What I Read: 2022

Last year was a bit of a whirlwind in my personal life, as I celebrated my wedding, moved into my new home, and began learning how to be a wife. It's been pretty exciting, and I'm a big fan of the situation, but it was definitely a chaotic kind of year.

I still managed to get through about 60+ books, but there was very little plan to what I was reading. A lot of it was just pleasure reading, or things that happened to strike my fancy at any given time, and I'm not sure how much of any of it really sunk in. But as I gear up for this coming year, I'm hoping to get a bit more organized and intentional in my reading again. I'd like to work through some more of my foundational texts and it's my hope to start writing at least brief reviews of everything I read, as well. In the past, I found that helped me retain things much better and I benefited a lot more from what I was reading; it also helped simplify these year-end reviews!

My most significant accomplishments of the year were finishing Tolstoy's Anna Karenina, as well as Kristen Lavransdatter by Sigrid Undset. Both of these novels are pretty hefty in size, as well as in subject matter, as they chronicle the lives and particularly the marriages of their titular characters. Both were somewhat difficult to read at times, not because they aren't brilliantly written but because the choices made by the characters can bring such second-hand anxiety and shame. However, they are brilliantly written, and they are both books that I plan to return to sooner rather than later, for I don't feel like I gave them their proper due of reflection and appreciation this first time. In a similar vein, I also read Anne Brontë's The Tenant of Wildfell Hall, which I enjoyed so much that I might give the Brontë sisters as a whole another chance (Wuthering Heights and Jane Eyre just didn't do it for me, though it's been over a decade since I tried them). What all three of these books (Anna, Kristen, and Wildfell Hall) have in common is the theme of marriage, and an interesting look at the different wives involved. Anna, Kristen, and Helen of Wildfell Hall have drastically different approaches to their marriages, and yet none of the marriages are easy. If things were easy, it wouldn't be decent fiction, after all. I've also a strong desire to go back and re-read George Eliot's Middlemarch, which I read when I was still single and not even contemplating marriage and now feel like I didn't properly appreciate. 

I will never get over this power of fiction; to drop us into the lives of those who might be so different than us and yet whose actions can also catch traces of our own. It forces reflection and, hopefully, empathy for the struggles of others that we might not otherwise relate to. Thank the heavens, my dear husband is nothing like the men found in these novels, but I might know women whose husbands are. I might know young girls in danger of starting down paths similar to the heroines of these stories, and perhaps now I might have a better appreciation of the impulses that lead to such circumstances. The greatest value that fiction has is the power to help us better understand our fellow humans.

I really got into lady writers last year, which was very satisfying. In addition to those already mentioned, Sigrid Undset and Anne Brontë, I began the year with a deep dive into Flannery O'Connor. I read her novel The Violent Bear it Away, but then also went through her Prayer Journal and essay collection, Mystery and Manners. I dipped into O'Connor's letter collection, as well, and that's certainly something I'd like to return to again. Dorothy L. Sayers has also become a new favorite, not just for her mystery series about Lord Peter Whimsy, but also her non-fiction essays and Christian apologetic work. I read my second Willa Cather novel, Death Comes for the Archbishop, after previously reading The Song of the Lark. I enjoyed both those novels so much that I'll hopefully continue to explore her work, as I've got at least a few more sitting on my shelves. I'm also learning more about the wives of my three favorite writers, G.K. and Frances Chesterton, J.R.R. and Edith Tolkien, and C.S. Lewis and Joy Davidman, which is going to make for some fascinating studies in the future. Joy Davidman in particular has an impressive body of writing in her own right, and more and more studies are coming out about her these days.

While I don't feel like I had an effective "plan" for my reading last year, I do feel like I got in some good ingredients for the "soup" of my writing, and I'm looking forward to developing some of the ideas that have resulted.

