2022 FAVORITES

I started 39 titles in 2022, one more than last year. It seems like I read a bit less speculative fiction, a bit more Dutch, a bit more non-fiction. That trend might continue, it might not, we’ll see, but I think it’s safe to say Egan, Robinson, Harrison and Flemish authors L.P. Boon & J.M.H. Berckmans will remain regulars on this blog.

---

Before I’ll get to this year’s favorites, a bit of blog stats for those of you who are interested in such a thing. Traffic has more or less stabilized, there’s hasn’t been a spectacular jump as in each of the previous years, only a slight increase. 43,529 views and 23,946 21,108 visitors – about 5000 and 3000 more than in 2022. Lots of the traffic is still driven by my writings on Frank Herbert. The most successful posts I wrote in 2022 were Chapterhouse: Dune, Too Like The Lightning and Seven Surrenders.

As for all-time stats, my most read reviews so far are those for Dune Messiah (4334 views since published), Children of Dune (3589) and Piranesi (3201). There’s 8 posts with over 2000 views, an additional 14 posts with over 1000 views now, and an additional 45 with over 500 views in total. I’ve been blogging for 7 years, and so far I’ve published 297 posts.

---

As always, a big thank you to everyone who has read what I wrote, and an extra special thanks to those that have commented, linked or pressed the like button: much appreciated, it doesn’t go unnoticed. My best wishes to you and yours for 2023 and beyond.

---

---

FAVORITE READS

As for the actual favorite book list: below are the titles I’ve given a 5-star rating on Goodreads in 2022, six books in total. If I had to pick one, I’d go for Lapvona, an absolute joy in its daft & honest brutality, or maybe Too Like the Lightning – a singular, marvelous book that easily outclasses about everything published in speculative fiction these days. Both non-fiction titles deserve an additional highlight here too: monuments to both human intellect and the wonder & incredible complexity of reality.

Honorable mentions for Haushofer’s The Wall (1963), Kay’s The Lions of Al-Rassan (1995), McKillip’s The Changeling Sea (1988), Roger van de Velde’s Recht op Antwoord (1968), Ada Palmer’s Seven Surrenders & The Will to Battle (both 2017), Felix Timmermans’ Boerenpsalm (1935) and KSR’s Pacific Edge (1990), The Years of Rice and Salt (2002) and The High Sierra: A Love Story (2022). All more than excellent reads, well worth your time.

Click on the covers for the review.

Lapvona –  Otessa Moshfegh  (2022)
What can I say? I read numerous year-end-lists of respectable publications, and so far this one seems to be ignored, even though Moshfegh’s previous book was basically the most top-listed book of 2018. I’ve bought My Year of Rest and Relaxation, and I plan to read it soon, but I can see Lapvona being a bit too far out for the literati crowd. Lapvona takes no prisoners and features depravity and truth. Not an easy mirror to look into, especially not if you’re unable to acknowledge reality. At a given moment, an old woman pisses on a flat rock so she can use it as a mirror. I’m sorry if I spoiled that scene, but I don’t know of a better litmus test for this triumph of a book.

---

Too Like the Lightning – Ada Palmer  (2016)
I can’t think of a speculative fiction book that’s better constructed than Ada Palmer’s debut. As you’re discovering some amazingly intricate and clever world building with fascinating characters and some equally titillating mystery, at the end of the novel you realize you’ve actually been reading a whodunit too. Even though the remaining 3 books in the series aren’t perfect, Palmer is a major talent, and I’ll blindly buy whatever she publishes next. Don’t be scared away by the supposed mannerisms & 18th century pomp: this is very much a book that is more than the blurb and the pitch, and likewise much more than this short write-up. Do yourself a favor, click the cover, and read my full review.

