2022—a reading list
You can tell a lot about someone from the books they read
No matter how well I think I know a person, I'm always surprised by the books they read. The stories they choose to spend time with reveal who they are and how they think. (Same thing for authors and the stories they choose to write.) And that’s what reading is all about really for me at least, the opportunity to see and experience the world from someone else’s perspective.
So this post is for the books that keep you up too late, the ones you can’t stop thinking about in the shower or when you’re walking to the office in the morning. And for the books you love so much that you obsess over every last detail: the dust jacket, the colour of the spine, the font, the weight of the paper stock, how the pages smell.
When I look at this list now, I realize how hard it is to see something clearly when you’re living in the middle of it. The pandemic. The self-isolation. What it’s like to reconnect with people after a long silence. If the books below were a reading section in a bookstore, it would be about the end of things: post-apocalyptic dystopias, confronting past versions of yourself, and what new worlds reveal themselves when all seems lost.
The books that follow below are organized in the order that I read them. I’ve bolded the ones that stuck with me. What were your favourite books this year? Send me a note or leave a comment!
FICTION
HOW TO PRONOUNCE KNIFE by Souvankham Thammavongsa
SOMEDAY EVERYONE IN THIS ROOM WILL BE DEAD by Emily Austin
ALEC by William di Canzio
MOFFIE by Andre Carl Van der Merwe
SWING TIME by Zadie Smith
THE LISTENERS by Jordan Tannahill
MOTHERHOOD by Sheila Heti
LESS by Andrew Sean Greer
SWIMMING IN THE DARK by Tomasz Jedrowski
EVENING by Susan Minot
STATION ELEVEN by Emily St. John Mandel
LIE WITH ME by Philippe Besson
DARRYL by Jackie Ess
GET IN TROUBLE by Kelly Link
BATH HAUS by P.J. Vernon
CROSSROADS by Jonathan Franzen
THE POWER OF THE DOG by Don Winslow
ON THE ROAD by Jack Kerouac
COMA by Alex Garland
WHAT STRANGE PARADISE by Omar El Akkad
THE GREAT BELIEVERS by Rebecca Makkai
ASK AGAIN, YES by Mary Beth Keane
THE SYMPATHIZER by Viet Thanh Nguyen
AN AMERICAN WAR by Omar El Akkad
THE PERIPHERAL by William Gibson
NON-FICTION
PUNCH ME UP TO THE GODS by Brian Broome
GAY BAR by Jeremy Atherton Lin
POSTCARDS FROM PALM SPRINGS by Robert Julian
MICHELLE REMEMBERS by Michelle Smith and Lawrence Pazder
THE SATANIC PANIC by Jeffrey Victor
AN FBI AGENT’S JOURNEY by Ken Lanning
SATAN'S SILENCE by Debbie Nathan and Michael Snedeker
HOLA PAPI by John Paul Brammer
KITCHEN CONFIDENTIAL by Anthony Bourdain
THOUGH THE GARDEN by Lorna Crozier
YEARBOOK by Seth Rogan
OPEN by Andre Agassi
WE ARE SATANISTS by Blanche Barton
MY MESS IS A BIT OF A LIFE by Georgia Pritchett
WHY WE SLEEP by Matthew Walker
BEDSIT DISCO QUEEN by Tracey Thorn
BOYS KEEP SWINGING by Jake Shears
WITNESS FOR THE DEFENSE by Elizabeth Loftus
RUN TOWARDS THE DANGER by Sarah Polley
MISS MEMORY LANE by Colton Haynes
THE DISCOMFORT ZONE by Jonathan Franzen
FORGETTING: THE BENEFITS OF NOT REMEMBERING by Scott A. Small
POETRY
THOU by Aisha Sasha John
MEADOWLANDS by Louise Gluck
SHORT TALKS by Anne Carson
So a funny thing happened last May. Our film about the Satanic Panic took over my life. Long story short: this is how I ended up ghosting Ghost From The Past. But instead of telling you why this happened, how about I show you instead? Starting in January I’ll have some new stories and posts about that experience. Until then, I’ll be getting my writing chops back this month with some posts about books and movies and shows from 2022. Thanks, as always, for reading. Looking forward to hearing what you think.