What a reading year it’s been! 2022 saw the publication of so many wonderful books: I loved SO MANY and once again had a terrible time narrowing down my list to a reasonable, shareable number. After much obsessing and crossing-outing I’ve finally landed on fifteen superlative titles I read in print, which I’m sharing today, and nine superlative audiobook selections, which I’ll share next week.
That makes for a total of two dozen favorites, which is undoubtedly a lot, and yet represents only 10% of the books I read this year: the year isn’t quite over but I expect to come in at about 220, which is fewer titles than I’ve read the past few years. In 2020 I read 300 books, which I thought was too many. (I tell you why in that year’s favorite books post.) In 2021 I read just over 250.
Why did I read fewer books this year? It wasn’t because I didn’t have seemingly endless enticing options in front me! I believe my relatively low tally is partly due to the fact that in 2022 I made a concerted effort to not shy away from long books: I read many novels and narrative nonfiction works over five hundred pages, and several nearly twice that long.
I haven’t run the numbers, but I also believe I read fewer total pages in 2022. For various personal and professional reasons, I read an absurd number of articles this year: and while these pieces are often interesting and enjoyable, they don’t get logged as books read. I also dedicated a whole lot of what used to be reading time to helping my kids with homework and college applications.
I know some of you know exactly what I’m talking about when I say that nothing has impacted my reading time this year as much as those college applications! My second-born is a high school senior this year, and since her brother already went through this process two years ago, I thought I knew what to expect. I was wrong: every kid has their own path, and my daughter’s chosen field of study (and its specialized schools and programs) requires much more of its senior applicants than those my son, a happy history major, demanded. This means that instead of reading on the sofa for an hour each night this fall, I was often reading through program requirements, essays, or sample portfolios. And that’s on top of regular homework help for all three kids still living at home. It was my pleasure to offer assistance, and also, as someone who enjoys reading (and, in a very real way, needs to read for work), it’s important to understand where my time goes, and which factors impact my reading life.
I may have had less reading time this year, but I’m satisfied with how I spent it. I read so many good books, and while I once again enjoyed a pleasing variety of old and new across a whole lot of genres, I couldn’t help but notice the frequency with which I gravitated towards stories of complicated relationships.
For this year’s favorites list, I once again prioritized books with staying power and emotional resonance; ones with admirable craft, that I enjoyed reading, and that I found myself returning to in my mind—even long after I finished the book.
I track my titles in the My Reading Life book journal, and put a simple star by especially noteworthy titles. Despite my best efforts at record-keeping, I’m probably forgetting a favorite here, because I always do. Luckily I’ll have plenty more opportunities to talk about books I love!
I would love to hear your favorite books of the year in the comments section.
All books featured here were chosen because I loooove them. If you buy something through our retail links, we may earn an affiliate commission. More info here.
We're beginning with one of just two rereads on my 2022 favorites list. We hosted author Hala Alyan in the Modern Mrs Darcy Book Club several weeks ago, so I read this again to prepare for our conversation—I think I enjoyed it even more my second time through. This is the multigenerational story of the complex Nasr family, with its Syrian mother, Lebanese father, and three adult children in Brooklyn and Beirut. I loved how the nearly five-hundred page length gave Alyan room to explore each family member in all their complexities—the secrets each is hiding from the others, the long-held hurts and resentments simmering just below the surface, the exasperating familial dynamics they all seem powerless to overcome. If you love dual timeline historical fiction or books about sibling relationships, take a close look at this one. More info →
Another reread, but that hardly counts since while I've now read this book twice, both readings were in 2022. I sat down with this book, Strout's latest in the loose Lucy Barton series, on a Saturday afternoon—and I read the entire thing without getting up because I couldn't bear to put it down. It is a pandemic story, following Lucy as she escapes with her companion from New York City to the coast of Maine. The conversations in this book are about the pandemic, but also about the fragility of life and what it means to be in relationship with others, and I found it touching, tearful, and ultimately life-affirming. More info →
This new 2022 release made me an instant Julie Otsuka fan: I laughed, I cried, I dove into her backlist. This slim story begins with the collective narrative of the devoted regular swimmers at a community pool. But one day a crack appears in the bottom of the pool and it's soon closed to the swimmers. No longer able to gather for their laps, the swimmers are forced to individually deal with the grave disruption to their routine‚ and no one is affected more than elderly Alice, whose story takes over the narrative. The surprising pivot from snappy social commentary to a devastating portrait of encroaching dementia is effective and moving. Otsuka is a master of the tiny details throughout, be they witty or heartbreaking. More info →
When MMD Book Club hosted Peng Shepherd in August to discuss The Cartographers, Peng raved about this new fantasy release from the author of The Poppy War trilogy (which I haven't yet read, should I?). It's a cool 545 pages in hardcover, and WOW does she put every one to good use. The publisher calls it “a thematic response to The Secret History and a tonal response to Jonathan Strange & Mr. Norrell”—if that sounds a little cerebral for you, don’t worry, it’s easy to get swept up in the story. Kuang's historical fantasy takes place primarily in 1830s Oxford, where the workers at the translation institute Babel literally fuel the British Empire by combining their language skills with precious silver bars. While I loved the academic setting and band of four fast friends, her engagement with the complexities of race, power, and privilege are what really ground the novel. There's also a lot of philosophizing about the art of translation and discussion of what the practice actually involves, which I found insightful and fascinating (especially in light of my recent stack of translated reads). More info →
There's not a lot of nonfiction on my favorites list, but I found this arresting blend of memoir and true crime about a landmark sexual assault case as unputdownable as any thrilling novel. “I became a private investigator because of my face,” Krouse writes in her opening lines. No matter where she goes or who she meets, perfect strangers tell her things they’ve never told anyone else. To her great surprise, this inconvenience turns into a job offer when a local attorney hires her as a PI to investigate cases for his firm. When the attorney takes on a new client who was sexually assaulted by college football recruits, he sets an audacious goal: he wants to prove the school was not only aware of but complicit in the program’s culture of violence. The prospect of securing justice and making the perpetrators pay compels Krouse to take the case, despite her own history of sexual abuse. As the lawsuit—and the story—move forward, her past trauma and its present repercussions nestle up alongside the investigation in the narrative, to great effect, and build to a stirring, stunning, and gently hopeful ending. More info →
I always look forward to a new Barbara Kingsolver, and this one is her best yet. 2021 Anne might be surprised to hear 2022 Anne say that, because when I first learned her new book would be a David Copperfield retelling, I was less than enthusiastic. I needn't have worried: I was hooked from the first chapter. Damon Fields, known as Demon Copperhead for his red hair, grows up impoverished in the southern Appalachian mountains in Virginia. We first meet him at age 11 and then follow along as he watches his mother become addicted to opioids, enters the foster care system, and later wrestles with substance abuse himself. Just as David Copperfield was an impassioned work of social activism, this update examines the ravages in southwestern Virginia and how the people Demon loves and identifies with are oppressed by those who have power. At 560 pages, this story feels like an investment; I found it to be worth every page. To answer a frequently asked question: no familiarity with Dickens's original is required but if you have read it, you’ll appreciate her updates. More info →
This may be Anne Tyler's 24th novel, but it's only the third or fourth I've read. This Summer Reading Guide selection offers a funny and wise meditation on the enduring imprint of one’s family of origin. The multigenerational story portrays life with the Garrett family of Baltimore over a sixty-year span, beginning with a rare vacation in 1959 and ending in the early days of the COVID-19 pandemic. In vignettes set every ten years, the common thread is the little kindnesses and cruelties that characterize the family, along with their constitutional inability to share their true thoughts and emotions with each other. In the final pages, one character compares the indelible imprint of his family to his daughter’s French braid: “That’s how families work,” he says. “You think you’re free of them, but you’re never really free; the ripples are crimped in forever.” The family may be exasperating, but the book is anything but. I loved this. More info →
Like so many readers, my first introduction to Keegan's work was her 2021 novella Small Things Like These, which was shortlisted for the Booker Prize. Following the success of that work, Grove Press just released this 2010 story as a standalone book in the U.S. for the first time. This tender story is at once heartbreaking and life-affirming; and though it's a short story it's lush, full, and packed with life. It begins on a hot summer day in rural Ireland, when an anxious child is taken by her father to live with a distant relative for a time, in order to ease the burden on her mother as she prepares to deliver another child. The story is just under a hundred pages but Keegan takes you on a journey: I read this with my heart in my throat, and found it to be a true testament to what a gifted writer can do in a small space. More info →
I love a good story-behind-the-story, and this 2022 Summer Reading Guide selection delivers: Stringfellow’s grandfather was a World War II veteran who served as the first Black homicide detective in Memphis—before being lynched by his own all-white police squad. Her grandmother was among the first Black nurses in Memphis. This dual legacy of excellence and injustice permeates the novel as it traces a legacy of violence and matriarchal strength through three generations of Black women living in this historic city from 1937 to 2003, with the events of 9/11 serving as a key plot point. The novel unflinchingly portrays both Memphis's strong communities and grim history of racism and violence, yet also lovingly and fiercely conveys the resilience, grit, love, and joy of the women and their community. This was one of my first reads of 2022 and it set such a good tone for the year to come! It's also one of the many books about artists and painters I enjoyed this year. More info →
A timely and gripping work of historical fiction loosely inspired by the real-life groundbreaking court case of Relf v Weinberger. In 2016 Memphis, distinguished Black doctor Civil Townsend prepares to retire. First she must journey to her hometown of Montgomery to make peace with the past and tell the truth of it to her own daughter. In alternating timelines, Civil reveals all that unfolded in 1973, when she was a young and idealistic nurse, stepping into her first job at a reproductive clinic serving Black women in her community. She cared deeply for the girls under her care, but grew alarmed at what she was called upon to do: administer experimental and perhaps unnecessary treatments to young patients without their understanding or consent. When the unthinkable happens to one patient and she is sterilized without consent, Civil becomes involved in a landmark lawsuit. This 2022 Minimalist Summer Reading Guide selection is a moving story and a testament to fiction’s power to influence hearts and impact lives. More info →
This 2022 Minimalist Summer Reading Guide selection is an intoxicating and wholly unexpected epic of love, art, belonging, betrayal, and friendship. This is the story of Sam and Sadie, two childhood friends who meet in a hospital game room in 1986. They come from completely different worlds, but bond immediately over video games. Eight years later, as students at separate Boston colleges, the pair reunite and bootstrap a Tempest-inspired video game that becomes an unexpected blockbuster, cementing their future as game designers but bringing upheaval into their personal lives. I don’t have much interest in video games but I adored this book, which is ultimately about creativity and ambition, astonishing success and what comes after, and the inevitable hurts and disappointments of a life-defining friendship. More info →
More nonfiction, but this is every bit as much a family saga as any novel I read this year. Thanks to the book's pre-release publicity, I discovered Calhoun is the daughter of art critic Peter Schjeldahl, who I've been quoting for YEARS (especially in MMD Book Club) about his approach to works that aren't "immediately hospitable." Calhoun's new genre-bending book is a memoir-ish look at their complex relationship—and also a profile-of-sorts about poet Frank O'Hara. I couldn't resist that description, devoured it in 36 hours, and knew it would land on my Best of the Year list. By the time I closed the last page I'd googled a hundred things about NYC history and requested ten books from my local library. Fascinating, devastating, vexing, illuminating. More info →
After reading and loving Also a Poet I was eager to read more from Calhoun, and blew through this essay collection on marriage, relationships, infidelity, divorce, and personal growth that came into being because of her viral Modern Love column, and made a hundred highlights along the way. This book would have horrified me when I was younger, but Will and I celebrated our 22nd anniversary this year: we're hardly newlyweds. To give you a taste: "'The first twenty years [of marriage] are the hardest,' an older woman once told me. At the time I thought she was joking. She was not." Or this: "Even good marriages sometimes involve flinging a remote control at the wall." I loved it. More info →
Talk about the right book at the right time! I picked this up at an indie bookstore on vacation this summer and it was the perfect smart and sexy beach read. The story unfolds in two timelines: back then, Chani Horowitz wanted to be a serious writer but she's stuck writing puff pieces for popular outlets, something her more literary colleagues (and novelist boyfriend) sneer at. But then, she lands a gig interviewing A-list movie star Gabe Parker, her biggest celebrity crush and the next James Bond. Fast forward ten years: The Profile (as it came to be known) launches her career, but Chani still feels conflicted about it, wondering if she would even have a career without Gabe. So when his publicist asks her to revisit Gabe for a second interview, she wants to say no ... but she's also desperate for him to answer the questions that still linger for her ten years later, the ones she never wrote about or disclosed to anyone. I flew through this: strong writing, interesting format, great narrative drive, tons of fun. More info →
I describe this Japanese debut (translated by David Boyd and Lucy North) in more detail in What Should I Read Next Episode 336 ("Find your audiobook formula"). The premise hooked me immediately: when 34-year-old Ms. Shibata begins working at the cardboard tube manufacturer, she initially finds it a welcome change from her old job, where sexual harassment was a constant threat. But she quickly realizes her new position has problems of its own: as the only woman in her department, her colleagues expect her to serve the tea, do the dishes, and sundry other menial tasks unrelated to her actual work. Then one day, fed up with waiting on the men, she impulsively tells them she can't clear the tea: she's pregnant and the smell makes her nauseous. The thing is, she's not pregnant—but because her work life instantly gets a whole lot better, she determines to find a way to keep the ruse going for the whole nine months. A satisfying blend of clever, playful, and subversive. More info →
I am super excited by this list, as I have only read one of them! Tomorrow cubed is on my best of the year as well. Remarkably Bright Creatures by Shelby Van Pelt is one of my favorites from this year.
