2022 Reading Challenge Report
Creating this spread in my journal has become a highlight of my year. Past efforts are here: 2019, 2020, 2021. Each year I spend a little more time on my mini cover drawings and each year I'm a little happier with how they turned out.
My reading goal for the year was 100 books and I barely made it: 101. I had to really book it to reach my goal (heh, see what I did there)
Some years it's sort of hard to pick my "Best Books", but this year it was relatively easy. Eight books in particular really stood out. I could have just left it at eight, but there were two additional authors that I came across this year that I read several books by and am quite sure I will continue gobbling up their oeuvres as long as I can. (I've never in my life seen that word as a plural—can that be right?) So as a 9th pick, I just named them both: Ashley Herring Blake and Alexis Hall. I read several of Blake's books this year that would have absolutely changed my life if they'd been around when I was a kid/teen and Hall is here because literally everything he writes is fucking hilarious.
The full list with metrics are after the jump:
My top 8 and other stand outs are in bold below
Non-Fiction (23)
Star Child: A Biographical Constellation of Octavia Estelle Butler, Ibi Zoboi
How to Slowly Kill Yourself and Others in America, Kiese Laymon
(gn) The Drawing Lesson, Mark Crilley
The Art of Visual Notetaking: An Interactive Guide to Visual Communication and Sketchnoting, Emily Mills
(gn) Windows on the World, Robert Mailer Anderson, Jon Sack, Zack Anderson
All Boys Aren't Blue, George M. Johnson
Black Widow: A Sad-Funny Journey Through Grief for People Who Normally Avoid Books with Words Like "Journey" in the Title, Leslie Gray Streeter
(gn) WE HEREBY REFUSE: Japanese American Resistance to Wartime Incarceration, Frank Abe, Tamiko Nimura, Matt Sasaki (Illustrator), Ross Ishikawa (Illustrator)
(gn) Wake: The Hidden History of Women-Led Slave Revolts, Rebecca Hall, Hugo Martinez (Illustrator)
(gn) Kid Gloves: Nine Months of Careful Chaos, Lucy Knisley
(gn) Foundations of Chinese Civilization: The Yellow Emperor to the Han Dynasty, Jing Liu
Dopesick: Dealers, Doctors, and the Drug Company that Addicted America, Beth Macy
Unbound: My Story of Liberation and the Birth of the Me Too Movement, Tarana Burke
(gn) Go to Sleep (I Miss You): Cartoons from the Fog of New Parenthood, Lucy Knisley
Notes on Grief, Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie
(gn) The Black Panther Party: A Graphic Novel History, David F. Walker, Marcus Kwame Anderson (Illustrations)
BLUU Notes: An Anthology of Love, Justice, and Liberation, Takiyah Nur Amin, Mykal Slack, eds.
(gn) Passport, Sophia Glock
Revolution in Our Time: The Black Panther Party's Promise to the People, Kekla Magoon
(pb) Nicky & Vera: A Quiet Hero of the Holocaust and the Children He Rescued, Peter Sís
Refugee High: Coming of Age in America, Elly Fishman
(pb) Afghan Dreams: Young Voices of Afghanistan, Tony O'Brien, Mike Sullivan
(pb) Wishes, Mượn Thị Văn, Victo Ngai (Illustrator)
Fiction (59)
Red at the Bone, Jacqueline Woodson
American Street, Ibi Zoboi
Husband Material, Alexis Hall
Rise to the Sun, Leah Johnson
(gn) The Last Session, vol. 1, Jasmine Walls, Dozerdraws (Illustrations)
The Galaxy, and the Ground Within, Becky Chambers
(gn) The Montague Twins: The Devil's Music, Nathan Page, Drew Shannon (Illustrations)
Record of a Spaceborn Few, Becky Chambers
Something Fabulous, Alexis Hall
Honey Girl, Morgan Rogers
(gn) Fantasmas, Raina Telgemeier
Purple Hibiscus, Chimamanda Ngoni Adichie
The Violence, Delilah S. Dawson
(gn) Coven, Jennifer Dugan, Kit Seaton (Illustrations)
Children of God, Mary Doria Russell (re-read)
Boyfriend Material, Alexis Hall
Skye Falling, Mia McKenzie
Liar & Spy, Rebecca Stead
The Sparrow, Mary Doria Russell (re-read)
A Psalm for the Wild Built, Becky Chambers
(gn) Oddball: Sarah Scribbles #4, Sarah Andersen
Girl Made of Stars, Ashley Herring Blake
Everything, Everything, Nicola Yoon
A Closed and Common Orbit, Becky Chambers
(gn) Slaughter House Five, Ryan North (adaptor), Kurt Vonnegut Jr., Albert Monteys (Illustrations)
Pretend I'm Dead, Jen Beagin
