These are the books I loved most in 2022. Follow instagram.com/stylechapel for more reviews 📖 #stylechapelreads.
🍋 Still Life
Sarah Winman describes herself as a storyteller rather than a novelist and this epic book was a pure joy to read. Her spellbinding descriptions of the food, the characters (Peg 🤍), and the legacy of art, all made me want to visit Florence again, especially Fiasole. And I really want to buy a handcrafted globe!
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Lessons in Chemistry
💙 Chemist Elizabeth Zott is not your average woman. In fact, she would be the first to point out that there is no such thing. This charming, funny book by Bonnie Garmus tells the story of a research scientist whose career takes a detour when she becomes the star of a beloved TV cooking show. Meet the unconventional, uncompromising Elizabeth Zott. You’ll love her! Think Julia Child meets Beth Harmon (The Queen’s Gambit). In the words of Nigella “I am devastated to have finished it.”
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Hope & Glory
💛 The story is set in Peckham, where Glory arrives home from a glamorous life (if you believe her instagram feed) in LA to mourn the sudden death of her father, only to find that her family has fallen apart while she has been away. Her attempts to reintegrate into London’s British-Nigerian community make this moving debut a real page-turner.
In an interview with WWD, author Jendella Benson said: “I wanted to do something that would celebrate family but not try and make it all rose-tinted and perfect because families aren’t like that. They are complicated, fractured and problematic. But for many of us, they’re still home.” ❤️ I love that and I loved this rich, heart-warming story of loss, love and family chaos.
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Four great holiday reads
Again, Rachel
🧘🏻 If you're nostalgic for the 90s, read this! 25 years after the iconic bestseller Rachel’s Holiday, Rachel’s finally back (with 🐶)... I loved it, full of the classic Marian Keyes wit and compassion.
The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo
👗 If you love old Hollywood glamour, this is the book for you. The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo by Taylor Jenkins Reid is soon to be a Netflix movie. The story centres around a reclusive Hollywood movie icon who is finally ready to tell the truth about her glamorous and scandalous life. It's the perfect holiday read. Follow up with her amazing debut novel Daisy Jones & The Six.
The Vanishing Half
❤️ One of my favourite reads this year. This stunning novel by Brit Bennett is about twin sisters, inseparable as children, who ultimately choose to live in two very different worlds, one black and one white. Bennett is a gifted storyteller and weaves together multiple strands and generations of this family, from the Deep South to California, from the 1950s to the 1990s... you won’t be able to put it down!
Early Morning Riser
☕️ Katherine Heiny is a brilliant writer and this is a gem of a book. Set in small-town America, it’s funny and full of interesting characters who could all have their own spin-off. If you like her style, follow up with Standard Deviation.
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From Syria and Iceland to Nigeria and Moscow
Two Sisters
🇸🇾 A father, his daughters, and their journey into the Syrian Jihad: Two Sisters was written by Asne Seierstad (author of The Bookseller of Kabul). Teenage sisters Ayan and Leila leave their home in Oslo in 2013 to travel to Syria to fight with ISIS. A really interesting story about why so many young people abandon their comfortable lives in the West.
The Sealwoman’s Gift
🇮🇸 This story centres around the abduction in 1627 of over 400 Icelandic citizens from their homes by pirates from Morocco and Algeria. Among those sold into slavery were the island pastor, Ólafur, his wife, Ásta, and their three children. Ólafur wrote about his experiences and his story is well documented in history, but there are no records of his wife’s story. Sally Magnusson has given a voice to Ásta, and has uniquely captured the time and the place.
Americanah
🇳🇬 A powerful, tender story of race and identity by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie (author of Half of a Yellow Sun, another excellent read). Ifemelu is a young Nigerian woman who immigrates to the US where she struggles with racism, relationships and identity. The novel also follows her love story with Obinze — he had hoped to join her, but with post-9/11 America closed to him, he instead plunges into a dangerous, undocumented life in London. Fifteen years later, they reunite in a newly democratic Nigeria. Another brilliant book from a writer with a huge talent.
A Gentleman in Moscow
🏨 Amor Towles tells the story of Count Alexander Rostov. In 1922, he was deemed an unrepentant aristocrat by a Bolshevik tribunal, and sentenced to house arrest for the rest of his life in the Metropol, a grand hotel across the street from the Kremlin. Instead of his familiar suite, his new residence is now a tiny room in the attic. But what a life he creates in that hotel! A real pleasure to read.
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The Eighth Life
Nino Haratischvili's magnificent book is no small undertaking. At nearly 1,000 pages, it's been described as the War and Peace of the 20th century. It’s a masterpiece. An epic saga about a family in Georgia, with the Red Century as the backdrop. From Tbilisi and Moscow to London and Berlin, we learn about the Jashi dynasty (focusing mainly on the lives of the women) and about the history of Georgia with its communist regime and the consequences of the Russian occupation.
It keeps up the pace all the way through. I loved all the little stories weaved in within the bigger family dramas – Haratischvili is a gifted storyteller. The lives of the characters are connected in a really interesting way throughout the book. Beauty, illness, war, corruption, addiction, wealth, destitution, murder, love, loss, power... and hot chocolate. It’s all here.
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The Dictionary of Lost Words
📕 In 1901, the word ‘Bondmaid’ was discovered missing from the Oxford English Dictionary. This beautiful story by Pip Williams is about Esme, the girl who stole it. Esme’s childhood is spent in the Scriptorium, a garden shed where her father and a team of lexicographers collect words for the very first Oxford English Dictionary. It’s a magical place, with books piled high and pigeonholes crammed with slips of paper containing suggestions sent in by volunteers. Esme dedicates her life to the OED, while also secretly compiling her own Dictionary of Lost Words when she sees that many words relating to women’s experiences are often the ones discarded.
This is a lovely read – a blend of reality and fiction – and Esme is a true guardian of words. The beautiful floral pattern used on the cover and endpaper is based on Sweet Briar wallpaper by William Morris.
📝 If you’re intrigued to discover more about the making of the OED, read The Surgeon of Crowthorne: A tale of murder, madness and the Oxford English Dictionary.
The two main characters are highly respected in their fields and possessed with a sharp intellect. Dr James Murray is a talented linguist and the compiler of the OED. William Chester Minor is a retired US Army surgeon... who also happened to be a convicted murderer.
The book charts the making of the OED and how Murray and Minor form a strong bond over a genuine love of words. Murray essentially ‘crowdsources’ the project by asking for submissions from readers around the world and builds a dedicated scriptorium to house all the slips he receives. Minor is a prolific contributor, sending in over 10,000 entries... from his prison cell in Broadmoor. This is an extraordinary true story, through which you also get a sense of what an incredible achievement it was to create the OED.
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Small Things Like These
💚 Claire Keegan is one of my favourite writers. Set in 1985, during the weeks leading up to Christmas, this tender, moving story focuses on Bill Furlong, a coal and timber merchant facing into his busiest season. As he does the rounds, he feels the past rising up to meet him. It’s a powerful story of moral courage: “He found himself asking was there any point in being alive without helping one another?” We are all capable of doing the right thing.
Keegan makes every word count in this novella (only 116 pages), yet it has the feel of an epic Christmas classic. Definitely one to read again and again. 💚
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