Snash's Reading for 2022

The last year didn't really approach 75 books. Apparently I read some slow ones. We'll see what this year brings although my first two of the year, both Christmas presents, will likely take a while. Them and Swann's Way. Here's this year's list:

1) Them by Joyce Carol Oates
2) Swann's Way by Marcel Proust
3) The Dawn of Everything by David Graeber and David Wengrow
4) The Mao Sisters by Gavin McCrea
5) Bunch of Amateurs by Jack Hitt
6) The Art of Self Research by Nurit Cederboum
7) Cowboy Graves by Roberto Bolano
8) House of Names by Colm Toibin
9) The Promise by Damon Gadget
10) Roar of the Sea by Deb Vanasse
11) China Room by Sujeev Sahota
12) Circe by Madeline Miller
13) Normal People by Sally Rooney
14) The Man Who Had Been King by Patricia Tyson Stroud
15) The Reluctant Fundamentalist by Mohsin Hamid
16) Prodigal Son by Edward Villella
17) Nectar in a Sieve by Kamala Markandaya
18) The Uninnocent: Notes on Violence and Mercy by Katherine Blake
19) Bogmail by Patrick McGinley
20) Girl, Woman, Other by Bernadine Evaristo
21) The Man Who Mistook His Wife for a Hat by Oliver Sacks
22) The Piano Tuner by Daniel Mason
23) The Courage of Hoa Ngoc Pham by Marguerite Ferra
24) Our Mothers of Invention by Vanessa Reimer
25) My Sunshine Away by M.O. Walsh
26) The Soloist by Mark Salzman
27) The Forgotten Artist by Leslie Compton
28) Invisible Kingdom by Meghan O'Rourke
29) All Over Creation by Ruth Ozeki
30) The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks by Rebecca Skloot
31) The End of Solitude by William Deresiewicz
32) The Last Bookshop in London by Madeline Martin
33) Fellowship in Learning: Kalamazoo College, 1833-2008 by Marlene Crandall Francis
34) Breath, Eyes, Memory by Edwidge Danticat
35) The Death of the Artist by William Deresiewicz
37) Heart of Darkness and The Secret Sharer by Joseph Conrad
38) Elizabeth Costello by J.M. Coetzee
39) Every Awful Thing by S.E. Bourne
40) The Lost Honor of Katharina Blum by Heinrich Boll
41) Eugenie Grandet by Honore Balzac
42) Evelina by Frances Burney
43) Smoke and Other Early Stories by Djuna Barnes
44) Poor White by Sherwood Anderson
45) The Grandissimes by George Washington Cable

Happy reading in 2022!

Happy new year!

This group always helps me to read; welcome back to the group.

Hope you have a great year of reading!

Happy New Year!

Them was a look at the desperate search for love, meaning, and a way out of poverty for a family: mother, son, and daughter. Each has their own approach, each marginally successful and ever hopeful. 4 stars

Swann's Way was all at once both spectacular and a slog which I suppose would make perfect sense to Proust. A sensuous florid exploration of memory, love, jealousy, desire, melancholy and the gyrations of the mind. There were descriptions of scenes that almost took your breath away, they were so novel and correct. 4.5 stars

The Dawn of Everything was not only an examination of the latest discoveries in archeology and anthropology, but an attempt to synthesize those findings. With the realization that present information does not fit beliefs as to the inevitability of our present social systems, the authors suggest that numerous options have existed for ages and any of them or something new should be possible now. 5 stars

>9 snash: I'll look for that. Maybe it's on Audible - exactly the kind of book I like to listen to while walking.

eta: and so it is!

The Mao Sisters consists of two parallel stories of women believing in Mao, one Mao's wife and the other two sisters in London.
While having numerous similarities they never intersect. While engaging for the beginning as the plots reached their climax the stories were interrupted by backstory and glances into the future to the point of distraction. 3 stars

Bunch of Amateurs investigates a variety of amateurs involved with pursuits from astronomy, to biology and more, acknowledging their unschooled unpaid nature allowed them to pursue things that the professional could not justify and often with greater creativity. Through a number of unique characters the author revealed some interesting efforts going on.
3 stars

The Art of Self Research is a description of a project involving painting a self portrait, using an analysis of that portrait to paint another etc.
The first 100 pages was an extremely repetitious description of the process. The analysis of the paintings was more interesting but since each attribute, from color, to materials, to words could be interpreted as a quality and its antithesis, that section too became repetitive. 2 stars

Cowboy Graves was a collection of confusing disjointed stories of poets in Chile and Mexico. The lack of a clear plot is purposeful. It's meaning escaped me.

