Resurrecting, for some reason, an effort to chronicle every book I’ve read since The Lord of the Rings in the spring of 2017. This serves as an extension of my participation in what I labeled the Old Lady Book Club.

Part 1 (2017) | Part 2 (2018) | Part 3 (2019) | Part 4 (2020) | Part 5 (2021) | Part 6 (2022) | “Selected readings from the Old Lady Book Club”

Critical remarks are avoided apart from book club reactions and five- and one-star recognitions. Rereads coopt the register mark and establish that “rereads” and “coopt” are not to be hyphenated.

The year’s legacy: nonfiction is king; giveaways are shit.

Dan Simmons
The Abominable (2013)

Alexandra Petri
Nothing Is Wrong and Here Is Why (essays, 2020) ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

George Saunders
Liberation Day (stories, 2022)

Ben Rawlence
The Treeline: The Last Forest and the Future of Life on Earth (2022) 😐

Anthony Horowitz
Magpie Murders (2016)

Tom Shales
Live From New York: An Uncensored History of Saturday Night Live (2002)

Tana French
The Witch Elm (2018)

Jefferson Flanders
Herald Square (2012)

Michael Diamond/Adam Horovitz
Beastie Boys Book (2018)

Colson Whitehead
Harlem Shuffle (2021)

Mark Frost
The Match: The Day the Game of Golf Changed Forever (2007) ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

Diane Cook
The New Wilderness (2020)

“Captain” Doug Chamberlain
Bury Him: A Memoir of the Vietnam War (2019) ⭐

Philip K. Dick
The Minority Report and Other Classic Stories (stories, 1987)

Marcel M. Du Plessis
The Silent Symphony (2021) ⭐

Hunter S. Thompson
The Curse of Lono (1983)

Douglas Adams
The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy (1979)

Stephen King
1922 (2010)

Yoon Choi
Skinship (2021)

Leigh Montville
Tall Men, Short Shorts: The 1969 NBA Finals—Wilt, Russ, Lakers, Celtics and a Very Young Sports Reporter (2022) ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

Roddy Doyle
Life Without Children (stories, 2021)

Kwei Quartey
The Missing American (2020)

Samanta Schweblin
Seven Empty Houses (stories, 2015/2022 translation)

Stacy Schiff
The Revolutionary: Samuel Adams (2022)

Margaret Atwood
The Blind Assassin (2000)

Kurt Vonnegut (Jr.)
Deadeye Dick (1982)

Lauren Beukes
Broken Monsters (2014)

Tom Wolfe
The Right Stuff (1979) ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

Lindy West
Shit, Actually: The Definitive, 100% Objective Guide to Modern Cinema (essays, 2020)

John Dickson Carr
The Corpse in the Waxworks (1932)

Nikki Erlick
The Measure (2022)

Muriel Spark
The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie (1961)

Caitlin Horrocks
Life Among the Terranauts (stories, 2021)

Erik Larson
The Splendid and the Vile (2020) ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

Malcolm Devlin
And Then I Woke Up (2022)

Jessie Greengrass
The High House (2021) 😐

Tod Goldberg
The Low Desert (stories, 2021)

George Plimpton
Shadow Box: An Amateur in the Ring (1977) ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

Nana Kwame Adjei-Brenyah
Chain-Gang All-Stars (2023)

Josh Malerman
Daphne (2022)

Gilly Macmillan
The Long Weekend (2022)

Shahan Mufti
American Caliph: The True Story of a Muslim Mystic, a Hollywood Epic and the 1977 Siege of Washington, DC (2022)

Paul Tremblay
Survivor Song (2020)

Tom Mead
Death and the Conjuror (2022)

Joe Banks
Hawkwind: Days of the Underground—Radical Escapism in the Age of Paranoia (2021)

Joseph Heller
Catch-22 (1961) Ⓡ

Tom Bissell
Creative Types (stories, 2021)