My Top 5 Books in 2022

 Hello everyone and welcome back to the blog! Today I wanted to talk about my Top 5 Books here in 2021. Admittedly, due to things going on in my personal life, I have not had a lot of time for reading up until now, and I certainly plan on getting back to it, but I wanted to take time today to talk about the 5 best books I have read in my roughly 26 years on this Earth so far! Let's dive into it!

#5 - Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets by J.K. Rowling

I know that quite a few people will not necessarily agree with this (especially after some of the terrible things the author has said), but when you grow up a Potter head and have been reading the books and watching the movies since you were a small child there is no way that this leaves you.

I love this series to death, I disagree with the transphobic remarks made by the author, but that does not lessen the impact of this book series on my childhood. It was the perfect, low-fantasy escape and of course I did spend quite a bit of time as a child waiting for my letter to Hogwarts to come as did so many other people I knew. 

Specific to the 2nd book in the series, the first book sets the tone, but is a little light on the character building and action that the 2nd book has. It takes on so many different genres all within the same book; Fantasy, mystery, murder mystery, action and it just grips you all throughout and it is not the longest book you will ever ready either so that is of course another fantastic bonus for those of us without a hell of a lot of time for reading,

#4 - Indian Horse by Richard Wagamese 

This is a book that I did not read, but listened to on Audible. It is the story of a young Indigenous boy going through life in the residential school system in Canada where it shows in quite a few degrees the horrors of the residential school system which unfortunately I did not know all that much about.

I was engrossed by the story and the late Richard Wagamese did a fantastic job capturing Saul Indian Horse's journey. I do warn those that who want to read this that this book is not one that you read to feel good, but to just feel. You feel for the character when he experiences racism and discrimination as well as a few of the more positive moments when he is doing well playing hockey, but remember the book is about highlighting the fact that he was taken from his family at a young age and FORCED to attend catholic school in order to "beat the Indian out of the child" which was the unfortunate belief by those running these horrific schools. 

#3 - The Catcher in the Rye by J.D. Salinger

This one may come as a cliche pick to some people, but it was honestly the first EVER of the books that we were forced to read in school that I liked. The story of Holden Caulfield, even though he is kind of nothing more than a whiny little 14 year old, does set the stage for something really real. A feeling or set of emotions that most of us are maybe still working through when we get around to reading this book; growing up.

Holden of course being 14 and growing up in the 1940s during the war seems a little more adult than maybe what we would have envisioned other 14 year olds or even when looking back on ourselves at that age. The thing about this book that really got me was looking at the cover (seen in this image on the left) the carousel...it does not even come into play until the very end of the book when Holden takes his sister to the park to ride on it and he sees her (age 10) having the time of her life riding the thing. \

The big piece of this book is two-fold in my opinion; do not be in a rush to grow up, because you are going to not matter what so enjoy whatever moment in life you happen to live in now because it will change in the future without your consent, and secondly, cherish any moments of happiness that you can because those will be important in those darker moments of your life as inspiration to pull you out of any funk.

#2 - The Wizard's First Rule by Terry Goodkind

I love fantasy books and this is the beginning of one of the best fantasy series that I have to believe has ever been written. The Sword of Truth series written by the late Terry Goodkind (who passed in 2020 without any cause of death released) is by far one of the best, long running fantasy series of the past 30-40 years. This series began with The Wizard's First Rule, a book I have read 3 or 4 times in my life and a perfect set piece for the events to follow.

Now, I have yet to read the entire series as of yet, but this is a goal of mine to finish. There are always so many books to read that over the years I start this series and then drifted off to other things, but the fantasy and magic in this series (which predates the number 5 entry on this list) is engrossing and it is the current read for me in order to progress through the series. Richard and Kahlan come alive in the book and their adventures through the boundary and eventually into the Midlands and D'Hara were fantastic and I loved it.

RIP Terry Goodkind (1948-2020)

#1 - 1984 by George Orwell

This one is my most recent read and honestly I do not think there could be any doubt as to it taking the number one spot since this book influenced me wanting to write what can essentially boil down to a modern love letter to this book.

Written in 1949 and the last book that Orwell would write before his death in 1950 was certainly a masterpiece. This is dystopian fiction at its best. Set in the futuristic year of 1984 (which was 35 years in the future when the book was being written) "The Party" rules over the country that the main character Winston Smith resides in (its England despite it not being called that) and The Party also controls everything and is everywhere in people's lives. This is one of those books that really will make you stop and put it down a few times when reading it and just think. It really did that for me!

It is a blown up exaggeration of what a post-WWII soviet communist society would look like (according to Orwell) and due to the time the author was living in I can certainly see his views. This does as of right now rank as my number 1 book of all time!

Next year in 2023 I will want to rank all of the books that I have read in 2022 (so far that is 0 haha!) and so I will talk more about that when the time comes!

Hope you all enjoyed this and maybe you are going to seek one of thee out now? That would be pretty awesome!

See you all tomorrow for another post!