In 2022 I read 78 books in total. Some were great, and some were Phantom of the Opera. But we are not here to discuss that disaster. Here I have narrowed down my favourites to just 5. These are not necessarily the best but they are the ones that impacted me the most, in one way or another.
#5: Station Eleven by Emily St. John Mandel
“What was lost in the collapse: almost everything, almost everyone, but there is still such beauty. Twilight in the altered world, a performance of A Midsummer Night’s Dream in a parking lot in the mysteriously named town of St. Deborah by the Water, Lake Michigan shining a half mile away.”
Reading a novel about a pandemic in light of certain events was a choice, but I think it added new depth to this already masterfully-written story. Here we are taken into a post-apocalyptic world ravaged by a deadly flu (oop), and we follow the daily life of a travelling Shakespeare company. They visit the little groups of survivors that have cropped up twenty years on from the collapse of society, and perform Shakespeare plays. In-between, they dodge your fairly-standard apocalypse psychopaths and weirdos.
Despite being a post-apocalyptic story, this is not an action thriller. I’ve read plenty of those, and many blur together in my memory. Station Eleven is a book not so much concerned with survival as it is being alive. This is a story that celebrates art and humanity (and Star Trek), in the face of disaster and brutality... and everyday life.
I fell in love with the nonlinear structure of the storytelling. It goes from the pre- to the post-apocalypse and all over the map, with a cast of characters connected by a singular thread. Some of the plotlines seem less interesting on paper – relationship drama has nothing on being hunted by a lunatic, right? But those scenes were just as, if not more, compelling than the action. The writing hooks you right through – Emily St John Mandel’s prose has such a stunning lyricism to it, I found myself hanging on every word.
There are moments that are almost laugh-out-loud worthy because of how true to life they’ve become. This book was published in 2014, but there are passages that sound like they were written about 2020. It’s not the first pandemic-book I’ve read recently, but it is the only one to have championed art. It made me reflect on a lot of the things I’ve experienced in recent years. It’s a beautiful book and I recommend it to all.
#4: From Spare Oom To War Drobe: Travels In Narnia with my Nine-Year-Old Self by Katherine Langrish
“So there I was in this adventure full of old castles and dying kings, snowy moors and talking owls – and Puddleglum the Marshwiggle, the best pessimist since Eeyore, and the beautiful belle-dame-sans-merci-type Green Witch – with time running out to save Prince Rillian from that terrible engine of sorcery, the Silver Chair itself. I was hooked. This colourful, colloquial, exciting, fast-moving fairy tale was the best story I'd ever read.”
Narnia will forever be one of my favourite literary locations. It’s a world full of magic and wonder and childhood nostalgia. Much like Katherine Langrish, I adored the series when I was younger, though I didn’t go as far as writing fanfiction or recreating maps.
I wanted to revisit the Chronicles of Narnia in 2022, and this book made the perfect reading companion. Katherine Langrish’s nine-year-old self takes us by the hand and leads us through the wardrobe – all her love and devotion to the series is made abundantly clear. She balances her childhood memories with more nuanced analysis – such as literary parallels and underlying theology. There are connections I’d never seen and ideas I’d never considered. I’ve read essays on the Narnia books before, but C.S. Lewis has written with such a depth that there is always plenty more to uncover.
Despite the love and passion Langrish has as she pours over the Chronicles, she doesn’t shy away from criticism. There have been many negative claims against the books, such as sexism and racism, and she breaks them down as they crop up in the stories. She doesn’t shrug them off and she doesn’t give an easy answer. I found her take to be honest and thorough. Sometimes her nine-year-old self’s ideas contradict with her adult self, and she gives them both room for discussion.
From Spare Oom To War Drobe is structured so that each chapter goes over one of the 7 Narnia books. I went back and forth between the books and Katherine Langrish’s chapters, first being drawn into the wonders of Narnia for myself – coming to some of my own conclusions before seeing what mysteries and intricacies Langrish pulled at. This was a fun way to read through, since I hadn’t reread the series in so long. My only true gripe is that the books are presented in chronological order, where I prefer the publication order. A small detail, though, and one that hardly impacted the overall experience.
I love books about books (a theme you’ll see on this list again), particularly when the author’s passion so clearly comes through the writing. I would definitely recommend From Spare Oom To War Drobe to anyone who shares a love of Narnia, or an interest in analysing literature, in exploring how stories are created, and how they impact our lives. It’s a true gem of a book and I’m so glad to have stumbled across it on a bookshop shelf one sunny afternoon...
