My top 7 reads of 2022 and how they changed me

I read 56 books in 2022. Here are my top 7 picks and why.

By no plan or expectation, I went from reading here and there, to having a voracious reading year in 2022. Check out why and the full book list here.

One thing I love about books, in contrast to other forms of media, is that they go deeper.

The author had to spend time on the topic, or the journey they take you on.

Therefore you also spend time in the world they create, or inside the knowledge they have spent a lifetime learning.

Books can change you. By way of learning someone's information, seeing through someone else's eyes, hearing their history, being immersed in a new culture, or a different time altogether, you change, you grow, you expand.

To open a good book is to expand your awareness of the world, of yourself, of life itself.

And the best ones elevate the way you think.

Here are my top picks from the books I read in 2022, and why I loved them so much. In the (mostly) chronological order in which I read them.

1. Leonardo da Vinci, by Walter Isaacson

This book was worth the thick volume and the patience to plod through it. I was not one for biographies before this, but now the ability to be inside the mind of a person whose timeless name is one we all know is as appealing to me as a great salad- a wholesome dose of wonder and imperfection that makes me feel healthier on the inside.

"His ability to combine art, science, technology, the humanities, and imagination remains an enduring recipe for creativity. So, too, was his ease at being a bit of a misfit: illegitimate, gay, vegetarian, left-handed, easily distracted, and at times heretical." - Walter Isaacson

Leonardo, whose lack of legitimate surname is not to be used as last name according to Isaacson, proved to be an interesting man, made further interesting by the fact that he was so interested himself in the world around him. He made notes daily, in reverse, to either hide his writings in mirror form, or possibly avoid smudging his precious at-the-time-expensive paper. He asked questions most would not think of, discovered for himself how things work through inventing them, and through dissecting corpses, often illegally. Then he took what he learned, say, about optics, and infused it in his paintings. His understanding of light and the human eye transformed the way paintings were done.

"But I did learn from Leonardo how a desire to marvel about the world that we encounter each day can make each moment of our lives richer." - Walter Isaacson

I greatly enjoyed how Isaacson included Leonardo's famed paintings, and described the secrets that I would not have otherwise seen. This changed the way I saw them. I was able to detect the smudged smoke-like lines that brought the realness to his work. And the way he painted his subjects' eyes in such a way that they feel as though they mysteriously follow you (e.g. the Mona Lisa).

My anatomy-loving self was delighted by Leonardo's tenacity to understand the workings of the human body by dissecting it, and then ability to draw his findings which helped others to understand it too. This convergence of science and art is something that inspires me about Leonardo as a person, even as so much of his work remained unfinished.

If you want to read a biography that makes you more curious about how things in life work, like the tongue of the woodpecker, for example, or the struggle-filled life of one of the most recognized persons of all-time, then this is for you.

2. Several Short Sentences About Writing, by Verlyn Klinkenborg

This book changes the way I approach writing.

Changes, because I still open it from time to time, and get something new, or again.

Without the need for the rules we learned in school, except for syntax,

I now let several sentences try out for the role,

I look for the accurate word to describe what I mean to say,

and can more easily kill the sentence that I initially loved.

His writing melts in my mouth,

And makes me realize my love for the chocolatey potential of the written word

Without the need to overindulge.

3. Educated, by Tara Westover

I'd heard of this book for several years, and even heard Westover on an interview with Oprah, but it certainly wasn't until I was swiftly swept into the depths of the author's small-town, school-less home life as a child that I understood why all the hype.

The fact that this young woman could escape her tyrannical father, head-injured and abusive brother, passive and dutiful mother, and overall family life entrenched in keeping to a false reality status quo, and then write about it with such compassion and eloquence made me finish the audiobook and immediately re-read the pages in written form.

Her story is frequently shocking, and makes it that much more remarkable that she achieved the level of education she did, and is able to write about it so well.

It made me appreciate my own education. And that I've not been sheltered from books, news or the history of the world. Or kept ignorant, unsafe, or under the control of someone who does not know the truth, even and especially under the guise of love and family. It made me understand more deeply the roots of families like hers, and what it means to be able to think for oneself.

4. Exhalation, by Ted Chiang

If you've ever seen the Amy Adams movie, Arrival, then you may be familiar with Chiang as the author of the short story it's inspired by, and in the volume of the same name: The Story of Your Life (story), or The Story of Your Life and Others (book of short stories).

Exhalation is a different volume of short stories, each of which, for me, with the similar allure and captivating thought-provocation as I find every time I watch Arrival (which is at the top of my short list of movie favorites).

The fact that the volume is several short stories was a delightful surprise. You get to glimpse into new and different worlds where, for example, the narrator travels through time in a simple shop mirror, or a universe where you're a robot, self-aware, and discovering that you will soon be running out of what you and your world need in order to live. What would happen if we made virtual pets, and a world where your job is to climb a never-ending staircase and find out what's at the top.

I read both volumes of short stories, and enjoyed both. I might be mixing up the stories in each, but each I highly recommend. Exhalation stands out to me because of the title story, Exhalation, and a few others that I really savored.

