Mr. Krantz

English teacher Mr. Chris Krantz’s top three reads from 2022 are “The Book Woman of Troublesome Creek” by Kim Michele Richardson, “Hamnet” by Maggie O’Farrell, and “Butcher’s Crossing” by John Williams. 

At the top of the list is Richardson’s novel. “Excellent,” he said.“In fact, I’m thinking about teaching it somehow next year.” 

Mr. Krantz has read other novels by Williams, however, “Butcher’s Crossing” stood out the most. “That is an incredible book,” he said.

O’Farrell’s novel is a historical fiction novel, which Mr. Krantz described as a “beautifully written book,” he said. “Maggie O’Farrell imagines Shakespeare’s wife, Anne Hathaway, writing about her husband and their child Hamnet.”

Mr. Krantz recommends these books to “not everyone,” he said, but to “people with a heart big enough to be able to appreciate them.”

For Mr. Krantz, who said he reads about 25 to 40 books on average, books provide more than just information— describing them as a pathway into another person’s life and experience as well as his own. 

“I can’t get to every place on the planet,” he said. “So the closest thing I have is getting inside a book and experiencing that person’s life.”

The experience of reading a physical book is another aspect of reading that Mr. Krantz finds joy in. “I really dig the way the words lay out on a page, the feel of the page,” he said.