My favorites:
Horse, Geraldine Brooks
Counterfeit, Kristin Chen
Sea of Tranquility, Emily St. John Mandel
Black Cake, Charmaine Wilkerson
The Sentence, Louise Erdrich
Lessons in Chemistry, Bonnie Garmus
‘The Winners’ is on the very top of my favorites list for the year, and I have a trilogy reread already planned for 2023 as a result. Oh man, how I love Backman’s writing in this Beartown collection. I’m also close to the end of Louise Penny’s latest and have no doubt it will be a favorite of the year. ‘Demon Copperhead’ was fantastic!
My favorite fiction of the year was Checkout 19, by Claire-Louise Fuller. I had loved Fuller’s earlier novel, Pond, and her sublime writing, so I was not surprised that enjoyed Checkout 19 even more. The slim book is many things, including a coming-of-age tale, but it’s primarily the story of how a working-class Irish girl finds her way to books and writing. For anyone who loves books, this novel will resonate, and stay with you.
Remarkably Bright Creatures, The Winners, and The One Hundred Years of Lenni and Margot were my favorites! I apparently like books that break your heart and then put it back together again!
The One Hundred Years of Lenni and Margot was definitely one of my favourites from last year. I really liked your comment about ‘books that break your heart and then put it back together again’.
I just finished The Hundred Years of a Lenni and Margot. It is my favorite fiction book that I read in 2022. It was funny, sad and such great characters.
My favorites this past year:
The Good Left Undone by Adriana Trigiani
The Arsonists’ City by Hala Alyan
The Sweetness of Water by Nathan Harris
The Violin Conspiracy by Brendan Clocumb
The Plot by Jean Hanff Korelitz
The Winners Fredrik Backman
Happy holidays,Anne! Every time I come to your blog, I find at least two books I want to cram on my TBR list lol. It’s no different today because I want to read Arsonist’s House,The Swimmers, Diary of A Void, and Take My Hand.
My favorite books this year are: The Devil Finds Work by James Baldwin, The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo by Taylor Jenkins Reid, The Great Alone by Kristin Hannah, Daisy Jones& The Six by Taylor Jenkins Reid, Because He’s Jeff Goldblum by Travis M.Andrews, and About The Author by John Colapinto(a pick I got from YOU!)
The Measure/ Nikki Erlick
The Winners/ Fredrik Backman
Booth / Karen Joy Fowler
Carrie Soto is Back/ Taylor Jenkins Reid
Billy Summers/ Steven King
So many more!!!
I’ve had a great reading year. I limited myself to ten favorites and have been swapping books out throughout the year (I think Ginger gave me this idea and it’s been hard!). I’ve loved a lot more than ten, but the limit has been an interesting exercise for me. In no particular order, these are the ones that have made the cut:
1. The Arsonists’ City by Hala Alyan
2. Tomorrow and Tomorrow and Tomorrow by Gabrielle Zevin
3. Remarkably Bright Creatures by Shelby Van Pelt
4. The Poet X by Elizabeth Acevedo
5. Horse by Geraldine Brooks
6. Clap When You Land by Elizabeth Acevedo
7. The House in the Cerulean Sea by T.J. Klune
8. Sea of Tranquility by Emily St. John Mandel
9. How to Keep House While Drowning by K.C. Davis
10. Invisible Child by Andrea Elliott
Fellowship Point (Alice Elliot Dark)
Everything Sad is Untrue (Daniel Nayeri)
Demon Copperhead (Barbara Kingsolver)
Now is Not the Time to Panic (Kevin Wilson)
Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, and Tomorrow (Gabrielle Zevin)
This Tender Land (William Kent Krueger)
Happy-Go-Lucky (David Sedaris)
Hello, Molly! (Molly Shannon)
I loved Everything Sad is Untrue! This seems to have been an amazing year for young adult books as I would add The Poet X and Clap When You Land by Elisabeth Acevedo to my list of best books for 2022.
Cloud Cuckoo Land – Anthony Doer
Permanent Astonishment – Tomson Highway. This a memoir by a classical pianist who grew up in Canada’s north. If you want to understand Indigenous life, including residential schools, but mostly love and respect for the land and for all creatures, this is a place to start. Beautiful book by an accomplished writer.
Just finished my favorite of the year: Catherine Newman’s We All Want Impossible Things. It’s such a tender story of lifelong friendship, family, foibles, and the life-affirming, wonderful, heart-wrenching horribleness that is hospice.
The first book I read in 2022 was The Sentence by Louise Erdrich, and it is at the top of my favorites list. A bonus: I live in St Paul, MN and bought this book at her amazing bookstore, Birchbark Books and Native Arts, in Minneapolis.
Others on my list:
The Phone Booth at the Edge of the World by Imai Messina (based on a true event–the tsunami in Japan in 2011–explores the rhythm of loss and grief and the re-entry into life and love and hope)
Beneficence by Meredith Hall (Set in rural Maine in the 30s-60s, this book reflects on big themes–grief, coping, forgiveness. Gorgeous writing.)
Oh, William! by Elizabeth Strout (I felt like I was in a conversation with the author about how we just keep adding to the crucial moments of our lives.)
All of the titles by Mary Lawson
All of the titles by Maggie Shipstead
My favorite read this year is Patti Callahan’s “One Upon a Wardrobe.”
It is set in Dec 1950 in Oxford, U.K. soon after the publishing of The Lion, The With, and The Wardrobe. Megs, an Oxford scholarship student in Maths and Physics, is exhorted by her ailing young brother, to ask the author, C. S. Lewis, where he got his ideas for Narnia.
This is a heartwarming book of the love between siblings and families, C. S. Lewis own biographical backstory, and the power of story, myth and belief b
Thanks for sharing your favorites, Anne! I have not heard about a few of these… I’m adding Tell Me Everything (looks fabulous) and Funny You Should Ask to my TBR. So far in 2022 I’ve read about 80 books, which is more than 2020 or 2021, so I’m happy. My favorites of 2022 (thus far) are:
* The Whalebone Theater – Joanna Quinn
* The Winners (Beartown #3) – Fredrik Backman
* The Violin Conspiracy – Brendan Slocumb
* The Latecomer – Jean Hanff Korelitz
* Meet Me in Another Life – Catriona Silvey
* Cloud Cuckoo Land – Anthony Doerr
* The Island of Missing Trees – Elif Shafak
* The Good Left Undone – Adriana Trigiani
* We Begin at the End – Chris Whitaker
I’m just starting the new Louise Penny, which will probably make this list too. Looking over this list, at least half of these are books or authors that I found through WSIRN, or blog posts, or MMD Reading Guides. I am so grateful! Happy Reading!
My favorite reads of this year:
The Ivory Key, When Christmas Comes, The Truth and Beauty, The Great Good Thing, Exodus, All the King’s Men, The Library: A Catalog of Wonders, The Bone Houses, The Drowned Woods, My Lady Jane, My Plain Jane, My Calamity Jane, My Contrary Mary, and My Imaginary Mary
I love this list! (And would also be curious to see the draft of 60)
My top 16 in no particular order EXCEPT for number 1, my first read of 2022 that astonished and wrecked me and immediately made me do a reread in print (it’s amazing in both audio and print for what it’s worth)
Migrations – Charlotte McConaghy
The Arsonist’s City (also reread for MMD book club!)
Binti trilogy – Nnedi Okorafor (thanks postal club for a different Okorafor title that sent me here!)
The Paris Bookseller – Kerri Maher
Sophie Go’s Lonely Hearts Club – Roselle Lim
A Prayer for the Crown Shy – Becky Chambers
The Eighth Life (for Brilka) – Nino Haratischwili
The Cartographers – Peng Shepherd (thanks MMD bookclub!)
Jacqueline in Paris – Ann Mah
Atomic Habits – James Clear (cliche at this point BUT helped me with habit formation!)