Curious about anything in particular from the list? Shoot me an email! info (at) evanswriting.com

Literature

The Saga of the Volsungs
Peter Pan and Peter Pan in Kensington Gardens by J.M. Barrie
A Bear Called Paddington by Michael Bond
The Tenant of Wildfell Hall by Anne Brontë
Fool Moon by Jim Butcher
Grave Peril by Jim Butcher
Death Comes for the Archbishop by Willa Cather
A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens (audio)
Your Fathers, Where Are They? And The Prophets, Do They Live Forever? By Dave Eggers
Chitty Chitty Bang Bang by Ian Fleming
Casino Royale by Ian Fleming
The Stonekeeper by Kazu Kibuishi
Captains Courageous by Rudyard Kipling
Off to be the Wizard by Scott Meyer
Winnie-the-Pooh by A.A. Milne
The House at Pooh Corner by A.A. Milne
Anne of Green Gables by L.M. Montgomery
A Canticle for Leibowitz by Walter M. Miller Jr.
Where the Crawdads Sing by Delia Owens
The Violent Bear It Away by Flannery O'Conner
Tobit’s Dog: A Novel by Michael Nicholas Richard
Redeeming Love by Francine Rivers
Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban by J.K. Rowling
Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire by J.K. Rowling
The Five Red Herrings by Dorothy L. Sayers
Have His Carcase by Dorothy L. Sayers
Murder Must Advertise by Dorothy L. Sayers
The Short Reign of Pippin IV by John Steinbeck
Anna Karenina by Leo Tolstoy
Two Old Men by Leo Tolstoy (short story)
How Much Land Does a Man Need? By Leo Tolstoy (short story)
Kristen Lavransdatter by Sigrid Undset
Candide by Voltaire
Two Old Women: An Alaska Legend of Betrayal, Courage and Survival by Velma Wallis
Our Town by Thornton Wilder
The Lawgiver by Herman Wouk

Non-Fiction

The Woman Who Was Chesterton by Nancy Carpenter Brown
The Gallant Edith Bratt: J.R.R. Tolkien's Inspiration by Nancy Bunting and Seamus Hamill-Keays
Dorothy and Jack: The Transforming Friendship of Dorothy L. Sayers and C. S. Lewis by Gina Dalfonzo
Can't Buy My Love: How Advertising Changes the Way We Think and Feel by Jean Kilbourne
The Truth About Style by Stacy London
Art and Scholasticism with Other Essays by Jacques Maritain
The Upside of Stress: Why Stress Is Good for You, and How to Get Good at It by Kelly McGonigal
Sigrid Undset: Reader of Hearts by Aidan Nichols
Mystery and Manners: Occasional Prose by Flannery O’Conner
George MacDonald: A Biography of Scotland's Beloved Storyteller by Michael R. Phillips
Amusing Ourselves to Death: Public Discourse in the Age of Show Business by Neil Postman
The Intellectual Life: Its Spirit, Conditions, Methods by A.G. Sertillanges
The Man Who Invented Christmas: How Charles Dickens's A Christmas Carol Rescued His Career and Revived Our Holiday Spirits by Les Standiford
The Fourth Turning: What the Cycles of History Tell Us about America's Next Rendezvous with Destiny by William Strauss
How To Tell When You’re Tired: An Examination of Work by Reg Theriault
Who's Afraid of Classical Music? : A highly arbitrary and thoroughly opinionated guide to listening to and enjoying symphony, opera and chamber music by Michael Walsh

Faith

On the Incarnation by St. Athanasius of Alexandria
The Devotion the Sacred Heart of Jesus by Jean Croiset
Smoke on the Mountain: An Interpretation of the Ten Commandments by Joy Davidman
Saint Mary Magdalene: Prophetess of Eucharistic Love by Sean Davidson
Saint Dominic by Sister Mary Jean Dorcy
Theology of Home: Finding the Eternal in the Everyday by Carrie Gress, Noelle Mering, and Megan Schrieber
Chosen and Cherished: Biblical Wisdom for Your Marriage by Kimberly Hahn
The Scandal of the Incarnation by St. Ireaneus of Lyons
Created for Love: Reflections for the Catholic Bride-to-Be by Chloe Langr
The Sanctifier: The Classic Work on the Holy Spirit by Luis M. Martinez
The Search for the Twelve Apostles by William Steuart McBirnie
A Prayer Journal by Flannery O'Conner
Eat, Fast, Feast: Heal Your Body While Feeding Your Soul—A Christian Guide to Intermittent Fasting by Jay W. Richards
The Mind of the Maker by Dorothy L. Sayers
Forming Intentional Disciples: The Path to Knowing and Following Jesus by Sherry A. Weddell