Illustration of people in winter clothing with books and Christmas gifts.

The best books of 2022

From Hanya Yanagihara’s epic novel to a brilliant memoir by Bono … Guardian critics pick the year’s best fiction, politics, science, children’s books and more. Tell us about your favourite books in the comments

Three book jackets - Bournville by Jonathan Coe, I’m Sorry You Feel That Way by Rebecca Wait and The Trees by Percival Everett - and an illustration of a bird shaped bauble

Hanya Yanagihara’s follow-up to A Little Life, Percival Everett’s biting satire and Ali Smith’s playful take on lockdown – Justine Jordan reflects on a year in fiction. Read all fiction

Children’s books

Three book jackets - Dogs of the Deadlandsby Anthony McGowan, Creature by Shaun Tan and Britannia’s Baby Encyclopedia - and an illustration of a woman listening to music.

Imogen Russell Williams picks the best titles for children and teenagers, from a spooky tale by Philip Pullman to the long-awaited new novel from SF Said – plus books for young readers by Oliver Jeffers and Maggie O’Farrell. Read all children’s books

Crime and thrillers

Three book jackets - More Than You’ll Ever Know by Kate Gutierrez, The Twyford Code by Janice Hallett and Wrong Place Wrong Time by Gillian McAllister - and an illustration of two baubles.

Cosy crime from Ajay Chowdhury, a new Rebus novel and a handful of excellent debuts – Laura Wilson rounds up the best page-turners. Read all crime and thrillers

Science fiction and fantasy

Three book jackets - Goliath by Tochi Onyebuchi, Sea of Tranquility by Emily St John Mandel and Deep Wheel Orcadia by Harry Josephine Giles - and an illustration of a bauble.

A verse novel written in Orcadian Scots, a unique UFO story and a distinctive time-travel tale from the author of Station Eleven – Adam Roberts selects five of the best science fiction and fantasy books. Read all science fiction and fantasy

Biography and memoir

Three book jackets - Sins of my Father by Lily Dunn, The Light We Carry by Michelle Obama and Managing Expectations by Minnie Driver - and an illustration of a bearded man with headphones on carrying a book.

Fiona Sturges chooses the best memoirs, from Alan Rickman’s posthumous diaries to Michelle Obama’s follow-up to Becoming, as well as compelling biographies of Agatha Christie and John Donne. Read all biography and memoir

History and politics

Three book jackets - Uncommon Wealth by Kojo Koram, How to Stand up to a Dictator by Maria Ressa and The Curtain and the Wall by Timothy Phillips - and an illustration of a bespectacled man reading a book.

Reflections on the British empire, urgent stories of deadly migrant routes and a Nobel peace prize-winner’s thoughts on the future of democracy – Alex von Tunzelmann ’s choice of books about our past and present. Read all history and politics

Three book jackets - A New Formation by Calum Jacobs, Being Geoffrey Boycott by Geoffrey Boycott and Jon Hotten and God Is Dead by Andy McGrath - and an illustration of a bauble.

Jonathan Liew picks five of the year’s best books about sport, including a thought-provoking history of Black footballers and a fascinating biography of Geoffrey Boycott. Read all sport

Three book jackets - The Metaverse by Matthew Ball, The Facemaker by Lindsey Fitzharris and Elusive by Frank Close - and an illustration of a man in a festive jumper carrying books.

With subjects ranging from the lessons of the Covid-19 pandemic to the potential of digital virtual worlds, Alok Jha selects the year’s top science books. Read all science

Three book jackets - The Trees Witness Everything by Victoria Chang, Unexhausted Time by Emily Berry and Home is not a Place by Roger Robinson and Johny Pitts-  and an illustration of a woman holding one book under her arm and another one held out with her other arm.

Black and queer communities are centred in much of this year’s poetry, including Joelle Taylor’s account of butch lesbian counterculture and Warsan Shire’s captivating take on home and identity – Rishi Dastidar chooses the best collections. Read all poetry

Graphic novels

Three book jackets - The Joy of Quitting by Keiler Roberts, Oxygen Mask by Jason Reynolds and Jason Griffin and Days of Sand by Aimée de Jongh - and an illustration of a man holding a gift box and a book.

James Smart picks out the finest comics and graphic books, from thoughtful memoirs to vividly illustrated fiction. Read all graphic novels

Three book jackets - Denim and Leather by Michael Han, In Perfect Harmony by Will Hodgkinson and The Come Up by Jonathan Abrams - and an illustration of a woman holding a gift box.

Bono’s autobiography, oral histories of hip-hop and heavy metal and a smart reflection on Black women in pop – Alexis Petridis ’s pick of books about music and musicians. Read all music

Three book jackets - Modern Pressure Cooking by Catherine Phipps, West Winds by Riaz Phillips and India Express by Rukmini Iyer - and an illustration of a bauble.

Rachel Roddy on the best food books of the year, from stories of growing up in a Chinese takeaway to pressure cooker recipes and a guide to snacking. Read all food

To browse all of the Guardian’s best books of 2022 visit guardianbookshop.com . Delivery charges may apply.

  • 2022 in Culture
  • Best books of the year

Most viewed

Things you buy through our links may earn  Vox Media  a commission.

The Best Books of 2022

Yes, this list features more than one book set in a postapocalyptic world, but have you looked around lately.

published books in 2022

In a year when mega-best-selling authors and literary heavy hitters published new books (it’s okay — Cormac McCarthy won’t be reading this), how thrilling to see less familiar names and voices flourish. It’s a perfect time to pick up a book by a writer you’ve never read before. And, yes, this list features more than one book set in a postapocalyptic world, but have you checked social media lately?

10. X , by Davey Davis

published books in 2022

Davey Davis’s neo-noir novel reads like a cross between Raymond Chandler and Jean Genet. The book follows Lee, a sadist, through a near-future underground queer scene as they go on the lookout for X, a woman they met at a warehouse party and can’t stop thinking about. Rumor has it that the fascist government has served her export papers (an Orwellian term for what is essentially expulsion of undesirables), and if Lee doesn’t find her soon, they never will. Davis is an excellent stylist who skillfully blends the hard-boiled tone of classic detective novels with the ironic detachment of millennials raised on the internet. Equal parts funny, insightful, and ruthless, X is a sexy and paranoid thriller about the lengths we go to get what we want — and the toll obsession can take. —Isle McElroy

9. Seduced by Story , by Peter Brooks

published books in 2022

Society’s obsession with the résumé, and its use to construct an aura of credibility, is such a pervasive element of contemporary life that it inevitably implicates even the author and his own field of “literary humanities.” But that dynamic is exactly what Peter Brooks parses in his terrific critical survey: the essential differences between surface stories and the ways in which they’re constructed. It culminates in a postscript about how narratives impose themselves on the American judicial system that articulates a deeper parable about the ease of manipulating facts to one’s ends. The parameters of one’s story are personal; the onus of calling bullshit rests on us. —J. Howard Rosier

8. All This Could Be Different , by Sarah Thankam Mathews

published books in 2022

Set in the wake of the Great Recession, All This Could Be Different is primed for a long life as a canonical queer coming-of-age novel. It follows Sneha, a woman who moves to Milwaukee after college for a job she despises and who decides, in her words, to “be a slut.” Sneha is a perfectly imperfect narrator. Her mistakes are massive, her desires contagious, her lies unjugglable. Sarah Thankam Mathews’s debut, written in prose as sharp and bright as a sword in the sun, offers an honest portrait of how alluring it is to hide from yourself in the process of finding yourself. And though Mathews includes a gripping romantic thread in the novel, All This Could Be Different truly shines as a love letter to the role that friendships play in times of crisis, as Sneha must reluctantly accept how deeply she needs community to survive. —I.M.

7. 2 A.M. in Little America , by Ken Kalfus

published books in 2022

Ken Kalfus has spent his decades-long career mostly out of the mainstream — a writer’s writer with a blurb from David Foster Wallace to prove it — but 2 A.M. in Little America belongs among the year’s biggest hits. The speculative novel finds Ron Patterson, a humble security technician, in a world post–America’s fall. Avoiding specifics about what exactly happened to destroy the U.S. — does it really matter? — and how the rest of the world is responding, Kalfus follows Patterson as he moves from country to country, searching for asylum in a place that hasn’t closed its borders to U.S. citizens. Throughout, a sense of paranoia pervades, growing as Patterson is thrust unwillingly into the center of a conflict between factions that refuse to take advantage of their new ad hoc homes on the margins of a country that barely tolerates them. It’s bewildering and alarming and often darkly funny at the hapless Patterson’s expense, a scarily believable future. But it’s also a humbling glimpse of the circumstances millions of refugees are actually facing — a there-but-for-the-grace-of-God experience that shouldn’t be necessary to evoke empathy but certainly maximizes it. —Arianna Rebolini

6. The Furrows, by Namwali Serpell

published books in 2022

Namwali Serpell’s provocative second novel follows C, a young biracial girl in Baltimore who witnesses the death of her younger brother, Wayne. What seems like a simple premise quickly becomes dark and twisted through the author’s expert use of repetition: Every few chapters, the book resets and C is forced to watch Wayne die yet again. As the book progresses, C finds more ways to attempt to cope with her grief — from distancing herself from her mother’s delusions that Wayne will one day return to developing an intimate relationship with a man who deeply reminds her of Wayne — but in the end, C and her family are forced to face their sorrows head-on. Unflinching first-person narration and lyric prose make C’s grief feel visceral, allowing the reader to mourn along with her each time Wayne passes away. At once heartfelt and dizzying, The Furrows is a powerful meditation on riding out the waves of grief. —Mary Retta

5. Siren Queen , by Nghi Vo

published books in 2022

In an alternate version of pre-Code Hollywood, in which aspiring actors often meet their ends as fodder for the sinister ritual magic that powers the studio system, Luli Wei is determined to be a star. The odds, of course, are stacked against her as a gay Chinese American woman, but, driven by her ambition and willingness to play the studio heads’ dark game, she finds her breakout role — not as a heroine but as a monster. As she sinks further into the murk of the industry, risking her own soul in the process, Luli finds love (and a greater purpose, if she has the strength to see it through). Coming hot on the heels of last year’s The Chosen and the Beautiful , a queer, immigrant reimagining of The Great Gatsby , Siren Queen establishes Vo as an uncommonly talented new voice in fantasy, one who writes from a place of anger, insight, and deep compassion. — Emily Hughes

4. Strangers to Ourselves , by Rachel Aviv

published books in 2022

Rachel Aviv set herself a seemingly impossible task in her mindful debut: to write about people who occupy the “psychic hinterlands, the outer edges of human experience, where language tends to fail.” Her language assuredly does not fail. Strangers to Ourselves plaits personal narrative — it opens with Aviv being hospitalized at age 6 for anorexia — with stories of other tough cases, including a Brahman woman diagnosed with schizophrenia and a nephrologist who ran a successful dialysis business until he was institutionalized for depression (“a Horatio Alger story in reverse,” as he wryly puts it). Where conventional case studies might freeze erratic or socially deviant behaviors in the aspic of pathology, Aviv sensitively fills in what those narratives leave out. The result is a work of fierce moral intelligence: In withholding judgment and letting her subjects speak for themselves, Aviv grants them the dignity that society has so often denied. —Rhoda Feng

3. The World Keeps Ending, and the World Goes On , by Franny Choi

published books in 2022

The notion, so enthusiastically propagated by many news outlets, that our current moment is careering toward catastrophe may leave an audience on high alert. But to a certain reader — BIPOC/ALAANA, diasporic, marginalized — that’s old news. That position animates Franny Choi’s latest collection of poetry, which neutralizes the feeling of apocalyptic panic by showing that xenophobia and brutality within an unequal society are, indeed, nothing new. Compounding the weariness of the past several years with that of the ages flies rather close to despair, but World eludes cynicism to cast generational trauma as a paean to survival: “Every day, an extinction misfires, and I put it to work.” — J.H.R.

2. Easy Beauty , by Chloé Cooper Jones

published books in 2022

Pulitzer Prize finalist, doctor of philosophy, and general multi-hyphenate Chloé Cooper Jones’s debut shifted my understanding of a world I’ve experienced only while able-bodied. Easy Beauty follows Jones — who was born with a rare congenital condition known as sacral agenesis, a disability that visibly sets her apart from the general population and that has caused a lifetime of underlying pain — through a series of trips in pursuit of meaning, both personal and existential. This narrative propels the book while providing detours for the exploration of her life, and theories about beauty, a concept that has defined much of it. The through-line is the titular theory and its opposite — i.e., easy versus difficult beauty; i.e., beauty that is obvious versus beauty that makes you work for it — and the genius of Easy Beauty is in its functioning as the latter. It’s heady but accessible. Jones puts us through the wringer a bit, trusting us to keep up with her analyses and forcing us to stay close to her physical and emotional pain, but the result is extraordinary. —A.R.

1. Manhunt , by Gretchen Felker-Martin

published books in 2022

In an era of cultural remakes, remixes, knockoffs, and infinite bland variations on corporate IP, it’s all too rare to encounter a book like Manhunt — a true original that not only eviscerates an existing subgenre (gender-based apocalypse stories like Y: The Last Man , in this case) but also plants a flag in its steaming corpse and says, “This is the future of queer horror.”

Anger simmers underneath every word of Gretchen Felker-Martin’s prose as she tells a story of trans women and men fighting for survival after a plague transforms anyone with a certain amount of testosterone in their system into a feral monstrosity. In the world of Manhunt , the already life-or-death nature of transition is taken to new heights: Protagonists Beth and Fran have to scavenge enough estrogen to keep from succumbing to the virus, while Robbie tries to forge a life in a state of persistent dysphoria since taking testosterone is a death sentence. Their odyssey across a postapocalyptic New England showcases an array of threats, from feral men to militant TERFs, self-loathing chasers to rich-idiot survivalists. The book is timely, visceral, grotesque, unflinching, and unexpectedly fun, full of sex and gore and messy, beautiful humanity; think of it as The Road with a sense of humor and 110 percent more queer sex. —E.H.

Honorable Mentions

All books are listed by U.S. release date.

Fiona and Jane , by Jean Chen Ho

published books in 2022

Fiona and Jane , by Jean Chen HoIn the short stories of Jean Chen Ho’s Fiona and Jane , the author tracks the titular characters’ childhood friendship into adulthood through everything from romantic betrayal to grief to dropping out of law school. The pair reinforce one another’s foibles — oversharing and navel-gazing — by feeding on one another’s psychic supply: An interchangeable sister-mother-friend-annelid dynamic ripe for transference is constructed in alternating perspective shifts that are like jump scares in their abrupt changeover. The result is a confidently nonlinear debut collection that sluices through the interiority of its protagonists without diminishing the passion and powerfully mysterious intimacy of female friendship. — Safy-Hallan Farah

Last Resort , by Andrew Lipstein

published books in 2022

Last Resort tells the story of Caleb, a frustrated writer who, after being told a gripping, true story by a college friend, Avi, steals the tale to serve as the plot of his own novel. What follows, at first, is entertaining drama — industry hype builds around the manuscript, Avi angrily finds out about the theft, and in one memorable scene, a bizarre contract is made between the two to resolve the dispute. But Last Resort really starts flying once that Faustian bargain has been made, and we’re left with Caleb in the wreckage. Strip away the insider-y publishing references (readings at Greenlight, the novelist Rachel Cusk, day trips to Storm King), and this is really a brilliant morality tale about what happens when a person refuses to learn from their mistakes, all the way down to the final scene, which had me laughing out loud and punching the air, even if it was at Caleb’s expense. — Louis Cheslaw

Dilla Time , by Dan Charnas

published books in 2022

Dan Charnas’s biography of the late legendary producer J Dilla is both a meticulously compiled, compellingly illuminative retread of his long path to stardom and a manifesto on the beatmaker’s true legacy. (To wit: In dragging his kick drums ever so slightly behind the rest of the beat, Dilla helped recontextualize the entire idea of rhythm in hip-hop.) Charnas turns what might be your run-of-the-mill chronicle into an exploration of the history of the producer’s native Detroit, a thoroughly detailed analysis of music production and genre, and a rumination on how a voracious, unassuming kid from Conant Gardens went on to become his generation’s Beethoven. — Alex Suskind

Pure Colour , by Sheila Heti

published books in 2022

Sheila Heti’s last two novels, How Should a Person Be? and Motherhood , treated self-doubt as a formal project: What shape can a writer give her own indecisiveness? Then, just as some parents of newborns find purpose and clarity, she emerged with a book full of declarations. In Pure Colour , God is preparing to scrap the first draft of existence and replace it with something better — a state of being that’s more humane, more egalitarian, and perhaps less vain. In the meantime, Heti relates the life of Mira, an aesthete, a critic, and a seller of fine lamps, as she grieves her father, whose corpse she’s taken up residency with inside of a leaf. The directness of Heti’s writing renders even her most twee scenes into something affecting. Of Mira’s work in the lamp store, for example, she writes, “The red and green stones shed its light upon her dark face and the white walls. And she loved her meager little existence, which was entirely her own.” — Maddie Crum

Read Jennifer Wilson’s review of Pure Colour .

Vladimir , by Julia May Jonas

published books in 2022

Julia May Jonas’s debut novel is an intimate portrait of a failing marriage, yes, but it’s also a look at the reconstruction of a life meticulously built whose foundation begins to crack, then crumble. A middle-aged lit professor has to decide whether to stick beside her husband, also a middle-aged professor at the same liberal arts college, who is being investigated by the school for sexual misconduct with former students. Enter the titular Vladimir, an accomplished younger writer who’s the newest tenured professor. Suddenly, she’s bursting with desire — the kind that inspires her to write a book, masturbate, and ignore her increasingly needy husband. It’s self-conscious in the best way, sharp and observant without being didactic, something I’ve found to be increasingly rare. — Tembe Denton-Hurst

Then the War , by Carl Phillips

published books in 2022

In Then the War , Carl Phillips’s newest poetry collection, he continues his exploration of love’s power dynamics. Clearing, garden, backyard, forest, path: Transitive spaces of nature act as both shelter, in which Phillips can cultivate his feelings of shame, longing, and queer desire into the fruit of self-expression, and battlefield, where destruction of the self and the other fertilize the ground for new forms of interior life. Through concise lyricism — in “Blue-Winged Warbler,” he locates “a nest of swords” somewhere “deep in the interstices // where dream and waking dream and what, between the two, I’ve called a life” — this produce is as likely to be imbued with the bitter weight of regret as it is to have sweet evanescence, mirroring back at us ideals, desires, and other possible selves, lost to us or left behind the very moment they’re glimpsed. — Alex Watkins

The Employees , by Olga Ravn

published books in 2022

Aboard the Six-Thousand Ship, sometime in the 22nd century, employees are encouraged to be present-minded lest they lose themselves to memories of Earth and of their left-behind loved ones. Such nostalgia is not productive and is bound to interfere with their work performance. The Employees , translated from Danish by Martin Aitken, is made up of interviews with these workers, some of whom are human, others humanoid, although the distinction is at times made unclear. To stave off melancholy — another deterrent to work — they’re given child holograms and stimulating objects with which to interact. Unsurprisingly, labor peace eludes the ship, and a workplace novel devolves into a full-blown horror story, leaving behind few survivors. This is more than a clever reframing of sci-fi tropes, although it’s that, too; the employees’ voices themselves, some of them desperate, some of them meditative, form a touching, alienated chorus, narrating a tragedy that for many will ring eerily true. — M.C.