Orwell’s Roses – Rebecca Solnit
Book Lovers – Emily Henry
An Immense World – Ed Yong
Hester – Laurie Lico Albanese
The Huntress – Kate Quinn (reread, audio, Saskia Maarleveld is simply the best)
The Women I Think About At Night: traveling the paths of my heroes – Mia Kankimaki (a rare translated nonfiction!)
I have a stellar system for this, lol, I put a <3 by it in my reading list. Here's the favorites so far:
The Last Thing to Burn, Will Dean
The Walking Dead Compendium 4, Robert Kirkman (the whole thing is awesome, takes a long time to read but the ending is so good)
The Younger Wife, Sally Hepworth
The Night Burns Bright, Ross Barkan
Magpie, Elizabeth Day
My Sister, The Serial Killer, Oyinkan Braithwaite
Just Like Home, Sarah Gailey
The Cartographers, Peng Shepherd
Never Have I Ever, Joshilyn Jackson
Rock Paper Scissors by Alice Feeney
The Prison Healer by Lynette Noni
Eat Your Heart Out by Kelly deVos
The Wives by Tarryn Fisher
Perfectly Parvin by Olivia Abtahi
The Assignment by Liza M. Wiemer
Nine Lives by Peter Swanson
Think Again by Adam M. Grant
The Girls I’ve Been by Tess Sharpe
Dolly Parton, Songteller by Dolly Parton
Modern Romance by Aziz Ansari
Rebecca by Daphne du Maurier
A Flicker in the Dark by Stacy Willingham
The Stranger in the Woods by Michael Finkel
The House Across the Lake by Riley Sager
Bird Brother by Rodney Stotts
The Book of Cold Cases by Simone St. James
A Little Life by Hanya Yanagihara
It Ends with Us by Colleen Hoover
Seriously…I’m Kidding by Ellen DeGeneres
The Stranger in the Mirror by Liv Constantine
Small Spaces by Katherine Arden
Oona Out of Order by Margarita Miontimore
The Kiss Curse by Erin Sterling
Behind Closed Doors by B. A. Paris
I read some amazing series this year. I am still on a kick of strong uplifting finales even if they aren’t HEA. In no particular order, Oil and Dust and the sequel, Graphite and Turbulence by Jami Farleigh, The Wolf Gate by Hanna Sandvig, A Gentleman in Moscow, by Amor Towles, A Gift of the Stars, Manumina, War and Wrens, Exile: A New Beginning, and The Wrens Fly Away all by ML Dunker and An Enchantment of Ravens by Margaret Rogerson. I also agree with Nancy above, anything by Louis Erdrich. My, that woman can write!
Hi Anne
I have to say there are so many books to chose but these were 6 of my favorite
Eleanor Olipant is Completely Fine
The Bookwoman of Troublesome Creek
Crying in H Mart
The Saints of Swallow Hill
The Thursday Murder Club
The Murmur of Bees
I have to say that listening to your podcasts and being in the book club has widened my pallet of reading and I was happy to meet my reading goal this year. I am a fledgling in the volume of books but am grateful to work on that with your help.
Kathy
The Trees (Percival Everett)
Erasure (Percival Everett)
We All Want Impossible Things (Catherine Newman)
Left On Tenth (Delia Ephron)
Signal Fires (Dani Shapiro)
The Marriage Portrait (Maggie O’Farrell)
The Book of Form & Emptiness (Ruth Ozeki)
Sea of Tranquility (Emily St. John Mandel)
Small Island (Andrea Levy)
Agatha of Little Neon (Claire Luchette)
A Separation (Katie Kitamura)
Great list! You asked about the Poppy Wars books. IMHO, knowing your taste, I don’t think you would enjoy that trilogy. I was unable to go beyond the first book myself, as I found it to be a slog, and I usually enjoy gritty, action-packed books with a hefty dose of violence.
On a different note: I recommend “I Thought You Said This Would Work” by Ann Garvin. I don’t recall you discussing this one in any of your posts, and I think it would be right up your alley. Quirky, full of those momentary keen observations about life and relationships, and it packs a deep and caring punch.
Love this list! I also have Take My Hand as one of my favorites this year, followed by These Precious Days by Ann Patchett. I have Babel and Diary of a Void on my book stack right now. Realistically, I plan to get Diary of a Void read in these waning weeks of 2022, but Babel may need to wait to kick off 2023. Can’t wait!
My favourite books this year were Theory of Crows (David A Robertson), Black Water (David A Robertson), The Seed Keeper (Diane Wilson), Beatrice & Croc Harry (Lawrence Hill), Sparks Like Stars (Nadia Hashimi) and Sea of Tranquility (Emily St. John Mandel)… All incredible storytellers… I guess it was actually a pretty good reading year. I didn’t read as much as I often do, but I LOVED what I did read:)
I especially enjoyed Sparks Like Stars by Nadia Hashimi, Hello Molly!, The Good Left Undone by Adriana Trigiani, Signal Fires, and The Matchmaker’s Gift by Linda Cohen Loigman.
This is an incredible post! I love how my TBR just blew up!!! My faves this year:
My most favorite:
The Lucy Barton trilogy by E. Strout (read all 3 in a week)
Also 5 stars:
Horse by G. Brooks
Take My Hand by D. Perkins-Valdez
Finding Me by V. Davis
Portrait of a Thief by G. D Li
The Latecomer by J. Hand Korelitz
Demon Copperhead by B. Kingsolver
Liked a whole bunch:
The Sentence by L. Erdrich
The Four Winds by K. Hannah
Lessons in Chemistry by B. Garmus
The Cartographers by P. Sheppard
The Lincoln Highway by A. Towles
The mystery series I’m reading this year is Sheriff Cork O’C. by WK Krueger (love it!)
LOVE end of year favorite reads posts–they are always my favorite! (And the comments section is a goldmine!)
My favorites this year were:
This Here Flesh by Cole Arthur Riley
Sea of Tranquility by Emily St. John Mandel
The Anthropocene Reviewed by John Green
Less by Andrew Sean Greer
Freeing Jesus by Diana Butler Bass
In the Shelter by Padraig O’Tuama
Lucy By the Sea by Elizabeth Strout
Girls They Write Songs About by Carlene Bauer
Candlelight: Illuminating the Art of Spiritual Direction by Susan S. Phillips
I love reading these posts with a pen and paper, to get reading ideas. I’m in an end-of-year reading slump and looking forward to finding a book to read over the Christmas holidays!
I read three wonderful books in order in November: Fairy Tale by Stephen King, The Measure by Nikki Erlick, & Signal Fires by Dani Shapiro. Also the newest releases of several favorite series were great: A Sunlit Weapon (Maisie Dobbs series); Bark to the Future (Chet & Bernie mystery); and A Song of Comfortable Chairs (The No. 1 Ladies Detective Agency.) I’m waiting for the newest Louise Penny from the library, but I did read Bruno Chief of Police by Martin Walker which felt like the Inspector Gamache stories.
The Sound of a Wild Snail Eating, Elisabeth Tova Bailey
The Sentence, Louise Erdrich
The Historian, Elizabeth Kostova
The Salt Path, Raynor Winn
The Anthropocene Reviewed, John Green
I loved Mary Jane, too! Memorable characters and excellent writing–easy to picture the messy kitchen in the house and the meals that Mary Ann prepared so carefully!
I have 9 top reads so far:
Cloud Cuckoo Land, by Anthony Doerr
The Violin Conspiracy, by Brendan Slocumb
Anthem, by Noah Hawley
Taste: My Life Through Food, by Stanley Tucci
The No-Show, by Beth O’Leary
Belong to Me, by Marisa de los Santos
The Bullet That Missed, by Richard Osmann
Small Things Like These, by Claire Keegan
Signal Fires, by Dani Shapiro
NF
Talking to Strangers/Malcolm Gladwell
Stoned/Aja Raden
These Precious Days/Ann Patchett
F
The Dictionary of Lost Words/Pip Williams
This Is How It Always Is/Laurie Frankel
This Time Tomorrow/Emma Straub
Lessons in Chemistry/Bonnie Garmus
Ragged Company/Richard Wagamese
The Testament of Mary/Colm Toibin
The Diamond Eye/Kate Quinn
And many more but these are definitely the books that rose to the top for me this year.
Love these lists — just added two more titles to my library hold requests.
The best of the best for me this year:
Girl, Woman, Other-Bernardine Everisto
Passing-Nella Larson
A Psalm for the Wild Built-Becky Chambers
Cloud Cuckoo Land-Anthony Doerr
Haven-Emma Donoghue
Miss Benson’s Beetle-Rachel Joyce
The Snow Child-Eowyn Ivey (my absolute favourite)
I love all the posts. My favorite books this year include
Anthony Doerr Cloud Cuckoo Land
Penguin Shepherd The Cartographers
Mary Philpott Bomb Shelter
Elizabeth Strout Lucy by the Sea
Ausama Z Khan series with Esa Khattak and Rachel Getty (Canadian detectives)
Louise Penny A World of Curosities
Barbara Kingslover Demon Copperhead
Deanna Rayburn Killers of a certain Age
Best of all John Meacham And then there was light about Abraham Lincoln
Lessons in Chemistry by Bonnie Garmus
The Latecomer by Jean Hanff Korelitz
Signal Fires by Dani Shapiro
Honor by Thrity Umrigar
The Lincoln Highway by Amor Towles
Black Cake by Charmaine Wilkerson
Sister Stardust by Jane Green
The Change by Kirsten Miller
Bluebird, Bluebird by Attica Locke
My favorites this year (so far):
The Storyteller (Dave Grohl)
Wish You Were Here (Jodi Picoult)
The Violin Conspiracy (Brendan Slocumb)
My Moment (Kristen Chenowith, Kathy Najimy, et al)
The Masterpiece (Fiona Davis)
I read about 70 books in 2022 and tried to keep a running ranking. I was able to identify a clear top 3. Although I loved SO many this year.
The Tricking of Freya by Christina Sunley was my #1 favorite,
The Last Watchman of Old Cairo by Michael David Lukas,
Tomorrow & Tomorrow & Tomorrow by Gabrielle Zevin.
It’s funny, 2 of the 3 I head about from a Strong Sense of Place so I think Melissa and I are often a good match.
I’m surprised that A Ghost in the Throat didn’t make the list! I loved that one from your recommendations. Fiction:
Unlikely Animals,
the Cartographers,
Iona Iverson’s Rules for Commuting,
the Stone Diaries,
the Unlikely Escape of Uriah Heep,
Blessed are the Cheesemakers, the Maid,
A Gathering of Old Men,
We Have Always Lived in the Castle,
A Raisin in the Sun.
Nonfiction:
Did Ye Hear Mammy Died?
40 Autumns
The Whole Language (Boyle)
Working Stiff (medical examiner)
Free (Ypi)
Surrender by Bono
I Guess I Haven’t Learned that Yet
The Violence Project or Thoughts and Prayers are Not Enough.