---

We Have Always Lived in the Castle – Shirley Jackson  (1962)
A classic, and deservedly so. It’s all pretty straightforward: abandoned kids in an abandoned house, sisters on the fringe of social reality. It’s not that original anymore, basically a trope in and of itself, but Jackson manages to evoke self-chosen exile, a neurodivergent fate, being an outcast, the hermit life, teenage alienation, trauma, and all that, in a short book that’s more than the sum of those buzzwords. What’s the difference between democracy and mob rule? “Jackson registers and keeps moral condemnation of the page – something that seems harder and harder to do this day and age of internet fueled outrage.”

---

How Molecular Forces and Rotating Planets Create Life: The Emergence and Evolution of Prokaryotic Cells – Jan Spitzer  (2021)
I  guess the title says it all. Spitzer is a polymer chemist writing largely outside of academia, and as a retired engineer, he’s not some desk scholar needing the publication tally. It makes him the ultimate guy outside the system, without skin in the game – the game being origin-of-life studies. Spitzer wrote a extremely detailed, convincing book – convincing the editors of the prestigious Vienna Series in Theoretical Biology series too. He draws attention to the molecular complexity of the prokaryotic cell. Forget all those popular theories: the emergence of life wasn’t a matter of getting from the simple to the complex, but from stabilizing something inherently complex into a structure that can reproduce itself.

“But the second thermodynamic law makes it so that molecules that are ordered neatly (like in phase separated systems) tend to become less ordered, making cellular life impossible. The question then is, how come cells don’t disintegrate, but, even more important for origins research, how come they did get ordered in the first place? And where did the energy come from to do so?”

---

Menuet – Louis Paul Boon  (1955)
Boon won the Noble Prize, but he drank himself to death before the award ceremony, so the committee had to pick another winner in 1979. This short book, a novella according to contemporary standards, was translated into English, French, German, Swedish, Hungarian, Polish, Danish and Italian. If you’ve mastered any of these languages, do yourself a favor, and hunt a copy down. Menuet has three chapters describing the same events through the eyes of each of the main characters: a man, a wife and their young maid. The obvious yet brutal lesson Boon offers his readers that we don’t know each other like we think we do: we all are who we are, and we can’t help it – simple as that. I don’t think I’ve ever read a book that better captures the dynamics of a romantic relationship, even though Boon’s outlook is more bleak than my own.

---

The Evolution of the Sensitive Soul: Learning and the Origins of Consciousness – Simona Ginsburg & Eva Jablonka  (2019)

A mammoth, years in the making, with an enormous scope and a baffling attention to detail. “The book has two distinct parts: the first a history of the biological conceptions of ‘consciousness’ and some of its philosophical foundations – from Jean-Baptiste Lamarck, Herbert Spencer, Charles Darwin and William James, via Pavlov and Skinner to contemporary neuroscience. The second part looks more closely at major (neuro)biological transitions in the evolution of the mind, and basically sketches the evolution of neural systems and how learning ties into that. It should be stressed that most of the book is about minimal animal consciousness, not about human consciousness.” Jean-Pierre Changeux, honorary professor at the Pasteur Institute in France wrote it’s “the best synthesis I know about consciousness.”

---

---

I didn’t finish 8 books in 2022: Iain Bank’s debut, The Wasp Factory, Zelazny’s This Immortal and – unexpectedly – Harrison’s Empty Space, plus three non-fiction titles: Tomasello’s 2022 The Evolution of Agency: Behavioral Organization from Lizards to Humans, the 2017 collection From Matter to Life: Information and Causality, edited by Sara Walker, Paul Davies & George Ellis and We Know it When We See it by Richard Masland, a book from 2020 on vision and the brain.

I also started The Mirror and The Light a few days after Hilary Mantel died, but I only managed to read 50 of its 883 pages and so I refrained from writing a review. A huge let down, as the previous 2 installments of Wolf Hall resonated mightily with me. Mantel’s final tome started to drag at page 20. I was bored out of my mind quickly after the execution scene – which was absolutely brilliant by the way. Tedious, self-absorbed writing. Should I’ve pressed on? I doubt it. If you can’t sell 883 pages to a fan in the first 6%, you’ve probably dropped the ball for the remaining 94% as well. Crude metrics, I know, but my time on this planet is limited.