Checkout 19 , by Claire-Louise Bennett

published books in 2022

As in her first book, the exuberant and formally inventive Pond , Claire-Louise Bennett’s second novel is moving in its sentence-level, voice-driven rhythms that relate scenes from a British schoolgirl’s first and most formative encounters with books and with invention — silly, strange, and touching moments in their intimacy. The epigraph for one chapter is an excerpt from John Milton’s pamphlet Areopagitica on the vitality of books that are free to be expressive, confessional, heretical, even; they project “a potency of life” and “preserve as in a vial the efficacy … of that living intellect that bred them.” It’s a familiar premise, that reading and creativity are life-giving, but in her stylish künstlerroman, Bennett gives the premise new life. — M.C.

Run and Hide , by Pankaj Mishra

published books in 2022

Asian immigrant narratives in American fiction tend to follow a familiar script: Person arrives in the West wiped clean of caste tension, the relationships they had to money, class, and ambition in their home country subsumed by the fact of their recent arrival. In Pankaj Mishra’s second novel, Run and Hide , he reorients this narrative of escape to tell a stickier tale. His protagonist Arun is a poor young Indian man whose life becomes intertwined with two ladder-climbing university classmates and, eventually, a wealthy younger lover — the kind of expat for whom borders hold little transformative power. Mishra is a public intellectual and regular contributor to the London Review of Books as well as a rare and talented fiction writer: Here, he braids a headlong plot with commentary on what you lose while trying to make it big — and what you gain when you opt out. — Madeline Leung Coleman

Oedipus Tyrannos , by Sophocles

published books in 2022

Emily Wilson is one of my favorite working classicists; I’ve followed her since she wrote a deliciously biting review of a Hesiod translation for the New York Review of Books . The new Norton Library edition of her translation of Sophocles’ Oedipus Tyrannos (also known by its Roman title, Oedipus Rex , which Wilson describes as a spoiler) is full of the historiographical precision and literary clarity I associate with Wilson’s other works, including her 2018 translation of The Odyssey . Wilson’s translation notes alone are a delight — translating Sophocles, she aims for an idiom that is “fluent, humane, natural, and also markedly artful; sometimes conversational, but never slangy … sometimes odd, but never stiff or unintentionally obscure.” Wilson’s verse captures the rich density of ancient poetry, and her notes also offer surprisingly funny insights into the play’s original context: An abundance of foot puns would sound less ridiculous to Athenian ears, and a final line she describes as “hokey” is characteristic of the “simplistic moralizing” that is “fairly common at the end of Athenian tragedy.” — Erin Schwartz 

The Doloriad , by Missouri Williams

published books in 2022

Missouri Williams’s debut novel begins after humanity has been destroyed by a natural catastrophe, the details of which we’re spared. Unlike in, say, Station Eleven , pre-apocalypse days aren’t the focus; instead, we spend our time with a struggling, sordid, incestuous family, possibly the last family left on earth. A woman — the Matriarch — and her brother take on the task of remaking humanity with a crew of their own children. Williams’s book bears resemblances to William Faulkner in its conceit, in its wending sentences, and in its images: Noses point “off to one side like a rudder.” At one point, the Matriarch disposes of a daughter’s body not in a casket but with a wheelbarrow. And what could be more Gothic, more suffocating and cloistered, than an apocalypse that left behind only you and your most overbearing family members? — M.C.

Glory, by NoViolet Bulawayo

published books in 2022

There is a long tradition in literary criticism of evaluating a new book by a writer from a marginalized community from the vantage point of an older book — usually by a white male writer. The supposed advantages of this approach are manifold: The older book might provide a point of entry for readers who are unwilling to do the work of understanding the newer book on its own terms, and the newer book can shine in the reflected glory of the older one as the wan moon to the older book’s sun. I mention this because just about every appraisal — including this one, unfortunately — you will read of NoViolet Bulawayo’s latest, brilliant novel, Glory , will reference Animal Farm by George Orwell. In this case, the comparison is warranted but also limiting. Bulawayo’s book traverses new territory on its own radically creative terms. This book, like Orwell’s, is made up of a cast of animals, but the comparisons grow weaker from there. My recommendation: Pick this up, leave any preconceptions aside, and dive right in. — Tope Folarin

The Candy House , by Jennifer Egan

published books in 2022

With The Candy House , Jennifer Egan accomplishes the rare feat of making a series of linked short stories feel like a complete, cohesive novel, one that imagines a parallel future where people are able to externalize their memories and upload them into a cloud. There are pluses: Murders are solved, the tragically separated are reunited, children get to truly know their parents. But there are downsides, too, mainly society’s collective immersion into a massive entangled web of constant surveillance. It feels like a slightly exaggerated version of our own current dilemma, down to shadowy countermovements desperate to dismantle the entire thing — if only we could all be so organized! Kaleidoscopic and epic and never boring, this sequel of sorts to 2010’s A Visit From the Goon Squad takes us from a country club to a tech start-up to a government operation on a remote island that we learn about through an instruction manual narrated in the second person. It’s a book unafraid of changing form because it’s married to this central cluster of ideas, and Egan thoroughly convinces us to come along for the ride. — T.D.H.

Read Mallika Rao’s review of The Candy House , by Jennifer Egan, and The Immortal King Rao, by Vauhini Vara.

Constructing a Nervous System , by Margo Jefferson

published books in 2022

If every foray into writing about one’s life constitutes a tense negotiation between the past and the present, Margo Jefferson’s latest, Constructing a Nervous System , refuses those terms . A sequel of sorts to her award-winning 2015 memoir,  Negroland , Jefferson takes the form and blows it up — in the smoldering debris, synapses of memory make new connections. Constructing blends autobiography and criticism to gift readers with reflections and ruminations on the place of music, aesthetics, and celebrity in one’s personal and shared racial history. The sweat of Ella Fitzgerald, the audacity of Ike Turner, the genius of Josephine Baker, the virtuosity of Bud Powell — interwoven here are the mystifying qualities and talents of those and many other artists, all of which come together to tell of a life that has been influenced by and in turn influenced so many others — Omari Weekes

Read Jasmine Sanders’s profile of Margo Jefferson.

A Tiny Upward Shove, by Melissa Chadburn

published books in 2022

On the first page of this startingly unconventional novel, we learn that the protagonist has been murdered and her body possessed by an avenging spirit called an aswang. This premise establishes the stakes of the story as an unflinching tale that privileges the brutal realities of its battered characters. The western impulse is to wave away or demystify anything that defies rational explanation, but this book advances a subtle, potent idea: The abuse that countless women — especially women of color — face is so extreme, so sadistic, that it cannot be classified as anything but supernatural, and so the response to this abuse must be supernatural as well. Melissa Chadburn’s is a harrowing and utterly unforgettable story.  — T.F.

Love Marriage , by Monica Ali

published books in 2022

When we meet 20-something Yasmin, her life appears to be approaching the precipice of perfection. She’s a doctor marrying a more senior, even-more-attractive doctor who worships the ground she walks on. Soon we meet her parents, Shaokat and Anisah, Indian immigrants who have managed to achieve their slice of the British dream. But when Yasmin introduces her family to his, their differences of class (and race — he and his family are white) are abundantly clear, and Yasmin, who goes through much of the book misunderstanding or being ashamed of her mother, is shocked to find that her husband’s accomplished feminist artist mother is completely taken with her son’s future mother-in-law. The book is always interrogating perfection, asking if everything peachy is as it seems. The answer is often no, but it doesn’t matter because there’s something so much more interesting in its place. — T.D.H.

The Women’s House of Detention , by Hugh Ryan

published books in 2022

Wild to think that within living memory, in the center of Greenwich Village’s present-day prettiness and wealth, stood one of the country’s most notorious prisons. The Women’s House of Detention, opened in 1932 at the foot of Greenwich Avenue and demolished in 1974, was grim, overcrowded, violent — and, in Hugh Ryan’s telling, a significant incubator of the Village’s queer history. Ryan has dredged social workers’ extensive documentation of life inside, and from their files, he has excavated horrifying stories of inmates’ abuse at the hands of the staff and other residents; he also reveals just how many of them awakened, while incarcerated, to their sexual identities. (A great many of those women were arrested for either sex work or public expressions of homosexuality, like cross-dressing.) Ryan argues that despite its miseries and dangers, the House of D, as it was often called, had the advantage of being a space where queer life could exist somewhat on its own terms. The building becomes a literary device, a vehicle for the recovered stories of its incarcerated as well as another affirmative point in the broader argument for prison abolition. — Christopher Bonanos

It Was All a Dream: Biggie and the World that Made Him , by Justin Tinsely

published books in 2022

In all the barbershop arguments that shore up the Notorious B.I.G.’s deserved place as the greatest rapper of all time, it can be easy to lose sight of the human behind the lyrics. With It Was All a Dream: Biggie and the World That Made Him, Justin Tinsley goes to great lengths to provide an extensively well-researched and empathetic look at Christopher Wallace’s tremendous but brief career. The book gets at not just the trivia but the structural and cultural circumstances of his life, from growing up in Brooklyn’s public-housing projects during the Reagan era to living in America as a first-generation Caribbean man to entering the rap game during its innovative, lucrative 1990s heyday. Tinsley does as much as he can to get into Wallace’s dark exclamation mark, the fatal East Coast–West Coast rap beef — it’s still a hard narrative to crystallize, 25 years later — but throughout brings a journalist’s rigor to capturing the murky details of Biggie’s story, putting the legendary Brooklyn maestro in the proper context of the times he lived in. This is more than a biography, it’s a snapshot of both the record industry and America itself at crucial junctures for both. — Israel Daramola

DJ Screw: A Life in Slow Revolution , by Lance Scott Walker

published books in 2022

Robert Earl Davis Jr., better known as DJ Screw, helped define the ’90s and early aughts Texas rap sound with the advent of his warped, hypnotic cassette playlists, and this book is the ultimate word on both him and his seismic imprint — one that continues to linger in modern music, from the aesthetic of Travis Scott to the slowed-and-reverbed production behind the likes of Justin Bieber and Frank Ocean. His expertly curated playlists of the era’s best hip-hop and R&B tracks (with the occasional rock record thrown in) — tweaked with his namesake technique of slowing down and chopping them up — paired well with Houston’s drug and nightlife culture; Lance Scott Walker transubstantiates Screw’s lore into something more permanent and tangible, interviewing just about everyone that ever knew the DJ, along with a number of aficionados and famous fans of his that helped make the Screw tape the hip-hop fetish objects that they have become in the decades since Davis’s death. — I.D.

An Island , by Karen Jennings

published books in 2022

This slim, capacious novel, recently longlisted for the Booker Prize , is an allegorical meditation on colonialism and its enduring aftermath. As the novel opens, we meet Samuel, the lone inhabitant of and lighthouse keeper on a harbor island. His isolation is interrupted by an unexpected visitor — a man who washes ashore. This stranger’s sudden appearance prompts Samuel to consider the span of his life and reflect on the events that led him to the island. The wonder of this novel is how expansive it is despite its length; Samuel’s life doubles as beachhead for an intense examination of postcolonial African politics, xenophobia, family and its discontents, and, inevitably, the nature and meaning of love. Everything coheres because of Jennings’s immaculate understanding of craft. Each polished narrative piece perfectly complements the next. This is a novel of contrasts: understated and bold, spare and sweeping, slender and grand. — T.F.

Avalon , by Nell Zink

published books in 2022

Have you heard? The zoomers are anxious, savvy, and very online, circulating bits of out-of-context theory and cultural references: How can such a thing as an IRL love story — or a plot of any kind — emerge from this carnival? Nell Zink’s Avalon is a valiant attempt; her crew of young artists bicker confidently about Marx and their dystopian screenplays, and they exist offline, too, on their parents’ couches, on a road trip to the desert, and in the lean-to on a biker gang’s farm. The Dickensian heroine, Bran, is an orphan at the heart of a smart and funny künstlerroman. She may know that the word used to describe her story’s genre is having a moment, but she’s too busy falling in love and evading danger to dwell long on trends. Like The Wallcreeper , Zink’s first book , Avalon is both fast paced and overtly interested in its ideas, challenging the false dichotomy of plot versus depth. — M.C.

You Made a Fool of Death With Your Beauty, by Akwaeke Emezi

published books in 2022

Akwaeke Emezi’s novels tend to begin with a bang, and this one’s no different. The first sentence reads, “Milan was the first person Feyi fucked since the accident.” It immediately sends the mind spinning. Who is Milan? Who is Feyi? What accident? Was the sex any good? This explosive entrance to the book sets the tone for what follows: a not-so-traditional love story that asks: How does someone love after their world ends? Emezi takes us to an unnamed Caribbean island to find out, in a lush journey filled with beautiful paragraphs about art and so many vivid food descriptions it’s best to read on a full stomach. Like Emezi’s previous novels, Freshwater and The Death of Vivek Oji, the book isn’t just about one thing. Sure, there’s a pretty scandalous take on the forbidden love trope that pushes it firmly into the romance space (it also gets a bit steamy!), but it’s also a snapshot into grief many years after a life-changing incident. — T.D.H.

Fruiting Bodies , by Kathryn Harlan

published books in 2022

It is perhaps fitting that several of the short stories in Fruiting Bodies , science-fiction writer Kathryn Harlan’s debut, center on mushrooms: Much like the fungus, the characters in Harlan’s eight tales live among constant death and rot, and yet, somehow, they find surprisingly beautiful ways to keep growing. Harlan’s plots are impressively diverse: “Agal Bloom,” which follows two young girls daring each other to swim in a mysteriously contaminated lake against their families’ wishes, bleeds effortlessly into “Hunting the Viper King,” wherein a young girl and her father go on a yearslong search for a snake whose venom grants ultimate understanding of the universe. The worlds Harlan creates feel both expansively fantastical and palpably real. A stunning literary portrayal of the climate apocalypse, Fruiting Bodies provides a window into how we can make life out of decay. — Mary Retta 

Mothercare: On Obligation, Love, Death, and Ambivalence, by Lynne Tillman

published books in 2022

When Lynne Tillman’s mother, Sophie, was diagnosed with a brain disorder called normal-pressure hydrocephalus at age 86, the writer began a long journey through the complexities of elder care. The condition, which left Sophie forgetful and unsteady, required a series of invasive surgeries, and she lived for 11 years after its sudden, startling onset. Her tenacity was confounding to the many doctors she encountered who were unaccustomed to prioritizing the lives of the elderly, and much of this memoir is about the defiance required of caretakers like Tillman in the face of the medical Establishment. At the center of it all is Tillman’s relationship with her mother, whom she describes as a competitive, distant personality she must nonetheless fight for fiercely. Her honesty about their irreconcilable disconnect is electrifying. — Emma Alpern

Afterlives , by Abdulrazak Gurnah

published books in 2022

Abdulrazak Gurah, the most recent recipient of the Nobel Prize in Literature, has crafted a wide-ranging, orchestral novel. Afterlives is set in East Africa in the early 20th century after the European powers of the day carved up Africa according to their colonial ambitions. Gurnah’s narrative approach is to foreground how colonialism infects and undermines every aspect of society by training our attention on the intimate details of his characters’ lives — every action they take is consciously (and oftentimes unconsciously) influenced by their desire to escape its grasp. His scenes are polished, elegant, and masterfully constructed, each building effortlessly upon the last until the final pages, when his glittering narrative mosaic, glimpsed only in flashes throughout the story, is fully revealed. You will want to start over so you can experience it again. — T.F.

My Phantoms , by Gwendoline Riley

published books in 2022

Gwendoline Riley’s latest novel opens with Bridget’s childhood recollections of her blustering, dodgy father, but the character’s real fixation is her mother, Helen “Hen” Grant, a hopelessly naïve and needy figure. Bridget, now in her 40s, is hyperaware of all her mother’s little manipulations, and each of her verbal tics — the repeated “Mmm”s and “I don’t know”s, the botched jokes, the clumsy fake accents — are recorded in icy detail. Riley transcribes what other authors often skip , making her dialogue uncannily lifelike. The book is a study in irritation that unfolds with thrillerlike tension, except the central moments are less bank heist and more adversarial family dinner (a particularly memorable scene takes place in a vegetarian restaurant where Hen falls quiet while choking down a “detox salad”). By the end, the unjustness of the mother-daughter relationship takes on an unsettling new dimension. — E.A.

Read Rachel Connolly’s profile of author Gwendoline Riley .

Bright Unbearable Reality , by Anna Badkhen

published books in 2022

In the opening pages of Bright Unbearable Reality , the latest collection of essays by Anna Badkhen, the writer poses a question that she promptly answers: “What is place? A memory of our presence, a memory of our absence.” In these lines one can glimpse the narrative design of this book and its primary obsession. Each of these essays is animated by questions that inspire Badkhen to immerse herself in various global contexts — the book is set on four continents — to understand how the places she visits have been shaped by humans, and how humans have been altered by them. We follow along as she leaves behind a trail of precise, glistening prose, and each time we arrive somewhere else we consider, once again, humanity’s shifting, unstable, and essential relationship with place. We have planted flags and drawn maps, but — as Badkhen brilliantly demonstrates — the intersecting challenges of the 21st century (climate, economic, epidemic) might force us to reconsider our conclusions. — T.F.

Toad , by Katherine Dunn

published books in 2022

Before 1989’s Geek Love shot her to success, Katherine Dunn spent years trying to find a publisher for her third book, a semi-autobiographical novel following Sally Gunnar, a woman who spent her college years on the fringes of the 1960s counterculture scene in Portland, Oregon. In a state of middle-age isolation, Sally looks back bitterly at the unfocused idealism of her young friend group: “The hermit has an evil eye that chills the memory and upsets the digestion,” she says in her narration. The central event from her student years is an ill-fated pregnancy involving the object of Sally’s affection, bright-eyed, philosophy-quoting Sam, that is drawn out with savage humor. After extensive revisions to the manuscript of Toad , which the author began writing in 1971, Dunn received a final rejection letter in 1977: “I love TOAD as much as ever, more, actually,” her editor wrote, but she was overruled by her colleagues. Long consigned to a drawer, the book has finally been posthumously published ( Dunn died in 2016 ). The novel is frightfully lovable, a brutal and baroque treatise on loneliness that shares a grotesque core with Dunn’s most famous novel. — E.A.