I found House of Names, a retelling of the Greek classic, Agamemnon, enjoyable. Several family members recount their version of events from the sacrifice of Agamemnon's daughter through the various revenges over the years thereafter. 4 stars

The Promise is the saga of a South African white family living through the period of independence and its aftermath. Beautifully written descriptions of characters and scenes.
5 stars

Roar of the Sea was a very readable and interesting account of the man, Henry Elliott, who championed the fur seals of the Bering Straits from capitalist corporations, governments and pirates over some 50 years. Culminating in the first international treaty written to save endangered wildlife, a model for many such treaties thereafter. The book also profiles one of the more notorious pirates of fur seals. 4.5 stars

China Room was a look at arranged marriages in India and its repercussions in two time frames, late 1800's and 1990. Occasionally confusing but overall well written and interesting.
3.5 stars

Circe was a saga with gods, nymphs, monsters, witches, and mortals. Using those tools, the author fashioned an engaging tale with some deeper meanings of the dangers of power, of trying to control too much, and the value of simplicity. Eternal life was also revealed as a burden, making existence banal and boring. 4 stars

Normal People is the story of a couple's relationship over 5 years from high school through college as it shifted back and forth between lovers and friends and the impact of that relationship upon their maturation. 4 stars

The Man Who Had Been King was a scholarly biography of Joseph Bonaparte. Well written and interesting although the lists of visitors and of his art and possessions were often more than I was interested in. 3.5 stars

The Reluctant Fundamentalist was a moving multilayered story of a Pakistani schooled and working in the US and his evolving relationship with the US during and after 9/11. The story also includes his relationship with a troubled woman and a surprise ending. 4.5 stars

Prodigal Son: Dancing of Balanchine in a World of Pain and Magic was a fascinating account of Villella, Balanchine, and ballet, particularly the intricacies of method and artistry. 5 stars

Nectar in a Sieve is a poignant portrayal of woman's struggles and persistence in the face of deteriorating conditions, illustrating the will to live and the power of love and compassion. 4 stars

Bogmail was an entertaining tale set in Donegal Ireland. 3 stars

Girl, Woman, Other is a collection of character sketches/biographies of a collection of interwoven friends and acquaintances and their ancestors. It is set in England, most of the characters, black females, numerous LBGQT. Very well written and insightful. 4 stars

The Man Who Mistook His Wife for a Hat consists of a series of short descriptions of a number of patients with neurological problems, from omissions, excesses, and other aberrations. They are portrayed with compassion and an appreciation for their mechanisms for coping. 3 stars

The Piano Tuner was an immersion into another world of beauty, intrigue which both the main character and the reader finds intoxicating. A shy and sensitive man grows deeper grappling with the mysteries of this world. 4.5 stars

The Courage of Hoa Ngoc Pham is a recounting of an amazing life, from rural Vietnamese farmer, soldier, prisoner, US emigrant. Written in a sophomoric but loving manner. 3 stars

Our Mothers of Invention contained short descriptions of 16 women and their inventions and might be suitable for a teenager although the writing sorely needed editing. Asides made by the author were distracting. 2 stars

My Sunshine Away was a well written with insightful and unique descriptions of places, situations, and characters. It's a coming of age story with mystery and suspense thrown in. 4 stars

The Soloist is a book written with four different story lines (the musicians past, his teaching of a your Korean, his relationship with a woman, and a trial of a Zen Buddhist, which the author pulls together at the end with partial success 3 stars

The Forgotten Artist is the biography of landscape artist, Evylena Nunn Miller. Included are numerous color images of her paintings, detailed accounts of her travels, and transcriptions of announcements of her exhibitions. At times the day by day details seemed tedious but they did convey her energy and drive. That she can now be referred to as "forgotten" despite hundreds of paintings, exhibits, and self promotion is a sad but all too true outcome for most artists. 3.5 stars

