I’ll be finishing the year having read roughly 170 books. So believe me when I tell you that picking the top 10 best books of the year can be really hard! I did it, but I also wanted to take a moment to let you about a few more books that didn’t make my final cut.
I’m sure I left out a book here or there that’s worthy of being mentioned, but I hope you’ve enjoyed the various lists I’ve put together for you!
Here are some links to the other posts already published:
Now, on to the Honorable Mentions of 2022!
Fiction:
🕯 A Quiet Life by Ethan Joella – Fantastic writing about the importance of connection and kindness.
🧨 Hell of a Book by Jason Mott – A masterfully crafted book that builds up slowly and then punches you out of nowhere!
🤍 We All Want Impossible Things by Catherine Newman – Great writing on the process of dying.
📽 The View Was Exhausting by Mikaella Clements – An immersive story following two famous people who orchestrate their lives for the public.
✨ Spells For Forgetting by Adrienne Young – An atmospheric mystery set on the islands of the PNW.
⚖️ Notes on an Execution by Danya Kukafka – A thought-provoking read from the womens’ perspectives of a man on Death Row
🧠 Maps of Our Spectacular Bodies by Maddie Mortimer – Cancer lends its unique voice to this story about taking over a body.
🎨 Scarlet in Blue by Jennifer Murphy – A very slow burn genre mash up that builds to a satisfying ending.
🎾 Carrie Soto Is Back by Taylor Jenkins Reid – Here simply because no one can write such immersive, easy-to-fall-into stories quite like TJR
🧪 Lessons in Chemistry by Bonnie Garmus – Featuring one of the best quirky characters I read all year!
Nonfiction:
🏃🏽♀️What Made Maddy Run: The Secret Struggles and Tragic Death of an All-American Teen by Kate Fagan – A book on mental health and suicide that I won’t soon forget and think every parent, coach, athletic director, and teacher should read ASAP!
🗣 Tiny Beautiful Things: Advice on Love and Life from Dear Sugar by Cheryl Strayed – An all-time favorite that was just as good the second time around!
🖤 The Sum of Us: What Racism Costs Everyone and How We Can Prosper Together by Heather McGhee – The best laid-out thesis for how we’re all in this together.
🎧 These Precious Days: Essays by Ann Patchett – I will never forget that last essay for as long as I live. Best listened to on audio.
🤎 Men We Reaped by Jesmyn Ward – Ward paints a picture of growing up in a system that always seems to be stacked against you.
💙 Parkland: Birth of a Movement by Dave Cullen – If anyone could start a movement and promised the United States that Parkland would be the last mass shooting, it was these kids.
🚴🏽♀️ Cultish: The Language of Fanaticism by Amanda Montell – An interesting argument about the language of cults and how it can generate a sense of power amongst its followers.
👨🏼💼 Entitled: How Male Privilege Hurts Women by Kate Manne – An exploration of how men’s entitlement to sex, power, knowledge, and other things is pervasive and toxic to our social context – but most especially to women.
📖 Unmask Alice: LSD, Satanic Panic, and the Imposter Behind the Most Notorious Diaries by Rick Emerson – A crazy piece of history I knew nothing about!
🎯 The Book of Boundaries by Melissa Urban – A helpful book for dealing with those difficult people in your life.
Debut:
🌺 Yerba Buena by Nina LaCour – An under-the-radar gems that deserved way more attention than it got!
🇵🇷 Olga Dies Dreaming by Xóchitl González – A perfect balance of light and serious, funny and sad, deep and surface.
🤎 Brown Girls by Daphne Palasi Andreades – Told in a collective voice, this one is about immigration, being brown in America, passive and overt racism, coming-of-age, and so much more!
🖤 My Monticello by Jocelyn Nicole Johnson – This is Johnson’s debut collection and if it’s any indication of her emotive writing talent, we’re all in for a treat!
Memoir:
🐢 Bomb Shelter: Love, Time, and Other Explosives by Mary Louise Philpott – This is exactly the stage of life I’m in and reading it from Philpott’s perspective made me FEEL SEEN!
🗣 Speak: Find Your Voice, Trust Your Gut, and Get from Where You Are to Where You Want To Be by Tunde Oyeneyin – Tunde is a champion of her people and I find that I like her even more after having listened to this one on audio! She is an absolute ray of sunshine!
🇲🇽 The Distance Between Us by Reyna Grande – Grande’s story about growing up in extreme poverty in Mexico was difficult to read, but gave me a new perspective on the desperation families feel before trying to get to America.
🎶 The Storyteller: Tales of Life And Music by Dave Grohl – A celebrity memoir I actually enjoyed!
🎬 Finding Me by Viola Davis – A raw and powerful audiobook!
🧒🏾 Solito by Javier Zamora – A heartbreaking, but hopeful, memoir about a nine-year-old child traveling 3000 miles over nine weeks across Mexico to the United States.
🩺 The Monsoon Diaries: A Doctor’s Journey of Hope and Healing from the ER Frontlines to the Far Reaches of the World by Dr. Calvin Sun – Throughout Covid, Dr. Sun became a source of reliable information when I stumbled across his instagram account. Through all he witnessed and the difficult choices he had to make, he always managed to keep (and project) a sense of hope and positivity.
🕵🏽♀️Tell Me Everything: The Story of a Private Investigation by Erika Krouse – An accidental private investigator who uncovers the toxic culture surrounding a university’s football team.
⛓ Corrections In Ink by Keri Blakinger – A promising career in figure skating, an Ivy League student, and a heroin addict/dealer that finds herself in prison…this is Blakinger’s compelling story.
🦢 The Crane Wife: A Memoir in Essays by C.J. Hauser – Hauser explores themes of self-explorations, finding your home (place) in this world, and the various forms of love in this reflective collection of essays.
Historical Fiction:
🇵🇸 Against the Loveless World by Susan Abulhawa – A lyrical novel that follows a young Palestinian refugee as she slowly becomes radicalized while searching for a better life for her family throughout the Middle East.
🤎 Memphis by Tara M. Stringfellow – I loved this family drama that follows three generations of women who try to navigate through their individual and collective abuses, trauma, and racism.
🗺 The Cartographers by Peng Shepherd – A totally underrated gem that is interesting, unique, and so incredibly fascinating about a historical aspect of maps I knew nothing about. The author’s note at the end sealed this one for me!
Mystery/Thriller:
📖 Who is Maud Dixon? by Alexandra Andrews – This was a compelling and twisty read that I couldn’t put it down; and just when I thought I had it all figured out, I was completely taken by surprise!
✍🏼 The Writing Retreat by Julia Bartz – The one was atmospheric and had gothic undertones – yes, please!
🕳 The Family Game by Catherine Steadman – The weird background of this family and the absolutely bizarre games they play had me freaked out!
Romance:
🧡 You Made a Fool of Death With Your Beauty by Akwaeke Emezi – these characters were messy, but I felt their deep emotions – particularly those that dealt with grief – and I felt so many of my confusing feelings surrounding grief vindicated.
📚 Book Lovers by Emily Henry – The build up between Nora and Charlie was perfection, and I absolutely loved the cozy small town setting.
Science Fiction:
🔮 The Change by Kirsten Miller – A genre mashup that felt timely, emotional, and heartwarming.
Happiest When Reading 