  • vulture section lede
  • vulture lists
  • checkout 19
  • the doloriad
  • run and hide
  • the employees
  • oedipus tyrannos
  • fiona and jane
  • emily wilson
  • julia may jonas
  • sheila heti
  • claire-louise bennett
  • missouri williams
  • jean chen ho
  • pankaj mishra
  • best of 2022
  • margo jefferson
  • constructing a nervous system
  • dan charnas
  • then the war
  • carl phillips
  • the candy house
  • jennifer egan
  • love marriage
  • it was all a dream
  • justin tinsley
  • the women's house of detention
  • lance scott walker
  • fruiting bodies
  • kathryn harlan
  • remove-interruptions
  • year in culture
  • new york magazine

Most Viewed Stories

  • The 13 Best Movies and TV Shows to Watch This Weekend
  • John Oliver Stepping to Disney Won Late Night This Week
  • The Crying Game
  • Expats Recap: 2014
  • 12 Books to Read If You Can’t Move On From Night Country
  • Masters of the Air Recap: The Dirty Baker’s Dozen
  • All the Days in One Day

Editor’s Picks

published books in 2022

Most Popular

What is your email.

This email will be used to sign into all New York sites. By submitting your email, you agree to our Terms and Privacy Policy and to receive email correspondence from us.

Sign In To Continue Reading

Create your free account.

Password must be at least 8 characters and contain:

  • Lower case letters (a-z)
  • Upper case letters (A-Z)
  • Numbers (0-9)
  • Special Characters (!@#$%^&*)

As part of your account, you’ll receive occasional updates and offers from New York , which you can opt out of anytime.

The Best Books of 2022

If you want to read about spaceships, talking pigs, or supervillains, you’ve come to the right place.

best books

Every product was carefully curated by an Esquire editor. We may earn a commission from these links.

Check back with us in the new year, when we'll start rounding up our favorite books of 2023. In the meantime, happy reading!

Didn't Nobody Give a Shit What Happened to Carlotta, by James Hannaham

Hannaham’s buoyant sophomore novel introduces us to the unforgettable Carlotta Mercedes, an Afro-Latinx trans woman released from a men’s prison after serving two decades. Returning home to Brooklyn, she encounters a gentrified city she doesn’t recognize, as well as a host of new stressors; life on the outside soon involves an unforgiving parole process and a family that struggles to recognize her transition. Over the course of one zany Fourth of July weekend, Carlotta descends into Brooklyn’s roiling underbelly on a quest to stand in her truth. Angry, saucy, and joyful, Carlotta is a true survivor—one whose story shines a disinfecting light on the injustices of our world.

Harry Sylvester Bird, by Chinelo Okparanta

The title character of Okparanta’s gutsy new novel is a white teenager born to xenophobic parents, but everything changes for young Harry Sylvester Bird on a safari in Tanzania, when he develops an enduring fascination with Blackness. Harry soon escapes to college in Manhattan and begins to identify as Black, joining a “Transracial-Anon” support group and longing for “racial reassignment.” When he falls in love with Maryam, a student from Nigeria, a study-abroad trip to Ghana’s Gold Coast puts both their romance and his identity to the test. Outlandish and arresting, Harry’s miseducation is a deft satire of prejudice and allyship.

Young Mungo, by Douglas Stuart

When his Shuggie Bain took home the Booker Prize in 2020, readers were desperate to see what this astounding debut novelist would do next. It will come as no surprise that Stuart’s second effort soars—and socks you right in the belly. Set in the tenements of Glasgow during the 1990s, Young Mungo is the wrenching story of the doomed and forbidden love between two teenage boys, one Catholic and the other Protestant. Insecure, self-loathing Mungo is forever changed by the calming influence of tender-hearted James, but in a stratified society such as this one, their bond can’t be allowed to stand. When the adults in their lives intervene, James and Mungo learn heartbreaking lessons about how boys become men. In a world where hope and despair coexist, Young Mungo is both brutal and breathtaking.

Time Is a Mother, by Ocean Vuong

Vuong’s second collection of poetry is a bruising journey through the devastating aftershocks of his mother’s death. Like Orpheus descending into the underworld, Vuong takes us to the white-hot limits of his grief, writing with visionary fervor about love, agony, and time. Without his mother, Vuong must remake his understanding of the world: what is identity when its source is gone? What is language without the cultural memory of our elders? Aesthetically ambitious and ferociously original, Time Is A Mother interrogates these impossibilities. “Nobody’s free without breaking open,” Vuong writes in one searing poem. Here, he breaks open and rebuilds.

Trust, by Hernan Diaz

In 2018, Diaz came close to the Pulitzer Prize with In the Distance , a probing western honored as a finalist; now, with Trust , he may finally take home the gold. Trust is the story of a Wall Street tycoon and his brilliant wife, who become outlandishly wealthy in Prohibition-era New York. In this puzzle box of stories-within-a-story, the mystery of their affluence becomes the subject of a novel, a memoir, an unfinished manuscript, and finally, a diary. Each layer builds and recontextualizes Diaz's riveting story of class, capitalism, and greed. The result is a mesmerizing metafictional alchemy of grand scope and even grander accomplishment.

Liarmouth, by John Waters

Waters takes his first bow as a novelist with this "perfectly perverted feel-bad romance” about Marsha “Liarmouth” Sprinkle, a con woman caught up in a bad romance with Darryl, the degenerate loser with whom she steals suitcases from airport luggage carousels. Marsha has promised Darryl sex for his services after one year of employment, but when she skips out without paying up, Darryl is out for revenge. In the acknowledgments, Waters aptly describes this novel as “fictitious anarchy.” That’s as good a description as any for this campy, raunchy, surreal story, rife with ribald pleasures. Read an interview with Waters here at Esquire.

Butts: A Backstory, by Heather Radke

This crackling cultural history melds scholarship and pop culture to arrive at a comprehensive taxonomy of the female bottom. From 19th-century burlesque to the eighties aerobics craze to Kim Kardashian’s internet-breaking backside, Radke leaves no stone unturned. Her sources range from anthropological scholarship to Sir Mix-a-Lot’s “Baby Got Back,” making for a vivacious blend, but Butts isn’t all fun and games. Radke explores how women’s butts have been used “as a means to create and reinforce racial hierarchies,” acting as locuses of racism, control, and desire. Lively and thorough, Butts is the best kind of nonfiction—the kind that forces you to see something ordinary through completely new eyes. Read an interview with the author here at Esquire.

Fight Like Hell: The Untold History of American Labor, by Kim Kelly

With a galvanizing groundswell of unionization efforts rocking mega-corporations like Amazon and Starbucks, there’s never been a better time to learn about the history of the American labor movement. Fight Like Hell will be your indispensable guide to the past, present, and future of organized labor. Rather than structure this comprehensive history chronologically, Kelly organizes it into chapter-sized profiles of different labor sectors, from sex workers to incarcerated laborers to domestic workers. Each chapter contains capsule biographies of working-class heroes, along with a painstaking focus on those who were hidden or dismissed from the movement. So too do these chapters illuminate how many civil rights struggles, like women’s liberation and fair wages for disabled workers, are also, at their core, labor struggles. After reading Fight Like Hell , you’ll never look at American history the same way again—and you may just be inspired to organize your own workplace. Read an interview with Kelly here at Esquire.

Overdue: Reckoning with the Public Library, by Amanda Oliver

Library-goers have long labored under a romanticized portrait of libraries as sacred spaces. In Overdue , a former librarian explores the importance of demanding better from what we love. Through the lens of her time as a librarian in one of Washington D.C.’s most impoverished neighborhoods, Oliver illuminates how libraries have long been vectors for some of our biggest social ills, from segregation to racism to inequality. Now, as unhoused patrons take refuge in libraries and librarians are trained to administer Narcan, our overlapping mental healthcare and opioid crises come to a head in these spaces. At once a love letter and a call to action, Overdue dispels mythology and demands a better future. You’ll never see libraries the same way again.

Woman, Eating, by Claire Kohda

My Year of Rest and Relaxation meets Milk Fed in this slacker comedy about Lydia, a multiracial Gen Z vampire suffering an identity crisis. Fresh out of art school and eager to make a new life for herself in London, Lydia soon gets a harsh reality check: her gallery internship is unfulfilling, her crush is dating someone else, and her supply of pig's blood is running dangerously low. Ravenous and lonesome, she becomes addicted to watching #WhatIEatInADay videos, desperate for the embodied connection to food and life that humans experience. But for this yearning young vampire, self-acceptance won’t come until she finds something (or someone) to eat. Thoughtful and thrilling, Woman, Eating makes a meal of themes like cultural alienation, disordered eating, and the growing pains of adulthood.

The Passenger, by Cormac McCarthy

After sixteen years of characteristic seclusion, McCarthy returns with a one-two punch: The Passenger , out in October, and Stella Maris , a companion volume set to follow in November. In The Passenger , the stronger of the two works, we meet Bobby Western, a salvage diver and mathematical genius reckoning with his troubled personal history. Western is tormented by the legacy of his father, who worked on the atomic bomb, and the suicide of his sister, who suffered from schizophrenia. Told in meandering form, The Passenger is an elegiac meditation on guilt, grief, and spirituality. Packed with textbook McCarthy hallmarks, like transgressive behaviors and cascades of ecstatic language, it’s a welcome return from a legend who’s been gone too long.

Fen, Bog and Swamp, by Annie Proulx

The legendary author of “Brokeback Mountain” and The Shipping News delivers an enchanting history of our wetlands, a vitally important but criminally misunderstood landscape now imperiled by climate change. As Proulx explains, fens, bogs, swamps, and estuaries preserve our environment by storing carbon emissions. Roving through peatlands around the world, Proulx weaves a riveting history of their role in brewing diseases and fueling industrialization. Imbued with the same reverence for nature as Proulx’s fiction, Fen, Bog, and Swamp is both an enchanting work of nature writing and a rousing call to action. Read an exclusive interview with the author here at Esquire.

Because Our Fathers Lied, by Craig McNamara

How do we reckon with the sins of our parents? That’s the thorny question at the center of this moving and courageous memoir authored by the son of Robert S. McNamara, Kennedy’s architect of the Vietnam War. In this conflicted son’s telling, a complicated man comes into intimate view, as does the “mixture of love and rage” at the heart of their relationship. At once a loving and neglectful parent, the elder McNamara’s controversial lies about the war ultimately estranged him from his son, who hung Viet Cong flags in his childhood bedroom as a protest. The pursuit of a life unlike his father’s saw the younger McNamara drop out of Stanford and travel through South America on a motorcycle, leading him to ultimately become a sustainable walnut farmer. Through his own personal story of disappointment and disillusionment, McNamara captures an intergenerational conflict and a journey of moral identity.

A Ballet of Lepers, by Leonard Cohen

A Ballet of Lepers collects never-before-seen early works from beloved singer-songwriter Leonard Cohen, including short stories, a novel, and a radio play. The titular novel, Cohen believed, was “probably a better novel” than his celebrated book The Favorite Game . These recovered gems traffic in the themes that would always obsess their author, like shame, desire, and longing. Cohen’s life and art have been dissected for years, but as this revealing volume proves, there are still new shades of him to discover.

Lost & Found, by Kathryn Schultz

Eighteen months before Schultz’s father died after a long battle with cancer, she met the love of her life. It’s this painful dichotomy that sets the foundation for Lost & Found , a poignant memoir about how love and loss often coexist. Braiding her personal experiences together with psychological, philosophical and scientific insight, Schultz weaves a taxonomy of our losses, which can “encompass both the trivial as well as the consequential, the abstract and the concrete, the merely misplaced and the permanently gone.” But so too does she celebrate the act of discovery, from finding what we’ve mislaid to lucking into lasting love. Penetrating and profound, Lost & Found captures the extraordinary joys and sorrows of ordinary life.

Less Is Lost, by Andrew Sean Greer

In 2018, Greer won the Pulitzer Prize for Less , an unforgettable comic novel about aging writer Arthur Less and his international misadventures. Less is back for more in this beguiling sequel, bursting with just as much absurdity, heartache, and laugh-out-loud joy as its predecessor. Dogged by financial crisis and the death of his former lover, Less sets out across the American landscape with nothing but a rusty camper van, a somber pug, and a zigzagging itinerary of literary gigs. Our reluctant hero blunders his way into a cascade of disasters, but the more lost Less gets, the closer he is to being found. Rambunctious and life-affirming, Less is Lost is a winsome reminder of all that fiction can do and be. As Greer writes of novelists, “Are we not that fraction of old magic that remains?” Read an exclusive interview with the author here at Esquire.

Fairy Tale, by Stephen King

The master of horror turns his talents to coming-of-age fantasy in this spellbinding tale about seventeen-year-old Charlie Reade, a resourceful teenager who inherits the keys to a parallel world. It all starts when Charlie meets Mr. Bowditch, a local recluse living in a spooky house with his lovable hound. When Mr. Bowditch dies, he leaves Charlie the house, a massive stockpile of gold, and the keys to a locked shed containing a portal to another world. But as Charlie soon discovers, that parallel world is full of danger, dungeons, and time travel—and it has the power to imperil our own universe. Packed with glorious flights of imagination and characteristic tenderness about childhood, Fairy Tale is vintage King at his finest. Read an exclusive excerpt here at Esquire.

The Furrows, by Namwali Serpell

Fresh off the stratospheric achievement of The Old Drift , Serpell’s sophomore novel is a wrenching examination of grief, memory, and reality. When Cassandra Williams was twelve years old, her seven-year-old brother Wayne drowned off the Delaware coast. Or did he? While the first half of The Furrows examines the long half-life of Cassandra’s grief, the second half gets slippery, exploring the possibility that Wayne survived. As the blurry boundaries between what’s true and what’s possible collapse, Serpell resets her novel again and again, like a scratched record skipping back to the beginning. Old wounds never heal, and Cassandra can’t stop revisiting them. Let this breathtaking novel roll over you in waves.

The Book of Goose, by Yiyun Li

Time and time again, Li has proven herself a master storyteller obsessed with the nature of storytelling. In her latest novel, she takes that obsession to spectacular new heights. Set in the ruined countryside of post-WWII France, The Book of Goose centers on the friendship between shy Agnès and rebellious Fabienne. Fabienne devises a game: she will imagine a lurid story, and Agnès, with her perfect penmanship, will write it. When the book becomes a runaway bestseller credited to Agnès alone, it propels the girls on a trajectory of fame and fortune that threatens to sever their friendship. Fans of Elena Ferrante’s Neapolitan Novels will love this gripping tale of art, power, and intimacy.

Liberation Day, by George Saunders

The godfather of the contemporary short story is back and better than ever in Liberation Day , his first collection of short fiction in nearly a decade. In one memorable story set in a near future police state, a grandfather explains how Americans lost their freedoms through small concessions to an authoritarian government. In another standout, vulnerable Americans are brainwashed and reprogrammed as political protestors, with their services available to the highest bidder. The rousing title novella sees the poor enslaved to entertain the rich, forced to recreate scenes from American history. In these powerful and perceptive stories, Saunders conjures a nation in moral and spiritual decline, where acts of kindness wink through like lights in the darkness.

preview for HDM All sections playlist - Esquire

@media(max-width: 73.75rem){.css-1ktbcds:before{margin-right:0.4375rem;color:#FF3A30;content:'_';display:inline-block;}}@media(min-width: 64rem){.css-1ktbcds:before{margin-right:0.5625rem;color:#FF3A30;content:'_';display:inline-block;}} Best of 2022

best comedies and musicals

The Best Documentaries of 2022

best memoirs 2022

The 20 Best Memoirs of 2022

best tv 2022

The 10 Best TV Shows of 2022

e

The 25 Best Albums of 2022

nonfiction books

The Best Nonfiction Books of 2022

best action movies 2022

The 23 Best Action Movies of 2022

nick kroll

The Best Comedy Specials of 2022

best movies of 2022

The Best Movies of 2022

best songs 2022

The 45 Best Songs of 2022

e

The 2022 Esquire Spirit Awards

best video games 2022

The Best Video Games of 2022 (So Far)

2022 Book Releases to Get Excited About

Expect highly-anticipated titles from Emma Straub, Akwaeke Emezi, Rebecca Serle, and more!

best books 2022

If you've finally completed your  2021 TBR pile , prepare yourself for 2022's stacked lineup of new releases. Expect an incredible mix of fiction including Rebecca Serle's  One Italian Summer  and Kai Harris's  What the Fireflies Knew   (one of the first titles from Phoebe Robinson's  new imprint ), as well as powerful memoirs like Viola Davis's  Finding Me . Excited yet? Find our running list of the most anticipated books of 2022 to pre-order now, ahead.

'Fiona and Jane' by Jean Chen Ho

If you're looking for a book about female friendship, look no further than Jean Chen Ho's 'Fiona and Jane,' which details the complex relationship between two Taiwanese American women over the course of 20 years.

Available January 4, 2022

'The Perfect Escape' by Leah Konen

Loved Leah Konen's ' All the Broken People ?' Prepare yourself for her newest thriller, 'The Perfect Escape,' about a group of friends whose girls' weekend goes wrong when they get stranded in the Catskills and one of them goes missing. 

'You Don't Know Us Negroes and Other Essays' by Zora Neale Hurston

In Zora Neale Hurston's 'You Don't Know Us Negroes and Other Essays,' readers will experience the revolutionary writer's work spanning three decades.

'Weather Girl' by Rachel Lynn Solomon

What's not to love about a TV meteorologist and a sports journalist who scheme to reunite their divorced bosses and may or may not catch feelings for each other along the way?

Available January 11, 2022

'Yinka, Where Is Your Huzband?' by Lizzie Damilola Blackburn

Lizzie Damilola Blackburn's debut novel is incredibly relatable for anybody whose family members frequently question their relationship status. In 'Yinka, Where Is Your Huzband?' a thirty-something Nigerian woman attempts to find herself a wedding date and learns some valuable lessons about life and love.

Available January 18, 2022

'Greenwich Park' by Katherine Faulkner

Talk about suspense! Katherine Faulkner's 'Greenwich Park,' told from three perspectives,   centers on a pregnant woman who meets another mom-to-be who couldn't be more different from her. As their friendship develops, they realize they may be more connected than they think. 

Available January 25, 2022

'Notes on an Execution' by Danya Kukafka

Danya Kukafka's 'Notes on an Execution' isn't like the other books about serial killers you've read—this brilliant thriller takes readers inside the life of Ansel Packer, who's scheduled to die in 12 hours, through the perspectives of three women: his mother, his sister, and a homicide detective. 

Available January 25, 2022

'Violeta' by Isabel Allende

Isabel Allende's expansive collection of work continues with 'Violeta'—the story of a woman named Violeta Del Valle who gives readers a front-row seat to historic moments of the 20th century, from the Spanish flu to the Great Depression to the women's rights movement, as she recounts the highs and lows of her 100-year life in a series of letters to her grandson. 

'Black Cake' by Charmaine Wilkerson

Soon to be a  Hulu series , Charmaine Wilkerson's 'Black Cake'   is about two estranged siblings who reunite when their mother passes away. While confronting their mom's past, they must learn how to put aside their differences to honor their mother's wishes.   

