Since the beginning of the pandemic, my wife and I have resumed a practice from earlier in our marriage: reading aloud.
In 2020, we read 35 books, many of them by James Patterson and his various co-authors. They were fast and went down easy. In 2021, we read 31 books, expanding our list of authors to include Linda Castillo, John Grisham and John Hart.
Last year, as the world slowly returned to normal (meaning we got out of the house more), we read only 25 books. However, several were longer (including Billy Summers by Stephen King and The Camel Club by David Baldacci), so they occupied more of our reading time. The full list is at the bottom of this post.
Our favorite? We were torn among No Exit, a thriller by Taylor Adams (which was adapted into a good movie); Where the Crawdads Sing, that ultra-popular novel by Delia Owens (which also became a good movie); and Hold Tight by Harlan Coben.
I enjoy everything that Harlan Coben writes, but sometimes his conclusions seem forced, as if he feels compelled to tie up every plot strand and connect every dot. This was not the case with Hold Tight, which played with themes of parents and children and the lengths the former will go to protect the latter. Everything meshes in that novel, and the surprises at the end feel earned.
Honorable mention goes to Blacktop Wasteland by S.A. Crosby, a compelling heist novel with a likable, though flawed, main character. Which is probably what makes him likable.
I also liked News of the World, a revisionist western by Paulette Jiles that reminded me of Cormac McCarthy’s work. It was the last book we read in 2022, a high-quality ending to our literary year.
The worst? Well, the usually dependable Lisa Scottoline started strong in What Happened to the Bennetts, but the book really dragged in the middle before the main character was implausibly reinvented as an action hero in the last third. It wasn’t a bad novel, just not her best. Baldacci’s The Camel Club was okay, but it was the first book in a series, and neither my wife nor I felt enthralled enough to continue with the next installment.
Here are all the books:
Win by Harlan Coben
Billy Summers by Stephen King
After Anna by Lisa Scottoline
Deal Breaker by Harlan Coben
Feared by Lisa Scottoline
No Exit by Taylor Adams
Don’t Go by Lisa Scottoline
Cold Storage by David Koepp
Six Years by Harlan Coben
A Gambling Man by David Baldacci
Rough Justice by Lisa Scottoline
Fallen by Linda Castillo
The Chase by Candice Fox
Thick as Thieves by Sandra Brown
Caught by Harlan Coben
If It Bleeds by Stephen King
The Camel Club by David Baldacci
Accused by Lisa Scottoline
Where the Crawdads Sing by Delia Owens
The Woman in the Window by A.J. Finn
Blacktop Wasteland by S. A. Cosby
The President’s Daughter by James Patterson and Bill Clinton
What Happened to the Bennetts by Lisa Scottoline
Hold Tight by Harlan Coben
News of the World by Paulette Jiles
As a solo reader, I revisited many of my favorites as part of classroom assignments (the pleasures and the perils of teaching). I also finished, after decades of attempts, American Gods by Neil Gaiman, which I wrote about here.
What did you read in 2022? Feel free to share. We welcome new titles and authors.
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