Favorite Books of 2022
According to Goodreads, I read 103 books in 2022. And, because I can’t resist jumping in on the best-of-2022 list fun, these are my ten favorites.
My very scientific formula for deciding which books go on this list is this: I skimmed back through my Goodreads to see which books I gave five stars (I skip rating books most of the time, but if it was a five-star read for me, I’ll usually go ahead and mark that when I finish the book). I wrote down the five-star books that really stayed with me. While I skimmed, I looked for books I hadn’t rated but that I kept thinking about after I finished the book. I wrote down these, too. After I’d narrowed it down, I went through that list and chose my top ten. Not all of my five-star books made my list, and not all of the books on the list were initial five-stars for me (unless a book is a slam-dunk hit for me, I like to wait a while and see if I’m still thinking about it a couple of weeks later before I rate it… but this often means I forget to give ratings). While I read some great non-fiction this year, I decided to keep this list to fiction and memoir.
I can’t think of the last time I had a book I considered my very favorite of the entire year, but when I thought back on this year, there was one that clearly stuck out to me. I recommended it over and over. I thought about it frequently long after I finished reading it, and while I was reading it, I paused more than once to think, “I want to write like this.” That book gets the number one spot on this list—everything else is in no particular order.
1. Bomb Shelter by Mary Laura Philpott
I Miss You When I Blink was one of my favorite books of 2021, so I was really excited for Mary Laura Philpott’s next book to come out, and I loved it so much. Her writing made me laugh out loud, made me not just cry, but sob, and feel all the things. This memoir was so well-written, so moving, and so beautiful—I can’t recommend it enough. Mary Laura writes about the big existential questions against the backdrop of the everyday and she does it so well. I’m not a big re-reader because there are so many books I want to read, but I know I’ll be returning to this one again and again.
2. Carrie Soto is Back by Taylor Jenkins Reid
I read this in a single afternoon at the pool over the summer and loved every single second of it. I always look forward to new books by Taylor Jenkins Reid—Daisy Jones and the Six was one of my favorite books of 2019—and Carrie Soto didn’t disappoint. It’s a fast-paced read about a tennis star who decides to come out of retirement, with her dad as her coach. It’s about ambition, drive, success, the cost that can come with those things, and ultimately, the human spirit. If you like tennis, you’ll love this book, but it’s a great read even if you’ve never picked up a racket.
3. The Winners by Fredrik Backman
The first two books of this trilogy, Beartown and Us Against You, were both on my favorites list in 2020, so I’ve eagerly been waiting for the final book to come out. The trilogy chronicles life in Beartown, a hockey town in Sweden. While people in Beartown would tell you that life there solely and completely revolves around hockey, these books are about so much more. Backman’s writing is beautiful and he’s another writer that makes me want to write.
4. Lessons in Chemistry by Bonnie Garmus
Elizabeth Zott becomes the unexpected host of America’s favorite cooking show, Supper at Six, in the 1960s. After spending her early career fighting to be respected as a chemist in the 1960s, becoming a TV star is an unexpected twist after a series of unexpected events. I loved reading about how she chose to live on her own terms.
5. Tomorrow and Tomorrow and Tomorrow by Gabrielle Zevin
I was instantly engrossed in this story that chronicles a lifelong friendship between Sam and Sadie, two video-game-obsessed kids that grow into game designers. I’m not a gamer, but getting to peek into another world is one of the wonderful things about books, isn’t it? I loved opening the pages and finding myself in their video game world. While I was on hold for this one at the library, I read an older book by the author that I also really enjoyed: The Storied Life of A.J. Fikry. I’m hoping to read a few more books by Gabrielle Zevin in 2023!
6. These Precious Days by Ann Patchett
I read slowly through this book of essays, stopping to write down quotes and pausing to really take in the words. I'd read a few of the essays in this book previously, but they were well worth the re-read. Ann Patchett is a brilliant writer and incredible storyteller, and this book is an excellent collection of her work.
7. Sea of Tranquility by Emily St. John-Mandel
This book covers a lot: time travel (time corruption?), a moon colony, a future pandemic, but it doesn’t really matter what Emily St. John-Mandel writes about—whatever it is, I want to read it. It’s a complex, interconnected story that spans centuries, but her writing is brilliant and beautiful and I love reading it.
8. Four Seasons in Rome by Anthony Doerr
I loved All the Light We Cannot See and Cloud Cuckoo Land by Anthony Doerr, so when I stumbled across his memoir in the library one day, I immediately added it to my stack of books to check out. He writes about spending a year in Rome on a writing fellowship with his wife and infant twins, and I loved the mix of writing about writing, living in a foreign country, and parenting.
9. Once Upon a Wardrobe by Patti Callahan
I picked this up based on the title alone, as I’ve long loved Narnia. In this book, we get a (fictional) look at C.S. Lewis sharing stories from his own life with an Oxford student who is on a quest. Megs, the Oxford student, has a younger brother who is terminally ill, and when he begs her to approach C.S. Lewis to find out where Narnia came from, she obliges. This book is about Narnia and C.S. Lewis, yes, but it’s also a love letter to books, best summed up in this quote from the book (page 242): "The way stories change us can't be explained. It can only be felt. Like love."
10. No Cure for Being Human by Kate Bowler
This book is short but powerful. Kate Bowler is diagnosed with cancer at age thirty-five, and she grapples with treatment, motherhood, and facing her own mortality. This memoir is beautifully written and faces hard questions with honesty and humor.
Honorable Mention:
My nine-year-old and I started reading through the Harry Potter series in November of 2021 and we are almost finished with it. Re-reading these childhood favorites of mine with him has been such a treat. While I still have all of my copies from when they came out, we’ve been collecting the illustrated editions, and they are gorgeous!
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