Looking Back at 2022

 2022 - A Year in Books

Well I've really dropped the ball on reviewing books over the past few months, ok - for much of 2022!

One of my New Year jobs is to copy the information from my paper book journal across into my huge spreadsheet and as I was doing this I think I found why I've just not been blogging that much...

2022 just wasn't a great year for books, or at least not a great year for the books I chose to read! Looking back through the list very few, to use the Marie Kondo term, sparked joy in me. It is definitely the case that for the first time since reading kidlit ceased to be my job some of my absolute top books of the year were written with a middle grade/early teen audience in mind.

I also read a lot of very good non-fiction, the nature writing genre certainly goes from strength to strength. I also made a point to read more graphic novels in 2022, although as the majority of these were actually autobiographical I think that the 'novels' bit is a misnomer - one of my 2023 jobs will be to learn the right terminology!

On to the top books - 22 for 2022!

Children's

Return to the River Sea - Emma Carroll

The Week at Worlds End - Emma Carroll

When the Sky Falls - Phil Earle

The Misunderstandings of Charity Brown - Elizabeth Laird

The Lost Whale - Hannah Gold 

 

Nature Writing

The Unique Life of a Ranger - Ajay Tegala

Much Ado About Mothing - James Lowen

Jane's Country Year - Malcolm Saville (possibly a children's book)

Wild Green Wonders: A Life in Nature - Patrick Barkham

Wild Fell - Lee Schofield 

 

Non Fiction

This is The Canon: Decolonise Your Bookshelf - Kadija Sesay George, Deirdre Osborne, & Joan Anim-Addo

Ghost Signs - Stu Hannigan

Africa is Not a Country - Dipo Faloyin

Just Sayin' My Life in Words - Malorie Blackman 

Novels

Our Missing Hearts - Celeste Ng

Lessons in Chemistry - Bonnie Garmus

The Murder of My Aunt - Richard Hull

The Bread the Devil Knead - Lisa Allen-Angostini 

A Scatter of Light - Melinda Lo (possibly a YA book rather than adult fiction)

The Kingdoms - Natasha Pulley

Stone Blind - Natalie Haynes

Marzahn, Mon Amour - Katja Oskamp (trans. Jo Heinrich)

Black Cake - Charmaine Wilkerson 

As I am lucky enough to have access to books in advance of publication I'm also going to list 2 books that will be published in early 2023 that you really should look out for...

For Thy Great Pain Have Mercy On My Little Pain by Victoria McKenzie and The Meaning of Geese by Nick Acheson. Both of these have huge Norfolk links and I debated  long and hard whether to include them in my best of 2022 lists, but I do think that it will be an astounding reading year if they aren't on my best of 2023 list!