The worst book I did finish was Children of Time by Adrian Tchaikovsky: what a load of baloney disguising as serious scifi. 

Other disappointments were two final books of two great series: Frank Herbert’s Chapterhouse: Dune (1985), and Ada Palmer’s Perhaps the Stars (2021). I wrote 5500 words on Palmer’s tome, mainly zooming in on theodicy, one of the fundamental ideas underlying this series, and a whopping 10,700 on Chapterhouse: an assessment of that book’s shortcomings, plus an examination of the Bene Gesserit, the obscure & conflicted nature of Mentats, Herbert’s obsession with bureaucracy and some other stuff.

---

Besides those, I didn’t write any other very long reviews in 2022, except the posts on those 2 non-fiction books, the Spitzer and Ginsburg & Jablonka: those include lots of lengthy, interesting quotes. Anyhow, if you’re interested, here’s an index of my longer texts, with a short description for each, and an index of my writing about non-fiction.

---

To end the book section, a shot of most of my current TBR – art books aren’t pictured, neither are some Flemish books I have yet to read. The non-fiction titles are in the lower left corner, non-genre and some fiction in Dutch in the right column. There were 128 titles in last years picture, and this on has 128 too. My target for next December is 120 books. Should be doable. Some of these books have been on my pile for years, maybe I should stop kidding myself, and make time for a decent whittle. If you’d like any of these fast-tracked for a review, don’t hesitate to comment, I’ll see what I can do.

If you click on the picture, you’ll be taken to a high resolution image.

---

---

NON-BOOK FAVORITES

album of the year

Big Thief – Dragon New Warm Mountain I Believe in You  (4AD)

It’s been a long, long time since I discovered an new artist that resonated so deeply with who I am. Adrianne Lenker plays guitar and sings in Big Thief, and this double album is their best yet. I was aware of their previous output, but not really, hearing a song here and there, being told their albums are great, but I never really investigated and it never clicked. Some freak event made me listen to Dragon New Warm Mountain I Believe in You, and a couple of songs in I knew I had struck gold. A playful, diverse record, and yet serious as well. I’ve since bought every other Big Thief album, and all of Lenker’s solo albums, and I’ve gobbled them all up, each different enough, powerful. Dragon New Warm Mountain… is her towering achievement so far.

Let me spell it out loud & clear: I think Adrianne Lenker is the best songwriter of this generation. Big Thief has recorded 5 albums since 2015, and Lenker did 3 additional solo albums since 2014, and there’s not one subpar song on all of those. 96 worthwhile tracks in 8 years. It’s beyond belief if you think of it.

I sound like a fanboy, and I am. There’s something to Lenker’s music that just resonates deeply with me, and it might resonate with you, if you’re into the likes of Elliott Smith or Nick Drake or even Dinosaur Jr. Not that Big Thief’s a mixture of those, there’s more Americana & country in it, more indie pop, more feedback & jamming too live lately it seems. I’ve watched countless of live performances on YouTube, and I can tell you Lenker is for real. Honest. Fragile. Rock solid. A heartfelt, genuine musician and lyricist, in search for who she is, backed by a loving band of brothers, not afraid to stumble. Zero of the hubris & carnaval of pop stars that sing songs written by their producers.

As far as finding a new voice in popular music goes, Big Thief is probably the most important discovery of the decade for me. I’d have to go back to Joanne Newsom’s Ys in 2006 since I’ve encountered someone writing pop/rock songs that are genuinely as good and singular as Adrianne Lenker’s – especially as an oeuvre.

