#Best books I read in 2022

[booksteacupandreviews]

22 Best Books of 2022

Which was the best book you read in 2022? 22 Best Books of 2022 #Bookrecs #Bestbooksof2022 #Bestbooksoftheyear Check out mine on my #Bookblog #Booksteacupandreviews

[phierie]

two sides of the same idiot

[writingdesksrasin]

AOAS is actually so weird out of context. The main baddie is literally from mars, he killed an entire planet, was beheaded, and then started wearing one of the MC’s best friend’s body like the other 17% of the headless horseman for the ~drama~. One of the main driving plot points of the first book is Mars Man kidnapping Basically The President’s daughter and forcing the MC to babysit her against his will while he studies to get his license to kill. My man floods Basically NATO with mind-controlled sharks and yells “lol nope, u thought” while watching world leaders get eaten from a helicopter. The B-plot is New Jesus trying to navigate the intricacies of religion and developing a dysfunctional-ass found family that consists of his tour manager, a stubborn but devout theatre kid, a jean-cloaked ex-killer, and Robot God. He falls in love with a sexy sea captain who gets possessed by Robot God bc it’s in love. There’s deep talks about nature and morality of humanity. The two MC’s bang while dying of hypothermia while sinking to the bottom of the ocean. This isn’t even half of it.

[fictionadventurer]

Elizabeth Gaskell has the kind of brilliance that makes you forget how brilliant she is until you come back to her work after reading inferior authors. Her type of talent is understated skill that does everything so well that it looks easy.

She has prose that's descriptive without being flowery. Plots that take their time but also keep pulling you along. She writes about everyday life in a way that makes it enthralling without over-romanticizing it. She can take what would be stock characters in the hands of other writers and explore their upbringing and history so thoroughly that they become real, nuanced individuals. And she does it all so simply that you barely even notice how much talent it takes to write like that.

[useless-catalanfacts]

The British newspaper The Guardian has included When I Sing, Mountains Dance by Irene Solà as one of the best books of 2022. (The book was originally published in the Catalan language in 2019, but the English translation was published now in 2022.)

The book was also selected as one of the best fiction new books for adults by the New York Public Library.

[You can read the full article by The Guardian here and download all 3 pages of recommendations by the NY library here.]

This is a great achievement, even more so taking into account that the English-language publishing industry is very closed in itself and books from other languages have a hard time getting attention in English-speaking countries.

The book (originally titled Canto jo i la muntanya balla) has also been translated to other languages including Spanish, Italian, French, Galician, Basque, Hungarian, Croatian, Macedonian, Serbian, Bulgarian, Turkish, Lithuanian, Danish, Portuguese, Dutch, Arabic, German, Greek, Korean, Polish, Romanian.

Enhorabona, Irene!

[remusfinglupin]

My Top 10 Books of 2022

(in no particular order, all 4 or 5 stars. This doesn’t count novellas, plays, comics, or rereads. It’s strictly books I’ve read for the first time in 2022. I’ve also limited myself to one book per series.)

⁃ The Bronzed Beasts

⁃ The Atlas Six

⁃ These Violent Delights

⁃ Last Night at the Telegraph Club

⁃ The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo

⁃ I Kissed Shara Wheeler

⁃The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue

- Ace of Spades

- Parable of the Talents

- Self Made Boys

[jeanmoreaux]

*✧ — april 2023 wrap up

i finally read deathless!!! who is surprised it ended up being a new favourite? not me, but probably none of you either (big thanks to everyone who told me to read it because they thought it sounds like something i’d enjoy. you were right.) i had a great reading moths in general and the slump i was fearing didn’t manifest in the end, which i’m so happy about. nevertheless, this might be my last massive wrap up for the first half of the year. i assume may and june will be much shorter simply because of uni and an urge to get back into watching tv shows. i guess will see how things develop from here on out :)

2023 goal: 74/100 books

as alway, feel free to drop book recs, questions, or opinions in my inbox; i am always happy to talk to you about books!

* –> newly added to my favorites shelf

follow my goodreads | follow my storygraph | previous wrap ups

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Summer Sons by Lee Mandelo | 3.75★ | review

