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#12Booksof2022 🎶 On the ninth day of Christmas my true love read to me, a solitary Swede 🎶

For my twelve, I‘m highlighting my favorite audiobooks of the year. Great books that were all the more enjoyable thanks to outstanding narration &/or production.

A debut novel by a Vermonter. Miller‘s reading at a festival grabbed me. Based loosely on a man from the early 1900‘s who became badly disfigured in a mining accident. He goes to live a solitary life in the Arctic Circle. He gets by over the years through the kindness of several individuals who teach him a variety of lessons. Wonderfully written, the characters are ones we grow to care deeply for.

Not much time to read once the US World Cup game starts, but I‘m tucked up on the couch under a blanket reading about the Arctic Circle and getting excited for the game.

Another Vermonter, Miller was a finalist for the Vermont Book Award and longlisted for the Center for Fiction First Novel Prize. This book, part historic/part novel, sounded fascinating. Of course they had sold out of his book once I tried to grab a copy. Seated beside him was Vermonter Janice Obuchowski who wrote The Woods (out in November. Anthony Marra, who awarded her a prize for her short fiction, called her book “A genuine work of art.”

Good audiobook. Inspired by a real man who, in the early 1900s, left his life in Stockholm to live in the Arctic. His face is disfigured in a mining accident and thereafter builds a hut and lives mostly in isolation (as a trapper) for the rest of his life. The hut still stands, little else is known.

The fictionalized Sven is a great character. He loves books, loves his dog. A story full of heart and adventure as well as quiet and solitude.

Narrow pick. The setting is unusual and characters strong, but it does not have a narrative drive so the storyline meanders. I suppose because it‘s written memoir style that can be expected.

I‘ve been bailing left and right on audiobooks! I nearly didn‘t finish this one. 😬

I can‘t remember where I heard about this book but thank you source! I loved this story because you never knew what would happen next. Fantastic characters and well written. Definitely a winner!!!

This charming novel is very much a character-driven story. I chose it because i'm on a bit of a Nordic reading kick. It definitely delivers. Lots of history, arctic survival facts, and a peek into a world that is rarely seen. I would highly recommend this book to fans of Nordic literature, Eowyn Ivey and dogs.

Audiobook provided courtesy of #NetGalley and Little, Brown and Company

I did not expect to like this book as much as I did, feeling like maybe I wasn‘t the right audience for a story about a man living alone in the Arctic. But this book is all about human connection and it‘s lovely and heartbreaking and the characters are ones I will not quickly forget. Out in October.