Available February 1, 2022

'What the Fireflies Knew' by Kai Harris

Kai Harris's 'What the Fireflies Knew'   is a coming-of-age novel told from the perspective of an 11-year-old who, along with her sister, goes to live with her estranged grandfather after the death of her father and disappearance of her mother.

Available February 1, 2022

'The Paris Apartment' by Lucy Foley

If you enjoyed  ' The Guest List ', get ready for Lucy Foley's newest mystery, 'The Paris Apartment ,'  about a girl named Jess who discovers her half-brother Ben is missing when she goes to visit him in Paris.

Available February 22, 2022

'The Love of My Life' by Rosie Walsh

What do you do when you find out everything your wife ever told you about herself is a lie? Allow Rosie Walsh's love story slash mystery, 'The Love of My Life,' to explain. 

Available March 1, 2022

'One Italian Summer' by Rebecca Serle

Following the release of her 'New York Times' bestselling book, ' In Five Years ', Rebecca Serle returns with 'One Italian Summer .'  When Katy's mother dies before their special mother-daughter trip to Positano, she's forced to go on the trip alone. While she's there, her mom appears as a 30-year-old and she gets to know her as a young woman before she became her mother.

'All My Rage' by Sabaa Tahir

Inspired by Sabaa Tahir's childhood growing up in California’s Mojave Desert at her family’s 18-room motel, 'All My Rage' tells the story of a family across generations dealing with love, loss, and friendship. 

'Hook, Line, and Sinker' by Tessa Bailey

Tessa Bailey's highly-anticipated second novel in the Bellinger Sisters series centers on fisherman Fox Thornton and his best friend-slash-crush, Hannah, who seeks Fox's help with her love life as she crushes on a coworker. Little does he know, he may be the one she wants after all. 

'Truth and Other Lies' by Maggie Smith

Maggie Smith's debut novel  ' Truth and Other Lies'   is about a young former reporter who clashes with her politically conservative mother who's running for Congress. After the former reporter lands an opportunity to work for an iconic journalist on her PR team, a scandal threatens her work, family, and relationships. 

Available March 8, 2022

'Girls Can Kiss Now' by Jill Gutowitz

Through a hilarious collection of essays, Jill Gutowitz explores how pop culture has shaped society's perception of lesbianism, how it's impacted her own life, and, ultimately, what we can expect from a very queer future that's in store for us. You can read more about the inspiration behind her debut book here .

'In the Margins' by Elena Ferrante

Elena Ferrante fans will be thrilled to learn that the acclaimed Italian novelist has given readers a deep dive into her process as a brilliant reader and a writer. This is one that will stay on your bookshelf for years.

Available March 15, 2022

'Memphis' by Tara M. Stringfellow

Tara M. Stringfellow's debut novel, 'Memphis,' takes readers inside the lives of three generations of a Southern Black family, exploring the complexities that live on within them—and around them. 

Available April 5, 2022

'The Wedding Crasher' by Mia Sosa

What happens when you end up helping your wedding planner cousin for one of her clients' big day and realize the groom is making a terrible mistake? You crash the wedding, of course! (...And may or may not have the groom unexpectedly fall in love with you somewhere along the way.) 

'Portrait of a Thief' by Grace D. Li

The second book from Phoebe Robinson's Tiny Reparations imprint, Grace D. Li's 'Portrait of a Thief' centers on five Chinese American students who steal back stolen Chinese art. If they succeed, they earn $50 million and a chance at making history. If not, things become a tad more complicated.

'Time Is a Mother' by Ocean Vuong

In award-winning writer Ocean Vuong's second poetry collection, 'Time Is a Mother,' Vuong grapples with grief, loss, and survival after the death of his mother.

'The Memory Librarian' by Janelle Monáe

Get an extensive look into the world of Janelle Monáe's third studio album, 'Dirty Computer' (2018), as the artist compiles stories of history, identity, expression, and love. 

Available April 19, 2022

'Finding Me' by Viola Davis

Viola Davis's highly-anticipated memoir will tell the award-winning actress' life story in her own words. "I believe that our stories, and the courage to share them, is the most powerful empathetic tool we have," she said in a statement, per the  Associated Press . "This is my story...straight, no chaser."

Available April 26, 2022

'Book Lovers' by Emily Henry

If you've read Emily Henry's 'Beach Read' and 'People We Meet on Vacation,' you'll enjoy her latest, 'Book Lovers.' This one is about a literary agent who goes on vacation with her little sister and ends up running into a well-known editor...who's the last person she'd expect to see. 

Available May 3, 2022

'I Kissed Shara Wheeler' by Casey McQuiston

Casey McQuiston, 'New York Times' bestselling author of 'One Last Stop' and 'Red, White & Royal Blue' returns with 'I Kissed Shara Wheeler.' The YA rom-com is about valedictorian Chloe Green who—you guessed it!—ends up kissing Shara Wheeler, the prom queen, before graduation. The twist? Shara disappears and Chloe ends up discovering a bunch of secrets about Shara and the town they live in.

'We Do What We Do in the Dark' by Michelle Hart

Michelle Hart's electric debut centers on Mallory, a freshman in college, who begins a secret relationship with another woman after the death of her mother. Years later, Mallory must confront how the affair shaped her into the woman she is today. 

'The Summer Place' by Jennifer Weiner

It wouldn't be summer without a fabulous new Jennifer Weiner book. A love letter to the Outer Cape, 'The Summer Place' is set at the Levy family summer home that matriarch Veronica Levy hoped would be utilized by her family for generations. Instead, her children have been preoccupied with their own lives every summer. When Veronica's step-granddaughter, Ruby, gets engaged to her pandemic boyfriend, she figures the summer home is the perfect place to host the wedding for one last family gathering before she says goodbye to it. As the wedding approaches, nothing seems to go as planned.

Available May 10, 2022

'This Time Tomorrow' by Emma Straub

A moving story about a father-daughter relationship, Emma Straub's 'This Time Tomorrow' chronicles what happens when one 40-year-old woman wakes up and is suddenly 16 years old again. But it's not her youth she's riveted by—it's her father's.

Available May 17, 2022

'Something Wilder' by Christina Lauren

Christina Lauren returns with their latest—'Something Wilder'—about second chances and complicated relationships. The daughter of a famous treasure hunter, Lily uses her father's maps to guide tourists on fake treasure hunts in Utah. When her ex, Leo, and his friends unexpectedly show up, they wonder if the treasure hunts might not be so fake after all. And maybe, just maybe, Lily and Leo can pick up where they left off. 

'You Made a Fool of Death with Your Beauty' by Akwaeke Emezi

Akwaeke Emezi's 'You Made a Fool of Death with Your Beauty' is a deeply heartfelt romance novel about a woman named Feyi who eases back into the dating scene after an accident killed the love of her life five years prior. It's already being  adapted into a movie !

"After spending most of my teenage years buried in romance novels, I always wanted to write one myself," Emezi told ' Entertainment Weekly .' "'You Made a Fool of Death with Your Beauty' [is] a love letter to the brave choices we make in the name of love, the costs we pay for it, and the glory of the reward at the end."

Available May 24, 2022 

'Our Last Days in Barcelona' by Chanel Cleeton

Told through stories of the fictional Perez family with alternating timelines and perspectives, 'New York Times' bestselling author Chanel Cleeton's 'Our Last Days in Barcelona' explores Cuba’s involvement in the Spanish Revolution of 1936.

Available May 24, 2022

'The Counselors' by Jessica Goodman

If you loved Jessica Goodman's 'They’ll Never Catch Us' and 'They Wish They Were Us,' Goodman's third book, 'The Counselors,' is just as twisty. The novel centers on Goldie Easton, a former-camper-turned-counselor at Camp Alpine Lake, who has a dark secret she's been hiding. The truth starts to unravel when a camper turns up dead in the lake one night and, well, we won't tell you what happens next.

Available May 31, 2022

'Meant to Be Mine' by Hannah Orenstein

What happens when the perfect person comes with not-so-perfect timing? Hannah Orenstein explores this in her latest novel, 'Meant to Be Mine,' after main character Edie's Grandma Gloria predicts when she meets her match and things don't exactly go as planned. 

Available June 7, 2022

'Mika in Real Life' by Emiko Jean

When Mika receives a call from her daughter she put up for adoption 16 years ago, she does everything she can to portray a "perfect picture" of her not-so-perfect life. After a white lie quickly snowballs into something bigger, she must decide whether or not to tell the truth and risk what she's built with her daughter or continue to live an illusion. 

Available August 9, 2022

Stay In The Know

Marie Claire email subscribers get intel on fashion and beauty trends, hot-off-the-press celebrity news, and more. Sign up here.

Rachel Epstein is a writer, editor, and content strategist based in New York City. Most recently, she was the Managing Editor at Coveteur, where she oversaw the site’s day-to-day editorial operations. Previously, she was an editor at Marie Claire , where she wrote and edited culture, politics, and lifestyle stories ranging from op-eds to profiles to ambitious packages. She also launched and managed the site’s virtual book club, #ReadWithMC. Offline, she’s likely watching a Heat game or finding a new coffee shop. 

She's a futuristic Joan of Arc.

By Danielle Campoamor

She's devoted to loud luxury dressing.

By India Roby

"Makeup is a fun extension of who we are, but it isn’t all we are."

By Sophia Vilensky

The forthcoming book from 'We Are Not Like Them' authors Jo Piazza and Christine Pride asks the question: Who gets to make the choice to be a mom?

By Danielle McNally

"When you are craving a loveable story with depth and true character development—this should be your next read."

By Brooke Knappenberger

Read an excerpt from Danielle Prescod's new memoir, here, then dive in with us throughout the month.

From well-established classics to contemporary favorites.

By Bianca Rodriguez

Read an excerpt from Emiko Jean's new novel, here, then dive in with us throughout the month.

By Jenny Hollander

The latest entry in MacLean's 'Hell's Belles' universe is a delightfully feminist twist on Regency-era romance romps.

By Sarah MacLean

Consider them a form of self-care.

By Rachel Epstein

The author and actress shares her favorite reads in 'Shelf Portrait.'

By Neha Prakash

  • Contact Future's experts
  • Advertise Online
  • Terms and conditions
  • Privacy policy
  • Cookies policy

Marie Claire is part of Future plc, an international media group and leading digital publisher. Visit our corporate site . © Future US, Inc. Full 7th Floor, 130 West 42nd Street, New York, NY 10036.

published books in 2022

The 50 Best New Books of 2022 That You Won't Be Able to Put Down

Wondering what you should be reading this year? Our list includes romance novels, non-fiction best-sellers, thrillers and so much more.

30 best new books to read in 2022 so far

We've been independently researching and testing products for over 120 years. If you buy through our links, we may earn a commission. Learn more about our review process.

And this year's crop of new releases will do all of that, and more. Some of your favorite authors have new books out that rival their previous releases (peep that new Jennifer Egan!) and a whole host of debut authors also came out with stellar reads that will leave you hungry for their next one before you reach the last page. These are the best and most-anticipated books we've found so far, with something for fans of every genre and style. Of course, we have to acknowledge that "best" might mean something different to everyone. There are as many reading appetites as there are readers, so if your favorite book of 2022 doesn't make our list, don't despair. Let us know in the comments, and you might just inspire someone else to pick it up, too.

Fiona and Jane by Jean Chen Ho

Fiona and Jane by Jean Chen Ho

Fiona and Jane are best friends, navigating their tumultuous teenage years together, as well as their family histories and all that comes with them. But when Fiona moves across the country, their bond weakens and threatens to break. This novel about the power of female friendship will give you a gorgeous peek into both women's perspectives on a shared story that has as many facets as they do.

The School for Good Mothers by Jessamin Chan

The School for Good Mothers by Jessamin Chan

Frida's daughter Harriet is everything to her. But when she makes a terrible one-time mistake, the state decides that she has to prove her ability to be a good mother in order to remain one at all. This scarily prescient novel that's reminiscent of Orwell and Vonnegut explores the depths of parents' love, how strictly we judge mothers and each other and the terrifying potential of government overreach.

30 Things I Love About Myself by Radhika Sanghani

30 Things I Love About Myself by Radhika Sanghani

Newly single freelance writer Nina isn’t exactly flourishing, especially after she has to move back in with her depressed brother and her overbearing mother. But when she finds herself reading a self-help book in jail on her 30th birthday (long story), she embarks on a journey toward self-love, learning lessons most of us could stand to hear, too.

Shit Cassandra Saw: Stories by Gwen E. Kirby

Shit Cassandra Saw: Stories by Gwen E. Kirby

Just because Cassandra can see the future doesn't mean she's sharing what she finds there. In this wildly inventive collection of stories, Kirby explores the power of feminity in its many forms – including as brazen witches, virgins who can't be sacrificed and even cockroaches who catcallers fear. It's laugh-out-loud funny, sometimes brightly painful, thought-provoking and completely original.

How High We Go in the Dark by Sequoia Nagamatsu

How High We Go in the Dark by Sequoia Nagamatsu

When an archaeologist witnesses the unleashing of a long-buried plague, it changes the course of history. This hauntingly beautiful story focuses on how the human spirit perseveres through it all. With everything from a cosmic search for home to a theme park for terminally ill kids and a talking pig, it’s a lyrical adventure that feels fantastical yet familiar.

Notes on an Execution by Danya Kukafka

Notes on an Execution by Danya Kukafka

Serial killer Ansel Packer is going to die for his crimes in 12 hours. But as the clock ticks down, we get to know the women who passed through his life, including his desperate mother and the homicide detective who became obsessed with his case. It’s a chilling, surprisingly tender tale of how each tragedy ripples through many lives.

RELATED: 25 Best True Crime Books of All Time to Unleash Your Inner Sherlock

Good Rich People by Eliza Jane Brazier

Good Rich People by Eliza Jane Brazier

The rich live differently than the rest of us, and that's never more evident than this chilling account of one family that plays a sick and twisted game with their tenants. When one (an interloper herself) decides that she's not just a pawn, nobody wins – or do they?

Devil House by John Darnielle

Devil House by John Darnielle

Fans of true crime, police procedurals and books that stick with you for weeks after you reach the last page, don't sleep on the latest from the multitalented Mountain Goats singer. It follows a true crime writer who's trying to figure out what really happened at a dilapidated former porn store where locals (and lore) say the Satanic panic resulted in death, but the truth goes so much deeper than that.

Don't Say We Didn't Warn You by Ariel Delgado Dixon

Don't Say We Didn't Warn You by Ariel Delgado Dixon

Two sisters' paths repeatedly diverge and intersect through this story about trauma and reckoning with it. Through life in an abandoned warehouse just outside NYC, stints at a wilderness rehabilitation center and a scrabble to find their footing as young adults, this is a sharp and unsettling story of two girls' ongoing search for their own place in the world and how their history shapes who they become.

Very Cold People by Sarah Manguso

Very Cold People by Sarah Manguso

Midwesterners, New Englanders and anyone from small town America will recognize the contours in this quietly beautiful novel about what it feels like to grow up an outsider. It's a starkly lyrical exploration of the darkness that lies underneath a lily white community with an emotional resonance that sneaks up on you and won't let go.

Where I Can't Follow by Ashley Blooms

Where I Can't Follow by Ashley Blooms

In a little mountain town hit hard by poverty and the opioid epidemic, there's a chance at escape. Magical doors appear to some people as a way out, but once they step through, there's no turning back. This fantastically real, absorbing novel explores what it would feel like to have an escape hatch from the hardships of life, and the agonizing decision whether to leave everyone you love behind.

The Last Suspicious Holdout by Ladee Hubbard

The Last Suspicious Holdout by Ladee Hubbard

From the author of The Rib King comes a collection of stories about the Black residents of a southern suburb in the years between the beginning of the Clinton administration and Obama's election. It's about racism, the war on drugs, class and struggle, but at its heart, it's a portrait of a community. While it doesn't flinch away from the hard truth, it's also filled with love and a steely kind of hope.

When We Were Birds by Ayanna Lloyd Banwo

When We Were Birds by Ayanna Lloyd Banwo

This eerily magical, richly atmospheric novel follows Darwin, a devout Rastafarian whose poverty forces him to cast off his religion to become a gravedigger, and Yejide, one of a line of women who have the power to usher the dead into the afterlife. Darwin gets mixed up in some funny business and Yejide is looking for a way out of the life she's been handed. When they're drawn together, they discover whether their love can rival the forces working against them.

Disorientation by Elaine Hsieh Chou

Disorientation by Elaine Hsieh Chou

Ingrid has hit a wall in her PhD research on poet Xiao-Wen Chou when she comes across something that suggests he may not have been who he seems. Before she knows it, Ingrid has blown open a scandal that threatens her relationship with her fiancé and her best friend, her academic department and even her own self-knowledge. This is a fresh, hilarious and thoughtful satire that'll make you think about cultural identity in a whole new way.

Sea of Tranquility by Emily St. John Mandel

Sea of Tranquility by Emily St. John Mandel

If you loved Station Eleven , you'll adore this dystopian novel that's about time travel as much as it is about love and family, and what happens when we lose sight of what's truly important. It takes the reader from a plague-ravaged earth to moon colonies, from 1912 to the near future in a triumph of science fiction for those who think they hate science fiction.

The Candy House by Jennifer Egan

The Candy House by Jennifer Egan

You don't have to read A Visit From the Goon Squad to love this sibling novel to Egan's stellar hit. The revolutionary technology Own Your Unconscious allows users to store and access their memories – and other people's. Through complex and intimate intertwining narratives, it follows a cast of characters' experiences with Bouton's creation, and how its consequences echo through the decades.

End of the World House: A Novel by Adrienne Celt

End of the World House: A Novel by Adrienne Celt

What do you get when you take Groundhog Day, add a dash of the apocalypse, a little French obsession and mix in female friendship and romantic entanglement? This firecracker of a book that gets weirder and more bizarrely funny the more pages you turn.

Nobody Gets Out Alive: Stories by Leigh Newman

Nobody Gets Out Alive: Stories by Leigh Newman

The Alaskan wilderness is unforgiving, and so is life for the people who live there. In this arresting collection of stories, we meet people who are fighting not only the snowy tundra, but addiction, heartbreak, complicated families and the demons so many of us carry with us, regardless of when or where we live.

When We Fell Apart by Soon Wiley

When We Fell Apart by Soon Wiley

Min can’t believe his Korean girlfriend Yu-jin died by suicide, right before graduation. As he embarks on a quest to uncover the truth, he learns more about Yu-jin’s life as the daughter of a high-ranking government official, the true nature of her bond with her roommate So-ra, and his own bi-racial identity. This compelling, propulsive novel is as complex as the characters it follows.

