2022 book list

In the last year, I’ve read the following:

Top picks include Stranger Care and Know My Name (for most absorbing and inspiring), as well as Mastering Artisan Cheesemaking and Courtney Maum’s book (both for their usefulness). I struggle to enjoy fiction — my mom says it’s because the stories aren’t real; she might be right — but I keep trying. Just now I placed several books from this list on hold at the library. What are you reading?

This same time, years previous: cheesetasting: round three, perimenopause: some goodies, 2020 book list, 2019 book list, the quotidian (12.31.18), 2017 book list, remembering Guatemala.

15 Comments

  • Miriam

    I really disliked Between Two Kingdoms. Of course her illness is horrific, but at a certain point the navel-gazing became too much for me, and the roadtrip read like it was written up as an after thought.

    I just read The Paper Palace and loved it! The Great Circle (about a fictional female pilot) was also pretty good.

  • mommychef

    Favorite post of the year! Big fan of memoirs myself, even though they can be traumatic. I really loved “Everything I Have Is Yours” by Eleanor Henderson and “Easy Beauty” by Chloe Cooper Jones. For fiction, recommend “Infinite Country” by Patricia Engle (like American Dirt but less graphic and more thoughtful) and I discovered Lily King this year and fell in love. Her collection “Five Tuesdays In Winter” is my favorite. “The Last White Man” by Mohsin Hamid is also great and thought provoking.

  • Jamie N.

    Totally off topic. What is the cookie in your picture that is at 9 o’clock and what is the chocolate cookie pictured in your last post? Thanks!

    • Jennifer Jo

      9’oclock cookie is the NYTimes recipe for pistachio, candied orange and chocolate shortbread.

      And in the post before, that cookies is also a NYTimes recipe: latte gingerbread. Most people didn’t like it, though. Said the espresso gave it a burned taste. (I liked it!)

  • Thrift at Home

    I can hardly handle books (or shows) with trauma in them anymore – life is just too much already! So I do love a good escapist fiction book. I want to read that grandparent book on your list.

  • Kathy

    I’m currently reading Lessons in Chemistry. Note: it is not about science but instead relationships. I wish it were about science instead. I also struggle with fiction. I find I prefer YA fiction & non- fiction. My next book is Dark Sun. There should be more science in that book.

  • Hattie

    I always enjoy your list of books and was happy to see one of my favorite writers, Elizabeth Berg, on it this year. You might like Berg’s “Durable Goods” for its strong and resilient young heroine. A book I am reading right now is the very popular, “Lessons
    in Chemistry” by Bonnie Garmus. Some of it is silly (parts written from the perspective of an intelligent dog!) but I think you might enjoy that it’s about a female research chemist/cooking show host/single mother — and it takes place in the early 1960s. so you can imagine the obstacles she faces. It reminded me of another trailblazer, Julia Child.
    Here’s to a new year with lots of good books.

  • Becky R.

    I struggle to read nonfiction. We are opposites! I think I struggle with nonfiction because I feel like the world is too much with me without any nonfiction help. I do enjoy nonfiction in areas where I am intensely interested (like your cheesemaking), but as to reading about the horrors of real life, I already know too many of them IRL.

  • Colleen

    I love your post – finding out folks reads is always an interest of mine, since my days working in a library. Right now I’m listening to the 2nd Witcher audiobook with the husband, and reading cookbooks my niece has about Keto as she has started a new lifestyle journey for health.

  • Melissa

    Just finished Les Mis. Reading The Lord of the Rings for the first time! My hubby read it every year before we had kids. Also Mother Culture by Karen Andreola – classic homeschool read.

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