2022 Book Reviews

Presenting my top 5 books of 2022. The top 2 both just happened to start with the word "Gentle." 

First, A Gentleman in Moscow.

I must say, the trite, almost yawn-worthy cover of this book is a poor representation of the treasure within it. You may pick it up expecting a light beach read—to which I’m rarely opposed during certain seasons, when in need of a literary “palette cleansing”—but I hadn’t the slightest inclination that its pages would contain so much more than a conglomerate of predictable storylines you wouldn’t bother to protect from sand and saltwater. 

I read in a book once (because naturally I would need to reference a different book in order to describe my praise of another) a story of a woman who was training her niece to write, and part of her training included copying down an entire book word for word (in the niece’s case, it was The Great Gatsby), much like students of art emulating the works of the great painters.

This is one of those books I would love to copy word for word. Just to bask in its glorious language, its flavorful scene-setting, its heart-piercing authenticity layered within the wallpaper of this endlessly captivating hotel and the lives within it.  Or, if nothing else, for the transcendent two paragraphs describing the experience of sampling a flawlessly crafted boulliabaise.

All in all, this is a story that asks the question, "where is home?"

And then, there's Gentle and Lowly. For many of you I'm sure it needs no introduction; if you haven't read it, I bet you've already been told that you should. It'd be impossible to choose a "favorite" sentence or passage to pluck out, but perhaps this one would be an appropriate synopsis of the theme of the book: 

"Let Jesus draw you in through the loveliness of his heart. This is a heart that upbraids the impenitent with all the harshness that is appropriate, yet embraces the penitent with more openness than we are able to feel. It is a heart that walks us into the bright meadow of the felt love of God. It is a heart that drew the despised and forsaken to his feet with self-abandoning hope. It is a heart of perfect balance and proportion, never overreacting, never excusing, never lashing out. It is a heart that throbs with desire for the destitute. It is a heart that floods the suffering with the deep solace of shared solidarity in that suffering. It is a heart that is gentle and lowly." 

There are many experiences that God uses to remove the scales from our eyes and enlighten us to a new understanding of the gospel. This book is just one of them, and even on the second reading I was enlightened all over again. If you are a sinner and sufferer, AKA a human, I highly recommend this book. Moreso than the first one, but you should read them both. 

Please give me recommendations for next year, although my list (and bookshelf) is already quite stacked with all the ones I didn't have time to read this year. So much to read, so little time :)

P.S. Just a note about Crying In H Mart:

I had never heard of Michelle Zauner or Japanese Breakfast prior to reading it. What made me want to read it? A) the fabulously conceptual cover design and B) the title- because as someone who also knows how it feels to find oneself with tear trails down one’s cheeks in the most inexplicable places, I felt that I already had an understanding of the pain this woman must be carrying.

Turns out I didn’t. Because I have no earthly concept of the pain one carries after losing a parent to cancer and would never presume that our pain looks the same— but my heart was so moved by her story and the way she used words and music to process her profound grief and her complicated relationship with her mom. She is only a year younger than me and despite our difference in cultural background, ethnicity, spiritual beliefs, life paths, careers, you name it… there was something in her raw vulnerability that confirmed my belief in the thread that unites all of us: brokenness. And food. But mostly, the ache that stems from needing rescue. It saddened me knowing her story would have looked a lot different had she had the hope of the gospel to cling to while watching her mother die, but I honestly think there was a glimmer of awareness in her… the awareness we all need to have before faith can come. Who knows, maybe it could come for her one day.