The Recap: 2022's Book Choices

Below are the books I chose to read in 2022, and as in previous years the crude rating system aims to give some indication of what I personally got from each of them. Any review is obviously as much about the reviewer as the title, so I don't guarantee you will get the same from any given book but hopefully it provides some guidance.

Choosing what to read for maximum reward is itself an absorbing activity, the result of extensive reading of trusted reviews and recommendations, coupled with past experience, personal interests, and a hefty dose of instinct. It's an enjoyable but inexact process so while the ratings are generally quite high as a result, things can be disappointing on occasions.

📖📖📖📖📖    Truly Special, exceptional

📖📖📖📖         Very Good, and deeply rewarding

📖📖📖              Middling to Good, worthwhile but not special

📖📖                   Poor and disappointing

📖                        Dreadful

+                           Plus half a rating

R                           Denotes a re-reading

January

Seeing Ourselves, Women's Self-Portraits - Frances Borzello     📖📖📖📖+

Nature Cure - Richard Mabey        📖📖📖+

It Says Here - Sean O'Brien           📖📖📖+

February

Detransition Baby - Torrey Peters                  📖📖📖📖

Experiments on Reality - Tim Robinson         📖📖📖

Entangled Life - Merlin Sheldrake                  📖📖📖📖

Derek Jarman's Modern Nature - Various      📖📖📖📖

          

March

Albert and the Whale - Philip Hoare        📖📖📖📖+

Nights at the Circus - Angela Carter        📖📖📖📖+

April

Surviving the Arctic Convoys - Charlie Erswell     📖📖📖+

The Treeline - Ben Rawlence                               📖📖📖📖

Small Things Like These - Claire Keegan            📖📖📖📖+

Death of a Naturalist - Seamus Heaney               📖📖📖📖+

May

The Chosen - Elizabeth Lowry                             📖📖📖📖

The Mayor of Casterbridge - Thomas Hardy        📖📖📖📖+

Orlam - P J Harvey                                               📖📖📖📖

June

Thin Places - Kerri ni Dochartaigh                                   📖📖📖+

Wild Mull - Stephen Littlewood, Martin Jones (Eds)        📖📖📖📖

Archipelago, A Reader - Various                                      📖📖📖📖+

July & August

If Not, Winter - Sappho, Anne Carson (translator)    📖📖📖📖

After Sappho - Selby Wynn Schwartz                       📖📖📖📖📖

Nemesis, My Friend - Jay Griffiths                            📖📖📖📖+

England On Fire - Stephen Elcock, Matt Osman      📖📖📖📖+

Another Country - James Baldwin                            📖📖📖📖📖

September

Notes from an Island - Tove Jansson, Tuulikki Pietila     📖📖📖

American Gods - Neil Gaiman                                        📖📖📖+

October

Seven Steeples - Sara Baume                                   📖📖📖📖+

The Flow - Amy Jane Beer                                         📖📖📖📖📖

We Are Made of Diamond Stuff - Isabel Waidner       📖📖📖📖+

November

O Caledonia - Elspeth Barker                                 📖📖📖📖

Howdie Skelp - Paul Muldoon                                 📖📖📖📖+

The Birds - Tarjei Vesaas                                        📖📖📖📖📖

Simple Passion - Annie Ernaux                               📖📖📖📖

The Analog Sea Review: Number Two - Various     📖📖📖📖

December

The Paying Guests - Sarah Waters           📖📖📖📖

None of the Above - Travis Alabanza        📖📖📖📖+

Vuelta Skelter - Tim Moore                        📖📖📖+

Happy Reading!

See also:   2021 Book Choices and Ratings

2021 Book Choices and Ratings

Below are the titles I chose to read in 2021, and as in previous years the crude rating system aims to give some indication of what I personally got from each of them. Any review is obviously as much about the reviewer as the title, so I don't guarantee you will get the same from any given book but hopefully it is of some assistance.

Choosing what to read for maximum reward is itself an absorbing activity, the result of extensive reading of trusted reviews and recommendations, coupled with past experience, personal priorities, and a hefty dose of instinct. It's an enjoyable but inexact process so while the ratings are generally quite high as a result, things can be disappointing on occasions.

