Book Stats for 2022 Pt. 2

 

Well, I got a little nervous. The blog site looked like it was having trouble posting, so I decided to make two posts for 2022 stats. See the rest of my thoughts here!

 Best in Genre

Continuing the trend of picking a "best in class"; there was, by necessity, some overlap here.

Spiritual Work (besides the Bible): Forming Intentional Disciples, by Sherry Weddell

Fiction (Fantasy): The Hobbit, by J.R.R. Tolkien

Fiction (Classic): The Tenant of Wildfell Hall, by Anne Bronte

Fiction (Historical): Twenty and Ten, by Claire Bishop

[Auto]Biography: A Song for Nagasaki, by Paul Glynn

Philosophy/Lit. Crit.: What Every Catholic Needs to Know about Literature, by Joseph Pearce

Nonfiction: For Women Only, by Shaunti Feldhahn

Reread (besides "Searching for and Maintaining Peace): The Great Divorce, by C. S. Lewis

It was nice to have some overlap after all; it allowed me to list two fantasy books (The Hobbit, The Great Divorce) as winners in different categories. The historical fiction winner surprised me - an extremely short story beat the much-hyped "Hannah Coulter" and the Newbery-award-winning "The Dark Frigate". But, it was the one that I enjoyed most and remember best.

Monthly Winners

January: The Reed of God

February: On the Incarnation

March: The Great Divorce

April: Forming Intentional Disciples

May: Happiness, God, and Man

June: The Discernment of Spirits

July: From Slave to Priest

August: Tenant of Wildfell Hall

September/October (non-Searching for...Peace): The Red Fairy Book

November: Be Healed

December: I, Juan de Pareja

There are only 11 winners here because I had to combine September and October's brackets. Five winners were spiritual, four fiction, one a biography, and one a literary criticism (which could also possibly be considered a spiritual work).

It feels weird looking at this book bracket for multiple reasons. First, it feels weird to have a fictional work with some fantasy elements win as the best book I read this year. Second, it's one of those situations where a different day could have resulted in a different winner. Third, the winner was a reread. Fourth, I know that this bracket does NOT represent some of the best books I read this year. Notable by their absence are "The Hobbit", "Song for Nagasaki", and "What Every Catholic Needs to Know About Literature". Unfortunately, these books didn't win during some months that had multiple incredibly strong reads. "The Hobbit" actually lost out to "On the Incarnation", but I think it's an example of a work that may have won if I'd written up the post on a different day. The two other books both lost out to "Forming Intentional Disciples". April had been a fantastic month for reading.

I think part of the reason why "The Great Divorce" won this year was because I felt some internal pressure to switch it up and not pick a "spiritual work" book. Is this arbitrary? Yes. But it also helped me reach my decision without too much vacillating. Weddell's work, "The Discernment of Spirits", and "I, Juan de Pareja" were (besides the excluded works mentioned in the previous paragraph) works that all could have taken home the grand prize this time.

So maybe I'll make my condensed reading recommendation list right here:

- What Every Catholic Needs to Know About Literature, by Joseph Pearce

- The Discernment of Spirits, by Timothy Gallagher

- The Hobbit, by J. R. R. Tolkien

- The Great Divorce, by C. S. Lewis

- I, Juan de Pareja, by Elizabeth Borton de Trevino

- Song for Nagasaki, by Paul Glynn

- Forming Intentional Disciples, by Sherry Weddell

If you have made to the end here: thank you! Thank you for spending some time to read through my thoughts on books I read over the last year.