I had a great reading year – so many amazing books!! This would be my short list:
The Paper Palace by Miranda Cowley Heller;
A Little Life by Hanya Yanagihara;
The Great Believers by Rebecca Makkai;
Shuggie Bain by Douglas Stuart;
A Town Called Solace by Mary Lawson.
I’m still reading and mulling things over, but here’s my list as of today, in no particular order:
-Demon Copperhead by Barbara Kingsolver
-Here For It by R. Eric Thomas
-A Gentleman in Moscow by Amor Towles
-The Lager Queen of Minnesota by J. Ryan Stradl
-One, Two, Three by Laurie Frankel
-Station Eleven by Emily St. John Mandel
-Tomorrow and Tomorrow and Tomorrow by Gabrielle Zevin
-The Mutual Friend by Carter Bays
-The Anomaly by Herve Le Tellier
-The Bullet That Missed by Richard Osman
-How High We Go In the Dark by Sequoia Nagamatsu
-Now Is Not the Time to Panic by Kevin Wilson
-Finding Me by Viola Davis
Currently reading The Beauty of Dusk by Frank Bruni. I was asked to read it by a favorite aunt, who is facing age related vision problems but it is a beautifully written tribute to those changes we all face in our lives…and how to deal with them with curiosity and grace.
Some of my favorite$
The Lightkeepers by Abby Geni
The Diamond Eye by Kate Quinn
The World of the End by Dr. David Jeremiah
Solito by Javier Zamora
The Stranger In the Lifeboat by Mitch Albom
Great Circle by Maggie Shipstead
White Chrysanthemum by Mary Lynn Bracht
Last Bus To Wisdom by Ivan Doig
84, Charing Cross Road by Helene Hanff
Once Upon A River by Diane Setterfield
Enjoy!
Wow, looking back I can’t believe how many truly amazing books I’ve read this year. It took all I had to narrow it down to 12, and 2 of those are entire series! (not sorry) The ones that will stay with me most:
-Hamnet- Maggie O’Farrell
-A Thousand Ships- Natalie Haynes
-The entire Inspector Gamache series- Louise Penny
-The Song of Achilles- Madeline Miller
-The Thursday Murder Club series- Richard Osman
-The Inimitable Jeeves- P.G. Wodehouse (re-read)
-Heating & Cooling: 52 Micro-Memoirs- Beth Ann Fennelly
-Baby, You’re Gonna Be Mine- Kevin Wilson
-Lamb- Christopher Moore
-Dream Work- Mary Oliver
-Sea of Tranquility- Emily St. John Mandel
-Killers of a Certain Age- Donna Raybourn
I’m cheap with my stars, but this year I’ve had five!!!
All About Me! By Mel Brooks—the audio book is fantastic, just hilarious!
Unseen World by Liz Moore—the first book I read for the MMD Book Club is one of my all time faves!
Sea of Tranquility by Hillary St. John Mandel—just a beautiful story, I loved Station Eleven but love this one even more.
Oh William! By Elizabeth Strout—she’s my favorite living author and imo can do no wrong.
A Town Like Alice by Nevil Shute—a lovely story about an ordinary woman in WWII dealing with an extraordinary circumstance with bravery, humility, and pragmatism.
My short-list of favorite novels –
SMALL THINGS LIKE THESE by Claire Keegan, a moving Christmas story.
ALL THE CHILDREN ARE HOME by Patry Francis
THE BOOK OF LOST FRIENDS by Lisa Wingate
THESE IS MY WORDS by Nancy E Turner
These 2 for fans of WHERE THE CRAWDADS SING –
IF THE CREEK DON’T RISE by Leah Weiss
THE GIRLS IN THE STILT HOUSE by Kelly Mustian
Finalist for National Book Award for Young People –
THE OGRESS AND THE ORPHANS by Kelly Barnhill
And out of this wonderful list, which would you recommend to be possibly pleasing to most any reader? I mean we all have our preferences and it’s hard to pick for someone with a different personality than ourselves…what would you pick if you weren’t sure what someone may like?
The minimalist list of the Summer Reading Guide had several hits for me! My favorite books of the year include:
The Lost Vintage by Ann Mah My favorite book of the year I think
The Sentence by Louise Erdrich
Take My Hand by Dolen Perkins-Valdez
The Cartographers by Peng Shepherd
The Map of Salt and Stars by Zeyn Joukhadar
My favorites this year were mostly older – Dinner at the Homesick Restaurant, David Copperfield, then a couple of real page turners — The Nothing Man, and The Lies I Tell.
I’ve read 85 books thus far in 2022, shattering my previous record of 50. That is what no internet, no TV, and no social life (moved to a new town in a very isolated region of the country) will do for the life of a reader.
My favorites from this past year are:
1. The Vanderbeekers of 141st Street (the four other books in the series are equally wonderful), by Karina Yan Glaser
2. The Light in Hidden Places, by Sharon Cameron
3. Once Upon a Wardrobe, by Patti Callahan
4. The Hairstons: An American Family in Black and White, by Henry Wiencek
5. Lovely War, by Julie Berry
6. The End of Innocence, by Allegra Jordan
7. Stolen Focus: Why You Can’t Pay Attention- and How to Think Deeply Again, by Johann Hari
8. Long Road to the Circus, by Betsy Bird
9. Bittersweet: How Sorrow and Longing Make Us Whole, by Susan Cain
10. Raising Lazarus: Hope, Justice, and the Future of America’s Overdose Crisis, by Beth Macy
There are simply not enough hours in the day for all the books waiting to be read! My faves from this 2022, in no particular order:
Crying in H Mart by Michelle Zauner
Empire of Pain (NF) by Patrick Radden Keefe
Hannah Coulter by Wendall Berry
Piranesi by Susanna Clarke
Cloud Cuckoo Land by Anthony Doerr
Once Upon a River by Diane Satterfield
Just Mercy (NF) by Bryan Stevenson
Where the Crawdads Sing by Delia Owens
Ok this is a first. I’ve only read one of these books and didn’t love it. I really loved Gabrielle Zevin’s other books, but this one just didn’t connect for me. I’ve read 120 books so hopefully some of my favorites are on the audiobook list.
I, too, read fewer books this year than last, I guess because was able to get out more. And most of my favs are on other lists here. But what a great year for fabulous books. My tops, in no particular order, were:
1. A World of Curiosities – Louise Penny
2. The Measure – Nikki Erlick
3. The Winners – Fredrik Backman
4. A Town Called Solace – Mary Lawson (thanks to MMD for the rec)
5. The Cellist – Daniel Silva
6. Lessons in Chemistry – Bonnie Garmus
7. These Precious Days: Essays – Ann Patchett
8. The House on the Cerulean Sea – T.J. Klune (LOVED the recent podcast from the book fair that he was on!)
9. A Breath of Snow and Ashes – Diana Gabaldon (reading to keep up with the show)
10. Cloud Cuckoo Land – Anthony Doerr
11. The Lincoln Highway – Amor Towels
12. One Was a Soldier – Julia Spencer-Fleming
6.
My “SIX SWEET READS IN 2022” are:
The Rose Code
The Record Keeper
Waymaker
Bloomsbury Girls
I Guess I Haven’t Learned That Yet
Until Leaves Fall in Paris
You can check out my blog post with all my reviews here: https://laurathomasauthor.com/six-sweet-reads-in-2022/
Great list Anne! There are a number on there that are on my TBR…next year!
Probably my number one read this year was The Love Songs of W.E.B. Dubois. So powerful and beautifully written.
Other contenders are
The Lincoln Highway
The Unseen World
Fifty Words for Rain
The Woman They Could Not Silence.
Great list and have enjoyed everyone’s posts. I am at 120 books this year and these were my favorites,
The Lincoln Highway
Carrie Soto is back
The Diamond eye
Prayer for the crown shy
Empire of pain
Sun down motel
This time tomorrow
The guncle
The extraordinary life of Sam Hill
Lessons in chemistry
Home before dark
My fave books 2022:
Lessons in Chemistry
Remarkably Bright Creatures
Demon Copperhead
Mad Honey
Take My Hand
Left on Tenth (Delia Ephron)
The Boys (Ron Howard)
Here’s Molly! (Molly Shannon)
All about Me! (Mel Brooks)
Magical Realism had a moment this year as 3 of my favorites were Garden Spells by Sarah Addison Allen, Sourdough by Robin Sloane, and Where the Forest Meets the Stars by Glendy Verandah.
I also made a greater effort to read nonfiction as several favorite memoirs were The Boys by Ron and Clint Howard, A Girl from Yamhill by Beverly Cleary, Gratitudw Diaries by Janice Kaplan, and Just Mercy by Bryan Stevenson.
My favorite science fiction were An Ocean of Minutes by Thea Lim, Armada by Ernest Cline, and Duplex by Orson Scott Card.
My favorite Romance were Eight Perfect Hours by Lisa Louis, Falling for Your Best Friend by Emma St. Clair, and Until Leaves Fall in Paris by Sarah Sundin.
I must admit to being slightly proud to discover that 4 of my own best books of the year were on your list. The most recent being kingsolver…wow. That book pummeled me. At times I didn’t know if I could keep reading, it was so heartbreaking. But I’ve read, and reread (poisonwood Bible 3 times in a row, the one other time a decade later:) her books enough to trust my reading soul to her capable pen. And I agree that this is her best yet. She has honed her craft to a fine tip, and I just hope she continues.
There are a few on your list that I hadn’t heard of, so did a quick search and on the way home picked them up at the library. The one I will add, that I don’t see on your list, Geraldine Brooks Horse. This was a book that caught me off guard this year, off my interest radar but immensely compelling and satisfying:)
I loved this book! Still debating whether to watch the adaptation A Man Called Otto next year with Tom Hanks. Movies aren’t usually as good, but Tom’s a good actor.
So many good books read this year, though I also less than last year. Several 5 star reads for me. Of those, my top favs are:
– Remarkably Bright Creatures :: Shelby Van Pelt
– These Precious Days :: Ann Patchett
– Taste: My Life through Food :: Stanley Tucci (audio) then I bought the book
– Black Cake :: Charmaine Wilkerson
“Nobody Will Tell You This But Me” by Bess Kalb, “Pop: An Illustrated Novel” by Robert Gipe, and the book that I keep telling everyone to read “The Once and Future Witches” by Alix E. Harrow
So many great books out there! My 2022 ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️’s:
1. No Land To Light On (Zg
Heintz) – gorgeous and heart wrenching.
2. The Lucy Barton Trilogy – Strout’s writing is impeccable.
3. The 40-Day Sugar Fast (Speake) – powerful devotional
4. Fresh Water for Flowers (Perrin) – just loved this book
5. Still Life (Winman) – these characters will be with me forever.
6. Crossing to Safety (Stegner) – so good it was a reread.
7. Far From the Madding Crowd (Hardy) – I love a classic.
8. The Boy, The Mole, The Fox, The Horse (Mackesy) – gorgeous children’s book…but good for any human.
9. Deacon King Kong (McBride) – fantastic story.
My favorites this year were Remarkably Bright Creatures, which I loved so much I also listened to on audio, Lessons in Chemistry, The Guncle, Taste; My Life in Food (Stanley Tucci), Nora Goes Off Script, and Louise Penny’s latest, A World of Curiosities.
