So much of what we do is not measurable. I ran x number of miles in this past year. But that number does not reflect my actual experience – the struggles up the hills, the feel of a cool breeze when I come over the ridge, the awe of a sanctuary of gravity-defying trees, and even the jarring memory of tripping, falling and hitting the gravel, more than once. The numbers don’t tell the whole story.
Looking back through the titles of books that I read in 2022 also does not paint the full narrative of what I have felt, the tales that I read, the wonder of heroes both great and small, and indeed, both real and imagined. The reader in me rejoices. “Of the making many books there is no end…” (Ecclesiastes 12. 12)
But in the midst of all those words, I always read with a pen in hand and a colander. Even if I shake out one good quote or story from a book, or it inspires me to do something different, or to simply do something, or encourages me to write down bits of my own story, it was well worth the read.
Every book we read enlarges us in some way or another. This chronicle covers the books that I completed in 2022. There were two, not quite finished, that will have to wait for this year’s list. And there were many that I returned to the library unread or half-read when I realized that the content was not what I expected or cared to have written in indelible ink in my thoughts. No shame in that at all.
This list of books encompasses fiction, nonfiction, memoirs, theology, and those written for young adults. In some ways for me, those genres blended into one another. Fiction seemed so real. Nonfiction told stories of incredible people, mostly unknown, who lived through amazing sufferings, narrow squeaks, and quiet triumphs. Theology helped me along in my understanding of God. And young adult novels unfolded hope for the now and the next in many hidden dimensions.
It’s not a perfect list of books, but ones that nourished my mind and heart this past year. It makes me excited to discover even more in 2023 – new books, old books, ratty paperbacks, stories my grandchildren urge me to read, those I read so many decades ago and forgot about, those that translate into words what I can finally understand. And books that urge me to tell a friend, “You have to read this.”
1. Born A Crime: Stories From A South African Childhood by Trevor Noah (2016)
2. The Deep Places: A Memoir of Illness and Discovery by Ross Douthat (2021)
3. Charlie and the Great Glass Elevator by Roald Dahl (1972)
4. The Right to Write: An Invitation and Initiation into the Writing Life by Julia Cameron (1998)
5. Think Again: The Power of Knowing What You Don’t Know by Adam Grant (2021)
6. Northwind by Gary Paulsen (2022)
7. Personal Recollections of Joan of Arc by Mark Twain (1896)
8. These Precious Days by Ann Patchett (2021)
9. Beyond Words by John Prine (2017)
10. The Last Slave Ship: The True Story of How Clotilda Was Found, Her Descendants, and an Extraordinary Reckoning by Ben Raines (2022)
11. Count It All Joy: The Ridiculous Paradox of Suffering by John M. Perkins (2021)
12. Where The Light Fell by Philip Yancey (2021)
13. The Lyrics: 1956 to the Present A- K by Paul McCartney (2021)
14. The Fingerprint of God: Reflections on Love and Its Practice by Will Dickerson (2021)
15. The Yosemite by John Muir (1912)
16. He Saw That It was Good: Reimaging Your Creative Life to Repair a Broken World by Sho Baraka (2021)
17. The Unbroken Thread: Discovering the Wisdom of Tradition in an Age of Chaos by Sohrab Ahmari (2021)
18. 2084: Artificial Intelligence and the Future of Humanity by John C. Lennox (2020)
19. A Duet for Home by Karina Yan Glaser (2022)
20. This Here Flesh: Spirituality, Liberation, and the Stories That Make Us by Cole Arthur Riley (2022)
21. This Is Happiness by Niall Williams (2019)
22. Every Deep-Drawn Breath: A Critical Care Doctor on Healing, Recovery, and Transforming Medicine in the ICU by Wes Ely MD (2021)
23. Travels With Charley: In Search of America by John Steinbeck (1962)
24. The Life We’re Looking For: Reclaiming Relationship in a Technological World by Andy Crouch (2022)
25. Closer to the Ground: An outdoor family’s year on the water, in the woods and at the table by Dylan Tomine (2012)
26. The Ogress and the Orphans by Kelly Barnhill (2022)
27. What We Wish Were True: Reflections on Nurturing Life and Facing Death by Tallu Schuyler Quinn (2022)
28. Beautiful People Don’t Just Happen: How God Redeems Regret, Hurt and Fear by Scott Sauls (2022)
29. The Pearl by John Steinbeck (1945)
30. The Red Pony by John Steinbeck (1937)
31. Jesus Through the Eyes of Women: How the First Female Disciples Help Us Know and Love the Lord by Rebecca McLaughlin (2022)
32. Journey by Patricia MacLachlan (1991)
33. World on Fire: Walking in the Wisdom of Christ when Everyone’s Fighting about Everything by Hannah Anderson et. al. (2021)
34. The Secular Creed: Engaging Five Contemporary Claims by Rebecca McLaughlin (2021)
35. Letters to Malcolm: Chiefly on Prayer by C. S. Lewis (1963)
36. Holding On To Hope: A pathway through suffering to the heart of God by Nancy Guthrie (2002)
37. A Woman of No Importance: The untold story of the American spy who helped win World War 2 by Sonia Purnell (2019)
38. Lord, Teach Us to Pray by Andrew Murray (1896)
39. The Boy, The Mole, The Fox and the Horse by Charlie Mackesy (2019)
40. How To Inhabit Time: Understanding the Past, Facing the Future, Living Faithfully Now by James K. A. Smith (2022)
41. Tom Sawyer by Mark Twain (1876)
42. From Strength to Strength: Finding Success, Happiness, and Deep Purpose in the Second Half of Life by Arthur C. Brooks (2022)
43. Lest Innocent Blood Be Shed: The Story of the Village of Le Chambon and How Goodness Happened There by Philip Hallie (1979)
44. Forgive: Why Should I and How Can I? by Timothy Keller (2022)
45. Because of Winn-Dixie by Kate DiCamillo (2000)
46. Will the Circle Be Unbroken? A memoir of learning to believe you’re gonna be okay by Sean Dietrich (2020)
47. Gentle and Lowly: The Heart of Christ for Sinners and Sufferers by Dane Ortlund (2020)
48. The Weary World Rejoices: Daily Devotions for Advent by Melissa Kruger, editor (2022)
49. The Correspondence of Flannery O’Connor and the Brainard Cheneys, edited by C. Ralph Stephens (1986)
50. One Writer’s Beginnings by Eudora Welty (1983)
51. The Bible
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