2022: My Year in Books
I read more in 2022 than I have in any prior year of my life.
It was not until September 2017 that I started reading consistently, so perhaps I should say I’ve read more this year than in the past 5.
2022 was a much healthier mix of non-fiction and fiction.
In prior years I’d heavily indexed on business books as my goal was to be smarter/more equipped to thoughtfully lead teams. I am marginally smarter (most of this I will attribute to Thinking Fast and Slow, Nudge, and Never Split the Difference from a business and people management perspective). On the whole, only reading business books probably made me a bit boring, or at least unimaginative.
On my “read” book shelves, I do arrange my books split by fiction and non-fiction and chronologically in the order I’ve read them, but that is of no import here. I’ll split them below by fiction and non-fiction and ranked from most to least preferred with a short description of each.
* indicate strong reccommendations!
Fiction
A Little Life - Hanya Yanagihara*
Clear frontrunner for my reading this year. It’s incredibly long and incredibly worth it. Sad and beautiful and reflects many of the dark realities of life. I wrote more on it here.
The Song of Achilles - Madeline Miller*
If A Little Life was “sad and beautiful”, The Song of Achilles is “beautiful and sad”. It’s a retelling of Achilles and Patroclus’s story from childhood through the Trojan War. It’s a story of family, love, honour and ego.
On Earth We’re Briefly Gorgeous - Ocean Vuong*
On Earth We’re Briefly Gorgeous is a novel that reads like a memoir. It felt like a first of it’s kind (for me) when I read it, a start jolt as my first fictional read this year after a long plight of business books. It' covers a range of topics with poetic narrative; the generational trauma of war, challenges of first generation immigrants to fit into society, a queer identity within a conservative family and society, and the impact of drug abuse amongst youth.
Circe - Madeline Miller*
Another Madeline Miller near the top of the list. I really appreciate her writing style and the way that she makes classic Greek tales really approachable. Daughter of a Titan and a Nymph, the immortal Circe searches for her place in life alongside her impressive siblings, but the search is cut short when she is banished to an island to face a life of isolation as punishment for a misguided deed. Throughout the centuries she encounters different visitors; gods, demi-gods, and a fair share of mortals.
The Devil and the Dark Water - Stuart Turton
Picked this up at a charity shop in Cotswold this fall as it had been a cover I’d seen prominently placed in a few books stores previously. It’s a seafaring murder mystery that balances, intrigue, deception, friendship, and love. Turton captured an air of adventure, much like Dumas in The Count of Monte Cristo, and mystery in a way that was on par with the chaos of Agatha Christie, but in a way I did greater appreciate. It was lengthy but worth every page for me. I left this on the communal book shelf where we stayed over the Christmas holiday and hope someone else can enjoy it in the serene setting of Wales as I did.
The Talented Mr. Ripley - Patricia Highsmith
I usually prefer to read the book first and watch the movie later, but that was not in the cards for this one as I’d seen the movie a few times growing up. I always had an affinity for the location, the fashion, and the devious plot. I did enjoy the book and realise now the movie does significantly deviate from the original text. I often find that the real life characters cast never live up to the expectations of characters that you’ve built in your head, but I actually think the 1999 version of the film is spot on - or maybe that is just because that’s always who these characters have been to me.
What will you get? Identity, Money, ego, and greed with a backdrop of coastal Italy and France.
Small Pleasures - Clare Chambers
Small Pleasures delivers exactly that - it was a small pleasure to read. I enjoyed both the story line, the characters and the twists, but it did not deliver on any large themes, or move my heart and mind in a big way. It’s a LONG stretch to call this historical fiction, but it is set in London and pulls together some real events of the last 1950s. It has a strong focus on women, motherhood, their place in society at the time - but not in the way you might expect.
Beautiful World, Where are You? - Sally Rooney
I read two Sally Rooney books this year and I did prefer this one over Normal People. Rooney’s writing is extremely straightforward - people in believable settings, in believable situations and relationships, and then you simply learn about their life and interactions. It feels incredibly accessible and makes my ego kick in to make me think that I too could write a novel.