#3: Dracula by Bram Stocker
“I am all in a sea of wonders. I doubt; I fear; I think strange things, which I dare not confess to my own soul.”
I read Dracula for the first time in 2019, and I enjoyed it then. I rated it 3 out of 5, appreciating it for its place in literary history but feeling disconnected from the story. I never thought I would revisit it.
Enter Dracula Daily.
In May of 2022, I began to see an abundance of posts online of people discussing Dracula, and at first I thought it was some new adaptation, but no. As the hype grew I realised the story people were enraptured by was the original novel in all its gothic glory – only presented in a slightly new format.
Dracula is an epistolary novel, with a story told through dated journal entries, letters, articles, and so on. The events of the story take place through the months of May to November. Dracula Daily is an email newsletter created by Matt Kirkland, which takes those dated entries and delivers them to your inbox on the corresponding date. So, the events of Dracula play out in real time.
I immediately signed up.
Dracula Daily became my morning paper; I would eat my granola and catch up with my good friend Jonathan Harker. Once again I was immersed into the creepy atmosphere of Dracula’s castle, only this time I was forced to linger. Some days the entries were a few sentences, some days pages long, and there were days when there would be no news at all. The suspense grew. I paid close attention to the details, finding myself engrossed in the lives of the characters.
This mostly-daily format adds a lot to the reading, and here is the best example: at one point a character reads the captain’s log of a doomed ship (unknowingly transporting Dracula). In the original text this is presented in one big chunk. In Dracula Daily it is broken up, as the captain recounts the ship’s journey day by day. The logs are interspersed with other parts of the story as Dracula slowly, inevitably, brings the sailors to a dismal end. It adds such suspense and such tragedy.
Of course, what made this such a memorable reading experience was not so much the book itself. I love a literary conversation, and the community that formed around this serialised story was electric. Classic novels always benefit from group discussion, as there are so many layers to pick at. Here we got an abundance of discussion, analysation, fanart, and memes – glorious memes! Things I never would have noticed were brought up, from themes to character tropes to Hungarian paprika.
I hope it rolls around again next May. For now, I’ve signed up for the slightly more ambitious Whale Weekly, which dishes out chapters of Moby Dick over the course of two years. Always wanted to read it, never wanted to commit. This is a perfect opportunity. Feel free to join me so we can discuss whale facts!
#2: The Unlikely Escape of Uriah Heep by H.G. Parry
“Truth, at least complete truth, isn’t held in words. But there would be no truth at all without them. It lies behind them and lurks around them and shines through them, in glimpses of metaphor, and connotation, and story.”
The Unlikely Escape of Uriah Heep is my perfect novel. It is written exactly to my tastes – exactly – from the character dynamics to the prose style to the emotional core to the insane battle royale of famous book characters (!!!) to the impeccable comedic timing. I love love love this book. I would like to live in it. To eat it.
The story is a bookworm's dream (or nightmare) – the ability to bring fictional characters to life, not just on paper, but in the flesh. The main characters in this novel are one very enthusiastic English professor who continuously, accidentally pulls characters from their stories into the real world, and one very disgruntled older brother who has to deal with the mess they cause.
Before I picked this up, I’d never even read a Charles Dickens novel (which I've since rectified) but The Unlikely Escape of Uriah Heep made me feel like I'd been in the margins of David Copperfield for years. Uriah Heep is a central villain, and the Victorian streets of Oliver Twist are a main setting (because it’s not just the characters materialising). It’s also – it gave me such a wonderful surprise – set in Wellington, New Zealand.
There are famous characters in the cast who I despised in their original texts, but here they are made fresh and I fell in love with them and their silly little quirks -- at once familiar and all new. To name a few, we have Mr Darcy (three versions of him in fact) and the Jabberwocky, and Dorian Gray, and Matilda, and Sherlock Holmes. They work seamlessly alongside H.G. Parry’s original characters.
