[Monday Reading – My 2022 in Books] Favourite Fiction and Poetry Books Read in 2022

Myra here.

It’s Monday, What are You Reading is a meme hosted by Jen from Teach Mentor Texts and Kellee and Ricki from Unleashing Readers (new host of Monday reading: Kathryn T at Book Date). It has been awhile since I joined this reading community and I intend to be more present this year, life circumstances permitting.

Every year, I share a list of books that I found to be particularly compelling. This is not an easy thing to do since my Goodreads stats indicates that I have read 249 titles in 2022. I am sharing my favourites – not across genre as I have done in 2020. Rather, I am following through the #Top21of21 I have done last year by posting my #Top22of2022 in books. This post is dedicated to fiction (both picturebooks and literary fiction) and poetry.

Given our 2022 reading theme on #DecolonizeBookshelves2022 – I made sure that I read quite a number of titles published outside of the US. Essentially, I tried to find books written or illustrated by people who have been colonized, oppressed, marginalized – be it because of their gender, race, ethnicity, religion, sexual orientation, social class, ability, among others. I believe the list of titles here (with the exception of a few) largely reflect that. The list here is not presented in any particular order. I am reserving a whole different post of #Top22of2022 just for nonfiction titles.

1. Lyrics Alley by Leila Aboulela [Amazon | Book Depository] – see my review here.

2. Against The Loveless World by Susan Abulhawa [Amazon | Book Depository] – see my review here.

3. The Following Story by Cees Nooteboom and Translated from the Dutch by Ina Rilke  (Amazon | Book Depository) – see my review here.

4. Invisible Cities by Italo Calvino and translated by William Weaver (Amazon | Book Depository) – see my review here.

5. Breath, Eyes, Memory by Edwidge Danticat [Amazon | Book Depository] – see my review here.

6. Our Sister Killjoy by Ama Ata Aidoo [Amazon | Book Depository] – see my review here.

7. The Winners by Fredrik Backman (Amazon | Book Depository)

8. Katalin Street by Magda Szabo and translated by Len Rix [Amazon | Book Depository] – see my review here.

9. Intimacies by Katie Kitamura (Amazon | Book Depository)

10. Discerner Of Hearts And Other Stories by Olive Senior [Amazon | Book Depository] – see my review here.

11. Holding On by Sophia N. Lee and illustrated by Isabel Roxas (Amazon | Book Depository) – see my review here.

12. Room For Everyone by Naaz Khan and illustrated by Merce Lopez [Amazon | Book Depository] – see my review here.

13. Kakatok-Katok Sa Bahay Ni Benok (Knocking On Benok’s House) by Mon Sy and illustrated by Faye Abantao (Free Download from CANVAS) – see my review here.

14. I Wish by Ingrid Godon and Toon Tellegen and translated by David Colmer (Amazon | Book Depository)

15. Snow Angel, Sand Angel Written by Lois-Ann Yamanaka and illustrated by Ashley Lukashevsky (Amazon | Book Depository) – see my review here.

16. War by Jose Jorge Letria and Andre Letria (Amazon | Book Depository) – see my review here.

17. Nour’s Secret Library by Wafa Tarnowska and Vali Mintzi (Amazon | Book Depository)

18. How War Changed Rondo Written and Illustrated by Romana Romanyshyn and Andriy Lesiv Translated by Oksana Lushchevska [Amazon | Book Depository] – see my review here.

19. Pablo Neruda’s Book Of Questions by Paloma Valdivia (Amazon | Book Depository)

20. A Small Story About The Sky by Alberto Rios (Amazon | Book Depository)

21. The Tiny Journalist by Naomi Shihab Nye (Amazon | Book Depository)

22. The Hurting Kind by Ada Limon (Amazon | Book Depository) – my feature here.

How about you? What is your #Top22of2022?