Chiang's writing is articulate, his ideas elaborate but believable and grounded in various forms of science. This combination makes me think differently, more creatively, something I love like the connection between time and language (linear versus circular) in Arrival. He follows through on the living details of the journey, and in doing so broadens my idea of bridging science and creativity.

5. The Order of Time, by Carlo Rovelli

While on one of my favorite topics, Time, Rovelli's book came to me interestingly. It was at the bottom of my Libby "to be read" list and I have no idea how I heard of it or when I put it there. Also, I happened to discover it and start it on the tail of a 9 day zoom retreat with this topic: Time. As in, we received teachings and inquired about and experienced time, from the surface level of subjective time, all the way to a moment, timelessness, and no time. It was a trip. And I think because of this awareness, I understood everything in the book. I wonder if I read it now, I might not understand it in the same way.

I started the audiobook, and Benedict Cumberbatch's rich voice began silkily describing the physics and the essence of time. Having grown accustomed to listening to audiobooks on 1.5x speed or so, here I slowed it back down to normal speed, savoring the poetic details from the Italian physicist author, via deep British accent.

I cannot even tell you why I loved this book so much, but enough to order the hard copy for my physical shelf. I think because of my fascination with time, movies about time (Arrival, Back to the Future, Interstellar, About Time), reading several Physics books in the year, and also experiencing the collapsing of time, and the effulgence of time like moments from a fountain during the Time themed retreat.

So this book was, well, timely. And for that reason perhaps alone I loved it.

6. On Writing, by Stephen King

I became interested in writing during the pandemic. Both in doing more of it, and in doing it well. Somehow I stumbled upon Stephen King's solo nonfiction book on, as the title states, writing.

This was interesting because I've never read any Stephen King. I certainly know of him, and have seen several movies. But I'm not a big thriller sort of gal, and I especially make a point to avoid scary stuff during the times when I've lived alone. I figured, based on his many publications, that he definitely knows what he's doing.

This read makes the list because of some of the unique points King makes. He explicitly states to not search for a point or thread for the various childhood stories he shares. We find that he was not obsessed with murder or horror or had anything in his childhood that would make him unwell, other than the interest in the genre.

But it's the way he tells what he tells. There were singular sentences I copied down because they were just so good. He points out that when you present an image in writing, the reader sees it. It's like a weird magic trick, and a way to cheat time (there's that theme again).

The first part of the book was his background, what made him able to do what he's done, I'd say. The second half is his pointers for writing well, like having good syntax, editing, and in this moment I can't remember what else.

But I remember how he wrote- mainly with self-deprecation, honesty, lack of fluff, and stunning imagery.

Clearly, King knows his craft.

7. Lessons in Chemistry, by Bonnie Garmus

This book wowed me with its many great characters- the mom, the daughter, the dog, the coworker, the boss, the neighbor, etc- and really just such a great story.

Few fiction books grip me like this one did, and it sure did. I would read it again, and probably will.

What was it about this book, I'm wondering... ? It was the steadfast woman chemist staying true to herself in an era where women were expected to not be this way or do these things at all. It was the relationships, the kind that go in all directions. It was the humor, the tragedy, the surprise, the outrage, and, of course, the pencil. It was the kind of narration that makes me forget there is an author at all and just get lost in the world that she's created.

Cooking, chemistry, a girl called Mad, a dog named Six-Thirty, a romance, a sporting activity, and so much more.

A few honorable mentions:

The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up, by Marie Kondo

This book is special to me because I found it under a pile of books on my nightstand (so fitting) when I acquired a new bookshelf from my neighbors when they moved. It then sparked my actually doing everything she said in her book. Tidying my home. And life-changing magic it was. Because when you do it like she says, it really is transformational. In the process, I learned about myself. I took the time, through going through my things, to understand what, in fact, brings me joy. I rearranged and re-colored, even dug bright racing flats from the back of a closet and into the light as wearable decoration, my home in a way that's stayed and that makes me very happy. I started with one drawer, and it felt so good I did the rest.

The Subtle Art of Not Giving a F***, by Mark Manson

This I read at the end of the year, so it's still more fresh in my mind than the others. What I enjoyed was his humorous take on some things I've already discovered for myself. But also, that he challenged my notion of caring about everything so much. Perhaps we are all caring about too many things and need to care more about only a few things, and let the rest go. Good words to remember, as I get caught up so easily in worrying what everyone thinks, for example. He has witty, original themes and anecdotes, along with his other book Everything is F*cked, in which I adored the whole thing about Newton's Laws of Emotion. Clever!

The Evolution of Physics: From early concepts to relativity and quanta- Albert Einstein and Leopold Infeld

This took me some time to get through, but I enjoyed that it was written by Einstein himself, and his colleague/assistant. It put big physics concepts into layman's terms. And laid out how physics has changed over time, or at least up until that time (1938). From mechanistic, for example, to relativistic, to quanta, and what that even means. I have not yet read the version with the introduction by Walter Isaacson, but it brings this list full circle.

I read these books last year, and this summary is from the imprint they made.

Again, you know a good book when it's elevated the way you think.

Have you read any of these? Any favorites or interests among them?

Any suggestions I should know about?

I'd love it if you put them in the comments!