I’m not sure what compelled me to start publishing the list of all the books I read in the year, but I’ve been doing it a couple of years in a row. Since three makes a trend, here’s my third annual list.

I gotta start with Homegoing. This is literally one of the best books I’ve read in a few years. It is super compelling, very touching, enthrallingly written and weaves a complex story in a very satisfying way.

Looking back at this list, some of the standouts were the truly excellent Half a Yellow Sun; Sea of Tranquility, which I finished and re-read almost immediately to better understand all the nuances (which I’d never done before); Finding the Mother Tree was something I’d been meaning to read for a while and it was beautifully written and an important subject; Namwayut was a book by Chief Robert Joseph, whom I’ve known a little for many years and found his telling of his story to be powerfully written and deeply moving.

VanBikes was written by my friend Colin, and I’m so proud of him for telling this story which he’s been working on for so many years—it came together beautifully. Run Towards the Danger has stayed with me and still feels very present. Invisible Boy was an amazing insight into a situation I know nothing about and is extremely compelling. Finally, I’ve been an Elvis Costello fan since I was a teenager, so I don’t know why it took me so long to read his memoir, Unfaithful Music & Disappearing Ink. As I write this I’m about half-way through and am enjoying it a lot.

Here’s my list of books I read in 2022 in the order I read them:

1. Indigenous Relations — Bob Joseph & Cynthia F. Joseph
2. Under a White Sky — Elizabeth Kolbert
3. Life in the City of Dirty Water — Clayton Thomas-Müller
4. Half of a Yellow Sun — Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie
5. Factfulness — Hans Rosling, Anna Rosling Rönnlund & Oka Rosling 
6. Homegoing — Yaa Gyasi
7. The 1619 Project — Nikole Hannah-Jones
8. How the Word is Passed — Clint Smith
9. The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time — Mark Haddon
10. The Sixth Extinction — Elizabeth Kolbert
11. Caste — Isabel Wilkerson
12. State of Terror — Hillary Clinton & Louise Penny
13. Stolen Focus — Johann Hari
14. Heart of Darkness — Joseph Conrad
15. How to be Perfect — Michael Schur
16. Finding the Mother Tree — Suzanne Simard
17. Americanah — Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie
18. The Comedians — Kliph Nesteroff 
19. Sing Backwards and Weep — Mark Lanegan
20. Underground Airlines — Ben H. Winters
21. Transcendent Kingdom — Yaa Gyasi 
22. Origin — Jennifer Raff
23. Entangled Life — Merlin Sheldrake 
24. Big Lonely Doug — Harley Rustad 
25. Fundamentals — Frank Wilczek
26. The Islander — Chris Blackwell
27. Ragged Company — Richard Wagamese
28. Paris 1919 — Margaret MacMillan
29. Sea of Tranquility — Emily St. John Mandel 
30. Lonely Boy — Steve Jones
31. Sea of Tranquility — Emily St. John Mandel (I had to read it again immediately to fully appreciate it)
32. Vanishing Half — Brit Bennett 
33. The Glass Hotel — Emily St. John Mandel 
34. Station Eleven — Emily St. John Mandel
35. Quiet — Susan Cain
36. Subdivided — Jay Pitter & John Lorinc
37. The Netanyahus —Joshua Cohen
38. The Midnight Library — Matt Haig
39. How to Be Animal — Melanie Challenger
40. Nasty, Brutish, and Short — Scott Hershovitz
41. Namwayut — Chief Robert Joseph
42. The Last White Man — Mohsin Hamid
43. Humble Pi — Matt Parker 
44. Monkey Beach — Eden Robinson
45. Too Dumb for Democracy? — David Moscrop
46. Vanbikes — Colin Stein
47. Profiles in Ignorance — Andy Borowitz
48. Run Towards the Danger — Sarah Polley
49. True Reconciliation — Jody Wilson-Raybould
50. Surrender — Bono
51. Invisible Boy — Harrison Mooney
52. Unfaithful Music & Disappearing Ink — Elvis Costello

I’m looking forward to all the books to read in 2023!