I adore every whimsical, wonderful, weird, comforting, chaotic, occasionally horrific second of this story about dysfunctional siblings and dangerous literature. There's such a level of authenticity steeped in these words, such a deep love for the source material, for books, for the magic of reading itself. The layers of inside jokes, the actually-impressive literary analysis happening even as characters are dealing with emotions and uncovering plot. It's all very grown-up-Inkheart and I never knew how much I needed it. I've been longing for a fantasy novel that delved into a sibling dynamic the way this story did, not as a side-plot, but the main focus, the emotional core. It is done brilliantly. I cried. H.G. Parry is my hero.
I came out of this story with a happy heart and a whole list of classic literature to try. If you love books, this is a must-read.
#1: The Blue Castle by L.M. Montgomery
“Winter was beautiful "up back" - almost intolerably beautiful. Days of clear brilliance. Evenings that were like cups of glamour - the purest vintage of winter's wine. Nights with their fire of stars. Cold, exquisite winter sunrises. Lovely ferns of ice all over the windows of the Blue Castle. Moonlight on birches in a silver thaw. Ragged shadows on windy evenings - torn, twisted, fantastic shadows. Great silences, austere and searching. Jewelled, barbaric hills. The sun suddenly breaking through grey clouds over long, white Mistawis. Ice-grey twilights, broken by snow-squalls, when their cosy living-room, with its goblins of firelight and inscrutable cats, seemed cosier than ever. Every hour brought a new revelation and wonder.”
I have loved Anne of Green Gables since I was 11 years old, when I listened to the audiobook on a sick-day. L.M. Montgomery writes such wonderfully wistful yet melancholic stories, full of little adventures and the simplistic beauty of life. I had never heard of The Blue Castle, one of only two novels she wrote for an adult audience – and the only one that isn’t set on Prince Edward Island.
I picked this book up after a long day, a long week, when I needed something sweet and soothing and, thinking of dear Anne, I thought this would do the trick. I was not wrong – though I forgot how her stories are laced with sadness.
I was introduced to Valancy, who I rooted for at once. She is an old maid at 29 (lol), living a loveless life in a loveless family; all tradition and routine and rules and reputation. Her life is drab and grey and so very miserable. Here we go, I thought. Let’s see how she finds her version of Green Gables.
Well, as it happens, what begins the journey is a diagnosis of terminal illness. Not exactly a fun time. But after the shock, Valancy realises that she now has no dismal future stretching before her, and it sets her free. She goes out in search of joy. In search of… her Blue Castle. :)
Not to be utterly dramatic, but this might be my favourite book of all time. It’s certainly not the best I’ve read. It’s kinda cheesy, kinda ridiculous. The plot contrivances take a healthy suspension of disbelief. But I found myself completely immersed in Valancy’s life – as she overcame her fears and spoke her mind and dared to be late for breakfast. She ends up moving into a wondrous woodland scenery, and the descriptions of nature alone bring me to tears. There’s a divine beauty showcased here; despite all tragedy, there is such beauty in the world. LMM always writes with these inflictions, but I think she captures it best in these pages. Never have I read such magical, visceral, wondrous nature writing. I was right there – in the cold winter nights and the sun-soaked afternoons.
And the drama, oh the drama! What a delight. Valancy’s antics drive her family mad, and it gets me in fits of giggles. Then there’s the tragedy, because of course there is – though this book is never downcast. It’s lighthearted all the way through to the bitter end. I call it bitter not because of the tone, but because I lowkey despise the ending. It becomes sickly-sweet, and I can barely stomach it. Even so, it does work for the story (but I’m gonna stay mad about it. I only care because I love the rest so much).
This is largely a romance novel, which is typically my least favourite genre. Though I always loved Anne of Green Gables, I never finished the series because I got bored by the focus on Anne and Gilbert’s relationship. And yet, The Blue Castle completely enraptured me. It’s more than a romance, of course. The focus is Valacy’s character arc from miserable and alone and full of fear, to a place of belonging and peace (and cats).
This book is a retreat from the world, a soul-stirring walk through the woods, a soothing balm. It’s my favourite, though even after writing all these words I feel like it’s impossible to articulate.
When I finished reading The Blue Castle, I swallowed the lump in my throat, turned the book over, and started it again. On my third read-through I skipped the ending. Since then I have revisited the Anne books as well as Emily of New Moon and Pat of Silver Bush. I eagerly anticipate getting to more of L.M. Montgomery’s wonderful stories in 2023. I don’t know that it’s possible, however, for anything to be quite so special as The Blue Castle.
Thanks for reading 🙂
What did you read in 2022?
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