Books I Read in 2022.

Happy 2023!

A new year, but the same us. Here is the annual books post from this blog. Not a great improvement in terms of quantity; I hope 2023 will pull me out of the reading slump, at least a little. Recommended in bold.

1. Romeo and Juliet, William Shakespeare.
2. Macbeth, William Shakespeare.
3. Making a Point: The Pernickety Story of English Punctuation, David Crystal.
4. Happening/L’événement, Annie Ernaux (translated by Tanya Leslie).
5. Austen Years: A Memoir in Five Novels, Rachel Cohen.
6. Companion Piece, Ali Smith.
7. Blue Horses, Mary Oliver.
8. Hate That Cat, Sharon Creech.
9. Exciting Times, Naoise Dolan.
10. On Not Knowing: How to Love and Other Essays, Emily Ogden.
11. There but for the, Ali Smith.

That’s a pretty good collection, I think. I was most moved by Austen Years, a searching, thoughtful blend of memoir and literary criticism that I was taken ahold of like I haven’t by another book in a while. The essays in On Not Knowing were immensely stimulating, both for their ideas and for Ogden’s writing. The title essay is particularly striking. I’d also recommend a book/film double bill of Annie Ernaux’s L’événement and Audrey Diwan’s terrific adaptation of the same name. I won’t forget the stomach-churning image in the book of Ernaux’s protagonist (herself, of course) sitting on her bed with her aborted foetus in front of her. Ernaux won the Nobel this year. And lastly, I never tire of recommending and reading Ali Smith. I spent a long time on There but for the and I continue to be fascinated by her ferociously curious mind, ear for wordplay and eye for clever little subplots.

To 2023!