Invisible Kingdom was a thought provoking memoir about chronic illness and the American medical system. Sometimes it felt a touch repetitious but then that's the nature of chronic illness. 4 stars

All Over Creation had an interesting cast of characters and story. There were a few places where it wasn't clear whether the story was the focus or a lecture on the perils of GMO's. In the end, however, the story won out. 4 stars

The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks The sticky ethical questions of privacy and consent in tissue and DNA research is brilliantly displayed in the story of the Lacks family and role of HeLa cells in research over the past 60 years. 5 stars

The End of Solitude was a very excellent thought provoking series of essays. His observations on present society, literature, and dance were spot on. I often found myself agreeing with his dismay with various present day trends but then had to recognize some ruts of thought that I have fallen into myself. There were a couple of essays about some literature critics that I found less pertinent to my experience. 4.5 stars

The Last Bookshop in London is set in London during WWII. An entertaining, pleasant read which is full of happy endings despite the destruction of war. 3.5 stars

Fellowship in Learning: Kalamazoo College, 1833-2008 was a very good book outlining the history of the small liberal arts college, Kalamazoo College, addressing it's history in terms of administration, faculty, student life, fund raising with plenty of pictures. Of interest to anyone connected to the college. 4 stars

I'm not sure how I've missed you in the past. My loss! I'm enjoying a look at your reading for the year and wondering what I've done with my copy of Bogmail that isn't catalogued! I like your quick but insightful comments.
Happy Reading!

>40 LizzieD: Not always convinced that my quick comments aren't too quick but since I'm usually not anxious to read lengthy comments or a synopsis of the plot, I try to avoid that. Thanks. It is irritating when I realize that I've read something and it's not catalogued.

Breath, Eyes, Memory is a tale of women across 4 generations dealing with old traditional virginity safeguards. Learning to honor the pluses of their Haitian culture while breaking the chain of abuse. Also a tale of forgiveness. 4 stars

The author is one of the sharpest observers of culture, recognizing the trends, their implications, and their ramifications. In The Death of the Artist he looks at the ramifications of the economy and the digital age upon the artist, in part by interviewing hundreds of artists.

I confess to only understanding perhaps half of The Age of the Crisis of Man which is to say the book is not written for the lay philosopher. Terms were used without intelligible definitions. None the less there were interesting concept particularly in the reviews of Bellow and Ellison. 3 stars

Heart and Darkness and The Secret Sharer are two psychological tales, metaphorical trips to the unconscious or to the dark side of humanity. 4 stars

Elizabeth Costello seemed more a philosophical debate than a novel. At times that debate was seemed more a matter os semantics, although especially when grappling with death it was engaging. 3.5 stars

Every Awful Thing is a collection of flash fiction and poetry giving a broad and frank picture of the author. Several of the poems especially were very insightful, One of my favorites was Matchstick Girl Part 5.

Thank you as always for books, thank you for this group and thanks for you. Have a lovely day.

The narrator of The Lost Honor of Katharina Blum presents the end at the beginning and then leaves the reader to put together the how and why and who all was involved bit by bit. A picture of the lethal effects of publicity. 3.5 stars

Eugenie Grandet was a tale of greed. The young naive lovers were driven apart and ended up as obsessed with money as the unbelievably miserly father. 3.5 stars

Evelina is novel of letters with humor, sensitivity of relationships, and a bit of satire of the manners of both the privileged and the lower classes. 4 stars

Smoke and Other Early Stories is collection of stories full of radical metaphors and inscrutable endings. Some of the metaphors, pulled out and contemplated individually are amazing and fabulous and some of the characters are memorable but overall the web seemed too dense. 3 stars

Poor White portrays several interesting but not particularly likable characters, perhaps too much caricatures. The story is also interupted too often with the author climbing upon his soapbox about the horrors of industrialization. 3.5 stars

The Grandissimes was a fun and well rendered tale of New Orleans in 1803-4, Creoles, Blacks, Quadroons, and Whites amongst the fascinating cast of characters. Sometimes the number of characters and the speech in dialect left me confused but it all fell together by the end. 4 stars