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I read a lot of good books this year

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I read a lot of good books this year

I wanted to end my reading list at 69 books, because why not, but then I couldn't stop

bettina
Dec 20, 2022
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I read a lot of good books this year

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I’ve always been a reader, but as with writing, I fell out of it doing it for fun for a while. I let the idea that I had to read the “right” books snuff out the enjoyment.

In 2020, getting into romance and thrillers reminded me how entertaining books could be. In 2021, as a bit but also because I like them, I read as many domestic thrillers with the word “wife” in the title as I could (The Wife Upstairs, The Wife Between Us, Pretty Little Wife etc). This year, I replaced podcasts with audiobooks and finished more books (78) than last year (59). I don’t necessarily believe in reading more just for the sake of the number, but it is easier for me to do anything if I gameify it.

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People sometimes ask me how I read so much: I’m behind on movies, music, and TV. My Kindle is one of my favorite purchases ever, and I read almost exclusively library books. (When I want to feel like I’ve shopped without spending money, I put books on my library wishlist.) At all times, I have at least a nonfiction book, a light book, and an audiobook going. If I’m alone and not actively writing, I’m listening to something.

I set aside one good book that I read only while I’m on the stationary bike, which motivates me to both read and move. The combination of eating an edible and then reading Elizabeth Gilbert’s Big Magic while doing a long, hard bike ride was one of the best things I’ve done all year for my spiritual and emotional well-being.

I generally consider nonfiction food books, as well as cookbooks, to be work reading and not recreational reading. But a few — Tamar Adler’s An Everlasting Meal, Danny Licht’s Cooking As Though You Might Cook Again, Rebecca May Johnson’s Small Fires, and Shaina Loew-Banayan’s Elegy for an Appetite — were so good I couldn’t go without mentioning them. I finally read and loved Laurie Colwin.

This year, I also accepted that it’s okay to stop reading a book I don’t like, so I can endorse everything on this list. If you want a shortlist though, my favorites are in bold:

  1. Hurts So Good, Leigh Cowart

  2. In My Dreams I Hold a Knife, Ashley Winstead

  3. The Replacement Wife, Darby Kane

  4. A Touch of Jen, Beth Morgan

  5. My Darling Husband, Kimberly Belle

  6. The Last Affair, Margot Hunt

  7. For Better and Worse, Margot Hunt

  8. Boy Parts, Eliza Clark

  9. A Slow Fire Burning, Paula Hawkins

  10. Win Me Something, Kyle Lucia Wu

  11. Verity, Colleen Hoover

  12. Vladimir, Julia May Jonas

  13. My Sweet Girl, Amanda Jayatissa

  14. The Hawthorne Legacy, Jennifer Lynn Barnes

  15. Cultish, Amanda Montell

  16. Yerba Buena, Nina LaCour

  17. Greenwich Park, Katherine Faulkner

  18. God Spare the Girls, Kelsey McKinney

  19. Fake, Erica Katz

  20. The Margot Affair, Sanae Lemoine

  21. Find Me, Alafair Burke

  22. Like a Sister, Kellye Garrett

  23. The Golden Couple, Greer Hendricks and Sara Pekkanen

  24. The Wife, Alafair Burke

  25. The Family Plot, Megan Collins

  26. A Novel Obsession, Caitlin Barasch

  27. The Violence, Delilah S. Dawson

  28. The Night Shift, Alex Finlay

  29. The Night She Disappeared, Lisa Jewell

  30. Reckless Girls, Rachel Hawkins

  31. I Kissed Shara Wheeler, Casey McQuiston

  32. Book Lovers, Emily Henry

  33. The Better Sister, Alafair Burke

  34. Glitch Feminism, Legacy Russell

  35. No One Will Miss Her, Kat Rosenfield

  36. How to Read Now, Elaine Castillo

  37. Counterfeit, Kirstin Chen

  38. Portrait of a Thief, Grace D. Li

  39. The Book of Cold Cases, Simone St. James

  40. Educated, Tara Westover

  41. The Woman in the Library, Sulari Gentill

  42. The House Across the Lake, Riley Sager

  43. Tomorrow and Tomorrow and Tomorrow, Gabrielle Zevin

  44. X, Davey Davis

  45. All This Could Be Different, Sarah Thankam Mathews

  46. Black Cake, Charmaine Wilkerson

  47. The Therapist, B.A. Paris

  48. The Counselors, Jessica Goodman

  49. Elegy for an Appetite, Shaina Loew-Banayan

  50. Stay Awake, Megan Goldin

  51. The Last Housewife, Ashley Winstead

  52. What My Bones Know, Stephanie Foo

  53. Cover Story, Susan Rigetti

  54. Fatty Fatty Boom Boom, Rabia Chaudry

  55. The Last to Vanish, Megan Miranda

  56. The Vicious Circle, Katherine St. John

  57. More Home Cooking, Laurie Colwin

  58. Dress Code, Veronique Hyland

  59. Year of the Tiger, Alice Wong

  60. Partners in Crime, Alisha Rai

  61. Home Cooking, Laurie Colwin

  62. Big Magic, Elizabeth Gilbert

  63. Best Served Hot, Amanda Elliot

  64. Thank You for Listening, Julia Whelan

  65. Heretic, Jeanna Kadlec

  66. The Cloisters, Katy Hays

  67. Small Fires, Rebecca May Johnson

  68. The Villa, Rachel Hawkins

  69. The Final Gambit, Jennifer Lynn Barnes

  70. Just the Nicest Couple, Mary Kubica

  71. You’re Invited, Amanda Jayatissa

  72. The Family Game, Catherine Steadman

  73. Essential Labor: Mothering as Social Change, Angela Garbes

  74. Abolish the Family, Sophie Lewis

  75. Cooking As Though You Might Cook Again, Danny Licht

  76. Hidden Pictures, Jason Rekulak

  77. The Lies I Tell, Julie Clark

  78. An Everlasting Meal, Tamar Adler

I’m currently working my way through, and will probably finish before the year ends: All Her Little Secrets by Wanda M. Morris, and Some of My Best Friends by Tajja Isen. I’m still chipping away at Babel by R.F. Kuang. And over the break, I plan to read It Ends With Us by Colleen Hoover, just to understand the hype.

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I read a lot of good books this year

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I read a lot of good books this year

makalintal.substack.com
Resh Susan
Writes Satchel Notes by Resh Susan
Dec 20, 2022Liked by bettina

Kindle is underrated. Also I find myself reading faster when I am reading on Kindle. Great list. Excited about Small Fires which I've been postponing. You've made me curious about Cooking as though you might cook again. Excellent words for a title. Since you enjoyed domestic suspense books, you might enjoy Motherthing by Ainslie Hogarth which is a dark, gothic domestic horror + very witty.

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Anisha Chandra
Writes Spice Club
Dec 20, 2022Liked by bettina

Lots of good stuff here and I knew it as soon as I saw the Laurie Colwin in the first picture. I haven't read Babel but would recommend The Poppy War by RF Kuang!

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