---

other notable 2022 albums

Rosalía – Motomani  (Columbia)

A big pop record, maybe the most mainstream title I’ve ever listed in a post like this. Her third record, Motomani is a rich rollercoaster cocktail of reggaeton, bachata, salsa, electro, hiphop, flamenco and what have you. Very intelligent, infectious, and Rosalía’s voice is authentic. Boisterous, groovy, at times fragile too – never boring, always showcasing new ideas, Motomani screams out a love for music & glutony for life. Remarkable, almost avant-garde in its conception. In a way, the cover says it all. She’s already a superstar, and it will be interesting to see what she’ll do next.

 

---

Quentin Tolimieri – Monochromes  (elsewhere)

Tolimieri himself has said that “It always felt to me that the piano was a bit limited by a kind of music history embedded in its construction: equal temperament, a particular kind of tone quality, etc., even the way the keys are laid out is not from any kind of acoustic necessity but is, rather, a representation of European harmony. However, I began to realize that the piano is actually filled with all sorts of sounds, sounds that we don’t really hear or focus on because of all of the structural/linguistic things going on in music, for example a particular melody, a particular harmonic movement, a particular rhythm, a particular formal change. I started thinking if I could eliminate as many of these structures as possible I could start hearing these sounds more clearly. Almost as if, if I could remove the language, the syntax, the grammar, etc., I could hear the actual voice.”

John Eyles wrote the following on this triple album of solo piano music: “With Monochromes it seems as if Tolimieri is not giving his opinion of the piano but has taken action to break away from its limits; the end results are a considerable distance away from the vast majority of solo piano music. As with any innovation (or revolution), it may take some years for the effects of this album to be fully appreciated. In the meantime, it seems certain to provide much long-term pleasure.”

I would not call this album a revolution, but there definitely is a singular, thrilling quality to Tolimieri’s rigorous aesthetic.

---

Bruno Philippe  – Johann Sebastian Bach: The Complete Cello Suites  (Harmonia Mundi)

I own some of the classic recordings: that of Casals, Rostropovich & Yo-Yo Ma, and I also have the Kuijken. This new recording of Bruno Philippe, born in 1993 in France, and laureate of the prestiguous Queen Elizabeth Competition, can really hold its own.

It’s fresh and crisp and clear and “lively and gutsy” and the recording sounds absolutely great. I lack expertise to really write an analytical appraisal of this recording, but I know what I hear, and what I hear, I like a lot. It has been my go to recording for the cello suites ever since I got this album.

---

Honorable mentions: Subtractions by by Greg Stuart on New Focus Recordings – a sensitive, thoughtful solo percussion record with two pieces by Michael Pisaro and Sarah Hennies; Terry Riley’s Keyboard Studies performed by John Tilbury and Hope Lies Fallow by Johnny Chang & Keir GoGwilt, both on Another Timbre; Éliane Radigue’s Occam XXV for organ, performed by Frédéric Blondy, released by Organ Reframed; and the latest of French metal trio Deathspell Omega, The Long Defeat – seemingly more generic & less complex than their previous work, but in fact a bluesy and proggy incarnation of their dissonant black sculpture about our dying civilization.

---

older music discovered this year: highlights

This year my main discovery was the work of Adrianne Lenker and Big Thief, as I explained above.

Because of Albert Ayler I finally explored some of jazz trumpetist Don Cherry‘s solo work: Brown Rice, Where is Brooklyn?, Eternal Rhythm, Complete Communion and Symphony For Improvisers. All excellent, some even essential for any serious fan of adventurous jazz. A few of these titles were reissued last year in HatHut’s ezz-thetics series. As for jazz, Bap-Tizum by The Art Ensemble of Chicago is also worth mentioning.

The contemporary saxophonist & sound artist Matana Roberts has released four albums in her Coin Coin series, each of them are different. Evocative, rich music. I was equally impressed by trumpet conceptualist Nate Wooley’s solo box set The Complete Syllables Music, even though the palette on display is more severe & rigorous than that of Roberts.

Their first album didn’t do anything to me, but Philadelphia’s Pissgrave‘s sophomore effort, Posthumous Humiliation did click. Don’t expect something new or original, just good riffs & fresh, violent death metal. This album evokes awe & power in my brain, and some of the brutality that is reality.

