This beautiful block print was done by my granddaughter and given to us as a Christmas gift. If you look at it, you can see both a positive and negative rose. This is just like life. Sometimes the roses shine bright and are easy to see. Other times they may be dark and harder to […]

Seeing Positive and Negative

2022 Book List

I read 64 books in 2022. My lowest total in many years. These are my (highly subjective) 22 favorite books, in order, for 2022.

No.	Book Title	Author	Year	Publisher	Comments
22	Reckless	Craig Lucas	1989	Theatre Communications Group	I did not read very many plays in 2022. This was the best of the lot.
21	Of Whimsies & Noubles	Matthew Hughes	2014	PS Publishing	Apparently, Matt is “the heir apparent to Jack Vance.” Very high praise indeed and I would agree. His dying Earth stories are always a delight.
20	The Best American Essays: 2022	Alexander Chee (Ed.)	2022	Mariner Books	These collections of essays are always well-worth reading. Here are my favorites (in no particular order) from this collection: Melissa Febos, The Wild, Sublime Body; Naomi Jackson, Her Kind; Angelique Stevens, Ghost Bread; Jason Brown, The Wrong Jason Brown
19	Class: A Guide Through the American Status System	Paul Fussel	1983	Summit Books	Everything Fussel does is well-written. I found this particularly interesting to compare and contrast the current status system with the one he describes from forty years ago.
18	Hummingbird Salamander	Jeff Vandermeer	2021	MCD Farrar, Straus and Giroux	Intricate and well-plotted with strong characters and plenty of action. JV is a pro.
17	The Snake Pit	Mary Jane Ward	1946	Random House	A ground-breaking work providing insight into the nightmarish world of 1940’s psychiatric hospitals from a talented writer with first-hand knowledge.
16	Pastoralia	George Saunders	2000	Riverhead Books	Another superb collection of stories from a master of the short form.
15	The Year’s Best Science Fiction: Twenty-Ninth Annual Collection	Gardner Dozois (Ed.)	2012	St. Martins Griffin	Another excellent collection of science fiction short stories and novellas from arguably the greatest series of best of anthologies.
14	Lord of Chaos	Robert Jordan	1994	TOR Fantasy	Book Six of The Wheel of Time series. This was the best of the several novels I read in 2022 from WoT. I consider WoT to be the fourth best epic fantasy series of all time. You’ll have to guess the first three.
13	The Women of Copper Country	Mary Doria Russell	2019	Atria Paperback	This is a very good piece of historical fiction set in the Keewenaw Peninsula of Michigan’s Upper Peninsula which makes it of particular interest to me. Everything MDR writes is good. I did a Zoom Q&A, arranged through UPPAA, with her about this book. She was charming and informative and at the end of the session announced she was retiring and that would be her final public appearance.
12	The Ocean at the End of the Lane	Neil Gaiman	2013	William Morrow	Another well-written fantasy novel by this writing superstar. This particular edition (2019) was beautifully illustrated by Elise Hurst.
11	Consider This: Moments in my Writing Life after which Everything was Different	Chuck Palahniuk	2021	Grand Central Publishing	A how to that is well-organized and filled with pragmatic advice for the would-be writer. It is also a fun read as he intersperses the advice with brief, improbable tales of the writer’s life on the road.
10	Telegraph Avenue	Michael Chabon	2012	Harper	A sterling effort from one of America’s premier novelists that is, once again, replete with fascinating popular culture references.
9	In Search of Snow	Luis Alberto Urrea	1994	Harper Perennial	My wife saw him speak and then introduced his work to me. He quickly became a favorite. He is a natural-born story-teller.
8	Strange Weather: Four Short Novels	Joe Hill	2017	William Morrow	The oldest son of Stephen King seems, like the old man, to have writing chops. I particularly liked Aloft.
7	The North Water	Ian McGuire	2016	Picador Henry Holt & Co.	A driving, relentless, force of nature novel. Gritty and brutal, it gets a hold of you and doesn’t let go.
6	Stories of Your Life and Others	Ted Chiang	2002	Vintage Books	Another superb collection of speculative tales by TC. He is one of our best short story writers.
5	Magic Hours: Essays on Creators and Creation	Tom Bissell	2018	Vintage Books	TB was born and raised in Escanaba. He is a hometown boy that’s made it big. So I had to try this book and was blown away by his writing. I’ll be looking for more of his work.
4	The Marriage Plot	Jeffrey Eugenides	2011	Farrar, Straus and Giroux	Another brilliant novel by this native Detroiter. He does not seem to write much but whatever he produces is well worth the wait.
3	Peter Watts is an Angry Sentient Tumor: Revenge Fantasies and Essays	Peter Watts	2019	Tachyon Publications	Picked up this book mostly because of the intriguing title. He writes with an arc welder so don’t get too close and be careful of your eyesight. I will have to read some of his novels probably starting with Blindsight.
2	Early Morning Riser	Katherine Heiny	2021	Alfred A. Knopf	I adored this book. Partly because of the northern Michigan setting but mostly because of its heart and humor.
1	The Sympathizer	Viet Thanh Nguyen	2015	Grove Press	Debut novels have no business being this good. It deserves, without question, its accolades and awards including a Pulitzer and Andrew Carnegie Medal.