● Strout, Elizabeth. Lucy by the Sea
● Riley, Gwendoline. First Love: a novel
● Drnaso, Nick. Acting Class
● Maass, Donald. Writing 21st Century Fiction: High Impact Techniques for Exceptional Storytelling
● MacLeod, Alexander. Animal Person: stories
● Ignatieff, Michael. On Consolation: Finding Solace in Dark Times
● Vandermeer, Jeff. Hummingbird Salamander

My reading numbers in 2021 are down a bit compared to the previous year. Not to worry, they bounce back. And I still had a good year of reading with very few weak books read and only one true dud. As per usual I’ve posted short reviews of each of the books I read on LibraryThing.

Writers who impressed me this year included Patrick Süskind, China Miéville, George Saunders, Jon McGregor, John Berger, and Muriel Spark. And a special mention goes to Martha Wells, whose Murderbot Diaries novellas were a wonderful distraction.

Stats from my 2021 reading list:

• 40 were borrowed from our public library
• 6 have Canadian authors
• 6 were chosen due to personal recommendations from friends
• 2 were being reread
• 5 are ebooks

Books read in 2021 (55):

• Ewen, Paul. Francis Plug: Writer in Residence
• Kingwell, Mark. On Risk
• Setiya, Kieran. Midlife: a philosophical guide
• Dillon, Brian. Suppose A Sentence
• O’Farrell, Maggie. Hamnet & Judith
• Bennett, Claire-Louise. Pond
• Wells, Martha. The Murderbot Diaries: All Systems Red
• Smith, Zadie. Intimations: Six Essays
• Berger, John. Here is where we meet
• Kinsky, Esther. River
• Leilani, Raven. Luster: a novel
• Murata, Sayaka. Earthlings
• McEwan, Ian. Machines Like Me
• Miéville, China. The City & The City
• Wells, Martha. The Murderbot Diaries: Artificial Condition
• Wells, Martha. The Murderbot Diaries: Rogue Protocol
• Pratchett, Terry. The Colour of Magic
• Wells, Martha. The Murderbot Diaries: Exit Strategy
• Ishiguro, Kazuo. Klara and The Sun
• Robinson, Eden. Return of the Trickster
• Wilson, Kevin. Nothing To See Here
• Bernhard, Thomas. The Loser
• Saunders, George. A Swim in a Pond in the Rain
• Walschots, Natalie Zina. Hench
• Williams, Eley. The Liar’s Dictionary
• Wells, Martha. The Murderbot Diaries: Network Effect
• St. Aubyn, Edward. Double Blind
• Kawakami, Mieko. Heaven: a novel
• Wells, Martha. The Murderbot Diaries: Fugitive Telemetry
• North, Claire. Notes From The Burning Age
• Cusk, Rachel. Second Place
• Weir, Andy. Project Hail Mary
• Toews, Miriam. Fight Night
• Süskind, Patrick. The Pigeon
• Bechdel, Alison. The Secret to Superhuman Strength
• Rovelli, Carlo. Helgoland: Making Sense of the Quantum Revolution
• Segal, Lore. Shakespeare’s Kitchen
• Nunez, Sigrid. The Friend
• Porter, Max. The Death of Francis Bacon
• Calvino, Italo. Last Comes the Raven and Other Stories
• Alexis, André. Ring
• Mills, Carolyn Huizinga. The Good Son: a novel
• McGregor, Jon. Lean Fall Stand
• Austen, Jane. Persuasion: An Annotated Edition edited by Robert Morrison
• Sáenz, Benjamin Alire. Aristotle and Dante Discover the Secrets of the Universe
• Erpenbeck, Jenny. Not a Novel: A Memoir in Pieces
• Smiley, Jane. Perestroika in Paris
• Kawaguchi, Toshikazu. Before the Coffee Gets Cold: a novel
• Strout, Elizabeth. Oh William!: a novel
• Bordas, Camille. How to Behave in a Crowd: a novel
• Spark, Muriel. The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie
• Moshfegh, Ottessa. Eileen: a novel
• Modiano, Patrick. Young Once
• Spark, Muriel. The Girls of Slender Means
• King, Lily. Five Tuesdays in Winter: stories