It is that time of year when we
- cannot believe another year has gone by and
- simultaneously ponder on what a long year it was.
The quixotic nature of time – once again making a fool of us all.
It is also the time I look back fondly on the books that lit up my inner world, and take a moment or two to jot down all the notable titles, read other people’s lists, and make jolly to-read lists for the coming year, and so much more.
I thought I was scatter-brained, had a lot going on, and therefore, my reading took a hit. But it seemed to be the other way round. Reading, once again seemed to have worked its magic in helping me through 2022.
Non-Fiction
There were quite a few books in this genre. Only mentioning the ones that stood out in my mind for various reasons. (Not because of the content alone, but also time of year when it seemed to have been relevant, how much I managed to absorb of new ideas etc)
- Emperor of Maladies – Siddhartha Mukherjee
- Chasing Science at Sea – Racing Hurricanes, Stalking Sharks, and Living Undersea with Ocean Experts – Ellen Prager
- Secrets of Infinity – 150 answers to an engima – Antonia Lamua – Editor
- A Crack in Creation – Jennifer Doudna & Samual Strenberg
- World Peace – & Other 4th grade achievements – John Hunter – The first part of this article was published in The Hindu titled Collective Effort dated 10th April 2022
- This is your mind on plants – Michael Pollen
- I am not a dinosaur – by Will Lach
Fiction
- The Alice Network – Kate Quinn (this one is a fictional account of real life events of female spies who used to smuggle messages across borders at considerable peril to themselves.) The daughter told me that Audrey Hepburn’s (Of Roman Holiday fame) was also well known for her efforts during this period when she held underground ballet concerts and so on to help people during the miserable times of the Second World War, and many times risked being caught and hoping to get off easily because of her diminutive stature and size.
- Women of Troy – Pat Barker
- A Blizzard of Polar Bears – Alice Henderson (A good racing thriller for airport reading)
- Akimbo and the Elephant – Alexander McCall Smith
- The Blue Book of Nebo – Manon Steffan Ros (What happens after a nuclear war – I am sure many of us have pondered what the aftermath of an apolcalypse would be like. This book that does just that.)
- Young Mozart – William Augel (hilarious! )
- Plus my standard dose of R K Narayan, Miss Read & P G Wodehouse– whose wise and irreverent view of the world, I find refreshing and a regular tonic to life.
Science Fiction:
- Project Hail Mary – Andy Weir
- Daughter of the Deep – Rick Riordan
- Bewilderment – Richard Powers (This is one of the best books I’ve read – highly recommended. Stays with you for a long time)
Special Children’s Books:
- Every Turtle Counts – Sara Hoagland Hunter (lovely depiction of a child on the autistic spectrum – it helps to have neuro-diversity in books so we all know acceptance of diversity)
- Oh! The Places You’ll Go – Dr Seuss
- The Peace Tree from Hiroshima: The Little Bonsai with a Big Story – Sandra Moore, Kazumi Wilds. Tuttle Publishing
- Listening to the Stars – Jocelyn Burner Bell – discovery of neutron stars and being denied the Nobel
- My heart is a compass / Deborah Marcero
- Mr Rabbit and the Lovely Present – Charlotte Zolotov, Illustrated by Maurice Sendak – Caldecott
Poetry:
- Sky full of bucket lists – by Shobhana Kumar (This book went on to the win the coveted Tagore Prize for literature and very well deserved win too)
- A Thousand Mornings – Mary Oliver (esp the fox poem)
- Black candle : poems about women from India, Pakistan, and Bangaladesh / Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni
How can there be no magic in the list?
- Ickabog – By J.K. Rowling
- Tehanu – Ursula K Le Guin
Please share your reads with me. Would love to get started on my reading list for 2023.
Nourish-n-Cherish 
The complete list here – does not mention all children’s books – I don’t jot them all down:
The Ickabog – J K Rowling
The Nature of the Future – Under a White Sky – Elizabeth Kolbert
A Charm of Goldfinches – Matt Sewell
Winter in Thrush Green – Miss Read
A Writer’s Life – Lucy Maud Montgomery
Every Turtle Counts – Sara Hoagland Hunter (lovely depiction of a child on the autistic spectrum – helps to have neurodiversity in books so we all know acceptance of diversity)
Here Come the Humpbacks (Whales) – By April Pulley Sayre
The Book of Beasts – E Nesbit & Inga Moore (Illustrator) – how the dragon pops back into the book 🙂
Flight 714 – Tintin – Herge
The Blue Book of Nebo – Manon Steffan Ros (What happens after a nuclear war)
A Thousand Mornings – Mary Oliver (take the fox poem)
A continual feast : words of comfort and celebration – Jan Karon
World Peace – & Other 4th grade achievements – John Hunter
The Overstory – Richard Powers (starting off with the story of the chestnut)
Einstein’s Dreams – Alan Lightman
Ada’s Galaxies – Alan Lightman
Hidden in Plain Sight – Jeffrey Archer
In Praise of Wasting Time – Alan Lightman
Anne of Manhattan – Brina Starler
Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets – J K Rowling
This is your Mind on Plants – Michael Pollan
Women of Troy – Pat Barker
Thank you Jeeves – P G Wodehouse
Longitude – Dava Sobel
Emperor of Maladies – Siddhartha Mukherjee
This is Home
America the Beautiful
Where do the animals live? – Peter Wohlleben
Whales – Oseid, Kelsey
A Peaceful Retirement – Miss Read
Whale of a Mistake
How to be a good creature – Sy Montgomery
A Blizzard of Polar Bears – Alice Henderson
What is Life? – Paul Nurse
The Alice Network – Kate Quinn
Chasing Science at Sea – Racing Hurricanes, Stalking Sharks, and Living Undersea with Ocean Experts – Ellen Prager
If I Ran the Zoo – Dr Seuss (Caldecott Medal – 1951)
Oh! The Places You’ll Go – Dr Seuss
I Love You Till the Cows Come Home – Kathryn Cristaldi, Illustrated by Kristyna Litten
Jeeves and the Feudal Spirit – P.G. Wodehouse
Bartholomew and the Oobleck – Dr Seuss
If I Ran The Circus – Dr Seuss
Changes at Fairacre – Miss Read
Jeeves and the Feudal Spirit – P G Wodehouse
Designing data intensive applications – Martin Klepper
Emily Dickinson – Edited by France Schoonmaker
The Sequoia Lives on – Joannae Cooke – Booklegger
Dragon – Father & son – Alexandre Lacroix – Ronan Badel (Fun fun fun bok!)
