The Joy of Reading
Reading is one of my favorite ways to spend time. I kick back in my recliner, the pets settle nearby, and then I fall into a book.
Here are a few of the books I read in 2022 and especially enjoyed.
Middle Grade
Albus, Kate. A Place to Hang the Moon. 2021. The World War II setting prompted me to pick up this book. It’s about three orphaned siblings who are evacuated to the country with other kids from London. The omniscient narrator, the fun voice and the emotional depth created a very enjoyable read.
Appelt, Kathy. Once Upon a Camel. 2021. This animal story uses stories within a story. It’s about a camel in West Texas in 1910 during a wind storm who’s trying to save two falcon chicks after their parents get swept away. The camel uses stories of her life to solve various problems and keep the chicks entertained or quiet. Fun storyteller voice.
Bauer, Marion Dane. Sunshine. 2021. A realistic contemporary novel told in third person, present tense from young Ben’s POV. He and his dog go to visit his mom, whom he hasn’t seen in years. She lives on a remote, northern Minnesota island and things go wrong.
Leali, Michael. The Civil War of Amos Abernathy. 2022. This realistic, contemporary novel is set in small-town Illinois. It has a great first-person voice and interesting structure. Amos is a 19th-century re-enactor at a living history park. Amos, who is gay, and Chloe, who is Black, help the park include more history of underrepresented people. Diversity is an important and well-executed theme.
Warga, Jasmine. Other Words for Home. 2019. A contemporary, first-person novel in verse. The story begins in Syria but then 12-year-old Jude and her mother, who’s pregnant, go to Ohio to stay with Jude’s uncle while Jude’s father and brother stay behind. It’s a realistic story about being different and the challenges of immigrating to a new culture.
Young Adult
Sepetys, Ruta. I Must Betray You. 2022. Historical novel set in Romania in 1989, shortly before the downfall of that country’s dictator Nicolae Ceaușescu. The story is told by Cristian, who’s 17, and blackmailed by the secret police into becoming an informer. His story is interspersed with short informer reports that really upped the tension.
Summers, Courtney. Sadie. 2018. A literary mystery/thriller told partly in first person through Sadie’s eyes. She’s a 19-year-old white girl who knows who killed her little sister and has decided to find him and kill him. But she’s also now missing, so the other part of the story is told through a podcast as a guy from New York investigates her disappearance. All about missing girls and predators and love and what that makes some people do.
Adult
Fergus, Jim. One Thousand White Women: The Journals of May Dodd. 1998. Historical fiction with a fascinating premise—that the U.S. government would “trade” 1,000 women to the Cheyenne for horses in order for the women to marry Cheyenne men and help the Indigenous people acclimate to white culture. First person, strong voice, and lovely descriptions of the places (Wyoming and Montana) and the way of life.
Osman, Richard. The Man Who Died Twice. 2021. Second book in the Thursday Murder Club mystery series about a group of friends in a retirement community who solve murders. So funny. So British. Light but with a point about actions having consequences and we get to choose how we react to things.
Quinn, Kate. A Diamond Eye. 2022. Historical fiction based on a real Soviet woman sniper during World War II who racked up 309 kills against the Nazis. Quinn uses three different POVs (first person from the sniper, brief first person from Eleanor Roosevelt, and third from a marksman). She also uses two different time periods, but both are still in WWII—one is the “now” of the war, when a marksman is attempting to assassinate FDR and frame the Soviet sniper and one is the story of how Mila became a sniper. Engaging and well written with a clear misbelief about having to be perfect.