35 Books in 2022

It's the last day of the year! That means it's time for me to assess the books that I read in 2022. I believe that what you read really shapes you. Books affect how you think, and that affects how you act and how you perceive the world. Books change you. Books are important!

Originally I wanted to read 52 books this year: one a week. But sometime in late November I realized I would need to amend my goal because I was way behind. I use Goodreads to track my reading, and I edited my goal from 52 to 35, which happened to match the number of books I was likely to get through by today. And lo, I have just finished "Hamlet: Globe to Globe," by Dominic Dromgoole, and am now able to take a look back. Let's do it in screenshot form!

If you must know, it was "1Q84" by Haruki Marukami that threw me off. That book alone took me at least 2 months to read, mainly because it is 940 pages long. But it was so excellent I didn't want to give up. I kept going and going and going, and it ended up being one of my favorite books of the year. In my Goodreads review I wrote, "The story gently but inexorably connects up the lives of an assassin fitness-instructor, a novel-writing math teacher, and a creepy/pathetic PI. It's a mix of ordinary life plus sex, death, and supernatural weirdness. Murakami layers up the world and events calmly and slowly and creates a unique engaging vibe that kept me turning pages to FIND OUT."

My other favorite from this year was "Shutter Island" by Dennis Lehane, which took me about 2 days to read. My review: "Dammmmmmn, Lehane! Now that's how you write a psychological thriller. Oddly, this book had overlaps with the nonfiction book I'm also reading, which is The Body Keeps the Score, about trauma, PTSD, and the body-mind. Shutter Island covers this same internal territory with an eerie, page-turning plot and a jaw-dropping finish. I really liked (and was horrified by) Mystic River, and I appreciate that Shutter Island is also solid as a book but completely different, set in an insane asylum/penitentiary in 1954."

Some other statistics:

I read 14 novels total, 6 of which were of the spy or thriller genre.

I read 2 showbiz memoirs (Dave Grohl & Barry Sonnenfeld), 3 science books (about climate change, Parkinson's Disease, and PTSD), and 14 books by women. 

I read 2 books about fraudulent financial exploits--one about WeWork and one about One Coin (cryptocurrency). I don't know why, but failure and deceit in the business world tickles me.

I read 4 religious books--two about Mother Mary, one about the Kabbalah (a novel by a rabbi), and one about "Secret Religions" of the UK and US.

I did a terrible job reading books by non-white people--I only see two out of the 35 (I'm counting Haruki Murakami and Clarissa Pinkola Estes). I will do better next year.

So... what did you read in 2022? What did you love? What did you hate? (Me? I hated Cosmopolis by Don DeLillo.) What do you plan for 2023?

Meet Our Rice Cooker!

 Cuckoo!

On a fall trip to H Mart in Burlington, Massachusetts, my companion and I decided to splurge on a small countertop rice cooker. We got the least expensive option because we don't really know anything about rice cookers. We are loving it!

Inner pot is non-stick and has measurement lines for water

Rice is rinsed until water runs clear, then it's ready to cook

We purchased a 15 pound bag of USA-grown rice, and we've been cooking it up 2 cups at a time. The rice cooker is very easy to use--you just rinse the rice a few times in the non-stick inner pot, then fill with water to a specific line on the side of the pot. Then you pick your settings and stand back!

The rice cooker beeps when it's done, and then it counts the hours that it's kept the rice warm for you. (In the photo above, the rice just finished, so it says "0H" meaning zero hours.)

May I say that owning a rice cooker is a revelation in rice cooking. The batches are perfect every time. The cooker has pre-programmed settings for all kinds of things, including baby food-making. So far we have used "glutinous" (which we use for all white rice) and "mixed" (which we use for brown rice).

The Cuckoo rice cooker also has different "speeds" for the rice (my term)--you can use the regular settings and get finished rice in about 30 minutes. There is also a Turbo setting that does it faster, and a reheat setting that can restore cold leftover rice to fluffy, warm deliciousness.

We also splurged on this suction cup rice paddle and caddy (above) that attaches to the side of the rice cooker. This was an excellent purchase because the paddle is always right there when needed.

It's my understanding that rice needs to be fluffed up once it's done cooking. Then it can sit in the rice cooker and be served out as desired. The cooker will keep the rice warm until you turn it off. I am curious how long it's OK to push this holding pattern... should you eat the rice within 3 hours? What about 12? We did find that rice left to warm for 72+ hours (by mistake) is not good.

It's also my understanding that rice needs to be readjusted after removing a portion so that it's all uniform and fluffy again. I got this from Paolo from Tokyo's tongue-in-cheek video called "Why Japanese Wives Hate Foreign Husbands" (one potential area of strife is lack of rice adjustment).

If you eat a lot of rice and have the counter space, I do recommend getting a rice cooker! This is the only one I've ever seen in person, but I really like it.