The Best Things I Read in 2022
I spent a lot of time reading in 2022. I graduated with my master’s degree in English with a concentration in American literature in May, and my program was heavy with short stories, essays, and research papers. While I never found a great way to track that reading, I did find that StoryGraph was a great way to track the books I read last year.
I was particularly interested in the breakdown in the moods of the books I read in 2022:
This year, I’ll continue reading novels and non-fiction, but I’m going to add one essay, one short story, and one poem each morning.
Here are a few stand-out pieces that I encountered over the year:
Short Stories
A Temporary Matter — Jhumpa Lahiri
Mary When You Follow Her — Carmen Maria Machado
The Yellow Wallpaper — Charlotte Perkins Gilman
Essays
The Christmas Magazines and the Inevitable Story of the Snowbound Train — Dorothy Parker
Non-Fiction
I’m Glad My Mom Died by Jennette McCurdy
Cultish: The Language of Fanaticism by Amanda Montell
Fiction
Sons and Lovers by D.H. Lawrence
Howards End by E.M. Forster
Dubliners by James Joyce
The Push by Ashley Audrain
The Bell Jar by Sylvia Plath
