BOOKS OF THE YEAR LIST Part I

By Ruth A. Sheets

Every year, at this time, all sorts of media are putting out their list of best books, movies, music, and other formats of the year.  I see few movies, listen to music of all kinds on occasion, and don’t listen to enough podcasts to select a few best (although one best this year was Rachel Maddow’s “Rachel Maddow Presents Ultra” a must-hear).  So, I will forego the above-categories for consideration. 

However, I do read a lot.   As of the first week in December, I have read somewhere around 300 books.  They were not all published this year, so I can’t claim they are “the best books of 2022,” but they are the best ones I read this year.  I include them here because each one is worth checking out, in my opinion, of course.  They are generally in no particular order except that I read them all in the first third of the year.   So, here goes, my “best books read in 2022 Part I.”  I hope you’ll check a few out and let me know what you think.

Information Hunters, When Librarians, Soldiers, and Spies Banded Together in World War II Europe by Kathy Peiss - The author’s uncle was one of the information collectors during and after WWII rescuing books and other written materials that had been stolen or hidden, trying to learn whose books they were. 

The Venice Sketchbook by Rhys Bowen - An English girl meets and falls in love with an Italian boy in Venice while on a trip.  She is an artist who gets caught up in the insanity of WWII Venice.  Her great grand-niece goes to Venice to look for her Great-aunt’s story and finds love. (fiction of course)

 Bridge of Scarlet Leaves by Christina McMorris - Friends in LA, one of whom was Japanese, and secretly married his best friend’s sister experience WWII.  The friends went to war.  Maggie went to the internment camp with her husband until they were relocated to Illinois. 

Vanderbilt, the Rise and Fall of an American Dynasty by Anderson Cooper & Katherine Howe - An interesting look at an iconoclastic family and its many foibles, as well as its lack of empathy and appreciation for others except as they can use them, written by the son of the last Vanderbilt of her line, Gloria.

The Darling Dahlias and the Poinsettia Puzzle by Susan Wittig Albert -  The happenings of a small Alabama town during the Depression include corruption in a local prison, a child who could be a star, opening a bake shop when neither owner knows how to make bread, a romance, a newspaperman’s work, and more.  Fun and some recipes too.

An Irish Hostage, A Bess Crawford Mystery by Charles Todd – One of the last books in an excellent mystery series taking place during and just after WWI.  Bess attends a wedding in Ireland and gets caught up in the troubles.

The Paper Daughters of China Town by Heather B. Moore - An amazing woman fell into a job rescuing Chinese girls and women being trafficked in San Francisco.  She worked at and directed a rescue mission for these women for 39 years. 

The Dressmakers of Auschwitz, the True Story of the Women Who Sewed to Survive by Lucy Adlington - A life-changing book about women’s resilience in nearly impossible circumstances.  The women helped each other, shared, and resisted until they were able to get free.

 Wild Lives, Leading Conservationists on the Animals and Planet They Love by Lori Robinson & Janie Chodosh - I want to know more about the amazing work with wildlife most of them are doing.  One of them, though was OK with trophy hunting since lions reproduce so quickly.  I guess that’s one way to look at it.

 Forget the Alamo:  The Rise and Fall of an American Myth by Bryan Burrough, Jason Stanford, & Chris Tomlinson - The book moves through the lead up to and battle of the Alamo plus all the stuff that was hung on the event as time passed, none of it good, ignoring  The fact that defenders were trying to protect slavery, to drive out the Mexicans, and to dismiss the Tejanos who had also helped the Americans at the siege. 

 Straighten Up and Fly Right, The Life and Music of Nat King Cole by Will Freedwald - This was a terrific book about a singer hero of mine.  Just thinking of the book makes me want to listen to his music.  

