Well, I managed to read a lot of great books in 2022, and since a few of you have asked…here’s my annual list of great reading for you!
My absolute FIVE STAR favorites
Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, and Tomorrow – Gabrielle Zevin
Two
friends--often in love, but never lovers--come together as creative partners in
the world of video game design, where success brings them fame, joy, tragedy,
duplicity, and, ultimately, a kind of immortality. For Sam Masur and Sadie Green a game begins: a legendary
collaboration that will launch them to stardom. These friends, intimates since
childhood, borrow money, beg favors, and, before even graduating college, they
have created their first blockbuster, Ichigo. Overnight, the world is theirs. Not even
twenty-five years old, Sam and Sadie are brilliant, successful, and rich, but
these qualities won't protect them from their own creative ambitions or the
betrayals of their hearts.
Lessons in Chemistry – Bonnie Garmus
Chemist Elizabeth Zott is not your
average woman. In fact, Elizabeth Zott would be the first to point out that
there is no such thing as an average woman. But it’s the early 1960s and her
all-male team at Hastings Research Institute takes a very unscientific view of
equality. Except for one: Calvin Evans; the lonely, brilliant, Nobel–prize
nominated grudge-holder who falls in love with—of all things—her mind. True
chemistry results.
Remarkably Bright Creatures –
Shelby Van Pelt
A charming, witty and compulsively readable exploration of
friendship, reckoning, and hope, tracing a widow's unlikely connection with a
giant Pacific octopus. After Tova Sullivan's husband died, she began working
the night shift at the Sowell Bay Aquarium, mopping floors and tidying up.
Keeping busy has always helped her cope, which she's been doing since her
eighteen-year-old son, Erik, mysteriously vanished on a boat in Puget Sound
over thirty years ago. Tova becomes acquainted with curmudgeonly Marcellus, a
giant Pacific octopus living at the aquarium. Marcellus knows more than anyone
can imagine but wouldn't dream of lifting one of his eight arms for his human
captors--until he forms a remarkable friendship with Tova.
A Town Called Solace – Mary Lawson (longlisted for Booker Prize
2021)
A Town Called Solace opens on a family in crisis: rebellious
teenager Rose been missing for weeks with no word, and Rose's younger sister,
the feisty and fierce Clara, keeps a daily vigil at the living-room window,
hoping for her sibling's return. Enter thirtyish Liam Kane, newly divorced,
newly unemployed, newly arrived in this small northern town, where he promptly
moves into the house next door--watched suspiciously by astonished and dismayed
Clara, whose elderly friend, Mrs. Orchard, owns that home. Around the time of
Rose's disappearance, Mrs. Orchard was sent for a short stay in hospital, and
Clara promised to keep an eye on the house and its remaining occupant, Mrs.
Orchard's cat, Moses. As the novel unfolds, so does the mystery of what has
transpired between Mrs Orchard and the newly arrived stranger.
Among the Lesser Gods – Margo Catts
“Tragedy and blessing. Leave them alone long enough, and it gets
real hard to tell them apart.”
Elena Alvarez is living a cursed life. From the deadly fire she
accidentally set as a child, to her mother’s abandonment, and now to an
unwanted pregnancy, she knows better than most that small actions can have
terrible consequences. Driven to the high mountains surrounding Leadville,
Colorado by her latest bad decision, she’s intent on putting off the future.
Perhaps there she can just hide in her grandmother’s isolated cabin and wait for
something—anything—to make her next choice for her. Instead, she is confronted
by reflections of her own troubles wherever she turns—the recent widower and
his two children adrift in a changed world, Elena’s own mysterious family
history, and the interwoven lives within the town itself. Bit by bit, Elena
begins to question her understanding of cause and effect, reexamining the
tragedies she’s held on to and the wounds she’s refused to let heal.
Mercy Street – Jennifer Haigh
A tense, riveting story about the disparate lives that intersect
at a women's clinic in Boston. For almost a decade, Claudia has counseled
patients at Mercy Street, a clinic in the heart of the city. The work is
consuming, the unending dramas of women in crisis. For its patients, Mercy
Street offers more than health care; for many, it is a second chance. But
outside the clinic, the reality is different. Mercy Street is a novel for right
now, a story of the polarized American present.