World War Z (audio best. Feels like a movie), Max Brooks
Things I learned From Falling: A Memoir, Claire Nelson
The Less People Know About Us: A Mystery of Betrayal, Family Secrets & Stolen Identity, Axton Betz-Hamilton
Endurance: Shackleton’s Incredible Voyage, Alfred Lansing
Lessons in Chemistry, Bonnie Garmus
I’m Glad My Mom Died, Jeannette McCurdy
Thunderstruck, Erik Larson
Remarkably Bright Creatures, Shelby Van Pelt
Counterfeit, Kirstin Chen
My favs this year
I Must Betray You-Ruta Septys
The Last Thing He Told Me-Laura Dave
Lincoln Highway-Amor Towles
This Tender Land-William Krueger
Crow Lake-Mary Lawson
Audiobooks
A Town Like Alice-Nevil Shute
A Gentleman in Moscow-Amor Towles( a re-read)
I loved Take My Hand and Demon Copperhead! Some other favorites this year were Peach Blossom Spring, Young Mungo, Lessons in Science, Lady Justice, and Yerba Buena. Also really liked 100 Years of Lenni and Margot.
What great lists of favorite books of 2022! This will keep me busy for years. Ten of my favorites this year are:
West with Giraffes
Every Day is a Gift
Empire of Pain
Woman They Could Not Silence
999: the Extraordinary Young Women of the First Official Jewish Transport to Auschwitz
Lost Girls of Willowbrook
Maid (by Prose)
My Wife SaidYou Might Want to Marry Me
Chasing the Thrill: Obsession, Death, and Glory in America’s Most Extraordinary Treasure…
Left on Tenth: a Second Chance at Life
West With Giraffes was one of my favorites, too! It is one of those under-the-radar books that turned out to be a gem.
Other favorites:
Take My Hand
Lessons in Chemistry
The Book of Lost Friends
The Last Castle – Kiernan (nonfiction, history of the Biltmore Castle)
Apparently I gave almost all of my reads 4 or 5 stars on Goodreads! Regardless, here were the ones I gushed about when people asked:
The Marriage Portrait (I only just finished this one a few days ago but can Maggie O’Farrell write or what).
These Precious Days by Ann Patchett
The Shell Seekers by Rosamunde Pilcher
The Plot and The Latecomer, both by Jean Hanff Korelitz
The Stars Are Fire by Anita Shreve
Salt to the Sea by Ruta Sepetys
The Anthropocene Reviewed by John Green
The Most Fun We Ever Had by Claire Lombardo (this is probably my #1 for the year)
Thank you, Anne, and thank you to everyone else for sharing! This is such a great community, and I always get so many great recommendations from the comments!
An eclectic list of favorites, both new releases and backlist, in no particular order:
The Winners by Fredrik Backman
The Midnight Library by Matt Haig
Lightning Strike by William Kent Krueger
The Lincoln Highway by Amor Towles
French Braid by Anne Tyler
Eventide by Kent Haruf
Love and Saffron by Kim Fay
The Pleasures of Reading in an Age of Distraction by Alan Jacobs
I can’t stop recommending Bittersweet by Susan Cain to anyone who will listen. It has stayed with me so deeply, is highlighted and noted and I will never lend it out. I would rather buy a copy than lend this precious cook to anyone.
I’m not sure which books I read this year were actually published in 2022 but these were my favorites that I *think* were new this year:
Nightcrawling (Leila Mottley)
Finding Me (Viola Davis)
Didn’t Nobody Give a Sh!t What Happened to Carlotta (James Hannaham)
The One Hundred Years of Lenni & Margot (Marianne Cronin – great audio!)
All This Happened, More or Less (Jayne A. Quan)
Fresh Water for Flowers (Valerie Perrin)
Book Lovers (Emily Henry)
The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo – Taylor Jenkins Reid
Tuesday Mooney Talks to Ghosts – Kate Racculia
Still Life – Louise Penny
Oona Out of Order – Margarita Montimore
Heartstopper Series
Holes • Louis Sachar
The Cartographers – Peng Sheperd
I read a lot. My favorite books of the year were .. Lucy by the Sea by Elizabeth Strout (love all her books) and Jackie and Me by Louis Bayard. Don’t let any preconceptions you might have about other books about Jackie stop you from reading this. It is wonderful, insightful and magnetic. With a twist.
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128 comments
My favorites are almost always memoirs!
http://www.lindastoll.net/2022/12/2022s-cherished-memoirs.html?m=1
I am super excited by this list, as I have only read one of them! Tomorrow cubed is on my best of the year as well. Remarkably Bright Creatures by Shelby Van Pelt is one of my favorites from this year.
I really enjoyed Remarkably Bright Creatures on audio!
It’s a great book- even better on audio. Marin Ireland is always brilliant and Michael Urie is a perfect Marcellus.
I came here to say the same thing about Remarkably Bright Creatures.
My favorites:
Horse, Geraldine Brooks
Counterfeit, Kristin Chen
Sea of Tranquility, Emily St. John Mandel
Black Cake, Charmaine Wilkerson
The Sentence, Louise Erdrich
Lessons in Chemistry, Bonnie Garmus
What a great list!
‘The Winners’ is on the very top of my favorites list for the year, and I have a trilogy reread already planned for 2023 as a result. Oh man, how I love Backman’s writing in this Beartown collection. I’m also close to the end of Louise Penny’s latest and have no doubt it will be a favorite of the year. ‘Demon Copperhead’ was fantastic!
My favorite fiction of the year was Checkout 19, by Claire-Louise Fuller. I had loved Fuller’s earlier novel, Pond, and her sublime writing, so I was not surprised that enjoyed Checkout 19 even more. The slim book is many things, including a coming-of-age tale, but it’s primarily the story of how a working-class Irish girl finds her way to books and writing. For anyone who loves books, this novel will resonate, and stay with you.
I just borrowed this one from my library over the weekend!
Remarkably Bright Creatures, The Winners, and The One Hundred Years of Lenni and Margot were my favorites! I apparently like books that break your heart and then put it back together again!
The One Hundred Years of Lenni and Margot was definitely one of my favourites from last year. I really liked your comment about ‘books that break your heart and then put it back together again’.
I just finished The Hundred Years of a Lenni and Margot. It is my favorite fiction book that I read in 2022. It was funny, sad and such great characters.
My favorites this past year:
The Good Left Undone by Adriana Trigiani
The Arsonists’ City by Hala Alyan
The Sweetness of Water by Nathan Harris
The Violin Conspiracy by Brendan Clocumb
The Plot by Jean Hanff Korelitz
The Winners Fredrik Backman
Loved this list. Have read everyone but two, but I would put Horse on this list as well.
Totally agree. This is a great list and I too have read most of Anne’s favs but I would definitely add Horse!
I enjoyed much of Horse, especially being a Kentucky girl myself! (That ending was ROUGH though, yikes!)
I would love to see the full list of 60, just as a list, nothing fancy. I’m so curious!
Anne, I agree with Kate!! We really NEED to see the full list of 60!! How can you deny us?! .
Pretty please??
Ex Libris: Confessions of a Common Reader – Anne Fadiman
Lincoln Highway – Amor Towles
Damnation Spring – Ash Davidson
Ghost Forest – Pik Shuen Fung
Daisy Jones and the Six – Taylor Jenkins Reid
I Must Betray You – Ruta Septys
The Crossover – Kwame Alexander
Thoroughly enjoyed Ex Libris.
Happy holidays,Anne! Every time I come to your blog, I find at least two books I want to cram on my TBR list lol. It’s no different today because I want to read Arsonist’s House,The Swimmers, Diary of A Void, and Take My Hand.
My favorite books this year are: The Devil Finds Work by James Baldwin, The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo by Taylor Jenkins Reid, The Great Alone by Kristin Hannah, Daisy Jones& The Six by Taylor Jenkins Reid, Because He’s Jeff Goldblum by Travis M.Andrews, and About The Author by John Colapinto(a pick I got from YOU!)
The Measure/ Nikki Erlick
The Winners/ Fredrik Backman
Booth / Karen Joy Fowler
Carrie Soto is Back/ Taylor Jenkins Reid
Billy Summers/ Steven King
So many more!!!
Sounds like you both had great reading years!
I’ve had a great reading year. I limited myself to ten favorites and have been swapping books out throughout the year (I think Ginger gave me this idea and it’s been hard!). I’ve loved a lot more than ten, but the limit has been an interesting exercise for me. In no particular order, these are the ones that have made the cut:
1. The Arsonists’ City by Hala Alyan
2. Tomorrow and Tomorrow and Tomorrow by Gabrielle Zevin
3. Remarkably Bright Creatures by Shelby Van Pelt
4. The Poet X by Elizabeth Acevedo
5. Horse by Geraldine Brooks
6. Clap When You Land by Elizabeth Acevedo
7. The House in the Cerulean Sea by T.J. Klune
8. Sea of Tranquility by Emily St. John Mandel
9. How to Keep House While Drowning by K.C. Davis
10. Invisible Child by Andrea Elliott
I would add Our Missing Hearts, Signal Fires, The Measure, and Mary Laura Philpott’s Bomb Shelter to your list. Great reading year!
Those are good additions (and several are in my list of 60!).
Fellowship Point (Alice Elliot Dark)
Everything Sad is Untrue (Daniel Nayeri)
Demon Copperhead (Barbara Kingsolver)
Now is Not the Time to Panic (Kevin Wilson)
Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, and Tomorrow (Gabrielle Zevin)
This Tender Land (William Kent Krueger)
Happy-Go-Lucky (David Sedaris)
Hello, Molly! (Molly Shannon)
What a great list!
I loved Everything Sad is Untrue! This seems to have been an amazing year for young adult books as I would add The Poet X and Clap When You Land by Elisabeth Acevedo to my list of best books for 2022.
Cloud Cuckoo Land – Anthony Doer
Permanent Astonishment – Tomson Highway. This a memoir by a classical pianist who grew up in Canada’s north. If you want to understand Indigenous life, including residential schools, but mostly love and respect for the land and for all creatures, this is a place to start. Beautiful book by an accomplished writer.
Permanent Astonishment is new to me, and sounds fascinating!
Just finished my favorite of the year: Catherine Newman’s We All Want Impossible Things. It’s such a tender story of lifelong friendship, family, foibles, and the life-affirming, wonderful, heart-wrenching horribleness that is hospice.