This novel involves a lot of emails exchanged between female friends who are roughly my age. These were my favourite excerpts from the book as a space where the characters contemplated larger thoughts about life and the world all while looping back into their everyday life and relationships.
Last Summer in the City - Gianfranco Calligarich
This was the book on display in the window’s of Daunt books around September. It is the first time the Italian novel has been published in English. It’s set ~1970 and the main character is a despondent young man who moves away from him village to Rome to figure out his life. He is partially ingrained in Italian society but is not fully accepted. He struggles with work, with relationships and finding fulfilment. Ultimately what I found very interesting is the way they depicted his struggles with alcohol. Much of what is considered social drinking is actually a breeding ground for abuse for those predisposed. It’s overall tone is a bit melancholy but provides many moments where you’re able to rejoice when things do go his way.
The Doloriad - Missouri Williams
The Doloriad was dark and different and definitely the most strange novel I read this year (until I finished Earthlings). Set in a post-apocolyptic world, one family is doing their best/worst at living and repopulating. There were specific quotes which evoked quite strong imagery for me, to the extent that I took the time to create a visualisation for each. Because of this I spent much more time with the text than I initially anticipated, which actually gave me time to further explore Williams’ ideas and walk away with a greater, though still strange, appreciation for her debut novel. More on my thoughts here.
Dark Places - Gillian Flynn
I loved Gone Girl when I read it, and Sharp Objects even more when I watched the series. Dark Places was…. fine. It was good, but did not live up to the other work of Flynn’s that I was familiar with. Compared to other mysteries Dark Places still had strong character development and intriguing plot with some palatable twists.
Normal People - Sally Rooney
The first Rooney novel that I read this year and ever. Normal People was for the most part about normal people if you accept that a certain amount of the population will have some peculiar deviations and tumult in their young adult relationships. Like the other Rooney novel, I felt this was straightforward, easy to consume and felt completely plausible within the realm we actually live.
Earthlings - Sayaka Murata
Earthlings is a novel set in Japan which follows the main character from late childhood into her mid thirties as she navigates family dynamics, sexual relationships and an unfortunate situation of abuse by one of her school teachers. The story revolves around her mental state and ability to cope with the trauma years after the abuse which takes some surprising and violent turns seeded from an idea she and her cousin had at a young age that they might actually be aliens. There is an extremely clear point in the novel where she acknowledges that her delusions are likely a coping mechanism for the mental health struggles she is facing and it felt real and full of pain.
Piranesi - Susanna Clarke
Piranesi…. was a book prominently displayed in some of the best book stores in London and which I also heard reviewed on Jack Edward’s Youtube Channel. This was a case of misaligned expectations as the cover of the book depicts a fluted satyr atop a marble column so I made assumptions about the book’s time and place which were not true. Expectations aside, I still give this book a 5/10. It was certainly unique, but did not quite excite in the way I was hoping.
Death on the Nile - Agatha Christie
This is the only Agathe Christie novel I’ve read but after finishing this and seeing the eponymous film as well as Murder on the Orient Express, I don’t really feel as if I need to read another. She is a prolific writer with over 66 detective novels to her name, but from what I’ve consumer so far, they seem extremely formulaic. A large cast of characters, all loosely involved at first and then post-murder we find that for many, things are not as they might have seemed - gasp!
Girl A - Abigail Dean
This was actually my most disappointing read of the year. The book itself was fine, but my expectations had been much higher based on some of the book rankings, the placement on shelves, the compliment the book clerk at the check-out paid on my selection. The main character and her siblings suffer unthinkable abuse at the hands of their parents growing up. Though she is able to move on an lead a seemingly successful life, we learn throughout the book of the long lasting impacts that the trauma have caused.
