Welp, it’s that time of year: book wrap-up season!
Here are my favorite books I read all year. My usual caveat: They weren’t necessarily published in 2022, just the ones that I read this year.
Without further ado…
Romance
Delilah Green Doesn’t Care by Ashley Herring Blake
This was such a FUN book – a little bit of grumpy/sunshine vibes, but also about dealing with your past and the people you thought you had moved on from. Delilah returns to her hometown as the photographer for her estranged stepsister’s wedding. When sparks fly with her stepsister’s best friend, she decides to have some fun and a little retribution, but it might just lead to actual feelings.
Mistakes Were Made by Meryl Wilsner
I loved Wilsner’s debut, Something To Talk About, so I’ve been eagerly awaiting her next book. Of course, it didn’t disappoint. College senior Cassie blows of some steam with a hot older woman at a bar, but the one night stand gets complicated when the woman turns out to be the mother of one of her new best friends. Shenangians ensue, as well as lots of spice.
The Love Con by Seressia Glass
This was the perfect blend of cute romance and nerdiness! Friends-to-lovers plus fake dating plus a cosplaying reality TV show? What more do you need! Kenya is a skilled cosplayer and has made it to the final round of the reality TV show Cosplay or No Way. It could be her big break, but the judges want the competitors to create costumes of iconic duos with their significant others…and Kenya is very single. Not to worry, her longtime best friend is happy to pretend to be her boyfriend…except, of course, he’s loved her all along, and things might just stop being so fake.
Luck of the Draw by Kate Clayborn
This honestly might be the best fake dating book I’ve ever read. The set up totally makes sense, but the relationship quickly becomes so believable, that it takes you by surprise when they’re found out. Former-lawyer Zoe is on a mission to make up for all the lives she ruined in her career, and she’s starting with the O’Leary family. Except Aiden doesn’t need money; he needs to come across as a friendly, family guy so he can buy a campground in honor of his brother. Yes, Zoe was the lawyer who convinced his family to take a settlement for his brother’s wrongful death, but she’ll fit the bill as a fake fiance. Until, of course, things stop being fake.
General Fiction
The Office of Historical Corrections by Danielle Evans
I had this one checked out from the library forever before I finally read it, and then I was mad at myself for not reading it sooner because it’s so fantastic. It’s a collection of short stories plus a novella. They’re each so insightful and compelling, that even though most of them are fairly “normal” stories, I couldn’t stop reading. The novella, which has the same title as the book, focuses on a character who works for the Office of Historical Corrections – basically a bunch of history majors who roam the country and put stickers on things that have factual inaccuracies. It’s a pretty humdrum job, until tempers flare in a small town when the main character’s coworker updates the memorial of a Black man murdered by a white mob.
Tomorrow and Tomorrow and Tomorrow by Gabrielle Zevin
I’m sure this one is going to be all over the “best of 2022” lists, and for good reason. It’s yet another one that sat on my shelf forever, and then when I finally dived in, I absolutely loved it. I mean, I sobbed several times throughout, but that of course only made me love it more. It follows the complicated friendship, work relationship, and lives of Sam and Sadie as they make video games, but it explores so much more: immortality, what it means to make art, who deserves your forgiveness, how the people who are closest to us are often the ones who hurt us the most… It’s just fabulous.
No Such Thing As An Easy Job by Kikuko Tsumura
I picked this book up on a whim while on vacation in January of this year, and have not been able to stop thinking about it since. It tells the story of a woman who quit her previous job and is not trying to recover from burn out and looking for a job that requires little to no thinking. The book follows her through five different jobs and is at times humorous and dark and hopeful. It’s hard to summarize, but I found it oddly comforting to read as I was struggling with burn out myself.
Sci-Fi / Fantasy
The Broken Earth trilogy by N.K. Jemisin
Look, I’m not breaking any new ground by raving about these books: N.K. Jemisin is the first author in history to win three consecutive Hugo Awards for Best Novel, and it was for this series. So I shouldn’t have been surprised by how damn good this series is, and yet I was. I mean, from the first line I was hooked: “Let’s start with the end of the world, why don’t we? Get it over with and move on to more interesting things.” It’s a fantasy series with a climate dystopia spin, with a very cool and creative magic system.