(gn) The Crossover, Kwame Alexander Dawud Anyabwile (Illustrations)
Don't Check Out This Book, Kate Klise, Sarah Klise (Illustrations)
Light From Uncommon Stars, Ryka Aoki
The Mighty Heart of Sunny St. James, Ashley Herring Blake
Hang the Moon, Alexandria Bellefleur
(gn) Alice in Leatherland, Iolanda Zanfardino, Elisa Romboli (Illustrator)
Ivy Aberdeen's Letter to the World, Ashley Herring Blake
Delilah Green Doesn't Care, Ashley Herring Blake
The Care and Feeding of Ravenously Hungry Girls, Anissa Gray
(gn) Across a Field of Starlight, Blue Delliquanti
Ain't Burned All the Bright, Jason Reynolds, Jason Griffin (Illustrator)
Count Your Lucky Stars, Alexandria Bellefleur
I Kissed Shara Wheeler, Casey McQuiston
(gn) The Bride Was a Boy, Chii, Beni Axia Conrad (Translator)
Payback's a Witch, Lana Harper
The School for Good Mothers, Jessamine Chan
(gn) The Sacrifice of Darkness, Roxane Gay, Tracy Lynne Oliver, Rebecca Kirby, James Fenner
Read Between the Lines, Rachel Lacey
The Ex-Girlfriend of My Ex-Girlfriend Is My Girlfriend: Advice on Queer Dating, Love, and Friendship, Maddy Court, Kelsey Wroten (Illustrations)
(gn) A Shadow in RiverClan, Erin Hunter
How to Find a Princess, Alyssa Cole
The Girl in the Well is Me, Karen Rivers
American Spy, Lauren Wilkinson
Stay With Me, Ayọ̀bámi Adébáyọ̀
(gn) Be Gay, Do Comics, Matt Bors, ed.
(gn) Cheer Up: Love and Pompoms, Crystal Frasier, Val Wise (Illustrator)
The Long Way to a Small Angry Planet, Becky Chambers
This Winter, Alice Oseman
The Bookish Life of Nina Hill, Abbi Waxman
(gn) Stone Fruit, Lee Lai
Heartstopper, vol. 4, Alice Oseman
(gn) Squad, Maggie Tokuda-Hall, Lisa Sterle (Illustrator)
(gn) Shadow Life, Hiromi Goto, Ann Xu (Illustrations)
Read with the kids and/or for Homeschool planning (19)
Front Desk, Kelly Yang
The Midwife's Apprentice, Karen Cushman
(pb) Blue: A History of the Color as Deep as the Sea and as Wide as the Sky, Nana Ekua Brew-Hammond, Daniel Minter (Illustrator)
The Wednesday Wars, Gary D. Schmidt
(gn) Twelfth Grade Night, Molly Horton Booth, Stephanie Kate Strohm, Jamie Green (Illustrator)
(gn) The History of Western Art in Comics Part One: From Prehistory to the Renaissance, Marion Augustin, Bruno Heitz (Illustrations)
(gn) Magical History Tour #4: The Crusades, Fabrice Erre, Sylvain Savoia (Illustrator)
A Year Down Yonder, Richard Peck (re-read)
A Long Way from Chicago, Richard Peck (re-read)
The Amber Spyglass, Philip Pullman (re-read)
The Night Diary, Veera Hiranandani
The Subtle Knife, Philip Pullman (re-read)
(pb) Prisoners of Geography, Children's Ed.: Our World Explained in 12 Simple Maps, Tim Marshall
The Great Brain at the Academy, John D. Fitzgerald
(pb) The 1619 Project: Born on the Water, Nikole Hannah-Jones, Renée Watson, Nikkolas Smith (Illustrator)
(pb) Unspeakable: The Tulsa Race Massacre, Carole Boston Weatherford, Floyd Cooper (Illustrator)
The Whale Rider, Witi Ihimaera
(pb) Mr. Watson's Chickens, Jarrett Dapier, Andrea Tsurumi (Illustrator)
The Golden Compass, Philip Pullman (re-read)
(gn) = graphic novel or graphic novel format
(pb) = picture book
I read 101 books this year
Authors of color: 40
Black authors: 28
Cis-women, trans & nonbinary authors: 73
Graphic novels: 34
Queer characters: 47 (34 main characters)
Audiobooks: 22
Picture books: 8
Read 25 Books by Black Women Authors: Only read 23
I think next year I won't do the Black Women Authors challenge. I hope I will still read as many or at least a significant number of books by Black women, and I think it's a really great idea. I'm going to resist doing it this year, though, because I noticed a crummy impulse in myself as I was keeping track of the books, like I was "getting credit" for reading books in this category and that feels kinda gross. We'll see how I do without striving for a cookie.
I would like to read more picture books in 2023, and maybe be a little choosier about the graphic novels I read. I really love graphic novels, but I read some clunkers this year. I was also pretty light on nonfiction and I'd like to read a little more this year. In any case, I know it will be another great year of reading! See you next year!
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