Matrix

 

This wasn't it. Not for me at least. You could stop reading now and just understand that I didn't like this book.

It wasn't for lack of trying. Though I thought about bailing several times, I did power through. I wasn't disappointed with the ending, per se, but the whole book just kind of fell flat.

It's about a convent in the 12th century, led by a woman who was the product of a royal rape. She managed to bring the abbey to wealth and power and I understand that it's a book about the power women yield - and don't yield - regardless of period of history.

Groff is a hell of a writer, which is why I read this book. The prose is beautiful, but the story didn't seem to go anywhere that had me excited to keep reading. 

Signal Fires

 The Wilf family moved onto Division Street, ready to build their lives together. Filled with hope, promise, a future planned for their two young children.

Division Street and what happened there defined them all.

It's hard to describe Signal Fires, other than to call it a slow burn. There's action, but not dramatically so. There are characters with whom you relate and root for and are disappointed in. Overall, even the main plot point that defines this family doesn't really define the book at all.

When they're young teenagers Sarah and Theo are in a terrible accident that leads to the death of a teenage girl. Without ever saying a word, the family buries the truth about that day and they live their lives trying to outrun the truth. 

That's a strong jumping off point for a book, but (spoiler alert), it's not like the past is haunting them with a secret, about to be exposed. Instead, this book is about family and the things that connect us and drive us apart. It's also about community and the way our lives are intertwined with others. It's about time and space, too, and the idea that we are never at the end or the beginning - just somewhere on a loop.

I'm not explaining this well, but I can tell you this is a book I got easily into and one I looked forward to reading every night. 

The Last Slave Ship

 

This book would be better as a NatGeo special. Maybe it already is one (see bottom of this post....) But, a book on what is a fascinating story just fell flat for me and I found myself urgently sneaking ahead.

The story of the Clotilda is a fascinating one on its own and the author of this book played a key role in bringing much of that story to the surface. Clotilda was considered to be the last slave ship that brought slaves from Africa to the United States. It happened long after that was legal and the descendants of that voyage have worked tirelessly to keep those stories alive.

Ben Raines is a journalist and local river guide, so maybe he was the best person equipped to find the wreck of this ship, which was burned and sank after the cargo of slaves was unloaded in Alabama. The story of the search, though, took up only the last quarter or so of the book. 

Raines spent much of the rest of the story telling the story of the voyage itself. That's a noble effort, to be sure. The problem is much of that story has already been told by people better equipped to do so.

The story of one of Clotilda's survivors was the subject of the fascinating book Barracoon. A man named Cudjo who was brutally taken from his home in a horrific raid lived to tell his story after the Middle Passage and after emancipation. He and the other survivors established Africatown and lived to tell their stories. That book, I read in an afternoon. I could not stop reading the story of this man and all he had been through - from his perspective. Slave Ship felt like a Cliff's Notes retelling of that story and the story of some of the other survivors. Because that book wasn't entirely about them, the most impactful messages fell flat. 

If you're interested in the personal stories and anguish of the slaves who survived the Clotilda, I recommend Barracoon. 

Note: I just discovered this story is the subject of a documentary called Descendant. 

One descendant says in the trailer, "It's not about the ship."

Perhaps start there instead.

Spare

 

Have you even heard of this book? Seems like it was a such a quiet release, you may not have noticed.

Yeah, right.

Spare was met with such publishing fanfare, it broke a Guinness World Record for fastest-selling non-fiction book of all time. Between the early reviews and the pre-publishing interviews Harry did, it's shocking anyone needs to read it at all.

But, I did.

I pre-ordered the book, which perfectly timed with a flight I was taking (you need the most readable books when you travel, of course.) Then, I had to dodge every soundbite and every Tweet to make sure there was some suspense left when I finally had a chance to read it.

How you feel about the book's existence depends on how you feel about the royal family, I suppose. Hate em and think the whole thing is frivolous and dumb? You'd hate the book. LOVE the royal family and think Harry is a traitor (and Meghan is some sort of villain?), you'd hate the book. But if, like me, you're both fascinated with what happens behind these gilded doors and a little indifferent to the royals anyway? You might devour it, just as I did.