Big Swiss by Jen Beagin | 2.5★ | review

Trespasses by Louise Kennedy | 3★

On Murder Considered as One of the Fine Arts by Thomas De Quincey | 4★

The Beautifull Cassandra by Jane Austen | 3★

Really Good, Actually by Monica Heisey | 3.25★

Die Physiker by Friedrich Dürrenmatt | 4★

Demon in the Wood by by Leigh Bardugo, Dani Pendergast (illustrator) | 4★

Cleopatra and Frankenstein by Coco Mellors | 4.25★

Happy Hour by Marlowe Granados | 4★

* Deathless by Catherynne M. Valente | 5★ | review

War of the Foxes by Richard Siken | 5★ | review

Old Babes in the Wood by Margaret Atwood | 3★ | review

Finlay Donovan Knocks 'Em Dead by Elle Cosimano | 3.5★ 

* Joan by Katherine J. Chen | 5★ | review

A Dowry of Blood by S.T. Gibson | 4.5★ | review

–––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––

rereads

The Bear and the Nightingale by Katherine Arden | 4.25★

Ruin and Rising by Leigh Bardugo | 4.5★ | review

Six of Crows by Leigh Bardugo | 5★

Crooked Kingdom by Leigh Bardugo | 5★

[ashereadsstuff]

'Her Dark Wings' By: Melinda Salisbury

I received an ARC from David Fickling Books Through NetGalley in exchange for an honest review

Rating out of 5: 🌟🌟🌟(3/5)

Release Date: July 7, 2022

Content Warnings: Death, Violence, Toxic friendship, Body horror, Confinement, Emotional abuse, Sexual content, Kidnapping, War

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SYNOPSIS:

Her Dark Wings is a modern-day take on the Persephone myth, infused with the intense potency of teenage passions. The richness of Greek myth is vividly brought to life by the immediacy and originality of a fiery, contemporary drama. And iconic mythic figures crackle and change as a modern girl fills the Underworld with new life. Exploring the thin line between love and hate, obsession and attraction, friendship and betrayal, this is a breathless and bold story, beautifully told by an exceptional writer. It's about a girl who realizes what she wants and, in getting it, brings soul to a stagnant world, and change to an unyielding god. It's about life - and hope - blooming in the unlikeliest of places. It's about being brave enough to release your wings.

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MY REVIEW:

So, "Her Dark Wings" by Melinda Salisbury kicks off with a pretty solid vibe. No boredom or annoyance so far, and the descriptions hit that sweet spot—just enough without getting too wordy. Although, I have to admit, some descriptions got a bit weird and cliché at times.

Now, Corry, the main character, goes through some heavy stuff—betrayal, lies, trauma. She's allowed to feel everything she needs to, and I stand by that, but after a while, Corry becomes a tad too dramatic. Wishing death on someone and going into full fury mode seems a bit over the top, especially when there are way worse betrayals in history that could justify that level of anger. Near the end of the book, it made it sound like she didn't care anymore, but at the same time, she still did in a weird way.

The romance between Hades and Corey? There was zero chemistry; it just kind of happened out of nowhere. The only thing that pushed them together was their one kiss in the first few chapters of the book. I honestly started shipping Alecto and Corey instead, thanks to their first interactions having so much more to them than a literal kiss between Corey and Hades. But hey, the ending gets a thumbs-up for tying things up alright. Although I kind of wanted more details on what Corey becomes, The last problem I had with the book was that it's not exactly a Greek myth retelling, which irks me a bit. Plus, where the heck is Persephone? I love the original myths around Persephone, Hades, Zeus, and Demeter. I personally didn't like how it was just overwritten.

Despite all that, it's a satisfying read in the end. So, if you're cool with a few quirks and don't mind some mythological detours, it's worth checking out.

[aroaessidhe]

2022 reads // twitter thread  

Funeral Girl

a girl who can talk to the ghosts of those who come through her family’s small town funeral home & tries to fulfill their last wishes

when her classmate dies unexpectedly & wants her help, she’s forced to confront her deep fear & anxiety about death & her relationship with her friends & family

aroace MC

[chronicowboy]

anyway project hail mary is one of the best books ive ever read

[fallingsunflower]

my policeman coming out 🥲

ugh we need to talk about this more tbh. I actually just watched it again like 2 days ago

[rowenabean]

Tagged by @scarvenartist

Last read: Murderbot 2-4 in one day. It was a mistake, if a fun mistake (they are very fun books! But 3 books in a day is a lot even if they are short books)

Current read: I ordered a book of Connie Willis sci-fi Christmas stories last year, which has just arrived, so I am rather a-seasonally reading one of them (I don't think I'll read the whole book though - save some for next year)

Next read: either the next murderbot, or re-read of Uprooted by Naomi Novik, which I have been thinking about since my uncle gave me Spinning Silver for Christmas so I grabbed it from the library

tagging @artanisnerwen @coldwind-shiningstars @allisonreader @firefletch @gailyinthedark @cuppatealove if you would like

[emerald-notes]

My Top 3 Books of 2022

[firsttraintovictoriaville]

Top 5 Books of 2022

this was a hard year as I read loads of 4 and 4 1/2s but very few fives that weren’t re-read, spots 1-3 can be freely exchanged from one another in terms of ranking but 4th and 5th place are assuredly 4th and 5th. 