You Made a Fool of Death with Your Beauty by Akwaeke Emezi

You Made a Fool of Death with Your Beauty by Akwaeke Emezi

A sharply original novel about love, friendship and the journey grief takes, this one will ring true for so many of us these days. Five years after losing the love of her life, Feyi's BFF, Joy, wants her to get back out there, but when she does, Feyi finds herself thrown into her future without a net. For anyone who's been feeling a little lost, let this book give you some inspiration.

preview for Good Housekeeping US Section: Life

@media(max-width: 64rem){.css-o9j0dn:before{margin-bottom:0.5rem;margin-right:0.625rem;color:#ffffff;width:1.25rem;bottom:-0.2rem;height:1.25rem;content:'_';display:inline-block;position:relative;line-height:1;background-repeat:no-repeat;}.loaded .css-o9j0dn:before{background-image:url(/_assets/design-tokens/goodhousekeeping/static/images/Clover.5c7a1a0.svg);}}@media(min-width: 48rem){.loaded .css-o9j0dn:before{background-image:url(/_assets/design-tokens/goodhousekeeping/static/images/Clover.5c7a1a0.svg);}} All the Best Books to Read Next

female young behind book with face covered for a red book while smiling

6 Best Taylor Swift Books for Kids of All Ages

the view whoopi goldberg book memoir news instagram

Whoopi Goldberg Shares Personal Book Announcement

today show savannah guthrie book jenna bush hager instagram

Savannah Guthrie Shares Career News with JBH

the first five percy jackson books in a row

How to Read the 'Percy Jackson' Books in Order

today show savannah guthrie book mostly what god does instagram

'Today' Star Savannah Guthrie Reveals New Project

best books of 2023

Must-Read Books Before the End of 2023

best romance books

Turn Up the Heat With These Steamy Romance Books

closeup on happy housewife preparing christmas dinner in kitchen

The Best New Cookbooks That Make Great Gifts

five books in a row on an orange background

The Most-Anticipated Books of 2024 (So Far!)

midnight is the darkest hour book cover

GH+ Reads Review: 'Midnight Is the Darkest Hour'

seafaring sexism

How Women Deal With Sexism on the Open Seas

  • TODAY Plaza
  • Share this —

Health & Wellness

  • Watch Full Episodes
  • Read With Jenna
  • Inspirational
  • Relationships
  • TODAY Table
  • Newsletters
  • Start TODAY
  • Shop TODAY Awards
  • Citi Music Series
  • Listen All Day

Follow today

More Brands

  • On The Show

These are the 12 most anticipated books of 2022, according to Goodreads members

published books in 2022

Maybe your New Year's resolution is to go on more walks or eat healthier foods — or maybe it's as simple as reading more. Since you've got the next 12 months ahead of you, you might find a few good recommendations to be helpful when it comes to adding to your reading list .

So, we tapped Goodreads to see what new titles everyone wants to get their hands on this year. Goodreads found 12 books set to release this year that its members (more than 125 million of them) can't wait for. These new releases sit atop members' "want-to-read" shelves.

While not all of these books are available right now — most of them are available for pre-order until their expected release date, so you can have your monthly read planned ahead of time.

From mystery novels to romance reads, these are the most anticipated books of 2022, according to Goodreads members.

What to read in 2022

"to paradise," by hanya yanagihara.

"To Paradise"

"To Paradise"

This book starts out in an alternate version of America in 1893, but by the time you've reached the end, it has spanned three centuries. As you read, you'll find that each of the characters in each of the three different Americas in this book, despite living different lives, is united by the same things that have tested them. You'll find similar themes of love, wealth, family and paradise. This pick hits shelves on Jan. 11.

"Violeta," by Isabel Allende

"Violeta"

"Violeta"

New York Times-bestselling author Isabel Allende's newest novel is set to release on Jan. 25. It centers around Violeta, the first girl in a family of five boys, whose life is marked by "extraordinary events" such as the Spanish flu and the Great Depression. It is written in the form of letters to someone she loves, an inspiring and emotional detailed account of her life, and the joys and losses she has experienced.

"Black Cake," by Charmaine Wilkerson

"Black Cake," by Charmaine Wilkerson

"Black Cake"

Byron and Benny are left with a lot of questions after the death of their mother, Eleanor Bennett. Mainly, questions about the inheritance she left behind: a traditional Caribbean black cake. She also leaves them with a voice message that tells the story of her life in pieces — and they're left to put them together and share the cake "when the time is right." You can read this book on Feb. 1.

"The Paris Apartment," by Lucy Foley

"The Paris Apartment"

"The Paris Apartment"

New York Times-bestselling author Lucy Foley's new novel will debut on Feb. 22. It tells the story of Jess, who needs a fresh start and leans on her half-brother, Ben, who lives in Paris, for a place to stay. When she arrives at his apartment, however, he's not there. Although she comes to the city of lights to escape the past that has been plaguing her, she finds herself digging into Ben's future.

"Young Mungo," by Douglas Stuart

"Young Mungo"

"Young Mungo"

Douglas Stuart's " Shuggie Bain " won the 2020 Booker Prize. Stuart's next novel, "Young Mungo," is the love story of Mungo and James — a Protestant and Catholic, respectively. The hyper-masculine environment around them forces them to hide their true selves, and they eventually find themselves apart. They'll have to do everything they can to find their way together again. It will release on April 5.

"The Candy House," by Jennifer Egan

"The Candy House"

"The Candy House"

Bix Bouton is 40, the successful head of a tech company, the father of four kids and hungry for new ideas. After he stumbles into a conversation group, he gets his big new idea: “Own Your Unconscious.” With this technology, you can access every memory you've ever had — and exchange them for the memories of others. Centering around characters whose lives have all intersected at one point, this story tells the tale of love, human connection and privacy. You can find this book on shelves on April 5.

"Memphis," by Tara M. Stringfellow

"Memphis"

"Memphis"

After Joan discovers she has the power to change her family's legacy, she finds a way to heal with all of the trauma that they have been through — with her paintbrush. Her art becomes a way for her to understand the sacrifices those who came before her made. The story itself spans 70 years, touching upon the generational experiences and the complexities of life that we face both as individuals and as a country. This title will officially be released on April 5.

"Sea of Tranquility," by Emily St. John Mandel

"Sea of Tranquility"

"Sea of Tranquility"

In the latest from the author of " Station Eleven ," Edwin St. Andrew has crossed the Atlantic at just 18 years old and finds himself entering a forest when he reaches land. He hears a violin echoing in an airship terminal and is spooked. Two centuries later, a writer features a passage in a book that seems a little too familiar: A man plays his violin in an airship terminal as a forest rises around him. A detective is later hired to unearth the story of this occurrence, and what he finds is nothing short of extraordinary. It will be released on April 5.

"Book Lovers," by Emily Henry

"Book Lovers," by Emily Henry

"Book Lovers"

Another read from New York Times-bestselling author Emily Henry, "Book Lovers" centers around bookworm Nora Stephens and editor Charlie Lastra, who've met on more than one occasion (and it's never gone well). While they keep bumping into each other in the small town of Sunshine Falls, North Carolina, where Nora has escaped to for the summer, they can't help but wonder if it keeps happening for a reason. "Book Lovers" will be available on May 3.

"South to America," by Imani Perry

"South to America"

"South to America"

Imani Perry's book is built on the idea that the history of America is more linked to the South than you think and that if you want to understand the country as a whole, you might want to start by understanding this region. In this story, a native Alabaman returns home and looks at her state with fresh eyes — and learns about the stories and experiences of others she's met along the way. By weaving these stories together, Perry has crafted a book that takes you not only below the Mason-Dixon line but also through the country as a whole. It will be available starting Jan. 25.

"The It Girl," by Ruth Ware

"The It Girl"

"The It Girl"

New York Times-bestselling author Ruth Ware is back with a mystery about one woman's search to find answers about her friend's murder. The convicted killer might be innocent — and now Hannah must search for the truth all over again, which might hit closer to home than she expects. You can start reading this pick on July 12.

For more stories like this, check out:

  • Want to read more in 2022? Here are 4 books to get you started
  • Jenna Bush Hager picks 'captivating' dystopian drama for January 2022
  • 5 books to read after 'Bright Burning Things' by Lisa Harding

Subscribe to our Stuff We Love and One Great Find newsletters, and download our TODAY app to discover deals, shopping tips, budget-friendly product recommendations and more!

published books in 2022

Jillian Ortiz is a Production Associate at Shop TODAY. 

  • Reminders of Him by Colleen Hoover
  • The Paris Apartment by Lucy Foley
  • The Maid by Nita Prose
  • Book Lovers by Emily Henry
  • House of Sky and Breath by Sarah J. Maas
  • A Flicker in the Dark by Stacy Willingham
  • Hook, Line, and Sinker by Tessa Bailey
  • Book of Night by Holly Black
  • The Book of Cold Cases by Simone St. James
  • One Italian Summer by Rebecca Serle
  • Black Cake by Charmaine Wilkerson
  • Daughter of the Moon Goddess by Sue Lynn Tan
  • The War of Two Queens by Jennifer L. Armentrout
  • Gallant by V.E. Schwab
  • Sea of Tranquility by Emily St. John Mandel
  • The School for Good Mothers by Jessamine Chan
  • The Golden Couple by Greer Hendricks and Sarah Pekkanen
  • To Paradise by Hanya Yanagihara
  • Violeta by Isabel Allende
  • Reckless Girls by Rachel Hawkins
  • The Cartographers by Peng Shepherd
  • The Christie Affair by Nina de Gramont

The 22 best books published in 2022 so far, according to Goodreads

When you buy through our links, Business Insider may earn an affiliate commission. Learn more

  • Reviewers have already found some of their favorite new books released this year.
  • We turned to Goodreads reviewers to rank the most popular books of 2022 so far.
  • For more books, check out the most anticipated new books of 2022.

Insider Today

Although there are quite literally hundreds of books on my "to-be-read" list, I can't help but gravitate towards the latest releases that fellow readers are already predicting to be the best books of the year. Whether it's a new work from a favorite author or debuts that have been picked up by celebrity book clubs, readers are already finding their favorites of 2022 so far. 

To make this list, we looked at the most popular books on Goodreads . Goodreads is the world's largest online platform for readers to rate, review, and recommend their favorite books to friends and the community. All of these recommendations have been published in 2022 and are ranked by how often they've been added to readers' "Want To Read" shelves. 

Whether you're looking for a great new read to kick off your upcoming vacation or relax with in the morning, here are the 22 most popular books of 2022 so far.

The 22 best books of 2022 so far, according to Goodreads:

"reminders of him" by colleen hoover.

published books in 2022

"Reminders of Him" by Colleen Hoover, available at Amazon and Bookshop , from $12.22

In Colleen Hoover's latest fan-favorite novel, Kenna Rowan is looking to prove herself so she can reunite with her four-year-old daughter, having just been released from her five-year prison sentence. Shut out by nearly everyone in her and her daughter's life, Kenna connects with Ledger Ward, a local bar owner, but as the romance between the two grows, Kenna risks everything to absolve her past and create a new future. You can find more of Colleen Hoover's most popular books here .

"The Paris Apartment" by Lucy Foley

published books in 2022

"The Paris Apartment" by Lucy Foley, available on Amazon and Bookshop , from $18.16

When Jess is in need of a fresh start, she reaches out to her half-brother, Ben, to stay with him for a bit in his Paris apartment. Ben didn't seem thrilled about the arrangement, but when Jess arrives to find a shockingly stunning apartment, she finds that he is nowhere to be found. As this gripping thriller unfolds, Jess begins to look into Ben's strange and unfriendly neighbors, each of whom is a suspect with a secret. 

"The Maid" by Nita Prose

published books in 2022

"The Maid" by Nita Prose, available on Amazon and Bookshop , from $16.90

"The Maid" is about Molly Gray, a 25-year-old hotel maid who is left struggling to fend for herself socially after her grandmother's passing. When Molly discovers Charles Black dead in a terribly ravished hotel room, the police immediately target her as a lead suspect until her friends step in to prove her innocence in this exciting thriller that's described as a "Clue"-like, locked-room mystery.

"Book Lovers" by Emily Henry

published books in 2022

"Book Lovers" by Emily Henry, available on Amazon and Bookshop , from $12.96

Emily Henry's "Beach Read" and "People We Meet on Vacation" have already captured countless readers' hearts, so it's no surprise her latest release has already done the same. "Book Lovers" stars Nora Stephens, a literary agent whose love life is anything but a romance novel. When Nora's sister plans a trip for the two of them to a picture-perfect little town with a list of "to-do"s to live out the plot of a romance novel all their own, Nora finds herself not with a storybook prince, but a brooding editor from the city with whom she's had plenty of terrible run-ins in the past. 

"House of Sky and Breath" by Sarah J. Maas

published books in 2022

"House of Sky and Breath" by Sarah J. Maas, available on Amazon and Bookshop , from $ 17.74

After saving Crescent City, Bryce Quinlan and Hunt Athalar are ready to slow down and find some normalcy once again, but as the ruler's threat grows, the two are slowly pulled into the rebel's plans. "House of Sky and Breath" is the sequel to "House of Earth and Blood" , a fan-favorite fantasy/romance featuring demons, angels, and fae.

"A Flicker in the Dark" by Stacy Willingham

published books in 2022

A Flicker in the Dark by Stacy Willingham, available on Amazon and Bookshop , from $17.29

One of readers' favorite new thrillers this year is "A Flicker in the Dark," which follows Chloe Davis 20 years after her father's arrest for the serial murder of six teenage girls in her small town. As Chloe prepares for her wedding, teenage girls begin to go missing once again and Chloe isn't sure if she's just paranoid or nearing a killer for the second time in her life. 

"Hook, Line, and Sinker" by Tessa Bailey

published books in 2022

"Hook, Line, and Sinker" by Tessa Bailey, available on Amazon and Bookshop , from $12.38

Fox Thornton has a reputation as a flirt but his new roommate, Hannah, seems entirely impervious to his flirtatious ways and insists they'll just be friends. In town for work, Hannah has her eye on a coworker and asks for Fox's help. But as they spend more time together, she can't help but fall for him as he tries to prove that he wants more with Hannah than just a short fling.

"Book of Night" by Holly Black

published books in 2022

"Book of Night" by Holly Black, available on Amazon and Bookshop , from $17.76

Holly Black has written incredible fantasy young adult novels but makes her adult debut with "Book of Night," an urban fantasy that became a 2022 favorite before it was even published. Charlie Hall is trying to lay low in her shadowy, magical world when a figure from her past returns and thrusts her into a chaotic spin of murder, secrets, magic, and a fight for survival. 

"The Book of Cold Cases" by Simone St. James

published books in 2022

"The Book of Cold Cases" by Simone St. James, available on Amazon and Bookshop , from $20.49

Shea Collins runs a popular true-crime website, a passion ignited after she was almost abducted as a child. When she runs into Beth Greer, an infamous suspect in an unsolved double homicide from 40 years prior, Shea asks for an interview, meeting Beth regularly at her alluring but uncomfortable mansion. As Shea and Beth grow closer, Shea's unease refuses to subside in this suspenseful thriller, perfect for those who love true crime.

"One Italian Summer" by Rebecca Serle

published books in 2022

"One Italian Summer" by Rebecca Serle, available on Amazon and Bookshop , from $16.08

Just before their once-in-a-lifetime trip to Positano, Katy's mother tragically passes away, leaving Katy reeling and facing their adventure alone. Katy decides to take the trip anyway and as she walks the cliffsides of the Amalfi Coast, she magically sees her mother at 30 years old. Over the course of a beautiful summer, Katy gets to know her mother, her history, and her memories in a way she never could have imagined. 

"Black Cake" by Charmaine Wilkerson

published books in 2022

"Black Cake" by Charmaine Wilkerson, available on Amazon and Bookshop , from $17.81

In the wake of their mother's passing, Byron and Benny are left with a voice recording and the family recipe for a traditional Caribbean black cake. As their mother's story unfolds, the siblings are set off on a journey of family history, inheritance, and relationships that reshapes their understanding of their mother, their family, and themselves. 

"Daughter of the Moon Goddess" by Sue Lynn Tan

published books in 2022

"Daughter of the Moon Goddess" by Sue Lynn Tan, available on Amazon and Bookshop , from $23.49

"Daughter of the Moon Goddess" is a new young adult fantasy novel inspired by the legend of Chang'e, the Chinese moon goddess. Xingyin has grown up on the moon, hidden from the Celestial Emperor, but when her magic is discovered, she's forced to leave her mother and her home behind and embark on a legendary but dangerous journey to save her mother and the realm.

"The War of Two Queens" by Jennifer L. Armentrout

published books in 2022

"The War of Two Queens" by Jennifer L. Armentrout, available on Amazon and Bookshop , from $18.87

Loved for its strong main characters, fast-paced action, and intense romances, Jennifer L. Armentrout's "Blood and Ash" series' latest book continues as Poppy determinedly sets out to destroy the Blood Crown and create a future where both kingdoms can rule in peace. Together, Poppy and Casteel know that there is far more than a war to face as they uncover what began eons ago.

"Gallant" by V.E. Schwab

published books in 2022

"Gallant" by V.E. Schwab, available on Amazon and Bookshop , from $14.95

Olivia Prior has spent much of her young life at Merilance School for girls until the day she receives a letter inviting her home to Gallant, a large, strange family house. When Olivia crosses a ruined wall at the home at just the right moment, she finds herself in a crumbling and mysterious version of Gallant and searches for the secrets her family has held for generations. 

"Sea of Tranquility" by Emily St. John Mandel

published books in 2022

"Sea of Tranquility" by Emily St. John Mandel, available on Amazon and Bookshop , from $16.25

In a propulsive novel that spans from 1912 Vancouver Island to a futuristic colony on the moon, Emily St. John Mandel's latest work follows three main characters through time and space as their lives are upended around various events. As Edwin St. Andrew crosses the Atlantic and arrives in the Canadian wilderness, Olive Llewellyn writes a pandemic novel during a pandemic, and detective Gaspery-Jacques Roberts investigates their strange stories, along with one of a childhood friend, their metaphysical and intertwining lives create an enchanting science fiction read. 

"The School for Good Mothers" by Jessamine Chan

published books in 2022

"The School for Good Mothers" by Jessamine Chan, available on Amazon and Bookshop , from $18.19

Frida is struggling in nearly all aspects of her life when everything suddenly takes a turn for the worst when a lapse in judgment lands her in the hands of government officials who will determine if she must go to an institution that will measure her success and devotion as a mother. In this dystopian sci-fi novel, Frida must prove that she meets the standards of being a good mother or risk losing her daughter.

"The Golden Couple" by Greer Hendricks and Sarah Pekkanen

published books in 2022

"The Golden Couple" by Greer Hendricks and Sarah Pekkanen, available on Amazon and Bookshop , from $17.68

From bestselling author duo Greer Hendricks and Sarah Pekkanen comes a new, twisty domestic thriller about successful therapist Avery Chambers who lost her license because of her controversial methods. When Marissa and Mathew Bishop turn to Avery after Marissa's infidelity threatened to end their marriage, this suspenseful novel takes off on a collision course of dangerous secrets. 

"To Paradise" by Hanya Yanagihara

published books in 2022

"To Paradise" by Hanya Yanagihara, available on Amazon and Bookshop , from $20.01

"To Paradise" spans three centuries and three versions of the American experiment: 1893, where New York is part of the Free States; 1993 Manhattan in the height of the AIDS epidemic; and 2093, in a society torn apart by plagues and totalitarian rule. In each of these sections, family, lovers, and strangers are torn apart and come together over what makes us uniquely human in a new, powerful piece of literary fiction by the same author of "A Little Life."