📖📖📖📖📖    Truly Special, exceptional

📖📖📖📖         Very Good, and deeply rewarding

📖📖📖              Middling to Good, worthwhile but not special

📖📖                   Poor and disappointing

📖                        Dreadful

+                           Plus half a rating

R                           Denotes a re-reading

January

The Tenant of Wildfell Hall - Anne Bronte     📖📖📖📖+

The Grapes of Wrath - John Steinbeck        📖📖📖📖📖

The Waste Land - T S Eliot                             📖📖📖+

February

Fingersmith - Sarah Waters     📖📖📖📖+

Sisters - Daisy Johnson           📖📖📖📖

March

Of Mice and Men - John Steinbeck                            📖📖📖📖📖

Begin Again - Eddie S Glaude Jr                                📖📖📖📖+

I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings - Maya Angelou   📖📖📖📖

April

Diary of a Young Naturalist - Dara McAnulty              📖📖📖📖

Spirit of Place - Susan Owens                                    📖📖📖

Ness - Robert Macfarlane & Stanley Donwood          📖📖📖📖

May

Figuring - Maria Popova                             📖📖📖📖📖

The Fire Next Time - James Baldwin         📖📖📖📖📖

The Snow Ball - Brigid Brophy                   📖📖📖+

June

Women & Power - Mary Beard                               📖📖📖+

The Secrets We Kept - Lara Prescott                     📖📖📖📖

Far From the Madding Crowd - Thomas Hardy      📖📖📖📖+

July

Doctor Zhivago - Boris Pasternak                     📖📖📖+

The Passenger: Japan - Various                       📖📖📖📖

August

What it Feels Like for a Girl - Paris Lees                   📖📖📖📖

Empireland - Sathnam Sanghera                              📖📖📖📖

Nova Swing - M John Harrison                                  📖📖📖📖+

Tokyo: Art & Photography - Ashmolean Museum      📖📖📖📖+

September

Strange Bliss - Katherine Mansfield                                  📖📖📖

Luckenbooth - Jenni Fagan                                               📖📖📖📖

Gigantic Cinema - Alice Oswald & Paul Keegan (Eds)      📖📖📖+

October & November

Virginia Woolf - Hermione Lee                                     📖📖📖📖📖

Cheerful Weather for the Wedding - Julia Strachey     📖📖📖+

A Month in the Country - J L Carr                                 📖📖📖📖

December

Sterling Karat Gold - Isabel Waidner                      📖📖📖📖+

English Magic - Uschi Gatward                              📖📖📖📖

Treacle Walker - Alan Garner                                 📖📖📖📖

The Secret Commonwealth - Philip Pullman          📖📖📖📖

Village Christmas - Laurie Lee                                📖📖📖📖

Here's to rich reading rewards of all kinds...

See also:  2020 - Reading in the Time of Covid

2019 Reading Choices & Ratings

Once again here for your consideration are my past year's reading choices, plus simple ratings to indicate broadly what I personally got from each book (rather than what others may have thought).

An (R) next to a title denotes a re-reading.

📖 📖 📖 📖 📖  Truly Special, exceptional.
📖 📖 📖 📖       Very Good and deeply rewarding.
📖 📖 📖             Middling to Good, competent and worthwhile but not special.
📖 📖                   Poor and disappointing.
📖                         Dreadful.
+                            Plus half a rating.

January

Everything Under - Daisy Johnson   📖 📖 📖 📖 📖

Sir Gawain and the Green Knight - Simon Armitage & Clive Hicks-Jenkins   📖 📖 📖 📖
On the Marshes - Carol Donaldson   📖 📖 📖 + 

February

The Secret Agent - Joseph Conrad   📖 📖 📖 📖

Three Poems - Hannah Sullivan   📖 📖 📖 📖 
Battleship Yamato - Jan Morris   📖 📖 📖 +

March

Seven Gothic Tales - Isak Dinesen   📖 📖 📖 📖

Art Objects - Jeanette Winterson   📖 📖 📖 📖 +
A Room of One's Own - Virginia Woolf   📖 📖 📖 📖 📖

April

Orlando - Virginia Woolf (R)   📖 📖 📖 📖 📖

Lud-in-the-Mist - Hope Mirrlees   📖 📖 📖 +
Mary Ventura and the Ninth Kingdom - Sylvia Plath   📖 📖 📖 +

May

Grayson Perry - Portrait of the Artist as a Young Girl - Wendy Jones   📖 📖 📖 +

Conundrum - Jan Morris   📖 📖 📖 📖
Spring - Ali Smith   📖 📖 📖 📖
Among the Bohemians - Virginia Nicholson   📖 📖 📖 📖

June

All The Lives We Ever Lived - Katharine Smyth   📖 📖 📖 📖 +

Hour of the Star - Clarice Lispector   📖 📖 📖 📖
Underland - Robert Macfarlane   📖 📖 📖 📖 📖 

July

Hidden Nature - Alys Fowler   📖 📖 📖 📖+

Conversations With Friends - Sally Rooney   📖 📖 📖 +
Unsheltered - Barabara Kingsolver   📖 📖 📖 📖

August

Tokyo Ueno Station - Yu Miri   📖 📖 📖 📖

Horizon - Barry Lopez   📖 📖 📖 📖 📖  

September

To See Clearly, Why Ruskin Matters - Suzanne Fagence Cooper   📖 📖 📖 +

Light - M.John Harrison   📖 📖 📖 📖 + 
The Mother of All Questions - Rebecca Solnit   📖 📖 📖 +
Europa - Sean O'Brien  📖 📖 📖 📖 +

October

The Argonauts - Maggie Nelson   📖 📖 📖 📖 +

Tomorrow Will be Different - Sarah McBride   📖 📖 📖 📖 +
The Education of an Idealist - Samantha Power   📖 📖 📖 📖
Surfacing - Kathleen Jamie  📖 📖 📖 +

