Top reads in 2022

My lack of blog entries should demonstrate better than anything that 2022 was a ride. A mostly good one. Some highlights:

• I dipped a toe into local government and built a dream team of talented communications professionals
• I created and drove communications strategy for a high-stakes statewide campaign (Not only did we win - we were the top vote-getter in the state, purr!)
• I deepened relationships with close friends across interest areas - important in your thirties!

And I read.

​I usually enjoy spending endless hours reading with a warm cup of something or other, my fat little pug at my side. 2022 put an end to that, with work days that never seemed to end and my mind refusing to rest. I read ten books this year. Here are the five I liked the most:

Chéri, by Colette
I've established that French literature is my favorite genre of all, and Chéri is no exception. This subtle masterpiece did the job. Highly recommend.

"Life as a child and then as a girl had taught her patience, hope, silence; and given her a prisoner's proficiency in handling these virtues as weapons. The fair Marie-Laure had never scolded her daughter: she merely punished her."

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Another Country, by James Baldwin
This took me nearly five months to read, sneaking passages in ten- and twenty minute increments when I could spare a moment away. Read this if you want to be convinced story book people are real. Incredibly layered and complex queer experiences throughout. 

'Because, you know, when I was in the bathroom, I was thinking that, yes, I loved being in your arms, holding you' - he flushed and looked up into Eric's face again - 'why not', it's warm, I'm sensual, I like - you - the way you love but' - he looked down again - 'it's me, not my battle, not my thing, and I know it, and I can't give up my battle. If I do, I'll die and if I die' - and now he looked up at Eric with a rueful, juvenile grin - 'you won't love me any more. And I want you to love me all my life.'

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Love, by Maayan Eitan
I read this in a single morning at break-neck speed. The lyrical musings of an Israeli sex worker. 

"My girl, my little girl, you told me. What girl? The one you didn't and wouldn't have with me. I cry sometimes when I wash the dishes, I wanted to tell Assaf. No, what i wanted to do was hit him. Aren't you ashamed! Take a look at yourself, he'll say again, aren't you ashamed of yourself. I'll be ashamed. When I stand by the faucet my tears will mix with the soap water, and when I wipe them my eyes will burn." 

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Woman Hollering Creek and Other Stories, by Sandra Cisneros
This was the only book of short stories I read in 2022. The stories feel like Mexico: the sun, the heat, family, history, pain, triumph. 

"I paint and repaint you the way I see fit, even now. After all these years. Did you know that? Little fool. You think I went hobbling along with my life, whimpering and whining like some twangy country-and-western when you went back to her. But I've been waiting. Making the world look at you from my eyes. And if that's not power, what is?"

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Bless the Daughter Raised by a Voice in her Head, by Warsan Shire
Africa, love, loss - all the good stuff. I picked up this book of poems the last time I was in Paris. It's easy to speed through, but so satisfying when you go back for a slow victory lap. 

"Love is not haram but after years of fucking women who are unable to pronounce your name, you find yourself totally alone, in the foreign food aisle, beside the turmeric and saffron, remembering your mother's warm, dark hands, prostrating in front of the halal meat, praying in a language you haven't used in years."