1) Pachinko by Minjin Lee (Adult literary family saga fiction) 

Rec’d for fans of: being the child of immigrants who they themselves were the children of immigrants from a different country than the one your parents immigrated from when they went to the country you were born in, Betty Smith stans, people who want to read longer books but are scared of the time commitment or getting bored of the same characters

2) Flapper by Joshua Zeit (Adult nonfiction pop culture history) 

Rec’d for fans of: pop history nonfiction, vintage aesthetics, American pop culture, F. Scott Fitzgerald stans, people that buy Chanel’s “fashion jewelry” despite the fact that it’s the same costume jewelry you could get from Kate Spade and don’t mind being called out on it because it’s their money after all 

3) Magic Lessons by Alice Hoffman (Adult historical fantasy) 

Rec’d for fans of: Jewish historical fiction written by Jews that doesn’t deal with the Shoah but still acknowledge the historical trauma, Sephardi Jews desperate for that sweet taste of representation, colonial American history fans, Chaim Potok stans, mall goths, and Chaim Potok stans that are also mall goths 

4) Catfishing on CatNet by Naomi Kritzer (Young Adult sci-fi thriller) 

Rec’d for fans of: people who don’t like thrillers or sci-fi but want to/were told to/need to read a sci-fi or a thriller book or a sci-fi thriller, people that used Tumblr heavily in its heyday, people who still use Tumblr and always used and will always use it as their main social media, people that enjoy a tastefully done end of chapter cliffhanger 

5) Where’d You Go Bernadette? by Maria Semple (Adult literary humor fiction) 

Rec’d for fans of: living in the PNW, hating the fact that you live in the PNW, spy movies but not the aesthetics, villain characters that are done so realistically you know that in any other book they would be the hero, funny books but not laugh out loud funny but like a giggle here and there funny, books that are longer than they seem in the best way, families that you would judge to make you feel better about yourself

[mrlancer]

My Favorite Books of 2022

I think I did decently well at reading in 2022 and the book I'm reading now, I'm not anticipating finishing before the end of the year (it's The Stand by Stephen King), so now is the best time to post about my favorite books of the year.

This year, I read 80 books. 27 of those were the manga Blue Exorcist, and I'm never sure about whether to really count those in my book count, but I am going to count them as 1 big book for the purpose of this list! So, that takes me down to like 54 books.

So, let's go through my list each month, and pick out favorite book(s) from each month! Maybe I won't have a favorite from some months...

Bold means it was a good I really enjoyed! I

I'm going to hide the list under a keep reading line because otherwise this post might be too long for some people!

January

Dune Messiah -Frank Herbert

A Game of Thrones - George R.R. Martin

Memoirs and Misinformation - Dana Vachon and Jim Carrey

February

Mergers and Acquisitions - Dana Vachon

March

A Long Way to a Small Angry Planet - Becky Chambers

Everyone In This Room Will Someday Be Dead - Emily Austin

Diary of a Bookseller - Shaun Bythell

Call Me By Your Name - Andre Aciman

The Song of Achilles - Madeline Miller

April

I read nothing

May

A Clash of Kings - George R.R. Martin

Almond - Sohn Won-pyung

Human Acts - Hang Kang

Love in the Big City - Sang Young Park

June

Cultish: The Language of Fanaticism - Amanda Montell

Kindred - Octavia E. Butler

July

Blue Exorcist 1-27 - Kazue Kato

Children of Dune - Frank Herbert

Mindhunter: Inside the FBI's Serial Crime Unit - John E. Douglas

Hamnet - Maggie O'Farrell

Columbine - Dave Cullen

August

The Witches: Salem 1692 - Stacy Schiff

Get A Life Chloe Brown - Talia Hibbert

Alias Grace - Margaret Atwood

A Man Called Ove - Fredrik Backman

Shadow and Bone - Leigh Bardugo

The Benefits of Being an Octopus - Ann Braden

Siege and Storm - Leigh Bardugo

World War Z: An Oral History of the Zombie War - Max Brooks

September

The Plague - Albert Camus

Ruin and Rising - Leigh Bardugo

I Want to Die but I Want to Eat Tteokbokki - Baek Se-hee

Cursed Bunny - Bora Chung

Crying in H Mart- Michelle Zauner

Shoko's Smile - Choi Eunyoung

I'm Glad My Mom Died - Jennette McCurdy

October

IT - Stephen King

Mexican Gothic - Silvia Moreno-Garcia

Know My Name - Chanel Miller

The Last Magician - Lisa Maxwell

The Cat Who Saved Books - Sosuke Natsukawa

November

Carrie - Stephen King

It Ends With Us - Colleen Hoover

The Final Revival of Opal and Nev - Dawnie Walton

They Both Die At The End - Adam Silvera

A Wizard of Earthsea - Ursula K. Le Guin

Salem's Lot - Stephen King

Tokyo Ueno Station - Yu Miri

The Tombs of Atuan - Ursula K. Le Guin

The Devil All The Time - Donald Ray Pollock

December

Circe - Madeline Miller

Babel - R.F. Kuang

Taaqtumi: An Anthology of Arctic Horror Stories - Aviaq Johnston, et al

The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo - Taylor Jenkins Reid

Hell Of A Book - Jason Mott

Picking an actual favorite from these is too hard. I read so many great books this year, and obviously some months I read better than others. Actually, I would probably bold more than I have, but I felt bad about bolding more than like 2 per month, though I did do that in like September.