November

The Dispossessed - Ursula Le Guin   📖 📖 📖 📖

A Year Without A Name - Cyrus Grace Dunham  📖 📖 📖 📖 +
Where There's A Will - Emily Chappell   📖 📖 📖 📖
What Time Is It? - John Berger & Selcuk Demirel   📖 📖 📖 📖

December

Stories of Your Life and Others - Ted Chiang   📖 📖 📖 📖

Why Be Happy When You Could Be Normal? - Jeanette Winterson   📖 📖 📖 📖 +
Four Quartets - T.S. Eliot   📖 📖 📖 📖 

Happy New Year's Reading

See also: 2018 Reading Choices & Ratings

2018 Reading Choices & Ratings

Choosing what to read can be almost as enjoyable as subsequently reading your selection. Hence I spend a fair bit of time reading book reviews, which in turn hopefully ensures my selection (in which I choose to invest money and time) is as rewarding as I hope. The following are the selections I made throughout 2018, accompanied by an admittedly simplistic rating for each, to indicate to what extent my hopes for each volume were fulfilled.

The rating system, based purely on what I personally got from each book rather than what others may think, is:

📖 📖 📖 📖 📖  Truly Special, exceptional.
📖 📖 📖 📖       Very Good and deeply rewarding.
📖 📖 📖           Middling to Good, competent and worthwhile but not special.
📖 📖                Poor and disappointing.
📖                    Dreadful.

An (R) next to a title denotes a re-reading of a book.


January

The Illustrated Letters of Virginia Woolf - Frances Spalding (editor)   📖 📖 📖 📖
The Dawn Watch, Joseph Conrad in a Global World - Maya Jasanoff   📖 📖 📖 📖
Winter - Ali Smith   📖 📖 📖 📖

February

The Descent of Man - Grayson Perry   📖 📖 📖
The Left Hand of Darkness - Ursula K Le Guin   📖 📖 📖 📖
The Ice Palace - Tarjei Vesaas   📖 📖 📖 📖 📖

Every single page of The Ice Palace fizzes with an extraordinary disturbing electricity - an astonishing read!

March

The Last London - Iain Sinclair   📖 📖 📖 📖
Carpe Diem Regained - Roman Krznaric   📖 📖 📖   (great cover though!)
Wind Resistance - Karine Polwart   📖 📖 📖 📖

April

The Waves - Virginia Woolf   📖 📖 📖 📖 📖
The Snow Leopard - Peter Matthiessen (R)   📖 📖 📖 📖

The Waves just reads like the ultimate, it's not easy to discern all the art on a first read but it is subtly phenomenal.

May

Eagle Country - Sean Lysaght    📖 📖 📖
Painter to the King - Amy Sackville    📖 📖 📖 📖

June

The Rider - Tim Krabbe    📖 📖 📖 📖
Modern Nature - Derek Jarman    📖 📖 📖 📖
The Return of the Soldier - Rebecca West    📖 📖 📖

July

The Beautiful Summer - Cesare Pavese  📖 📖 📖 
The Underground Railroad - Colson Whitehead    📖 📖 📖 📖
Anquetil Alone - Paul Fournel    📖 📖 📖

August

Crudo - Olivia Laing    📖 📖 📖 📖
The Blue Flower - Penelope Fitzgerald    📖 📖 📖
First Light - Geoffrey Wellum    📖 📖 📖 📖
All Among the Barley - Melissa Harrison    📖 📖 📖 📖

September

Autumn - Melissa Harrison (editor)    📖 📖 📖
Normal People - Sally Rooney    📖 📖 📖 📖
Joss - Keith Richardson    📖 📖 📖

October

Lost Japan - Alex Kerr    📖 📖 📖 📖
Rosewater - Tade Thompson    📖 📖 📖
An Artist of the Floating World - Kazuo Ishiguro    📖 📖 📖 📖
Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? - Philip K Dick    📖 📖 📖 📖 📖

Blade Runner is great film and I read Dick's book just to understand the source material better. I was totally unprepared for a tremendous book even greater than the film!

November

The Middle Parts of Fortune - Frederic Manning   📖 📖 📖 📖
Selected Poems - Wilfred Owen (with original engravings by Neil Bousfield)   📖 📖 📖 📖 📖

The Folio Society edition of Owen's poetry, released on the centenary of his death one week before the Armistice, is a complete work of art. The uncompromising poetry, the astonishing illustrations and the evocative binding combine three artist's work powerfully - a kind of publishing perfection.

December

Herma - MacDonald Harris   📖 📖 📖 📖
The Western Wind - Samantha Harvey   📖 📖 📖 📖
The Rime of the Ancient Mariner & Three Other Poems - Samuel Taylor Coleridge (with original engravings by Harry Brockway)  📖 📖 📖 📖

Here's to continued great reading in 2019.

See also: Another Year of Reading - In Pictures