Happy New Year! It’s time once again for what has become an annual tradition, my Books of the Year list. 2022 was a busy year of reading, but one that lacked some of the excellence of prior years. Despite the lack of as many stellar contributions, the average quality was high -- think a bunch of "4-4.5 stars" but not many "5 stars".
Before we get to those that succeeded, I’ll first caution you against the following popular books that are better left on the shelf…
The Naughty List: Books to Avoid
The Maid by Nita Prose (Amazon's #19 Best Book of 2022) - I keep seeing this pop up on “best of” lists, and I keep scratching my head. While many readers seem to have fallen in love with Molly Gray, the narrator and titular maid who is on the spectrum and struggles to navigate society, the schtick got old for me pretty quickly. Take out this unique approach to a main character and murder mystery, and you’re left with a really simple plot that was pretty easy for anyone not on the spectrum to sniff out early in the book.
The Measure by Nikki Erlich - The premise of The Measure was compelling: one day, everyone in the world who is at least 22 years old receives a mysterious wooden box, and inside is a string. Before long, they realize the length of their string corresponds exactly to the length of their life. But boy was the execution of this excellent idea horrible. Flat characters, ham-fisted attempts at tackling difficult topics -- it’s not good.
The Passenger by Cormac McCarthy - Again, the premise is compelling: a salvage diver (Bobby Western) during the exploration of a sunken jet, finds only 9 bodies instead of the anticipated 10. In addition the pilot’s bag is missing as well as the plane’s black box. Before long, he’s being pursued by government agents, his apartment is ransacked, and he's on the run. Sounds great, right? While those things technically happen in the book, that rough plot structure is barely a framework. The novel bounces between events where nothing of consequence happens (another dive, time on an oil rig) and Bobby encountering people who go on soliloquies lasting dozens of pages where Bobbly simply listens or throws in an occasional "yeah" or grunt. Oh, and if that doesn’t sound annoying enough, throw in some flashbacks from the point of view of his dead schizophrenic sister having conversations with the people in her head (without any quotation marks, by the way).
It’s weird, it’s difficult to read, and there is no resolution to the central event (and from all I can gather, nor is there any resolution in the follow-up Stella Maris). It seems like McCarthy had a bunch of essays he wanted to write, but instead of having the courage to present the ideas as his own thoughts, he invented a rough plot structure and characters so he could ascribe the ideas to them. While the quality of the writing is above average, this is still one of the most disappointing books I’ve read in several years. The fact that it is critical darling Cormac McCarthy and yet it didn’t crack Amazon’s Top 100 should tell you how horrible this is.
Friends, Lovers, and the Big Terrible Thing by Matthew Perry (Amazon's #93 Best Book of 2022) - It got a lot of buzz, and it’s gotten a fair number of positive reviews, but as memoirs go, this one was pretty ho-hum for me. If you’re looking for a showbiz memoir, I’d suggest instead reading the provocatively-titled I’m Glad My Mom Died by Jennette McCurdy (Amazon's #13 Best Book of 2022). Both books deal with show business, suspect parenting, and addiction. But where Jennette’s succeeded, Perry’s did not for me. So this is a bit of read this, not that -- I’m Glad My Mom Died is worth your time; Perry’s Friends, Lovers, and the Big Terrible Thing is not.
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The Best Books of 2022 -- #20-#11
Alright, enough of the Naughty List -- on to the good stuff! Among those books I’d count as part of the “Year of Very Good”, I enjoyed all of the following, but just not quite enough to crack this year’s Top 10.
#19 - A Flicker in the Dark by Stacy Willingham
#18 - Chasing the Bogeyman by Richard Chizmar
#17 - Lessons in Chemistry by Bonnie Garmus
#16 - All of Us Villains by Amanda Foody & Christine Lynn Herman
#15 - A History of Wild Places by Shea Ernshaw
#13 - Mickey7 by Edward Ashton
The Top 10 begins here: #10 - Pay Dirt Road by Smantha Jayne Allen