There were only really like 5 or 6 that I didn't really like, but pushed my way through.

I'm quietly aiming for 100 books next year, but I'm not gonna force myself for that, because whenever I aim for goals like that, it just takes the fun out of reading, so I'm going to set my goal at like 5 books and anything more than that is going to be a win for me!

[oflights]

my top 5 books of the year + why 💕📚

hello! as my mutuals on goodreads know (feel free to be my friend there if you’re interested), i read 40 books this year, which is a number grad school allie would scoff at but one that adult ADHD professional allie is very proud of. i want to highlight my top 5 reads on here as a sort of book rec post. 

i have extremely picky tastes and about a dozen weirdo hangups about what i read; that’s either a disclaimer or a selling point of this reclist! your choice! i’d love to hear from you guys if you’ve also read these, or might plan to, or might have similar recommendations. 💕📚

in no particular order:

5.  The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue (V.E. Schwab)

This isn’t exactly an unpopular rec, and I’m definitely late, but in case anyone else needed a last nudge to try this, please do! I did not expect to love it so much, and I’m actually not as crazy about this author’s earlier books despite recommendations. This one, though, is worth the hype. The writing builds such discomfiting, mundane dread and tension; you just want Addie to find a place, set up somewhere, be safe in the most minimal, barest of ways, and the narrative denies you that for so very long. It creates this really unique sense of timelessness (or rather, too much time, there’s just so much time in a day to fill when you don’t have a place to call home) that encapsulates how bleak immortality can be. The ending is phenomenal, one of my favorites ever, and Henry reminds me so much of Harry what who said that also it would take Draco about six months to achieve what Addie vows to do at the end. Tops and yeah, just read it. Trust everyone else who’s told you to read it. 

4.  All the Seas of the World (Guy Gavriel Kay)

I love Guy Gavriel Kay. He writes the perfect blend of historical fiction with a touch of fantasy that hit me right where I live; my extremely Italian ass is in love with Batiara, his analog for Italy. He writes so many big, beautiful moments that make your throat tight. More than that, he portrays every single character in his books (and there are a lot, huge ensembles with POV switches) with so much depth of kindness and care that I love them as much as he does, inevitably. This book is no exception. If you want to give it a try, I do recommend reading A Brightness Long Ago and/or Children of Earth and Sky either before or after this one, because it makes the world he’s created that much richer. If you’re totally new to GGK, I’d also recommend The Lions of Al-Rassan, which is simply one of my favorite books of all time. 

3. Do Not Say We Have Nothing (Madeline Thien)

This is one of those sprawling, multi-generational family epics that spans from the present day, the Cultural Revolution, and the Tiananmen Square protests. It’s really, really dense, but the way it weaves music and family and memory together is just really exquisite. I read this in two long, anxious gulps and had to think about it for a long time, but if this is the kind of historical fiction you like (like I do), highly recommend this one. 

2. Lent (Jo Walton)

The twist in this is just...perfect. It’s so fucking good. This follows a 15th century monk who can see and cast out demons, and I think that’s all I’m going to say about the plot because you should just read it. But the real reason this is on here, beyond all the theological horror that I adore, is that it’s a love letter to Florence, one that hits really, really deeply. There’s such a beautiful sense of place and culture and history in this book that I love to bask in. 

1. She Who Became the Sun (Shelley Parker-Chan) 

Again, this is in no order, so I won’t call this my favorite book read this year...but man did I love this one. It’s another historical epic with fantasy elements but I kind of think it wasn’t marketed properly; there’s a lot of depth of character and plot complexity, and what it says about desire and how insidious, important and destructive it can be is really, really well done for me. This is another one that’s been hyped, and I can’t recommend it enough to anyone on the fence about it. 

Honorable mentions: This is just a list of other books I really enjoyed for various reasons!

Under the Whispering Door (Klune)

Paladin’s Grace (Kingfisher) + its sequels were really fun

The Faerie Hounds of York (Powell)

 Lavinia (Le Guin) 

Foxen Bloom (Foye)

Nettle & Bone (Kingfisher) 

Sistersong (Holland)