What if...okay fine, here’s my actual 2022 book roundup?

Exactly what it sounds like!

Hi!

A quick detour to caveat town…

Like I said in the other day’s silly little pontification about counting vs. tracking my annual reads, I did things a little differently this year. No more public counting. That is, unless you count the Goodreads challenge forced number or the fact that Notion tells you how many rows are in a data set filtered by year. 

The Notion, in all her glory

I also didn’t review or post or even add to the Notion everything I read this year! I didn’t write about Art & Fear or The Artist’s Way, among other things — either because they felt too personal or it felt weird to rate something that was essentially a research text for me. 

✨All that being said, here’s a choose your own adventure:✨

• If you want to look at a wall of pretty covers sans context…here is the thing Goodreads made.

• If you just want all the raw data (minus a handful of books I didn’t review)...here’s the 2022-filtered Notion.

• If you want to scroll through a bunch of handwriting…here’s my book IG.

• If you’d rather me guide you through a few selects, sorted into unhinged categories…let’s gooooooooooo. 

Evangelization zone

All the stuff I wouldn’t shut up about.

• Four Thousand Weeks: Time Management For Mortals - Oliver Burkeman

• Time is a Mother - Ocean Vuong

• The Memory Librarian: And Other Stories of Dirty Computer - Janelle Monae  

• I'm Glad My Mom Died - Jeanette McCurdy

• Aesthetica - Allie Rowbottom

Vitriol zone

All the stuff I wouldn’t shut up about (pejorative).

• Upgrade - Blake Crouch

• Acts of Service - Lillian Fishman

• Stolen Focus: Why You Can’t Pay Attention — And How To Think Deeply Again - Johann Hari

• The Last Housewife - Ashley Winstead

• Mistakes Were Made - Meryl Wilsner

Hyped for good reason

You’ve heard about all of these, surely. They’re worth it, I think.

• Bliss Montage & Severance - Ling Ma

• Tomorrow And Tomorrow And Tomorrow - Gabrielle Zevin

• Sea of Tranquility - Emily St. John Mandel

• Detransition, Baby - Torrey Peters

• Klara And The Sun - Kazuo Ishiguro

• Intimacies - Katie Kitamura

• Pachinko - Min Jin Lee

Radicalization town

Careful! You might learn something.

• Consumed: On Colonialism, Climate Change, Consumerism, and the Need for Collective Change - Aja Barber

• Abolition. Feminism. Now. - Angela Y. Davis, Gina Dent, Erica R. Meiners, & Beth E. Richie

• Thick: And Other Essays - Tressie McMillan Cottom

• Ace: What Asexuality Reveals About Desire, Society, and the Meaning of Sex - Angela Chen

• Finance For The People - Paco De Leon

• Mating in Captivity - Esther Perel

• Bullshit Jobs: A Theory - David Graeber

• Who Is Wellness For? - Fariha Roisin

Making art without losing your mind

Trying really hard not to put Four Thousand Weeks in every category, even if it belongs here and above too.

• Learning By Heart: Teachings to Free The Creative Spirit - Corita Kent & Jan Steward

• The Artists Way - Julia Cameron

• Art & Fear - David Bayles and Ted Orland

• Make Your Art No Matter What: Moving Beyond Creative Hurdles - Beth Pickens

• How To Not Always Be Working: A Toolkit For Creativity And Radical Self-Care - Marlee Grace

Fairytales? Fabels? Myths?

Thought I’d be too dumb or too much of a hater for these. I thought wrong!

• Circe - Madeline Miller

• Piranesi - Susanna Clarke

• How To Be Eaten - Maria Adelmann

Okay, fine, I like fantastical-ish romance

We contain multitudes (best experienced in audiobook form).

• The Lady’s Guide to Celestial Mechanics - Olivia Waite

• A Marvellous Light - Freya Marske

• A Restless Truth - Freya Marske

• I Kissed Shara Wheeler - Casey McQuiston

Am I jealous? Not no.

Essay collections that made me want to be better.

• The Unreality of Memory - Elisa Gabbert

• Aesthetical Relations - Christina Catherine Martinez

• Make it Scream, Make it Burn - Leslie Jamison

• The Book of Delights - Ross Gay

• Hola Papi: How to Come Out in a Walmart Parking Lot - John Paul Brammer

My favorite genre 

Grotesque, horny, freaky, and/or queer little bangers I can’t get enough of.

• Big Swiss - Jen Beagin 

• The Book Eaters - Sunyi Dean

• Patricia Wants to Cuddle - Samantha Allen

• Your Driver Is Waiting - Priya Guns

The actual best book I read this year

Except it’s not coming out until 2023, so pre-order it now. 

• Chain-Gang All-Stars - Nana Kwame Adjei-Brenyah

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