Distractions and Procrastinations: My Best Of...2022

Well, here we are again. At the end of the year. So, I've put my list of the best books I read in 2022 below. I've split them into three categories: fiction, non-fiction and poetry. I've not included re-reads, so no In Parenthesis - even though it is a fabulous book - for example.

If you want to know my opinions on these books in more detail there is a short review for each one on my Goodreads page, which is here

I also reviewed some for The Dreamcage and you can find a full list of everything I've reviewed for them here

I have put links to buy the books. Where possible these are direct to the publisher but you can obviously buy them elsewhere. I've avoided Amazon because...well...they don't really need any more help do they. Well done to Bloodaxe Books btw for having so many entries in the poetry section!

Books highlighted red are out of print but can be found second hand. Probably. O and Demian, Snow Country and The Diary of Lady Murasaki are all Penguin Modern Classic or Penguin Classic so are pretty easy to find wherever you are book shopping.

If I were to pick one from each Top 10 as a favourite I'd say The Trees by Percival Everett for Fiction, which I couldn't put down and read in one huge gulp; Extracting the Stone of Madness by Alejandra Piznarik for Poetry and The Ordeal of Ivor Gurney by Michael Hurd for non-fiction.

Although a shout out for Paul Hayes's The Long Game, which is one of the best Doctor Who non-fiction books I've read and I've read far, far too many. But as that's Doctor Who specific it gets an honourable mention.

I should also note I finished my Tove Jansson read. I've read fifteen of her books since November 2020. I missed out on the Moomin Books when I was a kid. No idea why, but I did. However, after listening to the mighty Backlisted Podcast - the best book podcast imo - I started on a quest to read everything she'd written. And she's marvellous. I can't recommend her work - both Moomin and non-Moomin - enough. I don't often regret not having children but I would have liked the chance to read Moomin books to my kids. O well. Life is life.

Most of my book recommendations this year came from BookTube, Twitter and Backlisted. I'm too old for Tiktok. Alas, I fear Elon Musk might put the kibbosh on Twitter for me, but for the moment we soldier on.

Anyway...here's the lists.

Fiction

Septology by Jon Fosse

The Trees by Percival Everett

Demian by Herman Hesse (translated by W J Strachan)

The Seven Moons of Maali Almeida by Shehan Karunatilaka

Elena Knows by Claudia Piñeiro (translated by Frances Riddle)

Snow Country by Yasunari Kawabata (translated by Edward G Seidensticker)

After Sappho by Selby Wynn Schwartz

Tokyo Ueno Station by Miri Yu (translated by Morgan Giles)

Entered from the Sun by George Garrett

Treacle Walker by Alan Garner