Top Reads of 2022

What are yours?

In her 2018 bestseller, The Library Book, Susan Orlean lovingly describes the weekly piles of books she'd bring home from the library. Forming towering stacks of checked-out books, she referred to them as “totem poles of the narratives” she visited.

I am old enough to have a similar memory--and perhaps that's why even now, I tend to read in narrative clusters. Of course, there will be the occasional diversion off theme, but in general, I am subject-driven in my reading. This year was all about language learning, translation, and Japan. 

What were your favorite books of the year?

Below.... drum roll.... are my top reads of 2022:

Best in Fiction: On Java Road, by Lawrence Osborne

In addition to being called our greatest living expat novelist, Osborne has also been described as the “new Graham Greene.” Maybe that is why he was not shy about naming the main character in his latest novel On Java Road Adrian Gyle.

The quiet Brit?

Gyle, who is a twenty-year expat in Hong Kong, is a bit of a washed-out reporter—even though the Hong Kong of the story is in the midst of an existential crisis that would be a journalist’s dream. The story takes place around the 2019 riots following the Anti-Extradition Law Amendment Bill Movement. Given the region’s experience with extraterritoriality under the Colonial British, it is not surprising that this issue touched such a nerve in Hong Kong. People have taken to the streets night after night as tanks are being rolled out and helicopters roar over the island. The civil discord on the island is also reminiscent of Graham Greene’s Saigon. 

I also LOVED The Last Painting of Sara de Vos
by Dominic Smith

**I am reading Pamuk's new novel, Nights of Plague, which would have been #1 if I’d finished.

Best in Non-Fiction: The Sakura Obsession: The Incredible Story of the Plant Hunter Who Saved Japan's Cherry Blossoms
by Naoko Abe

AND

Barnaby Phillips’ Loot: Britain and the Benin Bronzes & Thieves of Baghdad: One Marine's Passion to Recover the World's Greatest Stolen Treasures
by Matthew Bogdanos,

This winter, I took a class at Stanford Extension called Plundered Art: The History and Ethics of Art Collection. From Nebuchadnezzar, Nero and Napoleon to the Nazis and the present, we examined specific historic cases of art plundering and considered the ethics of such collections in museums to the present day as well as collecting in itself.  The course explored a tangled tale of aggressive collecting, fueled by nationalism and colonialism—not to mention greed.  In some cases, aggressors like Nebuchadnezzar’s Babylon rationalized the plundering of Jerusalem as tribute. While looting has gone on from the beginning of human history, in the last century it has festered as one more legacy of colonialism, a transgression lurking under the surface of many of the great art palaces of the world. Essay at Elektrum Magazine

**I am not finished yet, but HIGHLY recommend Sounds Wild and Broken: Sonic Marvels, Evolutionary Creativity, and the Crisis of Sensory Extinction, by David George Haskell. It is an absolutely gorgeous —but sad—book. Here is his page at Emergence Magazine.

I also loved Impermanence Is Buddha-Nature: Dо̄gen’s Understanding of Temporality by Joan Stambaugh (my essay on Dogen here)

Favorite New Translation:

Fish Swimming in Dappled Sunlight, by Riku Onda/Translated by Alison Watts

(My review in Dublin Review of Books)

Other Japan Stories:

The year also kicked off with my discovery of Keigo Higashino's Detective stories. I enjoyed all four installments of the Detective Galileo books and am thinking of reading his other series, starting with Malice. And I definitely want to read his novel, Nimiya General Store. My favorites were the first two: Devotion of Suspect X and Salvation of a Saint. My least favorite was Midsummer's Equation. I loved the last one, Parade, as well! 

Translations are fantastic! And speaking of great translations and new writers, I really enjoyed these two books by Keiichiro Hirano, A Man and The End of the Matinee. The latter one especially was fantastic and translated wonderfully by Juliet Winters Carpenter. 

I also re-read Jake Adelstein's brilliant and hilarious Tokyo Vice (going to be an HBO series) I started the HIBo series but felt resistent to it.

In other news, I started reading Haruki Murakami’s Sputnik Sweetheart, translated by Philip Gabriel. I am not a big fan of Murakami but am really enjoying the novel—more than I’d expected! I also liked Kafka on the Shore. But I think this is the first of his novels that I can actually say I like a lot.

Also LOVED The Kimono Tattoo
by Rebecca Copeland

In Spring, I read three books written by Americans who taught English in Japan. If You Follow Me was the only novel; while the other two are works of nonfiction: Polly Barton's Fifty Sounds (an award-winning language memoir, which I will write a separate post on later) and Tim Anderson's Gaijin Diaries. Substack Post: If You Follow Me. 

Please tell me your favorites of the year.