Reading Highlights From 2022
This year, I somehow managed to read 70 books, just like I did last year. I can’t go through all of them here, but you can check out my Goodreads Year in Books for more.
I’m saving two of the last books I read this year for my best-of-list, but here are some of the highlights. These aren’t books that necessarily published in 2022, but I read them for the first time this year.
Christianity and Liberalism by J. Gresham Machen — Machen wrote his classic nearly 100 years ago, but as I read it (actually listened to it), I was astounded at how much of it was perfectly applicable to today. Machen argues that theological and cultural liberalism isn’t compatible with Christianity, and he hits the nail on the head more often than not.
Leave the Gun, Take the Cannoli: The Epic Story of the Making of The Godfather by Mark Seal — This year marked the 50th anniversary of the release of Francis Ford Coppola’s classic motion picture The Godfather, and this wonderful book extensively details the history of Mario Puzo’s book and Coppola’s film version. From the beginning of Puzo’s attempts to become an important novelist to the award season where The Godfather captured armloads of trophies, the story is told. It’s as epic as the fictional tale of Vito Corleone himself.
Church History, Volume One: From Christ to Pre-Reformation: The Rise and Growth of the Church in Its Cultural, Intellectual, and Political Context by Everett Ferguson — I’ve been interested in church history for a long time now, and I had bought a two-volume church history text in 2021 but didn’t get started on it until this year. I’ve learned so much about the early history of the church that I never had the opportunity or occasion to learn, and Ferguson’s writing is terrific.
I started reading the second volume, by different authors, later on in the year. It’s a much slower and less interesting read, so I might finish it in 2023.
Here are two books that connected with each other in ways that I didn’t expect…
Ian Fleming by Andrew Lycett — If you know me at all, you know that I’ve been a huge fan of the James Bond movies most of my life, and I even read eight of Ian Fleming’s novels but didn’t know much about the man behind them.
I’d had Andrew Lycett’s biography of Fleming for a few years but hadn’t read it until this year, and I loved seeing how he interacted with many of the leading British figures of his time, which also leads me to…
Do Let's Have Another Drink!: The Dry Wit and Fizzy Life of Queen Elizabeth the Queen Mother by Gareth Russell — Back in the fall, I heard an interview with Gareth Russell on Charles Cooke’s podcast and knew I wanted to read about the Queen Mother. I’m glad I got the Audible version because the narrator reads it like a set of gossipy stories, and her accents were tremendous. I don’t use the word “rollicking” much, but it’s the perfect way to describe this biography in anecdotes.
The Last King of America: The Misunderstood Reign of George III by Andrew Roberts — By far the longest book I read all year, this biography of George III was truly fascinating. Here in the U.S., we have this perception of George III as an uncaring monarch who pushed us into revolution, but from Roberts’ perspective, I believe that the government of Britain bore more of the blame than did the king.
One of the fascinating things about the book is the account of the American Revolution from the British perspective, even if Roberts writes with a slight anti-colonial bias. As I wrote in my Goodreads review, “It's clear that Roberts leans to the British side when discussing the American Revolution — including a certain amount of what-if-ism and pointing out where the American patriots were ‘wrong’ — but that's easily over looked.” Nevertheless, I enjoyed this book.
A Billion Years: My Escape From a Life in the Highest Ranks of Scientology by Mike Rinder — I’ve been fascinated by Scientology and the attempts by many of its highest adherents to escape this abusive cult. Mike Rinder’s account of his time in Scientology is mind-blowing and harrowing. I found myself rooting for him to make his way out of Scientology even though I had heard shorter versions of his story before.
Photo by Christin Hume on Unsplash