MEMOIRS BY PEOPLE OF NOTE

Going There by Katie Couric - As much as I have liked listening to reports by this journalist, I knew very little about her.  This was an interesting well-written memoir

Just the Funny Parts and a Few Hard Truths About Sneaking Into the Hollywood Boys’ Club by Nell Scovell - A very funny comedy writer had to fight to get chances to prove her skills when a male writer would have had so much less trouble by just being male.  I like her humor.  

Unbound, My Story of Liberation and the Birth of the Me Too Movement by Tarana Burke – She survived childhood sexual abuse and worked with women and girls who survived sexual abuse before getting the Me Too movement going to call men out for their bad behavior, no matter the race or financial status.

 My Broken Language, A Memoir by Quiara Alegria Hudes - A compelling memoir, strange, poetic, but a curious look at Hudes’ unique childhood in West and North Philly which led to her amazing career as a playwright.  I can’t wait till she writes the next chapter.

 The Boys, A Memoir of Hollywood and Family by Ron and Clint Howard - A fun look at the family that brought 2 child actors into the world and into the lives of people everywhere:  Ron in “The Andy Griffith Show” & “Happy Days” and as director of many films, and Clint in “Gentle Ben” and as a character actor in more than 200 films. 

All In, An Autobiography  by Billie Jean King - An interesting account of King’s tennis life and the many things she contributed to sports, women’s rights, and LGBTQ right\

Mr. Hockey, My Story by Gordy Howe - I really liked this memoir of one of Hockey’s greatest.  He played 32 years as a pro and had 2 sons to follow him into the NHL.\

Chasing History, A Kid in the Newsroom by Carl Bernstein - The co-author of “All the President’s Men” began his news career at “The Washington Star” with people like Mary McGrory and David Broder, people I have admired for years.  He began his career at age 16, right off the street and worked his way up to being a full reporter.

 The Dark Heart of Florence by Tasha Alexander - This is part of a mystery series.  Lady Emily and her husband Collen go to Florence for the Crown.  The book has a 15^th Century story and a 1903 part.  In the 1490s, a woman helps to save precious art and writings from those who would destroy them.  She left a message that Lady Emily helped to decipher while she helps solve 3 murders.

 When Can We Go Back to America, Voices of Japanese-American Internment During WWI  by Susan H. Kamei - writings by people , mostly American citizens who experienced the “internment,” rounding people up like animals and throwing them into barbed wire surrounded camps in the worst possible places to live in this country because of white trumped-up fear and racism.  Cruelty was the point.

 Valley Forge by Bob Drury & Tom Clavin - This was a revisiting of the events that led to, during, and after the army’s winter at Valley Forge.  Well-told. 

 The Hollywood Jim Crow, The Racial Politics of the Movie Industry by Maryann Erigha – A look at Hollywood movies of the past decades and the racist forces keeping movie-makers of color from success:  few directors of color, lack of wide distribution of films, less money for films by directors of color, no people of color in industry decision-making. 

 The Henna Artist by Alka Joshi - A girl in rural India escapes a bad marriage and runs off to the city where she becomes a henna artist for the rich women there.  Her previously unknown sister shows up and her life changes.

 The Arbornaut A Life Discovering the 8^th Continent in the Trees Above Us by Meg Lowman - A fascinating account of Meg’s adventures in studying the canopy of forests around the world and how critical that layer of the forests is to the well-being of the earth.  She helped design walkways that let people see the life in the trees.

 All That She Carried, the Journey of Ashley’s Sack, A Black Family’s Keepsake by Tiya Miles - Traces the probable history of a handmade sack a girl carried with her when she was sold away from her mother.  She passed the sack down to her granddaughter, ultimately passed on to the African-American History Museum.  An interesting way to learn history.

 Angel of Greenwood by Randi Pink - Angel is a high school junior in Tulsa, OK, who believes her task in life is to help everywhere she can.  She helps a boy figure out who he really is through her kindness and caring.  Their lives change drastically when the town is destroyed by white vigilantes in 1921.  Gr. High and older

 The Women’s History of the Modern World, How Radicals, Rebels, and Everywomen Revolutionized the Last 200 Years by Rosalind Miles - Some women I knew of and others I didn’t.  All of them made a difference in their own way from science to politics to discovery, to writing to media.