Harry's story is a mix of personal memoir and a look behind the palace gates. He talks about details and people that I don't think the royal family wants you to know about (the latest uproar: did he give away details of palace layouts that could put the monarchy at risk?? Gasp, says the British press!). He shares private conversations between him and Prince William that don't exactly leave the heir in a positive light. He reveals who he believes are the villains in his story that ultimately drove him and Meghan out of the royal bubble for good (and they're exactly who I suspected they would be.)

Beyond the palace intrigue, though, is the personal story of a man still devastated by the loss of his mother. It's the story of a boy left so alone with his grief that he found himself wishing for war to find companionship and a place where he felt his existence actually mattered. It's the story like so many: of anxiety, family troubles, the feeling that we're never quite good enough. 

That part could be anyone's story, then you add on the relationship with the British press that has a family backstabbing each other as a form of self-preservation.

I won't go on too much, but I would absolutely recommend this book if you want to read a deeply personal memoir and get some juicy royal details along the way. 

Devil in the Grove

 

This is an important book. It won a Pulitzer, for crying out loud. I know it's important, I'm glad I picked it up. But, for me, I wasn't in the right time and place to love reading it.

I heard about this book when I listened to a podcast the author did called Bone Valley. It's a really good podcast about a man falsely accused of murder and still unable to clear his name. Gilbert King is incredibly interesting to listen to and he mentioned this book a couple of times in the podcast. I thought if the book was anything like the pod, I would be all in.

Devil in the Grove is about many things: the falsely accused in the Jim Crow South; Thurgood Marshall and the risk he took fighting for justice; the systems in place that set in motion decades of injustice, particularly towards Black Americans. Like I said, important.

The problem with the book itself is almost that it was too well-researched. Every detail of every moment is recounted and I felt so buried in the details, I missed the story. Every time he picked up a thread that would draw me in, he would go down a seemingly-unrelated and less important side story and never quite get back on pace.

What this book did do for me is make me want to learn more about some of the people, places and events on which he touched. For example, a badass woman who was reported on civil rights and was known as Big East. She wore a mink coat and her very presence was enough to bring immense respect, especially for a woman her time. Evelyn Cunningham deserves more recognition for the work she did and I was glad King touched on her role in the movement.

The rest of the book, though, had me wishing for something else. A podcast on the same subjects, perhaps.

Bomb Shelter: Love, Time, and Other Explosives

 

I tried therapy last year. 

I couldn't stop feeling an overwhelming sense of doom about so many things that are out of my control. I worried constantly about my kids and my husband. I worried constantly about my family. I felt like I was losing control and was desperate to get my arms around the people in my life. 

I quit therapy. I still have the worry. But, this book helped because I realized I'm one of many moms in middle age (gross!) who feel exactly this way.

Mary Laura Philpott writes so beautifully about this challenging time in life. It's even laugh out loud funny in places. She writes about how we try so desperately to protect our kids and how life happens anyway. Her writing reminds you to live in the moment and enjoy what's here now, rather than skipping ahead. 

She writes about parenting teenagers, a journey I'm just beginning.

And, she writes about a turtle named Frank who knocks on the front door sometimes.

I love this book and it was a hell of a lot cheaper than therapy.

My favorite books of 2022

 

This year got away from me in more ways than one and I completely neglected this sweet little book blog. 

Now, three days from 2023, I'm committing myself to getting back on track by revisiting my favorites of this year and promising to do better in January. 

(Please don't ask how many things I promise to be better at in January. I have a long, unrealistic month ahead.)

If I finish the book I'm reading now, I will have read a grand total of 58 books this year. I'm okay with that number, though I would have preferred a round 60. 

There were two books that I started and did not finish, which is still not easy for me to do. Life's too short to have to get through half a book before enjoying it, though. Here's to less book guilt in 2023!

Overall, I read a pretty good mix of fiction and non-fiction. 22 non-fiction, according to my haphazard list. It's pure coincidence that my top six of the year were a mix of both.