On Chapel Sands - Laura Cummings
I bought this at Foyle’s near the London eye based on a quick scan of the back of the book. There were not overblown expectations but overall the story and the delivery we’re .. just okay. The author writes a narrative of real life events that happened to her mother during childhood living on the coast of England. It was essentially family drama that was not disclosed to her mother until later in life.
The Mad Women’s Ball- Victoria Mas
I usually interpret the phrase “don’t judge a book by it’s cover” as an opportunity to give someone/something a chance where it may not appear to deserve one. The opposite rang true in this book, as I purchased it based mostly on the beautiful cover (and also on the fact that it was £1). Per GoodReads it’s “A literary historical novel detailing the horrors faced by institutionalized women in 19th century Paris”, which it absolutely was, but I thought it lacked in strong plot or character development. It’s been made into a film by Mélanie Laurent whom I really like, so perhaps they’ve been able to flesh out some of the areas that felt very light within the book.
Non-Fiction
Empire of Pain - Patrick Radden Keefe*
If you enjoyed the hit TV miniseries Dopesick, which showcases a selection of victims of the opiod epidemic in the US with present day lens, including the prescribing doctors and regulatory bodies of the DEA ad FDC, you must ABSOLUTELY read Empire of Pain. The story of Oxycontin is really one of the later, though significantly more deadly chapters, of this family’s story.
Empire of Pain takes you back to the beginning to shed light into the complex dynamics of a family from extremely humble beginnings rise within decades to be one of the most recognisable philanthropic surnames with personal art storage rooms in the New York Metropolitan Museum to house their own collections. We learn of the Sackler’s influence on modern pharmaceutical advertising and ultimately how thier fortune was built off of the intentional mass marketing of the highly addictive drug Oxycontin. The level of drama, deception, deceit and death are all high and it’s all sadly true.
The Smartest Guys in the Room - Bethany McLean and Peter Elkind*
I read this just before Empire of Pain and they are eerily similar in terms of corporate negligence and the ego’s of men taking decisions that have extremely outsized negative impacts on a large cohort of people. The Smartest Guys in the Room is the story of the rise and fall of Houston based energy company Enron. The book is well researched and well written, in a way that makes a tale of fraudulent complex financial transactions and energy trading operations both easy to understand and repugnant all at once. Thought it’s been over 20 years since Enron filed for bankruptcy, it’s still a relevant a read as the story of Icarus, as it might suffice to say that Ken Lay and Andy Fastow definitely did fly too close to the sun.
The Rise and Fall of Classical Greece - Josiah Ober
Behind Hawking’s A Brief History of time, this was the second most dense book of the year. It’s an incredibly deep look at ancient Greek society from a geographical, economical and political lens to understand how they became such an exceptional society, considering that the Greeks “had few precedents to build upon when devising democratic institutions and values”. There were more interesting learning in this book than the other titles I’ve ranked above in non-fiction, but lacked, by design, the narrative voice the others had.
Ober kicks off the book saying “I live in exceptional times”. He defines efflorescence as increased economic growth accompanied by a sharp uptick in cultural achievement - more people (demographic growth) living at higher levels of welfare (per capita growth) and by cultural production at a higher level.
Efflorescence is impermanent by definition and our modern experience is the most dramatic but not (yet) longest lasting in human history.
Mother Tongue - Bill Bryson
Bill Bryson is one of those names I always see pop up at the book store, and this won’t be the last of his that I read. Mother Tongue looks at the history of the English language, exploring it’s Germanic roots and evolution across time and place with heavy influence from the Anglo-Saxons and the Normans. It was published in 1989 but also covers how British and American English diverge but also borrow from each other. It’s well researched and witty. I’d recommend it to anyone interested in history, language or travel.
The Secrets of Sandhill Road - Scott Kupor
Sandhill Road is the street in Silicon Valley known for it’s high concentration of venture capital firms - it is what Wall Street is for the stock market. Written by Scott Kupor of A16Z, one of the leading VCs in the valley, this book is an introduction to the world of Venture Capitall. Kupor gracefully injects a bit of humour in a book that could otherwise be dense and academic. It’s a great foundation into understanding how VCs operate including the intersection of their LPs and the companies in which they invest. I would especially recommend this for anyone who works in our is interested in the startup/technology space.