"Violeta" by Isabel Allende

published books in 2022

"Violeta" by Isabel Allende, available on Amazon and Bookshop , from $22.84

"Violeta" is a sweeping, century-spanning novel about a woman, born in 1920 to a family full of sons, whose life is continuously marked by historical events, crises, and life-changing love. Told in the form of a letter, Violeta recounts her early years in South America through decades of joy and loss and across a lifetime of emotional and inspiring events. 

"Reckless Girls" by Rachel Hawkins

published books in 2022

"Reckless Girls" by Rachel Hawkins, available on Amazon and Bookshop , from $22.49

Set on an isolated Pacific island, this new thriller takes off with Lux, her boyfriend, Nico, and the two women who hired them to sail to Meroe Island, despite its eerie history of shipwrecks, cannibalism, and murder. When the four meet another couple on the island, they settle into a relaxing rhythm until a single stranger arrives and throws off the group's balance, uncovering cracks in their seemingly-perfect dynamics. 

"The Cartographers" by Peng Shepherd

published books in 2022

"The Cartographers" by Peng Shepherd, available on Amazon and Bookshop , from $23.93

When Nell Young's legendary cartographer father is found dead in his office with a seemingly worthless map, her investigation reveals its incredibly valuable and rare nature, as well as the plot of a mysterious collector, determined to destroy every last copy. In this fantastical upcoming thriller, Nell's subsequent and remarkably dangerous journey reveals her family's darkest secrets and the power of the map. 

"The Christie Affair" by Nina de Gramont

published books in 2022

"The Christie Affair" by Nina de Gramont, available on Amazon and Bookshop , from $17.33

"The Christie Affair" is a fascinating historical fiction account of the real-life 11-day disappearance of Agatha Christie. Told from Miss Nan O'Dea's point of view, Agatha's husband's mistress, this novel transports readers to 1925 London as Nan slowly lures Archie away from his wife, Agatha simply disappears, and one of the greatest manhunts of all time ensues.

published books in 2022

  • Main content
  • Craft and Criticism
  • Fiction and Poetry
  • News and Culture
  • Lit Hub Radio
  • Reading Lists

published books in 2022

  • Literary Criticism
  • Craft and Advice
  • In Conversation
  • On Translation
  • Short Story
  • From the Novel
  • Bookstores and Libraries
  • Film and TV
  • Art and Photography
  • Freeman’s
  • The Virtual Book Channel
  • Behind the Mic
  • Beyond the Page
  • The Cosmic Library
  • The Critic and Her Publics
  • Emergence Magazine
  • Fiction/Non/Fiction
  • First Draft: A Dialogue on Writing
  • Future Fables
  • The History of Literature
  • I’m a Writer But
  • Just the Right Book
  • Lit Century
  • The Literary Life with Mitchell Kaplan
  • New Books Network
  • Tor Presents: Voyage Into Genre
  • Windham-Campbell Prizes Podcast
  • Write-minded
  • The Best of the Decade
  • Best Reviewed Books
  • BookMarks Daily Giveaway
  • The Daily Thrill
  • CrimeReads Daily Giveaway

published books in 2022

The Ultimate Best Books of 2022 List

Reading all the lists so you don't have to since 2017.

Another year of books comes to a close, and with it, the obligatory frantic listmaking—which at its best may inspire reminiscing, reconsidering, and excellent gift-purchasing, but at its worst may inspire hurt feelings, overwhelm, and doom-scrolling. But I’m not here to judge, or to save us. I’m just here to count.

So here at the end, as is annual Literary Hub tradition , you will find the big list of lists—aka the biggest popularity contest in books (probably). This year, I worked through 35 lists from 29 publications (yes, there are even more lists out there , but we’re all going to die some day), tallying a total of 887 books. 84 books were highlighted on 4 or more lists, and I have collated those for you here, in descending order of frequency. Read, enjoy, and try not to feel bad:

Hernan Diaz, Trust Gabrielle Zevin, Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, and Tomorrow Ed Yong, An Immense World: How Animal Senses Reveal the Hidden Realms Around Us

Jennifer Egan, The Candy House Jonathan Escoffery, If I Survive You Namwali Serpell, The Furrows

Margo Jefferson, Constructing a Nervous System: A Memoir

Tess Gunty, The Rabbit Hutch Hua Hsu, Stay True: A Memoir Celeste Ng, Our Missing Hearts

Rachel Aviv, Strangers to Ourselves: Unsettled Minds and the Stories That Make Us Kate Beaton, Ducks: Two Years in the Oil Sands Julia May Jonas, Vladimir Emily St. John Mandel, Sea of Tranquility Kathryn Schulz, Lost & Found

Elif Batuman, Either/Or Chloé Cooper Jones, Easy Beauty: A Memoir Barbara Kingsolver, Demon Copperhead Yiyun Li, The Book of Goose Sarah Thankham Mathews, All This Could be Different

Amy Bloom, In Love: A Memoir of Love and Loss Jessamine Chan, The School for Good Mothers Abdulrazak Gurnah, Afterlives R.F. Kuang, Babel: Or the Necessity of Violence: An Arcane History of the Oxford Translators’ Revolution Elizabeth McCracken, The Hero of This Book Siddhartha Mukherjee, The Song of the Cell: An Exploration of Medicine and the New Human George Saunders, Liberation Day Stacy Schiff, The Revolutionary: Samuel Adams

NoViolet Bulawayo, Glory Ada Calhoun, Also a Poet: Frank O’Hara, My Father, and Me Bonnie Garmus, Lessons in Chemistry Jennette McCurdy, I’m Glad My Mom Died Leila Mottley, Nightcrawling Meghan O’Rourke, The Invisible Kingdom: Reimagining Chronic Illness Elizabeth Strout, Lucy by the Sea Douglas Stuart, Young Mungo Olga Tokarczuk, tr. Jennifer Croft, The Books of Jacob Nghi Vo, Siren Queen Elizabeth Williamson, Sandy Hook: An American Tragedy and the Battle for Truth

Claire-Louise Bennett, Checkout 19 Margaret A. Burnham, By Hands Now Known: Jim Crow’s Legal Executioners Isabel Cañas, The Hacienda John Darnielle, Devil House Annie Ernaux, tr. Alison L. Strayer, Getting Lost Xochitl Gonzalez, Olga Dies Dreaming Pekka Hämäläinen, Indigenous Continent: The Epic Contest for North America Ling Ma, Bliss Montage: Stories Ian McEwan, Lessons Lydia Millet, Dinosaurs Sequoia Nagamatsu, How High We Go In the Dark Maggie O’Farrell, The Marriage Portrait Fintan O’Toole, We Don’t Know Ourselves: A Personal History of Modern Ireland Imani Perry, South to America: A Journey Below the Mason-Dixon to Understand the Soul of a Nation Morgan Talty, Night of the Living Rez Yoko Tawada, tr. Margaret Mitsutani, Scattered All Over the Earth Linda Villarosa, Under the Skin: The Hidden Toll of Racism on American Lives and on the Health of Our Nation Kevin Wilson, Now is Not the Time to Panic Javier Zamora, Solito: A Memoir

Kate Atkinson, Shrines of Gaiety Isaac Butler, The Method: How the Twentieth Century Learned to ACT Ingrid Rojas Contreras, The Man Who Could Move Clouds: A Memoir Angie Cruz, How Not to Drown in a Glass of Water Viola Davis, Finding Me: A Memoir Rob Delaney, A Heart That Works Akwaeke Emezi, You Made a Fool of Death With Your Beauty Percival Everett, Dr. No Jonathan Freedland, The Escape Artist: The Man Who Broke Out of Auschwitz to Warn the World Kim Fu, Lesser Known Monsters of the 21st Century Beverly Gage, G-Man: J. Edgar Hoover and the Making of the American Century Kerri K. Greenidge, The Grimkes: The Legacy of Slavery in an American Family James Hannaham, Didn’t Nobody Give a Shit What Happened to Carlotta Emily Henry, Book Lovers Adam Hochschild, American Midnight: The Great War, a Violent Peace, and Democracy’s Forgotten Crisis Mieko Kawakami, tr. Sam Bett & David Boyd All the Lovers in the Night Dahlia Lithwick, Lady Justice: Women, the Law, and the Battle to Save America Cormac McCarthy, The Passenger Joanna Quinn, The Whalebone Theatre Deanna Raybourn, Killers of a Certain Age Mary Rodgers and Jesse Green, Shy: The Alarmingly Outspoken Memoirs of Mary Rodgers Katherine Rundell, Super-Infinite: The Transformations of John Donne Robert Samuels and Toluse Olorunnipa, His Name is George Floyd: One Man’s Life and the Struggle for Racial Justice Dani Shapiro, Signal Fires Emma Straub, This Time Tomorrow Lea Ypi, Free: A Child and a Country at the End of History

List of lists surveyed:

The New York Times’ s 100 Notable Books of 2022 •  The New York Times’ s 10 Best Books of 2022 •  TIME’ s 100 Must-Read Books of 2022 • Barnes & Noble’s Best Books of the Year 2022 • The Washington Post’ s 50 notable works of fiction • The Washington Post’ s 50 notable works of nonfiction • The Washington Post’ s 10 Best Books of 2022 •  Entertainment Weekly’ s Best Books of 2022 • Vulture’s Best Books of 2022 • The New York Public Library’s Best Books for Adults 2022 • Publishers Weekly’s Best Books 2022 • Kirkus’s Best Fiction Books of the Year • Kirkus’s Best Nonfiction Books of the Year • The New Yorker’ s Best Books of 2022 • Oprah Daily’s Favorite Books of the Year •  The Chicago Tribune’ s 10 Best Books of 2022 • The Los Angeles Times’ s 20 Best Books of 2022 • Slate’s 10 Best Books of 2022 (Laura Miller) • Slate’s 10 Best Books of 2022 (Dan Kois) • BuzzFeed’s 25 Books From 2022 You’ll Love •  USA Today’ s Best Books of 2022 • BookRiot’s Best Books of 2022 • Goop’s 6 Best Books of 2022 • Reader’s Digest’s 10 Best Books of 2022 • Vox’s 16 best books of 2022 • The Marginalian’s Favorite Books of 2022 • Powell’s Best Books of 2022 •  Foreign Affairs’  The Best of Books 2022 •  The Philadelphia Inquirer’ s Best books of 2022 • NPR’s Best Books 2022 (Maureen Corrigan) • NPR’s Notable books from 2022 according to our critics • Tor.com’s Reviewers’ Choice: The Best Books of 2022 • Amazon’s Best Books of 2022 •  People’ s Top 10 Books of 2022 • and of course, Literary Hub’s 38 Favorite Books of 2022 .

  • Share on Facebook (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on Twitter (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on Google+ (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on LinkedIn (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on Reddit (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on Tumblr (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on Pinterest (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on Pocket (Opens in new window)

Emily Temple

Emily Temple

Previous article, next article, to the lithub daily, support lit hub..

Support Lit Hub

Join our community of readers.

Popular Posts

published books in 2022

Follow us on Twitter

published books in 2022

The 10 Best Book Reviews of 2022

  • RSS - Posts

Literary Hub

Created by Grove Atlantic and Electric Literature

Sign Up For Our Newsletters

How to Pitch Lit Hub

Advertisers: Contact Us

Privacy Policy

Support Lit Hub - Become A Member

Become a Lit Hub Supporting Member : Because Books Matter

For the past decade, Literary Hub has brought you the best of the book world for free—no paywall. But our future relies on you. In return for a donation, you’ll get an ad-free reading experience , exclusive editors’ picks, book giveaways, and our coveted Joan Didion Lit Hub tote bag . Most importantly, you’ll keep independent book coverage alive and thriving on the internet.

published books in 2022

Become a member for as low as $5/month

clock This article was published more than  1 year ago

50 notable works of nonfiction

The year’s best memoirs, biographies, history and more.

published books in 2022

‘Also a Poet: Frank O’Hara, My Father, and Me,’ by Ada Calhoun

Calhoun’s memoir offers an unsparing portrait of her father , New Yorker art critic Peter Schjeldahl, and the difficulties of their relationship. She also dives into the lives of a host of influential artists and writers, many of whom Schjeldahl interviewed for a biography of the poet O’Hara that never came to pass.

‘American Midnight: The Great War, a Violent Peace, and Democracy’s Forgotten Crisis,’ by Adam Hochschild

America has fallen prey to mythical enemies and demagogues several times in its history, as Hochschild reminds us in his portrait of one era , 1917 to 1921, when racism, white nationalism, and anti-foreign and anti-immigrant sentiment challenged the country’s ideals.

‘Ancestor Trouble: A Reckoning and a Reconciliation,’ by Maud Newton

Troubled by her family’s legacy of violence, mental illness and racism, Newton delves into genetics and cognitive science to wrestle with questions of inheritance. She also draws on anthropology, history, religion and philosophy to understand our national obsession with genealogy.

‘As It Turns Out: Thinking About Edie and Andy,’ by Alice Sedgwick Wohl

In this family memoir , Wohl discusses her sister Edie Sedgwick’s important but brief collaboration with Andy Warhol. The book also offers a troubling look into the siblings’ complicated family life.

‘Because Our Fathers Lied: A Memoir of Truth and Family, From Vietnam to Today,’ by Craig McNamara

In this staggering book , McNamara struggles to come to terms with his father, former defense secretary Robert McNamara, who supervised the tragedy of the Vietnam War and was a distant, uncommunicative parent.

‘Cheap Land Colorado: Off-Gridders at America’s Edge,’ by Ted Conover

Conover lends a compassionate ear to “the restless and the fugitive, the idle and the addicted, and the generally disaffected” living outside the American mainstream on an isolated Colorado prairie. With his thorough reportage, he conjures a vivid, mysterious subculture populated by men and women with riveting stories to tell.

‘Come Back in September: A Literary Education on West Sixty-Seventh Street, Manhattan,’ by Darryl Pinckney

In the 1970s, the literary critic Elizabeth Hardwick guided the 20-something Darryl Pinckney through the upper echelons of Manhattan literary and intellectual life. This memoir of that apprenticeship — by one of our most distinguished writers on African American culture, literature and history — provides a “you are there” account of those thrilling years.

‘Confidence Man: The Making of Donald Trump and the Breaking of America,’ by Maggie Haberman

In this illuminating portrait , Haberman lays special emphasis on Trump’s ascent in the late-1970s and 1980s New York world of hustlers, mobsters, political bosses, compliant prosecutors and tabloid scandalmongers.

‘Desperate Remedies: Psychiatry’s Turbulent Quest to Cure Mental Illness,’ by Andrew Scull

Scull tells the story of psychiatry in the United States from the 19th-century asylum to 21st-century psychopharmacology through its dubious characters, its shifting conceptions of mental illness and its often-gruesome treatments.

‘Diary of a Misfit: A Memoir and a Mystery,’ by Casey Parks

Despite its title, this memoir is about two misfits : Parks and an enigmatic character named Roy Hudgins. Parks, a reporter for The Washington Post, captures life in small-town Louisiana and probes Hudgins’s story to explore questions she asks herself about her own sexuality.

‘Easy Beauty: A Memoir,’ by Chloe Cooper Jones

Jones, a philosopher and journalist, uses her experience of disability to examine the ways others perceive bodies they find difficult. In the process, she writes about subjects from tennis to motherhood to Beyoncé in elegantly tuned prose.

‘Eliot After “The Waste Land,” ’ by Robert Crawford

Drawing heavily on T.S. Eliot’s often romantic correspondence with Emily Hale, which was under seal until 2020, this mesmerizing biography helps unpack the personal life of the famously ascetic poet.

‘Esmond and Ilia: An Unreliable Memoir,’ by Marina Warner

In this double portrait of her parents during the first years of their marriage, Warner follows them from the English countryside to Cairo. The book, largely constructed from documents, family stories and imaginative projection, recaptures a worldly, decadent atmosphere.

‘Finding Me,’ by Viola Davis

Davis is known today as the acclaimed actress whose credits include “Doubt,” “Fences” and “How to Get Away With Murder.” This memoir covers her career , but it’s more focused, with brutal candidness, on her traumatic childhood and how it shaped her later success.

‘Free: A Child and a Country at the End of History,’ by Lea Ypi

Ypi’s beguiling memoir of innocence and experience in Albania’s communist era and its aftermath is told through intimate stories of a taken-for-granted life devolving into uncertainty. It serves as a profound primer on how to live when old verities turn to dust.

‘Getting Lost,’ by Annie Ernaux, translated by Alison L Strayer

This book by the French writer , winner of the 2022 Nobel Prize in literature , is made up of diary entries she wrote from 1988 to 1990. They document a Parisian affair with a married Soviet diplomat, a relationship she fictionalized in her short novel “ Simple Passion .”

‘The Great Stewardess Rebellion: How Women Launched a Workplace Revolution at 30,000 Feet,’ by Nell McShane Wulfhart

Travel writer Wulfhart chronicles how stewardesses organized to combat all manner of indignities, such as forced retirement at age 32, demeaning “girdle checks” and draconian weight limits, and in the process transformed the airline industry.

‘His Name Is George Floyd: One Man’s Life and the Struggle for Racial Justice,’ by Robert Samuels and Toluse Olorunnipa

This vivid and moving account by Post reporters Samuels and Olorunnipa draws on more than 400 interviews to help depict the world that George Floyd lived in — and the circumstances that led to his death.

‘Imagining the End: Mourning and Ethical Life,’ by Jonathan Lear

In a world buffeted by multiple catastrophes, from gun violence to the destructive effects of climate change, psychoanalyst and philosopher Lear offers a hopeful path through grief and confusion.

‘The Impossible City: A Hong Kong Memoir,’ by Karen Cheung

In this blend of memoir and reportage , Karen Cheung shows how Hong Kong is changing under the pressures of gentrification and China’s authoritarian crackdown. This is a love letter to the city, but it’s one that is free of romanticized illusion and frank about its failings.

‘Index, a History of the: A Bookish Adventure From Medieval Manuscripts to the Digital Age,’ by Dennis Duncan

A lively tour , from ancient Egypt to Silicon Valley, of a section of books that readers often treat as an afterthought. Duncan is an ideal tour guide: witty, engaging, knowledgeable and a fount of diverting anecdotes. Don’t skip this book’s own index, which is, of course, a work of art.

‘The Inheritors: An Intimate Portrait of South Africa’s Racial Reckoning,’ by Eve Fairbanks

Exploring the realities of life after apartheid in South Africa, Fairbanks depicts the complexities and disappointments of an ongoing period of change. Her journalistic approach welcomes readers who know little about the country, but she also offers a great deal for those more familiar with its struggles.