Best book of 2022 for me
The first book I read in 2022 was The Sentence by Louise Erdrich, and it is at the top of my favorites list. A bonus: I live in St Paul, MN and bought this book at her amazing bookstore, Birchbark Books and Native Arts, in Minneapolis.
Others on my list:
The Phone Booth at the Edge of the World by Imai Messina (based on a true event–the tsunami in Japan in 2011–explores the rhythm of loss and grief and the re-entry into life and love and hope)
Beneficence by Meredith Hall (Set in rural Maine in the 30s-60s, this book reflects on big themes–grief, coping, forgiveness. Gorgeous writing.)
Oh, William! by Elizabeth Strout (I felt like I was in a conversation with the author about how we just keep adding to the crucial moments of our lives.)
All of the titles by Mary Lawson
All of the titles by Maggie Shipstead
My favorite read this year is Patti Callahan’s “One Upon a Wardrobe.”
It is set in Dec 1950 in Oxford, U.K. soon after the publishing of The Lion, The With, and The Wardrobe. Megs, an Oxford scholarship student in Maths and Physics, is exhorted by her ailing young brother, to ask the author, C. S. Lewis, where he got his ideas for Narnia.
This is a heartwarming book of the love between siblings and families, C. S. Lewis own biographical backstory, and the power of story, myth and belief b
Once Upon a Wardrobe made my favorite list this year, too! 🙂
Lovely list, and I would add “Lessons in Chemistry” and “Oh, William!”
I adored Lessons in Chemistry (but I read it last October!). You may be seeing Oh, William! on a certain audiobook favorites list coming soon …
Thanks for sharing your favorites, Anne! I have not heard about a few of these… I’m adding Tell Me Everything (looks fabulous) and Funny You Should Ask to my TBR. So far in 2022 I’ve read about 80 books, which is more than 2020 or 2021, so I’m happy. My favorites of 2022 (thus far) are:
* The Whalebone Theater – Joanna Quinn
* The Winners (Beartown #3) – Fredrik Backman
* The Violin Conspiracy – Brendan Slocumb
* The Latecomer – Jean Hanff Korelitz
* Meet Me in Another Life – Catriona Silvey
* Cloud Cuckoo Land – Anthony Doerr
* The Island of Missing Trees – Elif Shafak
* The Good Left Undone – Adriana Trigiani
* We Begin at the End – Chris Whitaker
I’m just starting the new Louise Penny, which will probably make this list too. Looking over this list, at least half of these are books or authors that I found through WSIRN, or blog posts, or MMD Reading Guides. I am so grateful! Happy Reading!
My favorite reads of this year:
The Ivory Key, When Christmas Comes, The Truth and Beauty, The Great Good Thing, Exodus, All the King’s Men, The Library: A Catalog of Wonders, The Bone Houses, The Drowned Woods, My Lady Jane, My Plain Jane, My Calamity Jane, My Contrary Mary, and My Imaginary Mary
I love this list! (And would also be curious to see the draft of 60)
My top 16 in no particular order EXCEPT for number 1, my first read of 2022 that astonished and wrecked me and immediately made me do a reread in print (it’s amazing in both audio and print for what it’s worth)
Migrations – Charlotte McConaghy
The Arsonist’s City (also reread for MMD book club!)
Binti trilogy – Nnedi Okorafor (thanks postal club for a different Okorafor title that sent me here!)
The Paris Bookseller – Kerri Maher
Sophie Go’s Lonely Hearts Club – Roselle Lim
A Prayer for the Crown Shy – Becky Chambers
The Eighth Life (for Brilka) – Nino Haratischwili
The Cartographers – Peng Shepherd (thanks MMD bookclub!)
Jacqueline in Paris – Ann Mah
Atomic Habits – James Clear (cliche at this point BUT helped me with habit formation!)
Orwell’s Roses – Rebecca Solnit
Book Lovers – Emily Henry
An Immense World – Ed Yong
Hester – Laurie Lico Albanese
The Huntress – Kate Quinn (reread, audio, Saskia Maarleveld is simply the best)
The Women I Think About At Night: traveling the paths of my heroes – Mia Kankimaki (a rare translated nonfiction!)
It’s fun to hear how many other readers here started 2022 with an AMAZING read that ended up being a tip-top favorite!
I have a stellar system for this, lol, I put a <3 by it in my reading list. Here's the favorites so far:
The Last Thing to Burn, Will Dean
The Walking Dead Compendium 4, Robert Kirkman (the whole thing is awesome, takes a long time to read but the ending is so good)
The Younger Wife, Sally Hepworth
The Night Burns Bright, Ross Barkan
Magpie, Elizabeth Day
My Sister, The Serial Killer, Oyinkan Braithwaite
Just Like Home, Sarah Gailey
The Cartographers, Peng Shepherd
Never Have I Ever, Joshilyn Jackson
Yay for Joshlyn Jackson domestic thrillers! I loved Never Have I Ever last year and Mother May I this year. She has a new one coming out in the spring
Rock Paper Scissors by Alice Feeney
The Prison Healer by Lynette Noni
Eat Your Heart Out by Kelly deVos
The Wives by Tarryn Fisher
Perfectly Parvin by Olivia Abtahi
The Assignment by Liza M. Wiemer
Nine Lives by Peter Swanson
Think Again by Adam M. Grant
The Girls I’ve Been by Tess Sharpe
Dolly Parton, Songteller by Dolly Parton
Modern Romance by Aziz Ansari
Rebecca by Daphne du Maurier
A Flicker in the Dark by Stacy Willingham
The Stranger in the Woods by Michael Finkel
The House Across the Lake by Riley Sager
Bird Brother by Rodney Stotts
The Book of Cold Cases by Simone St. James
A Little Life by Hanya Yanagihara
It Ends with Us by Colleen Hoover
Seriously…I’m Kidding by Ellen DeGeneres
The Stranger in the Mirror by Liv Constantine
Small Spaces by Katherine Arden
Oona Out of Order by Margarita Miontimore
The Kiss Curse by Erin Sterling
Behind Closed Doors by B. A. Paris
I read some amazing series this year. I am still on a kick of strong uplifting finales even if they aren’t HEA. In no particular order, Oil and Dust and the sequel, Graphite and Turbulence by Jami Farleigh, The Wolf Gate by Hanna Sandvig, A Gentleman in Moscow, by Amor Towles, A Gift of the Stars, Manumina, War and Wrens, Exile: A New Beginning, and The Wrens Fly Away all by ML Dunker and An Enchantment of Ravens by Margaret Rogerson. I also agree with Nancy above, anything by Louis Erdrich. My, that woman can write!
Hi Anne
I have to say there are so many books to chose but these were 6 of my favorite
Eleanor Olipant is Completely Fine
The Bookwoman of Troublesome Creek
Crying in H Mart
The Saints of Swallow Hill
The Thursday Murder Club
The Murmur of Bees
I have to say that listening to your podcasts and being in the book club has widened my pallet of reading and I was happy to meet my reading goal this year. I am a fledgling in the volume of books but am grateful to work on that with your help.
Kathy
Kathy, I’m so glad you had an enjoyable reading year—thanks for letting me be a part of it!
3 on your list are also favorites of mine.
I loved Eleanor Oliphant, Book Woman and Thurs Murder Club!
Best books:
The Lincoln Highway, The Murmur of Bees, Passing
Also really enjoyed:
Same Time Tomorrow’s, Secret Life of Church Ladies and Mother May I
The Trees (Percival Everett)
Erasure (Percival Everett)
We All Want Impossible Things (Catherine Newman)
Left On Tenth (Delia Ephron)
Signal Fires (Dani Shapiro)
The Marriage Portrait (Maggie O’Farrell)
The Book of Form & Emptiness (Ruth Ozeki)
Sea of Tranquility (Emily St. John Mandel)
Small Island (Andrea Levy)
Agatha of Little Neon (Claire Luchette)
A Separation (Katie Kitamura)
Agatha of Little Neon was a small treasure to discover & read!
Great list! You asked about the Poppy Wars books. IMHO, knowing your taste, I don’t think you would enjoy that trilogy. I was unable to go beyond the first book myself, as I found it to be a slog, and I usually enjoy gritty, action-packed books with a hefty dose of violence.
On a different note: I recommend “I Thought You Said This Would Work” by Ann Garvin. I don’t recall you discussing this one in any of your posts, and I think it would be right up your alley. Quirky, full of those momentary keen observations about life and relationships, and it packs a deep and caring punch.
Remarkably Bright Creatures and Tomorrow and Tomorrow and Tomorrow were on my top of my list this year!
Love this list! I also have Take My Hand as one of my favorites this year, followed by These Precious Days by Ann Patchett. I have Babel and Diary of a Void on my book stack right now. Realistically, I plan to get Diary of a Void read in these waning weeks of 2022, but Babel may need to wait to kick off 2023. Can’t wait!
My favourite books this year were Theory of Crows (David A Robertson), Black Water (David A Robertson), The Seed Keeper (Diane Wilson), Beatrice & Croc Harry (Lawrence Hill), Sparks Like Stars (Nadia Hashimi) and Sea of Tranquility (Emily St. John Mandel)… All incredible storytellers… I guess it was actually a pretty good reading year. I didn’t read as much as I often do, but I LOVED what I did read:)
I especially enjoyed Sparks Like Stars by Nadia Hashimi, Hello Molly!, The Good Left Undone by Adriana Trigiani, Signal Fires, and The Matchmaker’s Gift by Linda Cohen Loigman.
This is an incredible post! I love how my TBR just blew up!!! My faves this year:
My most favorite:
The Lucy Barton trilogy by E. Strout (read all 3 in a week)
Also 5 stars:
Horse by G. Brooks
Take My Hand by D. Perkins-Valdez
Finding Me by V. Davis
Portrait of a Thief by G. D Li
The Latecomer by J. Hand Korelitz
Demon Copperhead by B. Kingsolver
Liked a whole bunch:
The Sentence by L. Erdrich
The Four Winds by K. Hannah
Lessons in Chemistry by B. Garmus
The Cartographers by P. Sheppard
The Lincoln Highway by A. Towles
The mystery series I’m reading this year is Sheriff Cork O’C. by WK Krueger (love it!)
Alice, it looks like you had an incredible reading year!
LOVE end of year favorite reads posts–they are always my favorite! (And the comments section is a goldmine!)
My favorites this year were:
This Here Flesh by Cole Arthur Riley
Sea of Tranquility by Emily St. John Mandel
The Anthropocene Reviewed by John Green
Less by Andrew Sean Greer
Freeing Jesus by Diana Butler Bass
In the Shelter by Padraig O’Tuama
Lucy By the Sea by Elizabeth Strout
Girls They Write Songs About by Carlene Bauer
Candlelight: Illuminating the Art of Spiritual Direction by Susan S. Phillips
I love reading these posts with a pen and paper, to get reading ideas. I’m in an end-of-year reading slump and looking forward to finding a book to read over the Christmas holidays!