 The Happiest Man on Earth, The Beautiful Life of an Auschwitz Survivor by Eddie Jaku - His experiences were horrific, yet he made a deal with God that if he survived, he would treasure every day and be happy to have each day.  He said it took a while to get to that but he created an amazing life for himself.

 4,000 Days, Time Management for Mortals by Oliver Burkeman - This is a practical but fun guide to get us to stop trying to do everything while accomplishing  almost nothing and trying to be perfect when it’s impossible.

 Calling Bullshit, The Art of Skepticism in a Data-driven World Carl T. Bergstrom & Jevin D. West – A no-nonsense dissection of bullshit, who uses it, when and where, and how to identify it.

 Swing Shift, All-Girl Bands of the 1940s by Sherrie Tucker -I knew there were lots of great female musicians, but not that there had been dozens of “all-girl” jazz bands all over the country throughout the 30s and 40s.  And, despite the biases against them, they could do anything the male bands could do.  I wish there were recordings.  

 The Christmas Pig by J.K. Rowling - This is an allegory in which a young boy goes into the Land of the Lost to find his toy pig. 

 54 Things Wrong With Gwendolyn Rogers by Caela Carter - Gwendolyn reads an IEP report about her and finds it lists 54 things wrong with her.  She goes on a quest to find out why she gets so angry, can’t be still, forgets things all the time, and more.  Really good to help kids develop empathy and appreciation for others. Gr.3-7

 Chemistry for breakfast, the Amazing Science of Everyday Life by Mai Thi Nguyen-Kim - chemistry is part of all we do.   The author goes through a day discussing the chemistry of things from waking up to going to bed.  

 Mary McGrory, The First Queen of Journalism by John Norris -Great columns over the years, smart, relevant, and pulled no punches when dealing with the Washington crowd.  A true liberal, but not partisan.

 South to America, A journey Below the Mason-Dixon To Understand the Soul of a Nation by Imani Perry - A scholar travels around the South to try to figure out how much of who we are as a nation is dependent upon the presence of Black Americans. 

 Profit and Punishment, How America Criminalizes the Poor in the Name of Justice by Tony Messenger - At every turn, our justice system goes after the poor to pay for the rich and middle income through court costs, bail, and so much more, debt most take a lifetime to get out of when it started with a small infraction or no crime at all.  

 Caste, The Origins of Our Discontents by Isabel Wilkerson - This book should be read by all Americans, particularly white ones.  It discusses the caste system in the US, how it works to keep members of various groups in their place with white males at the top and everyone else at sorted places below them. 

 Her Hidden Genius by Marie Benedict - A novel of the last 11 years or so of the life of Rosalind Franklin, discoverer of the DNA molecule.

 Joan is OK by Weike Wang (This is the story of a Chinese-American doctor who navigates the death of her father, learning to relate to her mother, and the arrival of COVID at her hospital.  It ended abruptly but was really good.

 Harpo Speaks by Harpo Marx and Roland Barber - A hilarious book that sort of describes Harpo’s life as a comedian, harpist, and all-around good guy.  It is hard to know which stories are true, but who cares.  I was totally entertained!

 Atlas of the Heart, Mapping Meaningful Connection, and the Language of Human experience by Brene Brown – An account of the range of human emotions and their potential impacts. 

 All Standing, The Remarkable Story of the Jeanie Johnston, the Legendary Irish Famine Ship by Kathryn Miles - A ship built to bring timber and supplies from Canada to Ireland, picked up potato famine survivors and took them to Canada and the US between 1847 and 1856 when the ship sank.  It carried about 2,000 immigrants and lost none of them unlike most of the “coffin ships” on the same route.