What I Read in 2022

Books of 2022: Six endorsements for wonderful Christian books and six general-market recommendations. (Here are the round-ups from past years.)

I’ve read about 35 books this year, which is down by about 15 or 20 in a usual year. Two reasons for that – one is that after 16 years of running the Woman Alive Book club, I relinquished it to Claire Musters. Although I love reading widely, I realized that I needed to hand over the beloved book club to another host to guide it through the late teenaged years and beyond. My work as a writer, retreat leader, and spiritual director means that my focus is on areas of spiritual formation.

The second reason is that I’ve written two books this year (coming your way in 2023), and all of that writing has meant less time for reading. Something I aim to rectify next year!

I love reading fiction, and so I give you reviews of five novels that I loved. I’m not including my reviews that included lines such as these:

A sweet story if utterly predictable.

A light read that I picked up on a giveaway table at a supermarket.

6 Books I Endorsed

Christmas Changes Everything by Elisa Morgan

How can we, like the characters in the original nativity story, be changed by Christmas? With heart-warming and sometimes challenging stories, Elisa Morgan invites us to enter into the wonder of Christmas. We too can accept, yield, believe, wait, and rejoice—and be forever changed by our loving God. Don’t miss God’s life-changing invitation!

Brightest and Best: 31 Advent Devotions on Jesus by Philippa Wilson

Interweaving the wisdom and grace of her aptly termed Carolsville with the wonderous story of Jesus, Philippa Wilson in Brightest and Best sparks longing and love within us during the Advent and Christmas seasons. She welcomes us to share her deep love of the ‘little Lord Jesus’ – a mind-bending notion of the God who became Man. I commend it with joy.

God Isn’t Finished with You Yet by Catherine Campbell

Catherine opens up the world of the Bible in glorious shades and images as she brings alive the stories of six people. With grace and truth she shows how God didn’t give up on them – and how he doesn’t give up on us. I especially appreciate how she reaches our hearts through the narrative and our minds with her teaching. Read, ponder and savour this delightful, trustworthy and powerful book. You won’t regret it. 

Streams in the Wasteland by Andrew Arndt

Andrew Arndt has made friends with the desert fathers and mothers, and he invites us to enjoy their friendship too. His winsome book reveals how their wisdom sheds light on the problems we face today. One to read, underline, ponder, and share.

Images of Grace by Amy Scott Robinson

A masterpiece in metaphor. In Images of Grace Amy opens the door for us to understand abstract concepts in concrete ways, ushering us into the presence of God. With engaging anecdotes and a winsome exploration of the biblical stories, she proves a helpful guide to not only sin and atonement but forgiveness and restoration. A book to return to again and again during Lent – I highly recommend it.

Prayer Starters by Suzie Eller

Struggling to find the words to chat with God? Suzie Eller’s Prayer Starters will give you ideas for ways to start up—and continue—this most life-affirming conversation. I especially appreciate the mini Bible studies. Enjoy!

6 General-Market Recommendations

I Am, I Am, I Am by Maggie O’Farrell

Utterly compelling memoir with the theme of near-life experiences. What, 17 of them? Hard to start reading a new chapter knowing her life would be threatened, even if I knew ultimately that she’d be all right – after all, she is alive. The last chapter on her daughter’s allergies was almost too much for me to read, as it chimed with me as an allergy parent. (But our kids’ experience isn’t anywhere on the level of hers.)

As always, her writing is exquisite. It gave me an insight into one of the characters in the book I read just before this one, Instructions for a Heatwave. As she detailed her experience of recovering from encephalitis, I thought of Aoife and how her extreme dyslexia meant she couldn’t read –and how she covered over her challenges in daily life.

One I might well read again.

Instructions for a Heatwave by Maggie O’Farrell

I loved this snapshot of life in Britain in 1976 during the heat wave – which was the heat wave to end all heat waves until we lived through the summer of 2022 (and following?). I read this book in a couple of sittings during the stifling heat, and her descriptions of the stultifying air were so apt. 

The Riordan family is so compelling in each of the characters, although the father remains largely a mystery up to the end. I liked the varying first-person view throughout, and thought the novel ended on a hopeful note. 

Simply wonderful.

Dinner at the Homesick Restaurant by Anne Tyler

A poignant look at a family abandoned by the husband/father and the lifelong effect on the relationships. Pearl, the mother, clearly isn’t an easy person to live with, and her three children each express their coping mechanisms in different ways. I found the way Cody, the eldest, treated his brother Ezra, sad and painful.

The title refers to the restaurant that Ezra runs, and his attempts to foster the family relations through enjoying a meal together – which always seem to end in some kind of argument.

A moving look at family life in all its messiness.

The Maid by Nita Prose

I really enjoyed this one. Celebrates a neurodivergent protagonist in a life-affirming way. Molly the maid lives to bring the rooms in the Regency Grand Hotel back to perfection. And she’s the maid who finds Mr Black “dead in his bed.” What follows is a delightful if at times heart-rending search for why he died, along with flashbacks from her past that shine a light on who she is today.

At times I could hardly bear to listen more, as I wanted to shield her from nefarious characters whom she trusted. In the end, a very satisfying story.

A friend called this Eleanor Oliphant meets Agatha Christie, and that’s not a bad summary.

Away with the Penguins by Hazel Prior

What a wonderful book. I’m glad more fiction features octogenarian protagonists. In her eighties, Veronica lives on the west coast of Scotland and one day her cleaner/helper unearths a locked box. With it Veronica descends into a lifetime of memories, which spur her into a journey of discovery – including a trip to Antarctica to visit the penguins.

I loved this story, with its themes of family, buried history, social class, poverty and wealth, climate change, and conservation. I did figure out a plotline before the ending, but it came about differently than I anticipated (but that’s only a minor quibble). Delightful and thought-provoking.

(I listened to it on Audible. The main narrator did a good job, but the female supporting narrator was a bit stilted at times, and it felt like she was reading a script.)

The Willoughby Close series by Kate Hewitt

Five books that I enjoyed. They manage to be light but deep, which doesn’t seem to make sense! I mean that in I easily got into the story, which felt like an escape to the English countryside, and each protagonist went through something deeply challenging and emotionally engaging.

Kate isn’t afraid to tackle tough issues but does so in a gracious way. Each book reveals a journey of change within the characters, which I appreciate. It’s also fun too to see characters from previous books – I like seeing their journey continued. I think that’s part of the reason why I keep buying the next book in the series.