2022 in Books

[starlady]

Happy New Year! I arrived in California yesterday during a brief dry spell and we are currently battening down the hatches for Wednesday (and next week after that).

2022 Reading Stats

• Books read: 143, of which 12 (8%) rereads
• By gender: 54.5 (38%) by men, the rest by women and other genders
• By race: 42.5 (30%) by authors of color, the rest by white authors
• By language: 3 in translation, plus 12 in Japanese
• New books: 37 (26%) published in 2022
• New-to-me authors: 29

…versus 2022 Resolutions

1. Read 125 books ==> Success!
2. Read 25 physical books owned since 2018 or earlier ==> 16. Not great, not terrible.
3. Read 35 books by authors of color ==> Success!
4. Read 10 books in translation ==> Failed.
5. Read 15 books in Japanese ==> Failed. So close!
6. Read all the comics bought before 2022, both physical and digital ==> I made progress!

General Comments

This is the most books I've ever read in a year since I started my spreadsheet in 2009. Relatedly, I spent most of the year unemployed. I got back to using the library (yay!), stalled out on some planned reads/rereads (boo), and read a lot of comics. That's part of the reason my authors of color stat is so low, actually; my planned blitz through the rest of Ta-Nehisi Coates' Black Panther run did not come to fruition. This year!

Best of 2022

• Nona the Ninth by Tamsyn Muir
• A Half-Built Garden by Ruthanna Emrys
• The Book Eaters by Sunyi Dean
• Aspects by John M. Ford
• Spear by Nicola Griffith
• Servant Mage by Kate Elliott
• A Frog in the Fall by Linnea Sterte
• Unraveller by Frances Hardinge
• Ducks by Kate Beaton
• The Once and Future Witches by Alix E. Harrow
• The Witness for the Dead by Katherine Addison
• The Mighty Thor by Jason Aaron, art by Russell Dauterman (comics run)
• A Scatter of Light by Malinda Lo
• What Moves the Dead by T. Kingfisher

2023 Reading Resolutions

1. Read 125 books
2. Read 25 physical books owned since 2021 or earlier
3. Read 35 books by authors of color
4. Read 10 books in translation
5. Read a volume of manga a week in Japanese
6. Read all the comics bought before 2023, both physical and digital

Comments

[rachelmanija]

Can you tell me why I should read A Frog in the Fall and Ducks? (They're the two I know nothing about.

[starlady]

Ducks is Kate Beaton's graphic novel memoir of her two years and change working in the oil fields of Alberta, Canada, in the mid-00s, to pay off her student loans. As you may be aware Beaton is from Cape Breton, a poor area of Canada that people have always left to find work, but her experience is shaped by the highly gendered nature of the oil camps and by the fact that there are very few women working there. Says a lot of complex things about capitalism, labor, sexual harassment and assault, and environmental degradation.

A Frog in the Fall is by Linnea Sterte, a European artist who makes really beautiful comics. It's the story of a young frog who sets out on an adventure across a vaguely Japanese, vaguely late Edo/early Meiji landscape, done in indigo ink. It's one of those stories where not a ton happens, but the art is clever and charming and I really just loved it. Digital copies are available on PEOW's Gumroad until 31 January 2023 -- if you're intrigued by the preview, I also highly recommend Sterte's Stages of Rot, which is available separately and as a bundle with A Frog in the Fall.