This was a very busy year for me and my writing, but grateful for all the time I spent reading and then reading some more. It was novel to read a novel outside my own four walls and even home country. From travel reads, to bedtime books, to lunchtime poems, to library picks, here are my top twelve books old and new that got me through these twelve months (I struggled to whittle down to ten).
- All Down Darkness Wide – Seán Hewitt (read my thoughts in The Skinny)
- Aristotle and Dante Discover the Secrets of the Universe – Benjamin Alire Sáenz
- Young Mungo – Douglas Stuart
- The Nerves and Their Endings – Jessica Gaitán Johannesson
- There Are More Things – Yara Rodrigues Fowler (read my thoughts in The Skinny)
- Some Integrity – Padraig Regan
- England’s Green – Zaffar Kunial
- Letters Home – Jennifer Wong
- Hourglass – Keiran Goddard
- Assembly – Natasha Brown
- Another Country – James Baldwin
- Goodbye to Berlin – Christopher Isherwood
Here is everything I read in 2022:
- Poems selected by Alan Hollinghurst – A.E. Housman
- Second Place – Rachel Cusk
- Some Integrity – Padraig Regan
- New Skin for the Old Ceremony – Arun Sood
- Winter Trees – Sylvia Plath
- The Tempest – William Shakespeare
- Nevada – Imogen Binnie
- Physical – Andrew McMillan
- The Last Days of Terranova – Manuel Rivas
- The Arena of the Unwell – Liam Konemann
- There Is (Still) Love Here – Dean Atta
- These Bodies of Water – Sabrina Mahfouz
- In Search of Equilibrium – Theresa Lola
- England’s Green – Zaffar Kunial
- Another Country – James Baldwin
- Selected Poems – T.S. Eliot
- Hourglass – Keiran Goddard
- All Down Darkness Wide – Seán Hewitt
- Sterling Karat Gold – Isabel Waidner
- Why I’m Like Tequila – Lupe Mendez
- Carrie Kills A Man – Carrie Marshall
- The Pharmacist – Rachelle Atalla
- The Giant Dark – Sarvat Hasin
- Bolla – Pajtim Statovci
- Like A Tree, Walking – Vahni Capildeo
- Standing Heavy – GauZ
- The Nerves and Their Endings – Jessica Gaitán Johannesson
- X – Davey Davis
- Libertie – Kaitlyn Greenidge
- Another Way to Split Water – Alycia Pirmohamed
- Tiepolo Blue – James Cahill
- Boy Friends – Michael Pedersen
- How to Make a Basket – Jazz Money
- Assembly – Natasha Brown
- Dancer from the Dance – Andrew Holleran
- We Move – Gurnaik Johal
- Quiet – Victoria Adukwei Bulley
- Slum Virgin – Gabriela Cabezón Cámara
- An Exciting and Vivid Inner Life – Paul Dalla Rosa
- Dark Neighbourhood – Vanessa Onwuemezi
- Elena Knows – Claudia Piñeiro
- Just By Looking at Him – Ryan O’Connell
- Anoche Cuando Dormía – Antonio Machado
- No Man’s Land – Anne East
- from murky waters, we rise – Etzali Hernández
- Lions and Shadows – Christopher Isherwood
- Brideshead Revisited – Evelyn Waugh
- Fishing In The Aftermath – Salena Godden
- Teen Couple Have Fun Outdoors – Aravind Jayan
- Meditación Fronteriza – Norma Elia Cantú
- Gingerbread – Helen Oyeyemi
- Goodbye to Berlin – Christopher Isherwood
- Bang – Daniel Peña
- More Fiyah – edited by Kayo Chingonyi
- Rattlesnake Allegory – Joe Jiménez
- There Are More Things – Yara Rodrigues Fowler
- Aristotle and Dante Dive Into The Waters of The World – Benjamin Alire Sáenz
- Christopher and His Kind – Christopher Isherwood
- All The Names Given – Raymond Antrobus
- Kismet – Jennifer Lee Tsai
- Bless The Daughter Raised By A Voice In Her Head – Warsan Shire
- The Sunlight Pilgrims – Jenni Fagan
- The Buried Giant – Kazuo Ishiguro
- This Fruiting Body – Caleb Parkin
- Selah – Keith Jarrett
- Peaces – Helen Oyeyemi
- Aristotle and Dante Discover the Secrets of the Universe – Benjamin Alire Sáenz
- Honorifics – Cynthia Miller
- Blood Salt Spring – Hannah Lavery
- Tender – Ariana Harwicz
- Loose Woman – Sandra Cisneros
- Nudes – Elle Nash
- Limbic – Peter Scalpello
- Young Mungo – Douglas Stuart
- Letters Home – Jennifer Wong
- Brickmakers – Selva Almada
- After the Formalities – Anthony Anaxagorou
- An Eye for An Eye for An Eye – Ellen Renton
- Shuggie Bain – Douglas Stuart
- Mrs Death Misses Death – Salena Godden
- Wake me when I’m gone – Odafe Atogun
- Klara and the Sun – Kazuo Ishiguro
- Cosmogramma – Courttia Newland
- Mona – Pola Oloixarac
- Meanwhile – Cynthia Rodriguez
- Black Lion – Sicelo Mbatha