I read three wonderful books in order in November: Fairy Tale by Stephen King, The Measure by Nikki Erlick, & Signal Fires by Dani Shapiro. Also the newest releases of several favorite series were great: A Sunlit Weapon (Maisie Dobbs series); Bark to the Future (Chet & Bernie mystery); and A Song of Comfortable Chairs (The No. 1 Ladies Detective Agency.) I’m waiting for the newest Louise Penny from the library, but I did read Bruno Chief of Police by Martin Walker which felt like the Inspector Gamache stories.
So good to hear you really liked The Measure. I have it waiting on my shelf.
My favorite 3:
Lessons in Chemistry–Bonnie Garmus
Remarkably Bright Creatures–Shelby Van Pelt
These Precious Days–Ann Patchett
The Sound of a Wild Snail Eating, Elisabeth Tova Bailey
The Sentence, Louise Erdrich
The Historian, Elizabeth Kostova
The Salt Path, Raynor Winn
The Anthropocene Reviewed, John Green
The Historian! Such a good book; I read it when it first came out and still it gives me shivers!
So good! I think it was my favorite this year!
Oh yes! The Historian! OMG I read that several years ago and I can remember so vividly where I was when reading and how I felt reading it. Chilling!
Mary Jane by Jessica Anya Blau is my favorite (that I read) in 2022. It’s the book I’ve recommended to EVERYONE this year and was my book club pick.
I loved Mary Jane, too! Memorable characters and excellent writing–easy to picture the messy kitchen in the house and the meals that Mary Ann prepared so carefully!
I have 9 top reads so far:
Cloud Cuckoo Land, by Anthony Doerr
The Violin Conspiracy, by Brendan Slocumb
Anthem, by Noah Hawley
Taste: My Life Through Food, by Stanley Tucci
The No-Show, by Beth O’Leary
Belong to Me, by Marisa de los Santos
The Bullet That Missed, by Richard Osmann
Small Things Like These, by Claire Keegan
Signal Fires, by Dani Shapiro
Taste; My Life Through Food was a favorite of mine as well! Love Stanley Tucci!
NF
Talking to Strangers/Malcolm Gladwell
Stoned/Aja Raden
These Precious Days/Ann Patchett
F
The Dictionary of Lost Words/Pip Williams
This Is How It Always Is/Laurie Frankel
This Time Tomorrow/Emma Straub
Lessons in Chemistry/Bonnie Garmus
Ragged Company/Richard Wagamese
The Testament of Mary/Colm Toibin
The Diamond Eye/Kate Quinn
And many more but these are definitely the books that rose to the top for me this year.
Now Is Not The Time To Panic
Tomorrow, Tomorrow and Tomorrow
Our Missing Hearts
What an amazing year for books!
Love these lists — just added two more titles to my library hold requests.
The best of the best for me this year:
Girl, Woman, Other-Bernardine Everisto
Passing-Nella Larson
A Psalm for the Wild Built-Becky Chambers
Cloud Cuckoo Land-Anthony Doerr
Haven-Emma Donoghue
Miss Benson’s Beetle-Rachel Joyce
The Snow Child-Eowyn Ivey (my absolute favourite)
The Snow Child is one of my all time favorites!
I love all the posts. My favorite books this year include
Anthony Doerr Cloud Cuckoo Land
Penguin Shepherd The Cartographers
Mary Philpott Bomb Shelter
Elizabeth Strout Lucy by the Sea
Ausama Z Khan series with Esa Khattak and Rachel Getty (Canadian detectives)
Louise Penny A World of Curosities
Barbara Kingslover Demon Copperhead
Deanna Rayburn Killers of a certain Age
Best of all John Meacham And then there was light about Abraham Lincoln
Love your list! My favorites thus far:
Lessons in Chemistry by Bonnie Garmus
The Latecomer by Jean Hanff Korelitz
Signal Fires by Dani Shapiro
Honor by Thrity Umrigar
The Lincoln Highway by Amor Towles
Black Cake by Charmaine Wilkerson
Sister Stardust by Jane Green
The Change by Kirsten Miller
Bluebird, Bluebird by Attica Locke
My favorites this year (so far):
The Storyteller (Dave Grohl)
Wish You Were Here (Jodi Picoult)
The Violin Conspiracy (Brendan Slocumb)
My Moment (Kristen Chenowith, Kathy Najimy, et al)
The Masterpiece (Fiona Davis)
I read about 70 books in 2022 and tried to keep a running ranking. I was able to identify a clear top 3. Although I loved SO many this year.
The Tricking of Freya by Christina Sunley was my #1 favorite,
The Last Watchman of Old Cairo by Michael David Lukas,
Tomorrow & Tomorrow & Tomorrow by Gabrielle Zevin.
It’s funny, 2 of the 3 I head about from a Strong Sense of Place so I think Melissa and I are often a good match.
I’m surprised that A Ghost in the Throat didn’t make the list! I loved that one from your recommendations. Fiction:
Unlikely Animals,
the Cartographers,
Iona Iverson’s Rules for Commuting,
the Stone Diaries,
the Unlikely Escape of Uriah Heep,
Blessed are the Cheesemakers, the Maid,
A Gathering of Old Men,
We Have Always Lived in the Castle,
A Raisin in the Sun.
Nonfiction:
Did Ye Hear Mammy Died?
40 Autumns
The Whole Language (Boyle)
Working Stiff (medical examiner)
Free (Ypi)
Surrender by Bono
I Guess I Haven’t Learned that Yet
The Violence Project or Thoughts and Prayers are Not Enough.
I had a great reading year – so many amazing books!! This would be my short list:
The Paper Palace by Miranda Cowley Heller;
A Little Life by Hanya Yanagihara;
The Great Believers by Rebecca Makkai;
Shuggie Bain by Douglas Stuart;
A Town Called Solace by Mary Lawson.
I read The Great Believers a few years ago and it is still an all-time standout for me. So good!
I’m still reading and mulling things over, but here’s my list as of today, in no particular order:
-Demon Copperhead by Barbara Kingsolver
-Here For It by R. Eric Thomas
-A Gentleman in Moscow by Amor Towles
-The Lager Queen of Minnesota by J. Ryan Stradl
-One, Two, Three by Laurie Frankel
-Station Eleven by Emily St. John Mandel
-Tomorrow and Tomorrow and Tomorrow by Gabrielle Zevin
-The Mutual Friend by Carter Bays
-The Anomaly by Herve Le Tellier
-The Bullet That Missed by Richard Osman
-How High We Go In the Dark by Sequoia Nagamatsu
-Now Is Not the Time to Panic by Kevin Wilson
-Finding Me by Viola Davis
Currently reading The Beauty of Dusk by Frank Bruni. I was asked to read it by a favorite aunt, who is facing age related vision problems but it is a beautifully written tribute to those changes we all face in our lives…and how to deal with them with curiosity and grace.
Some of my favorite$
The Lightkeepers by Abby Geni
The Diamond Eye by Kate Quinn
The World of the End by Dr. David Jeremiah
Solito by Javier Zamora
The Stranger In the Lifeboat by Mitch Albom
Great Circle by Maggie Shipstead
White Chrysanthemum by Mary Lynn Bracht
Last Bus To Wisdom by Ivan Doig
84, Charing Cross Road by Helene Hanff
Once Upon A River by Diane Setterfield
Enjoy!
Oh and the
NAS Bible entirely!
Wow, looking back I can’t believe how many truly amazing books I’ve read this year. It took all I had to narrow it down to 12, and 2 of those are entire series! (not sorry) The ones that will stay with me most:
-Hamnet- Maggie O’Farrell
-A Thousand Ships- Natalie Haynes
-The entire Inspector Gamache series- Louise Penny
-The Song of Achilles- Madeline Miller
-The Thursday Murder Club series- Richard Osman
-The Inimitable Jeeves- P.G. Wodehouse (re-read)
-Heating & Cooling: 52 Micro-Memoirs- Beth Ann Fennelly
-Baby, You’re Gonna Be Mine- Kevin Wilson
-Lamb- Christopher Moore
-Dream Work- Mary Oliver
-Sea of Tranquility- Emily St. John Mandel
-Killers of a Certain Age- Donna Raybourn
I’m cheap with my stars, but this year I’ve had five!!!
All About Me! By Mel Brooks—the audio book is fantastic, just hilarious!
Unseen World by Liz Moore—the first book I read for the MMD Book Club is one of my all time faves!
Sea of Tranquility by Hillary St. John Mandel—just a beautiful story, I loved Station Eleven but love this one even more.
Oh William! By Elizabeth Strout—she’s my favorite living author and imo can do no wrong.
A Town Like Alice by Nevil Shute—a lovely story about an ordinary woman in WWII dealing with an extraordinary circumstance with bravery, humility, and pragmatism.
And just for fun, try the Murderbot series!
My short-list of favorite novels –
SMALL THINGS LIKE THESE by Claire Keegan, a moving Christmas story.
ALL THE CHILDREN ARE HOME by Patry Francis
THE BOOK OF LOST FRIENDS by Lisa Wingate
THESE IS MY WORDS by Nancy E Turner
These 2 for fans of WHERE THE CRAWDADS SING –
IF THE CREEK DON’T RISE by Leah Weiss
THE GIRLS IN THE STILT HOUSE by Kelly Mustian
Finalist for National Book Award for Young People –
THE OGRESS AND THE ORPHANS by Kelly Barnhill
And out of this wonderful list, which would you recommend to be possibly pleasing to most any reader? I mean we all have our preferences and it’s hard to pick for someone with a different personality than ourselves…what would you pick if you weren’t sure what someone may like?
Loved
“The People We Keep”
The minimalist list of the Summer Reading Guide had several hits for me! My favorite books of the year include:
The Lost Vintage by Ann Mah My favorite book of the year I think
The Sentence by Louise Erdrich
Take My Hand by Dolen Perkins-Valdez
The Cartographers by Peng Shepherd
The Map of Salt and Stars by Zeyn Joukhadar
My favorites this year were mostly older – Dinner at the Homesick Restaurant, David Copperfield, then a couple of real page turners — The Nothing Man, and The Lies I Tell.
I’ve read 85 books thus far in 2022, shattering my previous record of 50. That is what no internet, no TV, and no social life (moved to a new town in a very isolated region of the country) will do for the life of a reader.
