#ReadWomen 2022 Last Quarter
Here we are at the end of 2022, time to have one last look at all the books I've read this year!
- High Wages by Dorothy Whipple
- Mexican Gothic by Silvia Moreno-Garcia
- Guard Your Daughters by Diana Tutton
- The Woman in the Purple Skirt by Natsuko Imamura
- The Bird’s Nest by Shirley Jackson
- Boy, Snow, Bird by Helen Oyeyemi (re-read)
- St. Lucy’s Home for Girls Raised by Wolves: Stories by Karen Russell (re-read)
- Consolations by David Whyte
- If Nuns Ruled the World: Ten Sisters on a Mission by Jo Piazza
- The Upside of Stress: Why Stress is Good For You and How to Get Good At It by Kelly McGonigal, PhD
- My Name is Asher Lev by Chaim Potok (re-read)
- Return of The Trickster by Eden Robinson
- Girly Drinks: A World History of Women and Alcohol by Mallory O’Meara
- The Invention of Miracles: Language, Power, and Alexander Graham Bell’s Quest to End Deafness by Katie Booth
- The Opposite House by Helen Oyeyemi (re-read)
- Washington Black by Esi Edugyan
- Radical Candor: Be a Kick-Ass Boss Without Losing Your Humanity by Kim Scott
- Daughters of Sparta by Claire Heywood
- The Nakano Thrift Shop by Hiromi Kawakami
- Miss Buncle’s Book by D.E. Stevenson
- Wow, no thank you.: Essays by Samantha Irby
- The Inheritance of Orquídea Divina by Zoraida Córdova
- Women Talking: A Novel by Miriam Toews
- The Bonesetter’s Daughter by Amy Tan
- The Dance of Connection by Harriet Lerner, PhD
- Circe by Madeline Miller
- The Way of Integrity: Finding the path to your true self by Martha Beck
- The Lady with the Gun Asks the Questions: The Ultimate Miss Phryne Fisher Story Collection by Kerry Greenwood
- Ask for More: 10 Questions to Negotiate Anything by Alexandra Carter
- You’re History: Twelves Strangest Women in Music by Lesley Chow
- In Search of Mary Shelley: The Girl Who Wrote Frankenstein by Fiona Sampson
- Woman, Eating by Claire Kohda
- Love and Fury: A Novel of Mary Wollstonecraft by Samantha Silva
- Gods of Jade and Shadow by Silvia Moreno-Garcia
- A Little Devil in America: In Praise of Black Performance by Hanif Abdurraqib
- Death in Daylesford by Kerry Greenwood (re-read)
- Siren Queen by Nghi Vo
- Murder and Mendelssohn by Kerry Greenwood (re-read)
- The Castlemaine Murders by Kerry Greenwood (re-read)
- Unnatural Habits by Kerry Greenwood (re-read)
- The Hacienda by Isabel Cañas
- Imposter Syndrome by Kathy Wang
- The School for Good Mothers by Jessamine Chan
- Kindred by Octavia E. Butler
- I Am Afraid of Men by Vivek Shraya
- The Daughter of Doctor Moreau by Silvia Moreno-Garcia
- Emily Climbs by L.M. Montgomery (re-read)
- Emily’s Quest by L.M. Montgomery (re-read)
- Chemistry by Weike Wang
- Untamed Shore by Silvia Moreno-Garcia
- God Help the Child by Toni Morrison
- Empire of Wild by Cherie Dimaline
- Bedroom Rapper: Cadence Weapon on Hip-Hop, Resistance, and Surviving the Music Industry by Rollie Pemberton
- Everyone Knows Your Mother is a Witch by Rivka Galchen
- The Mirror and the Palette Rebellion, Revolution, and Resilience: Five Hundred Years of Women’s Self-Portraits by Jennifer Higgie
- Sister Mine by Nalo Hopkinson
- I Hear She’s A Real Bitch by Jen Agg
- Portrait of a Thief by Grace D. Li
- We Have Always Lived In The Castle by Shirley Jackson
I re/read 59 books in 2022 total, 56 of them were written by women.
My favourite fiction read was The Inheritance of Orquídea Divina by Zoraida Córdova.
My favourite non-fiction reads were definitely Girly Drinks: A World History of Women and Alcohol by Mallory O'Meara and A Little Devil in America: In Praise of Black Performance by Hanif Abdurraqib and these were probably my top two books read this year.
There were a few books in particular that I found particularly haunting and have given me lots of food for thought, even months after, those are:
Women Talking: A Novel by Miriam Toews
Washington Black by Esi Edugyan
As much as it pains to admit, I was most disappointed by Shirley Jackson's The Bird's Nest -- repetitive and not satisfying.
I think it's an absolute and total snub that Bedroom Rapper: Cadence Weapon on Hip-Hop, Resistance, and Surviving the Music Industry by Rollie Pemberton was not on Pitchfork's best music books of 2022. To be fair, Pemberton snubs Pitchfork a lot in his book (he used to write for them and reveals a lot of eyebrow-raising details). It does concern me though that so many major music institutions are either ignoring, misrepresenting, or otherwise snubbing so many Black Canadian musicians.
For the year ahead, I'm looking forward to reading more by Octavia E. Butler and Silvia Moreno-Garcia, what luck that both were/are such prolific writers - more for me to read!
Here is my slow and steady progress throughout the year:
First quarter reading list
Second quarter reading list
Third quarter reading list