‘The Invisible Kingdom: Reimagining Chronic Illness,’ by Meghan O’Rourke

Acclaimed poet O’Rourke brings lyrical precision to this combination of memoir and reportage about “living at the edge of medical knowledge.” O’Rourke’s physical ailments over many years were often misdiagnosed or dismissed by doctors. In this book, she describes living with her pain while also investigating what we do and don’t know about chronic disease.

‘In Love: A Memoir of Love and Loss,’ by Amy Bloom

In this deeply stirring memoir , novelist Amy Bloom recounts the emotional journey she took with her husband, Brian, who chose to end his life after being diagnosed with Alzheimer’s. Bloom’s technical prowess is evident in her conscription of banal details to preface profound and sobering insights into love, marriage and death.

‘Lady Justice: Women, the Law, and the Battle to Save America,’ by Dahlia Lithwick

Arguing that true justice requires gender equality, Lithwick profiles women who have attempted to push back on legalistic attempts to restrict their rights — and those of others. She presents them not as superheroes but as real people who rely on other women in their collective effort to change things for the better.

‘Lessons From the Edge: A Memoir,’ by Marie Yovanovitch

A career diplomat, Yovanovitch was thrust into the public eye during the first impeachment of Donald Trump. In her memoir , she takes readers through her global career while also attending to the ways Trump has changed things at home.

‘A Life of Picasso: The Minotaur Years, 1933-1943,’ by John Richardson

The fourth and final volume of John Richardson’s life of Picasso is a worthy follow-up to its highly acclaimed predecessors. Completed amid difficult circumstances — Richardson, who died in 2019, was in his 90s and going blind — it is only about half their length. But it is just as rich and astounding.

‘Lost and Found: A Memoir,’ by Kathryn Schulz

This memoir by the Pulitzer-winning New Yorker writer considers the emotional whiplash of a two-year span when her father died and she met the woman who would become her wife.

‘Magnificent Rebels: The First Romantics and the Invention of the Self,’ by Andrea Wulf

Focusing on intellectual life in Jena, Germany, at the turn of the 19th century, Wulf explores how a small group of thinkers reworked our understanding of the relationship between philosophy and action.

‘Newsroom Confidential: Lessons (and Worries) From an Ink-Stained Life,’ by Margaret Sullivan

Sullivan, the former Washington Post media columnist and New York Times public editor, argues that media outlets are failing to adapt vigorously enough to the distortions of reality in the nation’s daily discourse, putting an already fragile democracy in grave jeopardy.

‘The Palace Papers: Inside the House of Windsor — the Truth and the Turmoil,’ by Tina Brown

This episodic examination of the royal family’s difficulties since the death of Princess Diana in 1997 features a combination of preexisting press accounts and Brown’s reporting. It’s both high-minded and gossipy, and addictively readable.

‘Path Lit by Lightning: The Life of Jim Thorpe,’ by David Maraniss

Thorpe, one of the most accomplished athletes who ever lived, was often met with racist derision during his own day. In this deeply researched biography , The Post’s Maraniss offers a sympathetic portrait of an extraordinarily talented man.

‘README.txt: A Memoir,’ by Chelsea Manning

The general outline of Manning’s story is widely known, but in her memoir she captures the more personal feel of her actions and experiences. “Everyone now knows — because of what happened to me — that the government will attempt to destroy you fully,” she writes. Here she shows how she preserved herself in the process.

‘Reality+: Virtual Worlds and the Problems of Philosophy,’ by David J Chalmers

In chapters studded with references to popular culture and informed by high-level philosophical scholarship, Chalmers explores serious questions about whether we live in a simulation . Ultimately, he argues, it may not matter if our world is not as “real” as it seems.

‘Rickey: The Life and Legend of an American Original,’ by Howard Bryant

Baseball Hall of Famer Rickey Henderson was known for his competitiveness, outsize personality and superlative talent. Bryant’s vivid and extensive account , written with access to Henderson and his wife, Pamela, shines a light on this unique and charismatic legend.

‘River of the Gods: Genius, Courage, and Betrayal in the Search for the Source of the Nile,’ by Candice Millard

Many books have been written about the 19th-century European explorers who tried to find the Nile’s source, but this one adds new dimensions to the story . It is especially revealing on the conflicts between two of the most famous men who helped direct some of those expeditions, but it also attends to some of those largely ignored by past historians.

‘Sandy Hook: An American Tragedy and the Battle for Truth,’ by Elizabeth Williamson

If the horrors of the Sandy Hook school shooting were not enough, the families of the murdered children were mercilessly stalked afterward by conspiracy theorists and confronted with vile and obscenity-laden threats, as Williamson meticulously documents in her account of this assault on grieving parents, truth and society itself.

‘Shy: The Alarmingly Outspoken Memoirs of Mary Rodgers,’ by Mary Rodgers and Jesse Green

Pointedly frank but never too unkind, this memoir from musical theater composer and novelist Rodgers dishes on Stephen Sondheim and other luminaries. And though it’s full of gossip, it also documents Rodgers’s journey to self-understanding.

‘Solito: A Memoir,’ by Javier Zamora

In this valuable book , Zamora recounts his terrifying nine-week journey to the United States from El Salvador in 1999, when he was 9 years old, and his struggles growing up in the mythic land of Big Macs on his way to becoming a distinguished poet.

‘Strangers to Ourselves: Unsettled Minds and the Stories That Make Us,’ by Rachel Aviv

Hospitalized at age 6 for “failure to eat,” New Yorker staff writer Aviv became fascinated by the early phases of mental illness, the time before it remakes a person’s identity. In this work , she explores several cases, including her own youthful experience, and assesses the stories people tell themselves about their mental disorders.

‘Tasha: A Son’s Memoir,’ by Brian Morton

“Tasha” is the novelist Brian Morton’s (“ Starting Out in the Evening ”) bracing account of his mother’s final years . “How can you see your parents clearly?” he wonders. He gives it his best, passionately chronicling his mother’s knotty past alongside his present exhaustion, exasperation and anguish.

‘This Body I Wore: A Memoir,’ by Diana Goetsch

Goetsch, an acclaimed poet, here writes about her life as a transgender woman, from the first stirrings of awareness as a young child to formative adult years in the cross-dressing world of New York to transition later in life. Along the way, her personal story casts light on the history of the larger trans community over the course of her lifetime.

‘Truly, Madly: Vivien Leigh, Laurence Olivier, and the Romance of the Century,’ by Stephen Galloway

Galloway traces the fraught romance of Leigh and Olivier , a couple whose marriage was characterized by great passion — as well as other, more mercurial passions. He is especially sharp on the question of Leigh’s mental health.

‘Under the Skin: The Hidden Toll of Racism on American Lives and on the Health of Our Nation,’ by Linda Villarosa

Race plays an enormous role in health care in the United States, with Black people in particular often facing enormously unequal treatment. Villarosa unpacks some of those dangerous inequities in a book that is both deeply researched and profoundly devastating .

‘The War of Nerves: Inside the Cold War Mind,’ by Martin Sixsmith

Sixsmith leads readers through many of the misunderstandings that characterized the conduct of both sides during the Cold War. He also records some of the many ways that Russia and the United States provoked one another, sometimes with near-disastrous results.

‘Watergate: A New History,’ by Garrett M. Graff

Though it explores familiar territory, this book brings the Watergate era to life in a new way, thanks in part to its attention to the “flawed everyday people” who shaped the events as they played out. It also works to correct some of the many errors and omissions in past records.

‘Ways and Means: Lincoln and His Cabinet and the Financing of the Civil War,’ by Roger Lowenstein

The Civil War remade America — and paying for it remade the American financial system. Business writer Lowenstein draws on decades of scholarship to tell the story of how that transformation played out.

‘We Don’t Know Ourselves: A Personal History of Modern Ireland,’ by Fintan O’Toole

Journalist O’Toole brilliantly weaves the story of his life with several momentous decades in his country’s history. The result is a memoir , starting from his working-class roots in Dublin, where he was born in 1958, and an account of how Ireland struggled to join the modern world.

‘When McKinsey Comes to Town: The Hidden Influence of the World’s Most Powerful Consulting Firm,’ by Walt Bogdanich and Michael Forsythe

A masterful work of investigative journalism, this book delves into the often-dubious business practices of one of the world’s largest and most powerful management consulting firms.

‘You Don’t Know Us Negroes and Other Essays,’ by Zora Neale Hurston

This volume collects 51 essays by the author of “ Their Eyes Were Watching God .” It demonstrates Hurston’s formidable range, showing her skills as a critic, anthropologist, journalist and more. Some of the texts included appear in print for the first time here.

published books in 2022

  • Entertainment

The 10 Best Nonfiction Books of 2022

A good nonfiction book doesn’t just tell you something new about the world, it pulls you out of your place in it and dares you to reconsider what you thought you knew, maybe even who you are. The best nonfiction books that arrived this year vary in scope—some are highly specific, some broad and searching—but they all ask giant questions about loss, strength, and survival. In The Escape Artist , Jonathan Freedland underlines the power of the truth through the journey of one of the first Jews to escape Auschwitz . In How Far the Light Reaches , Sabrina Imbler reveals the ways marine biology can teach us about the deepest, most human parts of ourselves. From Stacy Schiff’s brilliant chronicle of Samuel Adams’ role in the American Revolution to Imani Perry’s illuminating tour of the American South, here are the 10 best nonfiction books of 2022.

10. The Revolutionary: Samuel Adams, Stacy Schiff

published books in 2022

Pulitzer Prize winner Stacy Schiff revisits the American Revolution in her engrossing biography of founding father Samuel Adams. The Revolutionary: Samuel Adams centers on the years leading up to 1776 when Adams helped fan the earliest flames of the independence movement. Though he drove the anti-British rebellion in Massachusetts and had an outsized role in the Revolution, Adams’ story has been told far less than those of other founders like George Washington and Alexander Hamilton . Schiff details his clandestine work and his growing radicalization to show how vital he was to American independence, crafting an intricate portrait of a man long overshadowed by his contemporaries.

Buy Now : The Revolutionary on Bookshop | Amazon

9. The Invisible Kingdom, Meghan O’Rourke

published books in 2022

Beginning in the late 1990s, Meghan O’Rourke was tormented by mysterious symptoms that would consume her life for years to follow. She describes her wrenching experience searching for a diagnosis in The Invisible Kingdom: Reimagining Chronic Illness , a 2022 National Book Award finalist. O’Rourke’s reported memoir is an indictment of the U.S. health care system and its approach—or lack thereof—to identifying and treating chronic illnesses, which take a grave toll on millions of Americans. Moving between her own medical journey, the history of illness in the U.S., and the crisis faced by millions currently suffering from long COVID , O’Rourke writes with an empathetic hand to argue why and how we need to change our systems to better support patients. The book is a bold and brave exploration into a much-overlooked topic, one that she punctuates with candor and urgency.

Buy Now : The Invisible Kingdom on Bookshop | Amazon

8. How Far the Light Reaches, Sabrina Imbler

published books in 2022

Sabrina Imbler thoughtfully examines connections between science and humanity, tying together what should be very loose threads in 10 dazzling essays, each a study of a different sea creature. In one piece from their debut collection, Imbler explores their mother’s tumultuous relationship with eating while simultaneously looking at how female octopi starve themselves to death to protect their young. In another, they relate the morphing nature of cuttlefish with their own experiences navigating their gender identity. Throughout, Imbler reveals the surprising ways that sea creatures can teach us about family, sexuality, and survival.

Buy Now : How Far the Light Reaches on Bookshop | Amazon

7. His Name Is George Floyd, Robert Samuels and Toluse Olorunnipa

published books in 2022

In their engaging book, Washington Post journalists Robert Samuels and Toluse Olorunnpia expand on their reporting of the 2020 murder of George Floyd by police officer Derek Chauvin. His Name Is George Floyd: One Man’s Life and the Struggle for Racial Justice centers on the life Floyd led before he was killed, captured through hundreds of interviews and richly textured research. The biography explores how Floyd’s experiences were shaped by systemic racism, from the over-policed communities where he was raised to the segregated schools he attended. Samuels and Olorunnipa illustrate, in compassionate terms, the father and friend who wanted more for his life, and how his death became a global symbol for change .

Buy Now : His Name Is George Floyd on Bookshop | Amazon

6. Constructing a Nervous System, Margo Jefferson

published books in 2022

In her second memoir, Pulitzer Prize winner Margo Jefferson brilliantly interrogates and expands the form. Constructing a Nervous System finds the author reflecting on her life, the lives of her family, and those of her literary and artistic heroes. Jefferson oscillates between criticism and personal narrative, engaging with ideas about performance, artistry, and the act of writing through a plethora of lively threads. She considers everything: her parents, Bing Crosby and Ike Turner, the way a ballerina moves on stage. What emerges is a carefully woven tapestry of American life, brought together by Jefferson’s lyrical and electric prose.

Buy Now : Constructing a Nervous System on Bookshop | Amazon

5. An Immense World, Ed Yong

published books in 2022

Journalist Ed Yong reminds readers that the world is very large and full of incredible things. An Immense World: How Animal Senses Reveal the Hidden Realms Around Us is a celebration of sights and sounds, smells and tastes, and the unique ways different animals exist on the planet we all share. Yong’s absorbing book is a joyful blend of scientific study and elegant prose that transforms textbook fodder into something much more exciting and accessible. From dissecting why dogs love to sniff around so much to detailing how fish move in rivers, Yong underlines why it’s so important to take the time to stop and appreciate the perspectives of all the living things that surround us.

Buy Now : An Immense World on Bookshop | Amazon

4. The Escape Artist, Jonathan Freedland

published books in 2022

When he was just 19 years old, Rudolf Vrba became one of the first Jews to break out of Auschwitz. It was April 1944, and Vrba had spent the last two years enduring horror after horror at the concentration camp, determined to make it out alive. As Jonathan Freedland captures in his harrowing biography, Vrba was fixated on remembering every atrocity because he knew that one day his story could save lives. The Escape Artist: The Man Who Broke Out of Auschwitz to Warn the World is heavy reading that spares no detail of the brutalities perpetrated by the Nazis during the Holocaust . It’s also a crucial, skillfully rendered look inside the journey of a teenager who risked his life to warn Jews, and the rest of the world, about what was happening in Auschwitz.

Buy Now : The Escape Artist on Bookshop | Amazon

3. Ducks, Kate Beaton

published books in 2022

In 2005, Kate Beaton had just graduated from college and was yearning to start her career as an artist. But she had student loans to pay off and the oil boom meant that it was easy to get a job out in the sands, so she did. In her first full-length graphic memoir, Beaton reflects on her time working with a primarily male labor force in harsh conditions where trauma lingered and loneliness prevailed. Ducks: Two Years in the Oil Sands is a bruising and intimate account of survival and exploitation—of both the land and the people who worked on it—and is brought to life by Beaton’s immersive illustrations. In unveiling her plight, Beaton makes stunning observations about the intersections of class, gender, and capitalism.

Buy Now : Ducks on Bookshop | Amazon

2. South to America, Imani Perry

published books in 2022

For her striking work of nonfiction, Imani Perry takes a tour of the American South , visiting more than 10 states, including her native Alabama. Perry argues that the associations and assumptions made about the South—with racism at their core—are essential to understanding the United States as a whole. While there is plenty of history embedded throughout South to America: A Journey Below the Mason-Dixon to Understand the Soul of a Nation , the winner of the 2022 National Book Award for nonfiction, it is no history book. Instead, it’s an impressive mix of deftly compiled research and memoir, with Perry making poignant reflections on the lives of her own ancestors. The result is a revelatory account of the South’s ugly past—the Civil War, slavery, and Jim Crow Laws—and how that history still reverberates today.

Buy Now : South to America on Bookshop | Amazon

1. In Love, Amy Bloom

published books in 2022

After Amy Bloom’s husband Brian was diagnosed with Alzheimer’s disease, she supported him through the impossibly difficult decision to end his life, on his terms, with the aid of an organization based in Switzerland. Bloom’s memoir begins with their last flight together—on the way to Zurich—as she reflects on the reality that she will be flying home alone. But in these moments of despair, and the enormous grief that follows their trip, she finds tenderness and hope in remembering all that came before it. In writing about their marriage, Bloom unveils a powerful truth about the slippery nature of time. The book is a beautiful, heartfelt tribute to her husband, and a crucial reminder that what drives grief is often the most profound kind of love.

Buy Now : In Love on Bookshop | Amazon

More Must-Reads From TIME

  • East Palestine, One Year After Train Derailment
  • How Tech Giants Turned Ukraine Into an AI War Lab
  • In the Belly of MrBeast
  • The Closers: 18 People Working to End the Racial Wealth Gap
  • How Long Should You Isolate With COVID-19?
  • The Best Romantic Comedies to Watch on Netflix
  • Taylor Swift Is TIME's 2023 Person of the Year
  • Want Weekly Recs on What to Watch, Read, and More? Sign Up for Worth Your Time

Write to Annabel Gutterman at [email protected]

You May Also Like

Smithsonian Magazine

Public Libraries Reveal the Most Borrowed Books From 2023

A cross the country, public libraries are announcing their most popular titles from last year. While no definitive nationwide rankings have been published, many popular texts appear on lists from multiple library systems.

One book that topped many local charts—including New York Public Library’s —was Lessons in Chemistry , a 2022 bestseller. Written by  Bonnie Garmus , the novel follows a 1960s chemist who battles gender inequality in her field before eventually becoming the host of a popular cooking show. A few months ago, a TV adaptation debuted on  Apple TV+ .

“ Screen adaptations often drive popular novels,” writes  NPR ’s Neda Ulaby. “ Lessons in Chemistry was also the most borrowed book at public libraries in  Seattle ,  Boston and  Cleveland .”

Still, even if a particular book was popular in multiple cities, that doesn’t mean it was a hit everywhere. For example, within  New York City , different boroughs championed different books.

According to the  New York Public Library , while Manhattan and Staten Island residents favored Lessons in Chemistry , Brooklynites borrowed  I’m Glad My Mom Died (2022) by  Jennette McCurdy the most. Spare (2023) by  Prince Harry was the most popular title in the Bronx, while  Fourth Wing (2023) by  Rebecca Yarros got the most attention in Queens.

Library systems don’t always use the same criteria to determine their top checkouts. For example, the  Free Library of Philadelphia released one big list with its 12 most popular titles. Its top pick was Gabrielle Zevin ’s novel  Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, and Tomorrow (2022), which follows two childhood friends who make video games together .

However, the Boston Public Library published several lists sorted by age group, library branch and more. The Seattle Public Library ’s rankings were broken down even further, with lists such as “most popular adult fiction physical books” and “most popular adult nonfiction e-books.”

Deb Lambert , the director of collection management at the  Indianapolis Public Library , was intrigued by the growing number of digital readers at her library.

“What surprised me really was the amount of checkouts in e-format compared to physical format,” Lambert tells NPR. “To see the stark numbers now, it’s really drastic. It’s like five-to-one e-checkouts to physical checkouts. And it looks like we might be heading even more towards ‘e’ than physical.”