The City We Became by N.K. Jemisin
Well, after such a strong showing from Jemisin in the Broken Earth trilogy, when I came across this book at a used bookstore, how was I supposed to say no? It feels completely different than the other trilogy, but is still exceedingly smart and creative. It’s set in a world where when cities reach a certain point, they become alive in a way, but also choose a human to act as their avatar. This duology is about New York City and its avatar humans, and whether you’ve lived in New York or only seen it on TV, it’s still a fascinating exploration of the city as well as fantastically creative magic. The second book of the duology came out in November and I just started reading it, and already I’m loving it.
Bloodmarked by Tracey Deonn
Legendborn was maybe my favorite book of last year, so Bloodmarked was easily my most anticipated read for this year, and it did not disappoint. The series is pitched as “King Arthur retelling with Black girl magic” and it’s so creative and fun, but also an exploration of grief and oppression and “being the first.” The plot had me literally gasping out loud, and it’s maybe the only example of how to do a love triangle well.
The Final Strife by Saara El-Arifi
This is yet another epic, sweeping fantasy with a unique take on magic. Sylah and Anoor were swapped at birth as part of a plot to over throw the empire, but the plot is stopped with a brutal massacre of the rebellion. Still, Sylah, now grown up, is determined to use her training to help bring justice to the oppresive rule – except she’ll need the help of Anoor, who has been living her rightful life as the daughter of the ruler of the empire.
Legends & Lattes by Travis Baldree
Alright, need a break after all those epic fantasies? How about a cozy fantasy story? This “high fantasy story with low stakes” is about an orc who decides to quit the barbarian lifestyle and start a coffeeshop. She’ll have to overcome various obstacles, including people and secrets from her past, in order to achieve her dream. It’s just the most lovely book, and embodies the genre of “cozy fantasy.” If you’re look for a short and delightful read over the winter holidays, this is the perfect fit.
A Psalm for the Wild-Built by Becky Chambers
This is an absolute must-read for…everyone, I think. It’s a small, delightful book set on Earth many years in the future, about a monk who goes to explore the wilderness, and runs into a self-aware robot, and they help each other grow and learn. This might be a good pairing with the Broken Earth trilogy – it also takes place after a climate disaster, but instead of imagining the worst outcome, it ponders what civilization might look like if humans choose to work together and care for each other and the earth. It is truly a hopeful and optimistic book, both on a large scale, but also on an individual level, for anyone feeling burnt out, exhausted, or cynical (and who isn’t after these past few years?)
To Say Nothing of the Dog by Connie Willis
This isn’t quite sci-fi/fantasy, but I didn’t know where else to put it, and it has time travel, so here we are. It’s the oldest book on this list by far, released in 1998, and is set both in the 21st century (roughly around now) and the Victorian era. Basically, at some point, scientists figured out how to time travel. The only catch is that you can’t bring anything to the past from the present, or back to the present from the past. In other words, you can only observe. So the only people who really care about time traveling are historians, which of course means that rich donors to universities are the ones calling the shots about when and where the scholars can time travel to. It’s an absolutely hilarious book with such a unique take on the well-trod trope of time travel.
Non-Fiction
Stolen Focus: Why You Can’t Pay Attention–And How to Think Deeply Again by Johann Hari
This is one of those books that you read, expecting to find it fairly interesting and maybe a little helpful, but then it turns out to blow your mind wide open as it feels like suddenly you see the matrix around you. If you’re like me, you’ve been having trouble focusing on any task longer than a minute, pretty much ever since March 2020. This book explores that struggle, and reveals how it’s not just the pandemic that has caused our society’s lack of attention (and it is a societal problem, not a YOU problem!), but instead it’s literally how so many aspects of our lives have been designed – but also that things don’t have to be this way. It’s simultaneously frustrating and hopeful and motivating. If you can pay attention long enough to finish the book…
A Swim in a Pond in the Rain: In Which Four Russians Give a Master Class on Writing, Reading, and Life by George Saunders
If you’re a writer of any kind, this book is a must-read. It’s less about “here are the rules to follow when writing a book” and more about learning to hone and trust your instincts as a writer, so you can analyze stories you read and know what works, and how to bring that sense of “is this working or not” to your own writing. Saunders has the text of seven different short stories in the book, and between each one, he has an analysis that feels much more like he’s just chatting with you about the story. It’s like having a best friend who is a brilliant writer and you get to talk with them over coffee and geek out about writing craft, while also learning SO MUCH. My copy is covered in notes and annotations, and I feel so equipped to bring these skills to every other story I read going forward.