To end this section, two homegrown releases. Pop music’s preferred format is the single. For years I’ve been exposed to their music on the radio, but this year something made me check out their full album output. Both Balthazar’s Rats as Eefje De Visser’s Bitterzoet are solid pop records. I’d even say Balthazar’s second album is stellar – a warm indie record with soulful arrangements that have a bit of chamber music feel at times. Aside from the Big Thief, it is the record I listened to most this year.

---

television

Almost defying belief, s6 of Rick and Morty again delivered – we know what to expect from the show by now, yet all episodes continued to showcase an insane amount of creativity, and at times say deep stuff about humanity & reality too. I just discovered Solar Opposites, co-created by Justin Roiland, one of Rick and Morty‘s creators as well. I’ve finished the first season, and while it is cut from the same cloth, it’s a bit darker and more brutal than R&M, and I’ve read that it becomes its very own thing in season 2 & 3.

Better Call Saul came to an end. All things considered it’s one of my favorite shows ever, but somehow I had expected more from the very final episode.

---

documenta fifteen, Bodys Isek Kingelez, 2 masks, a Buddha & Spirit Island

In 2017 I wrote that “Documenta 14 was overall boring & often pretentious – at least in Kassel, as we didn’t visit the Athens’ part. Highly political, but preachy, and mostly just surface level activism: as if making art with reindeer skulls about Norway’s policies will save future animals. I’ve visited 4 editions, starting with Documenta 11 in 2002, and with each edition the overall quality has declined: too much message, not enough form. There were two redeeming pieces though, maybe unsurprisingly documentaries, as in that medium an interesting subject often sells itself.”

I’m sad to report that Documenta fifteen continued this trend. We went in July, and this edition there were no redeeming pieces at all. None. Just didactic screams. I acknowledge art always has a political angle, even art that is purely esthetics, but I feel we’ve more or less hit rock bottom, and as a result lots of things shown at Documenta 15 simply fall outside what is generally understood to be contemporary art in the Western tradition. Activism & documentaries with a small esthetic component don’t cut it. Obviously the conception of art itself is not static, but I doubt this trend away from beauty – or at the very least aesthetics – will be able to produce a lot of sublime experiences, which to me still seems to most important reason people visit exhibitions. Or, as Adrian Searle noticed: “Words, words, words. So many words everywhere in Documenta 15; it is a wonder anyone has time for anything else.” The fact that an event like this doesn’t show non-political works anymore is becoming toxic in and of itself. The idea of lumbung – the main concept of the curators, ruangrupa, a collective from Jakarta – turned out to be not merely a social practice about collective deliberation, but something incestuous.

Ironically, the artworks that had the most profound impact on me this year was work by Bodys Isek Kingelez at the Middelheim Museum in Antwerp, two ethnic masks at a Picasso exhibition in Brussels, and a small standing Buddha statue from the 7th-11th century showing a double vitarka mudra. They all prove you can perfectly work outside the Western hegemony and still produce meaningful beauty without words or posturing.

---

2022 also was the year I discovered Eric Reuss’ Spirit Island, a great, challenging board game and another testament to human imagination & creativity. I wrote a glowing review here. I can’t wait for the expansion Nature Incarnate to hit the shops later this year.

---

Other 2023 stuff I look forward to: Grebbeberg, the new Sammath album, Meganets by David Auerbach, new seasons of Succession, Rick & Morty and Solar Opposites, and let’s hope Dune: Part Two and Oppenheimer won’t be butchered in the process.

 

---

Here are my previous year-end roundups: 2021, 2020, 2019, 2018, 2017, 2016, 2015.

If you’re interested in my other favorite lists, they’re here.
Here‘s the index of all reviews, alphabetically by author.

Or click here for an index of my non-fiction or art book reviews only, and here for an index of my longer fiction reviews of a more scholarly / philosophical nature. Finally, here‘s an index of my reviews about literature in Dutch.

Advertisement