The Bookseller of Florence - Ross King
This was a wonderful book to read a few weeks ahead of my first visit to Florence. Vespasiano da Bisticci was an early Renaissance book dealer whose workshop produced a large amount of the written work in Italy ahead of the introduction of the printing press. Popes and royal families, including the Medicis and for Sforzas, commissioned works from Vespasianos’ cartolaio. You learn more about the streets of Florence, families of influence, techniques for book creation including the writing of the scribes, the art of the illustrators and the evolution of materials used for pages.
Pandora’s Jar - Natalie Haynes
Haynes writes of 10 different female characters from Greek mythology, comparing multiple original texts from antiquity and examining how each women was presented in those versions versus the most commonly know tales of present. It was a good read from early in the year and was likely the seed of inspiration which prompted me to buy several other books on Greek history and mythology.
The Undoing Project - Michael Lewis
In The Undoing Project is Lewis’ recounts the tumultuous personal and professional/academic relationship between Amos Tversky and Daniel Kahneman. I am a big fan of Lewis’ writing and Kahneman and Tversky’s work, but the book did not quite live up to expectations for me, perhaps because it was less plot driven than The Big Short and Flashboys. I did enjoy learning more about each Kahneman and Tversky’s characters and the interplay between the two. I’d still suggest the book for anyone curious to learn more about these two influential characters of behavioural economics. There have to be other fans out there, but maybe fewer who joke that if they we’e ever to have twin boys they would name them Daniel and Amos.
Invisible Women - Caroline Criado Perez
Data driven and punchy, Invisible Women was a great read on how the world is designed around the idea that to be human is to be man, which conveniently half the population out of consideration when designing anything from medication to crash test dummy requirements. More on it here.
Crying in H Mart - Michelle Zauner
Crying in H Mart is a memoir of a Korean-American woman who loses her mother in her early 20s and uses Korean cuisine as a way to bridge the gap and deal with the grief from her loss. It’s a look at mother-daughter relationships, of being biracial, being the daughter of an immigrant. It’s a good read. It wasn’t my favourite of the year but came highly recommended.
Masters of Scale - Reid Hoffman
Back to my old habits of reading “business” books. Like anything, I think where you are in life and in mindset are highly determinant of how you receive a book - or anything in life for that matter. I’d rate it 7/10 in terms of traditional business books I’ve read, but at the time, it wasn’t what I was interested in reading.
A Brief History of Time - Stephen Hawking
I transferred out of Physics my senior year of high school and into art class. I don’t think that second semester really would have helped me get through this book any easier. I have an infinitesimally better understanding of spacetime, the theory of relativity and black holes than I did previously, which was essentially non-existent to start.
After writing the above, I now see the notes I’ve written at the end of my notes on this book - which seem to me now to represent just the right level of abstraction:
”Thoughts:
- What we know for certain is based on what knowledge/conjecture is available at the time
- Use accretive knowledge to further our understanding”
The Empathy Instinct: How to Create a more Civil Society - Peter Bazalgette
I read this book upon a recommendation and I believe it was another that was likely a decent book, but fell fate to me reading it at the wrong time. My favourite note that I took was “working on emotional empathy via our more primitive, non-verbal social behaviours, may be a better route for conflict resolution that targeting our higher, cognitive processes".”
The last three books are at the bottom for multiple reasons:
These are books that I read as their were either recommended or “required” reading for the position that I hold at my current company. While each may provide it’s own relative value for the audience which it is intended, if I didn’t have the specific job a the specific company which I did, these never would have been on my list. If you’re in a SaaS Sales/Growth/Retention role, I may suggest one of these, but there is a 110% chance there many other books which would top that list.
Selling Above and Below the Line - Skip Miller
The Effortless Experience - Matthew Dixon
The Expansion Sale - Erik Peterson & Tim Reisterer
