Are There Any Books You Read This Year That You Truly Did Not Expect To Read? (11/27/22)

[Marc]

Did you read any books this year that you were not expecting to read or were really surprised to find yourself reading (e.g., an author or genre you wouldn't normally read; a impulse purchase/read; a book a friend or reading group talked you into reading; etc.)? And, if so, was this a pleasant surprise or did it end up being a disappointing (or abandoned) read?

[Ellen]

I never expected to read The Whisper Man by Alex North. My daughter wanted me to read it so we could discuss it. Not a genre I ever read. I found the writing to be surprisingly competent and the story engaging, albeit ultimately predictable (think a compilation of tv crime/serial killer shows, at least from what I've seen of them).

I got bored about 3/4 of the way through but stuck it out and generally enjoyed it, in a popcorn kind of way.

[Robert]

My surprise this year was Philip Pullman’s Le Belle Sauvage - I didn’t expect to like it so much

[Lark]

Adam Bede. It was supposed to be my year of reading Dickens and somehow I swerved to George Eliot, whose writing and intellect always floor me. Adam Bede was the best read of 2022 for me.

[Joy D]

I am in a group that enjoys fantasy and especially books about dragons, which is not my thing at all, but I was talked into reading:
When Women Were Dragons

I was pleasantly surprised to find that it falls mainly in the categories of historical and speculative fiction. It is a book about women and the difficulties they have faced in the past due to systemic discrimination, but it is written in a way that it also pertains to people of color and the LBGTQ community. I ended up liking it much more than expected and gave it 4 stars.

[Emmeline]

I ended up reading two Miriam Toews books (probably three by the end of the year). This was very out of left field as I'd previously read only one, twenty years ago, and didn't like it. Apparently I'm now a big fan.

[Stacia]

The Darkening Ecliptic about a 1940s hullabaloo in the Australian publishing/poetry/art world. (Read because of s.penkevich's excellent review of Ern Malley's Collected Poems.) I thought it was fascinating.

and

The Haunting Fetus: Abortion, Sexuality, and the Spirit World in Taiwan, which I read going down a rabbit hole after reading the Taiwanese horror book Whisper. It was interesting but probably a bit dated.

[Tea73]

I did not expect to ever read Peyton Place but my book club decided to read it this year. I had very mixed feelings about it. It was a page turner, but there were so many unpleasant characters, and a few things that may have seemed okay at the time, seemed absolutely not okay to 21st century ideas about how men get to treat women.