Octopus Stew – booklegger
Yeti and the bird – Nadia Shireen
The Queen of the Frogs – Davide Cali, Illustrated by Marco Soma
Mr Rabbit and Lovely Present – Charlotte Zolotov, Illustrated by Maurice Sendak – Caldecott
If I ran the zoo – Dr Seuss (to find the offending bits)
My Race Against Death – Shoba Rao
Foghorn – Ray Bradbury
Bewilderment – Richard Powers
Singing with Elephants – Margarita Engle
Dear Committee Members – Julie Schumacher
Akimbo and the Elephant – Alexander McCall Smith
Secrets of Infinity – 150 answers to an engima – Antonia Lamua – Editor
The Depth of the Lake and the Height of the Sky – Kim Jihyun (no words – just pictures)
The Happy Hunter – Roger Duvoism
Double Happiness – Nancy Tupper Ling, Illustrated by Alina Chou
The enchanted life : unlocking the magic of the everyday / Sharon Blackie
Searching for stars on an island in Maine / Alan Lightman
Dark and magical places : the neuroscience of navigation / Christopher Kemp
I am not a dinosaur! / by Will Lach ; illustrated by Jonny Lambert ; with a note from Dr. Mark A. Norell
Tehanu – EarthSea Chronicles – Ursula K Le Guin
Young Mozart – hilarious! William Augel
Project Hail Mary – Andy Weir
The Left Hand Side of Darkness – Ursula K Le Guin
The Art of Instruction – Vintage Educational Charts from the 19th and 20th centuries
South Pacific Mythology – by Jim Ollhoff
The Peace Tree from Hiroshima: The Little Bonsai with a Big Story – Sandra Moore, Kazumi Wilds. Tuttle Publishing
BLUE – In search of Nature’s Rarest Color – Kai Kupferschmidt
Mrs Pringle of Fairacre – Miss Read
Big, Small and the in between – Carters Higgins & Daniel Higgins
My Fathers Arms are a Boat – Stein Erik Lunde & Oyvind Torseter
Affairs at Thrush Green – Miss Read
Astonishing the Gods – Ben Okri
Listening to the Stars – Jocelyn Burner Bell – discovery of neutron stars and being denied the Nobel
How to Solve a Problem – by Alexo (rock climber)
Where the Wild Things Are – Maurice Sendak
Bhagawad Gita – Eknath Ekambaram
Ponniyin Selvan (synopsis) – Ramya Mani + Readings by Anand Kumar
A Quiet Mind – Shoukei Matsumoto
The Boy, the mole, the fox and the horse – Charlie Mackery
Changes at Fairacre – Miss Read
Bhagawad Gita – Eknath Easwaran
Hope – Jane Goodall * Douglas Abrams
Bachelors Anonymous – P G Wodehouse
Daughter of the Deep – Rick Riordan
History of Unicorns – By Sarah Laskow
Did I Ever Tell You How Lucky You Are – Dr Seuss
A Crack in Creation – Jennifer Doudna & Samual Strenberg
The Financial Expert – R K Narayan
A Peaceful Retirement – Miss Read
Soundings – a study of whales – Doreen Cunningham
Ara – the dream innovator – Komal Singh
The perfectly perfect wish – Lisa Mantchev, illustrated by Jessica Courtney Tickle
The book of constellations : discover the secrets in the stars / Robin Kerrod
She persisted around the world : 13 women who changed history / written by Chelsea Clinton ; illustrated by Alexandra Boiger
Black candle : poems about women from India, Pakistan, and Bangaladesh / Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni
The sea tiger / Victoria Turnbull
My heart is a compass / Deborah Marcero
Travels in Europe – neither here nor there – Bill Bryson
Hunches in Bunches – Dr Seuss
Celebrations at Thrush Green – Audio – Miss Read
A Sense of Life – by Antoine Saint Exupery
My list:
1. Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire
2. Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix
3. Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince
4. Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows
5. The Paris Library
6. A Little Princess
7. Daughters of Sparta
8. Sea of Trolls
9. Favorite Greek Myths
10. Bookshop of the Broken-Hearted
11. House on Vesper Sands
12. The Paper Girl of Paris
13. The Personal librarian
14. The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue
15. The Littlest Library
16. A Christmas Carol
How lovely to see all the HP books on there Meg. Also, waiting to read Daughters of Sparta. Did you like it?
Going to add The Paper Girl of Paris & bookshop of the broken hearted too 🙂
Best wishes for a happy year of reading in 2023 to you