One of my favorite things to do this time of year is perusing the various “Best Books” of the year lists. Amazon,com, New York Times, Washington Post, Chicago Tribune, Barnes & Noble, bloggers. I obsessively check to see if I how many of their books I have read. (NYT- 1, WP – 4, B&N – 1).
Another of my favorite things is sharing MY favorite books of the year. I always find it hard to narrow down my list but this year I forced myself to pick 5 fiction books and a few special mentions. So, in no particular order, here we go!
Crossroads by Jonathan Franzen ticked several boxes for me: family saga, author-i-love and trilogy. The story of a pastor & his family in suburban Chicago, each family member struggles with their own issues of growth and God.
Project Hail Mary by Andy Wier is a funny, science fiction story of a man sent to save the human race. Wier wrote Martians and has the knack for writing funny dialogue even when someone is just talking to themself.
The Love Story of Missy Carmichael by Beth Morrey is the story of a woman who must reinvent her life after raising her children. It is a beautiful story of learning from life experiences and making friends late in life.
This Tender Land by William Kent Krueger is another author that I love (he wrote Ordinary Grace). Part Huckleberry Finn, part the Odyssey, This Tender Land tells the depression-era story of 4 children who escape a Minneapolis orphanage and travel down the Mississippi towards St. Louis. Krueger is a beautiful writer and story-teller.
After I read Hamnet by Maggie O’Farrell, I immediately read another novel by her, This Must Be the Place, because I loved her writing so much. Hamnet is the fictionalize life Shakespeare, partially based on known facts of his life. This Must Be the Place is a story of marriage and family.
Special Mentions
Every year I read a few books that surprise me. I don’t follow the celebrity lives, read People magazine or watch reality TV but Open Book by Jessica Simpson was recommended to me by two friends whose opinion I respect. Simpson’s story was more than a run through of her marriages and celebrity life. She talks about her relationship with God and her family, as well as her struggles with alcohol.
Laundry Love by Patric Richardson is full of practical tips from a fabric and laundry expert. Sounds dull? Surprisingly, no!. Richardson runs a laundry camp at the Mall of America and sprinkles the book with stories from his childhood and fashion career. I even made some changes to my own laundry routines.
If you want to understand the mRNA vaccine and its counterpart, CRISPR, crack open Codebreaker: Jennifer Doudna, Gene Editing, and the Future of the Human Race by Walter Isaacson. In (mostly) non-scientific language, Isaacson tells the history of mRNA/CRISPR research, the race to make it useful and the moral issues around gene-editing.
I always love giving book recommendations, so if you are looking for more send me an email. (Most of you have my personal email.) And if you are just looking for ideas, checkout my Goodreads account and follow me there. While I don’t review every book I read, I try to write a short blurb about most of them.
Watch for another post soon about books I’m looking forward to in 2022!
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