Because I failed to review these books as I read them, I'll spare you the extensive review now. But, here are a few thoughts about my favorite books of 2022.

Remarkably Bright Creatures  

This book felt like a hug. I loved it so much, I don't even want to talk about it because it might ruin the magic. The basic gist is that it's told, in part, from the point of view of an octopus living in a Western Washington aquarium. He knows his time is short and he finds himself taking little escapades when the aquarium is closed in order to get better food than what they're feeding him. But, it's not just about an octopus. It's about family and loss and life and friendship - and, the woman who is the true main character of the book carries with her such grief you find yourself holding your breath that she can let it go. The way their stories tie together is so beautiful and emotional that I was bawling when I finished it. I tried to explain to my husband and sons, but as soon as I got to the octopus part, my 11-year old said, "Mom, are you reading a children's book?" A children's book could never. This is one of my favorite books of all time.

The Many Daughters of Afong Moy

Everything Jamie Ford writes is perfection to me. It's not just because his wife and my sister went to high school together, he lives in my hometown, and I got to shake his hand once at Christmas Eve mass (though all of these things are super cool.) He just writes in a way that takes your breath away and he does it in this book even better than his books that came before it (which happen to be some of my other favorites.) This book tells a story across generations about women, mothers, courage, trauma... I can't describe it in a way that would ever do it justice, but I can tell you that if you read it, you will feel it in your bones. 

Sandy Hook: An American Tragedy and Battle for Truth

This book will break your heart and also make you so mad, you want to scream. Elizabeth Williams is a journalist who has reported on the aftermath of Sandy Hook for years. 10 years after one of the worst tragedies in American history, you still feel the ache of that day. This book is less about what happened that day, however, and more about what happened in the years that followed. Mostly, it's about evil monsters like Alex Jones who profited on conspiracy theories that further tore these families apart. I'm increasingly concerned and frustrated about misinformation and this book lit a fire it me that may lead to an entirely new career. An incredible book that is worth every emotion you'll feel while reading it.

The Winners

I'm noticing a theme as I'm writing this: every one of these books had me in tears. This one, I think I cried through the last 70 pages. The Winners is the last in the Beartown trilogy by the incomparable Fredrik Backman. It's the thickest of the trilogy, too. I recently heard Backman say in an interview that he knew where The Winners was going to end up when he started Beartown and that has me wanting to go back and read all three books again. If you're not familiar, Beartown is about a small town hockey club and the fans and players that color the town. The Winners ties up in a bow the storylines and characters that began in that first book. We've fallen in love with these characters and now we get to see why and how it all matters. And Backman's trademark foreshadowing is on display from the very first pages. 

We Carry Their Bones 

I heard this author on a podcast and had the book reserved at the library even before the interview was over. Erin Kimmerle's book is a fascinating look at how slow the wheels of justice often turn and about the intricate stories that often happen behind the scenes of national headlines. The Dozier School for Boys was a notorious school in Florida for "troubled" kids; it was also the scene of unspeakable horror that was covered up for decades. Kimmerle is a forensic anthropologist who was called in to help find the remains of children who died at the school and whose families were never given the whole story. Her book reads like a novel, as she paints a picture of the terrible things that were done to these boys. You hear of her team's painstaking work and also of the patience and persistence these families showed, just hoping one day to bring their boys home.

Hello, Molly! 

Yet another podcast interview that I had to read more about... I've always loved Molly Shannon (I'm an SNL fan from way back), but I didn't know much about her story. Then, I heard her on two separate podcasts talking about this book. I loved the stories she told about the crazy escapades she and her friends went on as kids (stowing away on a commercial flight to New York - hello!). I also was moved deeply by the way she talked about the loss of her mother and the complicated relationship she had with her father after that. Even though I heard her tell these stories through a couple of interviews, the book was absolutely worth the read. Molly is such a joy.

So, there's my top six. I read a lot of great books this year that didn't make this list, but overall, I'm happy with the variety. I had a couple of books I finished in a single flight. I gave myself permission to savor some and not just rush through. I already have a nice stack on my nightstand and a bunch of holds at the library to get 2023 started.

Thanks for reading!