My favorites from this past year are:
1. The Vanderbeekers of 141st Street (the four other books in the series are equally wonderful), by Karina Yan Glaser
2. The Light in Hidden Places, by Sharon Cameron
3. Once Upon a Wardrobe, by Patti Callahan
4. The Hairstons: An American Family in Black and White, by Henry Wiencek
5. Lovely War, by Julie Berry
6. The End of Innocence, by Allegra Jordan
7. Stolen Focus: Why You Can’t Pay Attention- and How to Think Deeply Again, by Johann Hari
8. Long Road to the Circus, by Betsy Bird
9. Bittersweet: How Sorrow and Longing Make Us Whole, by Susan Cain
10. Raising Lazarus: Hope, Justice, and the Future of America’s Overdose Crisis, by Beth Macy
There are simply not enough hours in the day for all the books waiting to be read! My faves from this 2022, in no particular order:
Crying in H Mart by Michelle Zauner
Empire of Pain (NF) by Patrick Radden Keefe
Hannah Coulter by Wendall Berry
Piranesi by Susanna Clarke
Cloud Cuckoo Land by Anthony Doerr
Once Upon a River by Diane Satterfield
Just Mercy (NF) by Bryan Stevenson
Where the Crawdads Sing by Delia Owens
“Lessons in Chemistry”
Ok this is a first. I’ve only read one of these books and didn’t love it. I really loved Gabrielle Zevin’s other books, but this one just didn’t connect for me. I’ve read 120 books so hopefully some of my favorites are on the audiobook list.
I, too, read fewer books this year than last, I guess because was able to get out more. And most of my favs are on other lists here. But what a great year for fabulous books. My tops, in no particular order, were:
1. A World of Curiosities – Louise Penny
2. The Measure – Nikki Erlick
3. The Winners – Fredrik Backman
4. A Town Called Solace – Mary Lawson (thanks to MMD for the rec)
5. The Cellist – Daniel Silva
6. Lessons in Chemistry – Bonnie Garmus
7. These Precious Days: Essays – Ann Patchett
8. The House on the Cerulean Sea – T.J. Klune (LOVED the recent podcast from the book fair that he was on!)
9. A Breath of Snow and Ashes – Diana Gabaldon (reading to keep up with the show)
10. Cloud Cuckoo Land – Anthony Doerr
11. The Lincoln Highway – Amor Towels
12. One Was a Soldier – Julia Spencer-Fleming
6.
My “SIX SWEET READS IN 2022” are:
The Rose Code
The Record Keeper
Waymaker
Bloomsbury Girls
I Guess I Haven’t Learned That Yet
Until Leaves Fall in Paris
You can check out my blog post with all my reviews here: https://laurathomasauthor.com/six-sweet-reads-in-2022/
Until Leaves Fall in Paris might be my top read for 2022.
Do you have to read previous Strout novels to read this one? It seems to be part of a series.
Great list Anne! There are a number on there that are on my TBR…next year!
Probably my number one read this year was The Love Songs of W.E.B. Dubois. So powerful and beautifully written.
Other contenders are
The Lincoln Highway
The Unseen World
Fifty Words for Rain
The Woman They Could Not Silence.
Yes!!!! Love Songs of W.E.B Dubois!! Soooo good!
Great list and have enjoyed everyone’s posts. I am at 120 books this year and these were my favorites,
The Lincoln Highway
Carrie Soto is back
The Diamond eye
Prayer for the crown shy
Empire of pain
Sun down motel
This time tomorrow
The guncle
The extraordinary life of Sam Hill
Lessons in chemistry
Home before dark
My fave books 2022:
Lessons in Chemistry
Remarkably Bright Creatures
Demon Copperhead
Mad Honey
Take My Hand
Left on Tenth (Delia Ephron)
The Boys (Ron Howard)
Here’s Molly! (Molly Shannon)
All about Me! (Mel Brooks)
I liked Left on Tenth and All about Me too!
Magical Realism had a moment this year as 3 of my favorites were Garden Spells by Sarah Addison Allen, Sourdough by Robin Sloane, and Where the Forest Meets the Stars by Glendy Verandah.
I also made a greater effort to read nonfiction as several favorite memoirs were The Boys by Ron and Clint Howard, A Girl from Yamhill by Beverly Cleary, Gratitudw Diaries by Janice Kaplan, and Just Mercy by Bryan Stevenson.
My favorite science fiction were An Ocean of Minutes by Thea Lim, Armada by Ernest Cline, and Duplex by Orson Scott Card.
My favorite Romance were Eight Perfect Hours by Lisa Louis, Falling for Your Best Friend by Emma St. Clair, and Until Leaves Fall in Paris by Sarah Sundin.
I must admit to being slightly proud to discover that 4 of my own best books of the year were on your list. The most recent being kingsolver…wow. That book pummeled me. At times I didn’t know if I could keep reading, it was so heartbreaking. But I’ve read, and reread (poisonwood Bible 3 times in a row, the one other time a decade later:) her books enough to trust my reading soul to her capable pen. And I agree that this is her best yet. She has honed her craft to a fine tip, and I just hope she continues.
There are a few on your list that I hadn’t heard of, so did a quick search and on the way home picked them up at the library. The one I will add, that I don’t see on your list, Geraldine Brooks Horse. This was a book that caught me off guard this year, off my interest radar but immensely compelling and satisfying:)
My favorite book I read this year is A Man Called Ove. 🙂
I loved this book! Still debating whether to watch the adaptation A Man Called Otto next year with Tom Hanks. Movies aren’t usually as good, but Tom’s a good actor.
So many good books read this year, though I also less than last year. Several 5 star reads for me. Of those, my top favs are:
– Remarkably Bright Creatures :: Shelby Van Pelt
– These Precious Days :: Ann Patchett
– Taste: My Life through Food :: Stanley Tucci (audio) then I bought the book
– Black Cake :: Charmaine Wilkerson
Happy reading, everyone!
“Nobody Will Tell You This But Me” by Bess Kalb, “Pop: An Illustrated Novel” by Robert Gipe, and the book that I keep telling everyone to read “The Once and Future Witches” by Alix E. Harrow
So many great books out there! My 2022 ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️’s:
1. No Land To Light On (Zg
Heintz) – gorgeous and heart wrenching.
2. The Lucy Barton Trilogy – Strout’s writing is impeccable.
3. The 40-Day Sugar Fast (Speake) – powerful devotional
4. Fresh Water for Flowers (Perrin) – just loved this book
5. Still Life (Winman) – these characters will be with me forever.
6. Crossing to Safety (Stegner) – so good it was a reread.
7. Far From the Madding Crowd (Hardy) – I love a classic.
8. The Boy, The Mole, The Fox, The Horse (Mackesy) – gorgeous children’s book…but good for any human.
9. Deacon King Kong (McBride) – fantastic story.
My favorites this year were Remarkably Bright Creatures, which I loved so much I also listened to on audio, Lessons in Chemistry, The Guncle, Taste; My Life in Food (Stanley Tucci), Nora Goes Off Script, and Louise Penny’s latest, A World of Curiosities.
World War Z (audio best. Feels like a movie), Max Brooks
Things I learned From Falling: A Memoir, Claire Nelson
The Less People Know About Us: A Mystery of Betrayal, Family Secrets & Stolen Identity, Axton Betz-Hamilton
Endurance: Shackleton’s Incredible Voyage, Alfred Lansing
Lessons in Chemistry, Bonnie Garmus
I’m Glad My Mom Died, Jeannette McCurdy
Thunderstruck, Erik Larson
Remarkably Bright Creatures, Shelby Van Pelt
Counterfeit, Kirstin Chen
My favs this year
I Must Betray You-Ruta Septys
The Last Thing He Told Me-Laura Dave
Lincoln Highway-Amor Towles
This Tender Land-William Krueger
Crow Lake-Mary Lawson
Audiobooks
A Town Like Alice-Nevil Shute
A Gentleman in Moscow-Amor Towles( a re-read)
I loved Take My Hand and Demon Copperhead! Some other favorites this year were Peach Blossom Spring, Young Mungo, Lessons in Science, Lady Justice, and Yerba Buena. Also really liked 100 Years of Lenni and Margot.
What great lists of favorite books of 2022! This will keep me busy for years. Ten of my favorites this year are:
West with Giraffes
Every Day is a Gift
Empire of Pain
Woman They Could Not Silence
999: the Extraordinary Young Women of the First Official Jewish Transport to Auschwitz
Lost Girls of Willowbrook
Maid (by Prose)
My Wife SaidYou Might Want to Marry Me
Chasing the Thrill: Obsession, Death, and Glory in America’s Most Extraordinary Treasure…
Left on Tenth: a Second Chance at Life
West With Giraffes was one of my favorites, too! It is one of those under-the-radar books that turned out to be a gem.
Other favorites:
Take My Hand
Lessons in Chemistry
The Book of Lost Friends
The Last Castle – Kiernan (nonfiction, history of the Biltmore Castle)
Apparently I gave almost all of my reads 4 or 5 stars on Goodreads! Regardless, here were the ones I gushed about when people asked:
The Marriage Portrait (I only just finished this one a few days ago but can Maggie O’Farrell write or what).
These Precious Days by Ann Patchett
The Shell Seekers by Rosamunde Pilcher
The Plot and The Latecomer, both by Jean Hanff Korelitz
The Stars Are Fire by Anita Shreve
Salt to the Sea by Ruta Sepetys
The Anthropocene Reviewed by John Green
The Most Fun We Ever Had by Claire Lombardo (this is probably my #1 for the year)
Thank you, Anne, and thank you to everyone else for sharing! This is such a great community, and I always get so many great recommendations from the comments!
An eclectic list of favorites, both new releases and backlist, in no particular order:
The Winners by Fredrik Backman
The Midnight Library by Matt Haig
Lightning Strike by William Kent Krueger
The Lincoln Highway by Amor Towles
French Braid by Anne Tyler
Eventide by Kent Haruf
Love and Saffron by Kim Fay
The Pleasures of Reading in an Age of Distraction by Alan Jacobs
I love the Beartown trilogy as well!!
I can’t stop recommending Bittersweet by Susan Cain to anyone who will listen. It has stayed with me so deeply, is highlighted and noted and I will never lend it out. I would rather buy a copy than lend this precious cook to anyone.
I’m not sure which books I read this year were actually published in 2022 but these were my favorites that I *think* were new this year:
Nightcrawling (Leila Mottley)
Finding Me (Viola Davis)
Didn’t Nobody Give a Sh!t What Happened to Carlotta (James Hannaham)
The One Hundred Years of Lenni & Margot (Marianne Cronin – great audio!)
All This Happened, More or Less (Jayne A. Quan)
Fresh Water for Flowers (Valerie Perrin)
Book Lovers (Emily Henry)
My favorites in fiction this year we’re:
The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo – Taylor Jenkins Reid
Tuesday Mooney Talks to Ghosts – Kate Racculia
Still Life – Louise Penny
Oona Out of Order – Margarita Montimore
Heartstopper Series
Holes • Louis Sachar
The Cartographers – Peng Sheperd
I read a lot. My favorite books of the year were .. Lucy by the Sea by Elizabeth Strout (love all her books) and Jackie and Me by Louis Bayard. Don’t let any preconceptions you might have about other books about Jackie stop you from reading this. It is wonderful, insightful and magnetic. With a twist.