Spare was the most checked-out ebook at the Indianapolis Public Library. It was also the most popular nonfiction title on the digital library app Libby , which is used by thousands of libraries across North America. The app’s top fiction text was  Verity (2018), a romantic thriller by Colleen Hoover , followed by Lessons in Chemistry .

Regardless of whether books are getting checked out in person or online, library leaders are excited that readers are using their services and connecting with their texts.

“The most borrowed titles of 2023 list is an interesting mix of novels and memoirs, some of which deal with heavy topics of grief and tragedy, combined with some beloved ‘BookTok’ authors launching new titles in existing worlds,” says Melissa Andrews , the Boston Public Library chief of collection management, in a statement.

“Both scenarios tell a story about the value of reading,” she adds. “Whether we choose to read a story of perseverance or survival in difficult times, or a novel that transports us back to a familiar world, populated by characters we know whose story arcs end happily, books can not only be comforting, but can also provide a sense of connection to and understanding of the world.”

Libraries across the country are sharing their most checked-out books of 2023.

Advertisement

Supported by

Children’s Books

The Best Children’s Books of 2022

Here are the most notable picture and middle grade books, selected by The Times’s children’s books editor.

  • Share full article

By Jennifer Krauss

PICTURE BOOKS

published books in 2022

“A Is for Bee: An Alphabet Book in Translation,” by Ellen Heck

Rather than follow the Anglocentric pattern of apple, ball and cat, this multilingual alphabet book looks across a wide variety of languages to create a new abecedarium.

“Book of Questions,” by Pablo Neruda. Illustrated by Paloma Valdivia. Translated by Sara Lissa Paulson.

Gorgeous, dreamlike illustrations add dimension to 70 of the Nobel Prize-winning poet’s 320 questions, presented in picture-book form for the first time.

“Elephant Island,” by Leo Timmers. Translated by James Brown.

After swimming for his life, an elephant whose boat has sunk reaches a rock barely big enough to stand on. As small animals in small vessels arrive one by one to “rescue” him, hilarity ensues.

“Emile and the Field,” by Kevin Young. Illustrated by Chioma Ebinama.

From its exquisite endpapers, awash with wildflowers, and its sublime first words, this book about the profound love between a boy and a field captivates.

“Frances in the Country,” by Liz Garton Scanlon. Illustrated by Sean Qualls.

Spirited poetry and rough-and-tumble painted-collage art vividly depict a city girl’s perspective on country life.

“One Boy Watching,” by Grant Snider

A post-dawn school bus ride along country roads is rendered in neon colored pencil to reflect the vibrancy of what a boy can see by watching, counting and daydreaming.

“Our Fort,” by Marie Dorléans. Translated by Alyson Waters.

Illustrations reminiscent of Japanese woodcuts tell the story of three friends on their way to the fort they’ve built in the woods when a gale lifts them off their feet.

“Patchwork,” by Matt de la Peña. Illustrated by Corinna Luyken.

The spongework that overlays these portraits of children elucidates the author’s liberating theme: We are not indelibly drawn at birth; our identities shift, blend and bloom.

“The Summer of Diving,” by Sara Stridsberg. Illustrated by Sara Lundberg. Translated by B. J. Woodstein.

In this child’s-eye view of a father’s depression, evocative language and lush, color-saturated art show how a girl’s imagination helps her swim through loss and heal.

“The Three Billy Goats Gruff,” retold by Mac Barnett. Illustrated by Jon Klassen.

The troll is as hungry for language as he is for goats, and the soft pink, brown and gray pictures feel born of the oldest soil, in this wry retelling of the Norwegian folk tale.

“Two Dogs,” by Ian Falconer

The creator of “Olivia” displays his theatrical talent in this delightful tour de force about twin dachshunds who escape outside when their humans leave them alone.

MIDDLE GRADE

“cress watercress,” by gregory maguire. illustrated by david litchfield..

Luminous art braids together the sorrowful and lighthearted moments of a young rabbit’s odyssey after her father fails to return home from a honey-gathering mission.

“The Last Mapmaker,” by Christina Soontornvat

The closer the reward-seeking heroine of this sea adventure gets to mapping a dragon’s whereabouts, the more qualms she has about claiming its land for her queen.

“Northwind,” by Gary Paulsen

The author’s final novel, a survival tale as masterfully understated as the man himself, brings his career full circle.

“Red Scare,” by Liam Francis Walsh

This Tintin-esque graphic novel science-fiction spy thriller by a New Yorker cartoonist is a virtuosic performance.

“Shuna’s Journey,” by Hayao Miyazaki. Translated by Alex Dudok de Wit.

First published in Japan in 1983 and finally translated into English, this picture book from the fabled animator is eerie, enchanting and surpassingly strange.

“Singing With Elephants,” by Margarita Engle

This tender novel in verse isn’t just beautiful poetry and a fascinating glimpse of communication across boundaries; it’s also an animal rescue story with a rare girl hero.

“Unstoppable Us: How Humans Took Over the World,” by Yuval Noah Harari. Illustrated by Ricard Zaplana Ruiz.

In the first of four planned volumes, Harari simplifies the provocative ideas about human history that drove his 2015 best seller, “Sapiens,” without dumbing them down.

“Worser,” by Jennifer Ziegler

A precocious logophile learns that the spaces between words are as important as the words themselves in this funny, clever, compassionate novel.

Jennifer Krauss is the children’s books editor for the Book Review.

Explore More in Books

Want to know about the best books to read and the latest news start here..

In Lucy Sante’s new memoir, “I Heard Her Call My Name,” the author reflects on her life and embarking on a gender transition  in her late 60s.

For people of all ages in Pasadena, Calif., Vroman’s Bookstore, founded in 1894, has been a mainstay in a world of rapid change. Now, its longtime owner says he’s ready to turn over the reins .

The graphic novel series “Aya” explores the pains and pleasures of everyday life in a working-class neighborhood  in West Africa with a modern African woman hero.

Like many Nigerians, the novelist Stephen Buoro has been deeply influenced by the exquisite bedlam of Lagos, a megacity of extremes. Here, he defines the books that make sense of the chaos .

Do you want to be a better reader?   Here’s some helpful advice to show you how to get the most out of your literary endeavor .

Each week, top authors and critics join the Book Review’s podcast to talk about the latest news in the literary world. Listen here .

  • Sports & Recreation ›

Art & Culture

Industry-specific and extensively researched technical data (partially from exclusive partnerships). A paid subscription is required for full access.

Books and pamphlets published by UNESCO classification division in Poland 2022

Books and pamphlets published by unesco classification division in poland in 2022.

  • Immediate access to 1m+ statistics
  • Incl. source references
  • Download as PNG, PDF, XLS, PPT

Additional Information

Show sources information Show publisher information Use Ask Statista Research Service

September 2023

Other statistics on the topic

  • Number of visitors to the Vatican Museums in the Vatican City 2012-2022
  • Museums and archaeological areas with the highest income in Italy 2019-2022
  • Museums and archaeological areas with the highest attendance in Italy 2019-2022
  • Number of state museums and similar institutions in Italy 1996-2022

To download this statistic in XLS format you need a Statista Account

To download this statistic in PNG format you need a Statista Account

To download this statistic in PDF format you need a Statista Account

To download this statistic in PPT format you need a Statista Account

As a Premium user you get access to the detailed source references and background information about this statistic.

As a Premium user you get access to background information and details about the release of this statistic.

As soon as this statistic is updated, you will immediately be notified via e-mail.

… to incorporate the statistic into your presentation at any time.

You need at least a Starter Account to use this feature.

  • Immediate access to statistics, forecasts & reports
  • Usage and publication rights
  • Download in various formats

You only have access to basic statistics. This statistic is not included in your account.

  • Instant access  to 1m statistics
  • Download  in XLS, PDF & PNG format
  • Detailed  references

Business Solutions including all features.

Statistics on " Museums in Italy "

  • Number of museums in Italy 2022, by type
  • Public and private museums in Italy 2022, by region
  • Number of state museums with free entrance in Italy 1996-2022
  • Value added of the historical and artistic heritage industry in Italy 2019-2022
  • Employment in the historical and artistic heritage industry in Italy 2019-2022
  • Total income of state museums and similar cultural institutions in Italy 1996-2022
  • Income of state museums in Italy 1996-2022
  • Income of state monuments and archaeological areas in Italy 1996-2022
  • Income of state museum complexes in Italy 1999-2022
  • Monthly income of state museums and similar institutions in Italy 2019-2022
  • Number of visitors to museums in Italy 2020-2022, by type
  • Total number of state museum visitors in Italy 1996-2022
  • Number of state museum visitors in Italy 2019-2022, by region
  • Share of Italians who did not visit any museum or exhibition 2020-2022, by age
  • Modern and contemporary art museums in Italy 2022, by region
  • Museums and galleries exhibiting medieval to 1800s art in Italy 2022, by region
  • Archaeological museums and galleries in Italy 2022, by region
  • Natural history and science museums in Italy 2022, by region
  • Ethnography and anthropology museums in Italy 2022, by region
  • Leading technologies and digital tools offered by museums in Italy 2023
  • Share of museums that digitalized the collection in Italy 2023
  • Distribution of museum ticket sales in Italy 2023, by booking channel
  • Share of museums collecting visitor data in Italy 2023
  • Share of museums with a strategic plan for digital investment in Italy 2023

Other statistics that may interest you Museums in Italy

  • Basic Statistic Number of museums in Italy 2022, by type
  • Premium Statistic Public and private museums in Italy 2022, by region
  • Premium Statistic Number of state museums and similar institutions in Italy 1996-2022
  • Basic Statistic Number of state museums with free entrance in Italy 1996-2022
  • Premium Statistic Value added of the historical and artistic heritage industry in Italy 2019-2022
  • Premium Statistic Employment in the historical and artistic heritage industry in Italy 2019-2022
  • Premium Statistic Total income of state museums and similar cultural institutions in Italy 1996-2022
  • Premium Statistic Income of state museums in Italy 1996-2022
  • Premium Statistic Income of state monuments and archaeological areas in Italy 1996-2022
  • Premium Statistic Income of state museum complexes in Italy 1999-2022
  • Premium Statistic Monthly income of state museums and similar institutions in Italy 2019-2022
  • Premium Statistic Museums and archaeological areas with the highest income in Italy 2019-2022
  • Premium Statistic Number of visitors to museums in Italy 2020-2022, by type
  • Premium Statistic Total number of state museum visitors in Italy 1996-2022
  • Premium Statistic Number of state museum visitors in Italy 2019-2022, by region
  • Premium Statistic Museums and archaeological areas with the highest attendance in Italy 2019-2022
  • Premium Statistic Number of visitors to the Vatican Museums in the Vatican City 2012-2022
  • Premium Statistic Share of Italians who did not visit any museum or exhibition 2020-2022, by age

Types of museums

  • Premium Statistic Modern and contemporary art museums in Italy 2022, by region
  • Basic Statistic Museums and galleries exhibiting medieval to 1800s art in Italy 2022, by region
  • Basic Statistic Archaeological museums and galleries in Italy 2022, by region
  • Basic Statistic Natural history and science museums in Italy 2022, by region
  • Basic Statistic Ethnography and anthropology museums in Italy 2022, by region

Digitalization

  • Premium Statistic Leading technologies and digital tools offered by museums in Italy 2023
  • Premium Statistic Share of museums that digitalized the collection in Italy 2023
  • Premium Statistic Distribution of museum ticket sales in Italy 2023, by booking channel
  • Premium Statistic Share of museums collecting visitor data in Italy 2023
  • Premium Statistic Share of museums with a strategic plan for digital investment in Italy 2023

Further Content: You might find this interesting as well

IMAGES

  1. 30 Books You Should Read in 2022

    published books in 2022

  2. Stunning Book Cover Reveals (2022) (Part One)

    published books in 2022

  3. best-books-2022

    published books in 2022

  4. Top 25 Books in 2022

    published books in 2022

  5. Best Books of 2022 So Far in 2022

    published books in 2022

  6. A 2022 Thrilling List of New Thrillers To Read in 2022

    published books in 2022

VIDEO

  1. 5 Books You Must Read in 2023

  2. Judging YOUR Best Books of 2023 So Far

  3. Best books of 2023 for me♥️🥰💕📚 #book #booktubers #bookreview #booktube #bookrecommendations

  4. The Best Books I Read in 2022

  5. Top 5 books to read in 2023

  6. WORST BOOKS OF 2022

COMMENTS

  1. The Best Books of 2022

    Afterlives by Abdulrazak Gurnah (Riverhead) Fiction The Nobel Prize winner's most recent novel is a sweeping origin story of modern Tanzania, and a love story between two young runaways.

  2. The Best Books of 2022

    The Candy House, by Jennifer Egan You don't need to have read Egan's Pulitzer-winning " A Visit From the Goon Squad " to jump feet first into this much-anticipated sequel.

  3. Most popular books published in 2022

    Most popular books published in 2022 Books most frequently added to Goodreads members' shelves, updated weekly 2022 Monthly data available for the current year, the year prior and the next year. # 1 It Starts with Us (It Ends with Us, #2) Colleen Hoover 3.88 1m ratings 2m shelvings Want to read Before It Ends with Us, it started with Atlas.

  4. The 100 Must-Read Books of 2022

    The 100 Must-Read Books of 2022 Gripping novels, transporting poetry, and timely nonfiction that asked us to look deeper Andrew R. Chow, Lucy Feldman, Mahita Gajanan, Annabel Gutterman, Angela...

  5. 2022 Releases Books

    Showing 1-50 of 17,248 Book Lovers (Hardcover) by Emily Henry (Goodreads Author) (shelved 833 times as 2022-releases) avg rating 4.15 — 994,707 ratings — published 2022 Want to Read Rate this book 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars Babel (Hardcover) by R.F. Kuang (Goodreads Author)

  6. 100 Notable Books of 2022

    100 Notable Books of 2022 Chosen by the staff of The New York Times Book Review Nov. 22, 2022 400 Sort by: Fiction/Poetry, Nonfiction, Memoir, History or Science. Best Barbarian Roger...

  7. Best Books 2022

    5,779,854 BEST BOOKS OF 2022 Announcing the winners of the Annual Goodreads Choice Awards, the only major book awards decided by readers. Congratulations to the best books of the year! View results New to Goodreads? Get great book recommendations! Start Now Categories Fiction Want to Read Rate this book

  8. The best books of 2022

    The best books of 2022 Illustration: Jonny Wan/The Guardian From Hanya Yanagihara's epic novel to a brilliant memoir by Bono … Guardian critics pick the year's best fiction, politics, science,...

  9. The 50 best books of the year 2022

    The Kingdom of Sand by Andrew Holleran Set in a drought-hit backwater of rural Florida, The Kingdom of Sand tells the story of a nameless narrator's existence of semi-solitude, as the memories of...

  10. The Best Books of 2022

    The best books of the year, including 'Manhunt,' by Gretchen Felker-Martin; 'Easy Beauty,' by Chloé Cooper Jones; 'The World Keeps Ending, and the World Goes On,' by Franny Choi ...

  11. 50 Best Books of 2022

    50 Best Books of 2022 - Best Books Coming Out This Year Entertainment Books The Best Books of 2022 If you want to read about spaceships, talking pigs, or supervillains, you've come to...

  12. 35 Best New 2022 Books

    2022 Book Releases to Get Excited About Expect highly-anticipated titles from Emma Straub, Akwaeke Emezi, Rebecca Serle, and more! (Image credit: Design by Morgan McMullen) By Rachel Epstein...

  13. 50 Best New Books of 2022 (So Far), Including Best-Selling Reads

    The 50 Best New Books of 2022 That You Won't Be Able to Put Down Wondering what you should be reading this year? Our list includes romance novels, non-fiction best-sellers, thrillers and so...

  14. 33 of the Bestselling Books of 2022 so Far, Fiction and Nonfiction

    33 books that ended up as #1 bestsellers on the New York Times Best Sellers list in 2022 so far: Fiction and poetry Nonfiction Advertisement Fiction and poetry Advertisement "Dream Town" by...

  15. 12 of the best new books to read in 2022

    From mystery novels to romance reads, these are the most anticipated books of 2022, according to Goodreads members. What to read in 2022 "To Paradise," by Hanya Yanagihara "To Paradise" $...

  16. 22 Best Books of 2022 so Far, According to Goodreads

    The 22 best books published in 2022 so far, according to Goodreads. Written by Katherine Fiorillo. May 11, 2022, 12:57 PM PDT. From debut novels to new works by bestselling authors like Colleen ...

  17. The Ultimate Best Books of 2022 List ‹ Literary Hub

    11 lists: Margo Jefferson, Constructing a Nervous System: A Memoir 10 lists: Tess Gunty, The Rabbit Hutch Hua Hsu, Stay True: A Memoir Celeste Ng, Our Missing Hearts 9 lists: Rachel Aviv, Strangers to Ourselves: Unsettled Minds and the Stories That Make Us Kate Beaton, Ducks: Two Years in the Oil Sands Julia May Jonas, Vladimir

  18. 50 best nonfiction books of 2022

    This volume collects 51 essays by the author of " Their Eyes Were Watching God .". It demonstrates Hurston's formidable range, showing her skills as a critic, anthropologist, journalist and ...

  19. The 10 Best Nonfiction Books of 2022

    10. The Revolutionary: Samuel Adams, Stacy Schiff. Pulitzer Prize winner Stacy Schiff revisits the American Revolution in her engrossing biography of founding father Samuel Adams. The ...

  20. How to Get Published

    Kathleen Fu. 430. By Kate Dwyer. Aug. 25, 2022. Jessamine Chan spent five years drafting her book. It was her first — a novel about a mother who loses custody of her toddler after one "very ...

  21. Best Books of 2022 (1408 books)

    The best books published during 2022. For 2022 2022 books most frequently added to shelves 2022 lists 2022 shelf By year: 1889 1890, 1899 1900, 1901, 1902, 1903, 1904, 1905, 1906, 1907, 1908, 1909 1910, 1911, 1912, 1913, 1914, 1915, 1916, 1917, 1918, 1919 1920, 1921, 1922, 1923, 1924, 1925, 1926, 1927, 1928, 1929 1930

  22. Public Libraries Reveal the Most Borrowed Books From 2023

    However, the Boston Public Library published several lists sorted by age group, library branch and more. The Seattle Public Library's rankings were broken down even further, with lists such as ...

  23. The Best Children's Books of 2022

    Translated by James Brown. After swimming for his life, an elephant whose boat has sunk reaches a rock barely big enough to stand on. As small animals in small vessels arrive one by one to ...

  24. Most popular books published in December 2022

    The brand new unmissable crime thriller from Holly Jackson, best-selling, award-winning author of the Good Girl's Guide to Murder trilogy. Eight hours. Six friends. One sniper . . . Eighteen year old Red and her friends are on a road trip in an RV, heading to the beach for Spring Break.

  25. Books and pamphlets published by UNESCO classification ...

    Number of state museum visitors in Italy 2019-2022, by region; ... "Books and pamphlets published by UNESCO classification division in Poland in 2022." Chart. September 28, 2023. Statista.