True Biz – Sara Novic
TRUE BIZ (adj./exclamation; American Sign Language): really,
seriously, definitely, real-talk
True biz? The students at the River Valley School for the Deaf
just want to hook up, pass their history finals, and have politicians, doctors,
and their parents stop telling them what to do with their bodies. This
revelatory novel plunges readers into the halls of a residential school for the
deaf. This is a story of sign language and lip-reading, disability and civil
rights, isolation and injustice, first love and loss, and, above all, great
persistence, daring, and joy. Absorbing and assured, idiosyncratic and
relatable, this is an unforgettable journey into the Deaf community and a
universal celebration of human connection.
All My Rage – Sabaa Tahir
A brilliant, unforgettable, and heart-wrenching contemporary YA
novel about family and forgiveness, love and loss, in a sweeping story that
crosses generations and continents.
I found these gems also totally enjoyable
The Christie Affair -- Nina de Gramont
A beguiling novel of star-crossed lovers, heartbreak, revenge, and
murder—and a brilliant re-imagination of one of the most talked-about unsolved
mysteries of the twentieth century -- Agatha Christie’s disappearance for
eleven infamous days. London, 1925: In a world of townhomes and tennis matches,
socialites and shooting parties, Miss Nan O’Dea became Archie Christie’s
mistress, luring him away from his devoted and well-known wife, Agatha
Christie. The question is, why? Why destroy another woman’s marriage, why hatch
a plot years in the making, and why murder? How was Nan O’Dea so intricately
tied to those eleven mysterious days that Agatha Christie went missing?
The Reading List – Sara Nisha Adams
An unforgettable and heartwarming debut about how a chance
encounter with a list of library books helps forge an unlikely friendship
between two very different people in a London suburb.
Carrie Soto is Back – Taylor Jenkins Reid
In this powerful novel about the cost of greatness, a legendary
athlete attempts a comeback when the world considers her past her prime—from
the New York Times bestselling author of Malibu Rising.
Hester – Laurie Lico Albanese
A vivid reimagining of the woman who inspired Hester Prynne, the
tragic heroine of Nathaniel Hawthorne's The Scarlet Letter, and a journey into
the enduring legacy of New England's witchcraft trials.
Other Birds – Sarah Addison Allen
An enchanting tale filled with magical realism and moments of pure
love that won’t let you go. Between the real and the imaginary, there are
stories that take flight in the most extraordinary ways.
We Are the Light – Matthew Quick
From the New York Times bestselling author of The Silver Linings
Playbook, We Are the Light is an unforgettable novel about the quicksand of
grief and the daily miracle of love. The humorous, soul-baring story of Lucas
Goodgame offers an antidote to toxic masculinity and celebrates the healing
power of art. In this tale that will stay with you long after the final page is
turned, Quick reminds us that guardian angels are all around us—sometimes in
the forms we least expect.
Our Missing Hearts – Celeste Ng
Twelve-year-old Bird Gardner lives a quiet existence with his
loving but broken father, a former linguist who now shelves books in a
university library. Bird knows to not ask too many questions, stand out too
much, or stray too far. For a decade, their lives have been governed by laws
written to preserve “American culture” in the wake of years of economic
instability and violence. To keep the peace and restore prosperity, the
authorities are now allowed to relocate children of dissidents, especially
those of Asian origin, and libraries have been forced to remove books seen as
unpatriotic—including the work of Bird’s mother, Margaret, a Chinese American
poet who left the family when he was nine years old.
Fun, Romantic, Happy-Place Reading
Book Lovers – Emily Henry (if you haven't read Emily Henry and you like contemporary romance...run, don't walk! She has the best dialogue and sets up great stories with smart characters)
Beach Read – Emily Henry
Dead Romantics – Ashley Poston
And, of course, COHO! I got involved with the Colleen Hoover craze…and have to admit I see why all the fuss. She does her type of stories (tragic, romantic, emotional) so, so well!
It Ends with Us
It Starts with Us
November 9
All Your Perfects
Ugly Love
Verity
Don’t Forget to Support our Local Authors – Love!
Pearl of Arabia – Connor Black
The sweeping saga of a young woman
uncovering her mysterious past, only to find herself at the epicenter of a
power struggle that could shatter a nation.
Julian's Gambit: Alerti Chronicles - Book One – Tom Schnurr
His father is dead. His family is under siege. But Julian has a
magical secret. Julian Amerson-Koth is heir to a dominant trading house, but
his world abruptly changes with the unexpected death of his father and
accusations of his own involvement. Thrust into events beyond his control,
Julian must call on all his cunning, strength and loyalties—and even forbidden
magic—to fulfil his dead father's wishes. But it seems that larger forces want
him to fail. Can Julian defeat stacked odds to fulfil his destiny? Or, will the
family dynasty follow his father to the grave?
