I always feel the need to let out a long exhale this time of year – we did it. We made it through another year. I love writing my book year in review because it helps me to remember all of the things that happened over the course of a calendar year. This year I traveled to new places, moved across the ocean, advanced my own writing career, and, perhaps most relevantly, read a lot of books.
As a quick summary, this year, I read:
133 Books
87 Fiction
6 Young Adult
40 Non-Fiction
42 Audiobook
It is hard for me to narrow down my favorites, but in no particular order, here are my top 20 of 2022! (If you want the full list of reads this year, keep scrolling!)
Lessons in Chemisty – Bonnie Garmus
Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, and Tomorrow – Gabrielle Zevin
Yinka, Where Is Your Huzband – Lizzie Damilola Blackburn
Project Hail Mary – Andy Weir
Black Cake – Charmaine Wilkerson
Empire of Pain – Patrick Radden Keefe
A Curious Faith – Lore Ferguson Wilbert
Destiny of the Republic – Candice Millard
Bomb Shelter – Mary Laura Philpott
Think Again – Adam Grant
How Not to Drown in a Glass of Water – Angie Cruz
We Were Dreamers – Simu Liu
Happy-Go-Lucky – David Sedaris
Nora Goes Off Script – Annabel Monaghan
I Must Betray You – Ruta Sepetys
The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue – V.E. Schwab
Love Songs of W.E.B. Du Bois – Honorée Fanonne Jeffers
We Are The Light – Matthew Quick
She Said – Jodi Kantor, Megan Twohey
I'm Glad My Mom Died – Jennette McCurdy
Fiction:
The Startup Wife – 3/5
The Remains of the Day – 4/5
The Hating Game – 4/5
His Only Wife –3/5
Project Hail Mary – 5/5
How Much of These Hills is Gold – 3/5
The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue – 5/5
The Maid –4/5
His & Hers – 4/5
Emma – 4/5
Yinka, Where Is Your Huzband? – 5/5
Lincoln in the Bardo – 4/5
Joan Is Okay – 4/5
Survive the Night – 3/5
You Exist Too Much – 3/5
The Other Black Girl – 3/5
Black Cake – 5/5
The Love Songs of W.E.B Du Bois – 5/5
Cloud Cuckoo Land – 4/5
Of Women and Salt – 4/5
How Beautiful We Were – 3/5
All the Light We Cannot See – 4/5
Recitatif – 5/5
Love Your Life – 3/5
Lessons in Chemistry – 5/5
The Cuckoo's Calling – 3/5
Palm Beach – 4/5
Harlem Shuffle – 3/5
Funny You Should Ask – 4/5
The Secret History – 4/5
The Violin Conspiracy – 4/5
Marrying the Ketchups – 4/5
The Hunting Party – 3/5
This Time Tomorrow – 5/5
The Unsinkable Greta James – 5/5
Apples Never Fall – 4/5
Portrait of a Thief – 4/5
Hamnet – 3/5
These Silent Woods – 3/5
Part of Your World – 3/5
The Lies I Tell – 4/5
Nora Goes Off Script – 5/5
The Cartographers – 4/5
Sex and Vanity – 4/5
The Vacationers – 3/5
The Last Thing He Told Me – 3/5
Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, and Tomorrow – 5/5
Upgrade – 4/5
The Woman in the Window – 3/5
The Christie Affair – 2/5
The Mutual Friend – 4/5
The Bookish Life of Nina Hill – 4/5
Elsewhere – 3/5
The Bodyguard – 4/5
Acts of Violet – 3/5
Lucky – 3/5
Book Lovers – 4/5
True Biz – 4/5
Carrie Soto Is Back – 5/5
Pride and Prejudice – 5/5
Death on the Nile – 3/4
The Overdue Life of Amy Byler – 4/5
Every Summer After – 4/5
Finlay Donovan Knocks 'Em Dead – 4/5
A Slow Fire Burning – 3/5
The Fortunes of Jaded Women – 4/5
Waiting for Tom Hanks – 4/5
Daisy Darker – 3/5
Thank You for Listening – 2/5
The Family Game – 4/5
The Catch – 3/5
Eligible – 3/5
The Appeal – 4/5
The Final Revival of Opal & Nev – 3/5
We Are the Light – 5/5
Wrong Place Wrong Time – 4/5
How Not to Drown in a Glass of Water – 5/5
Holiday Romance – 4/5
Killers of a Certain Age – 4/5
Dinosaurs – 4/5
Writers & Lovers – 4/5
The Golden Couple – 3/5
Before I Do – 2/5
Young Jane Young – 4/5
The Mothers – 4/5
The View Was Exhausting – 3/5
Seasonal Work – 3/5
Young Adult:
Girl in Translation – 3/5
Pride and Premeditation – 3/5
Love & Gelato – 4/5
The Final Gambit – 4/5
A Wind in the Door – 5/5
I Must Betray You – 5/5
Nonfiction:
Beautiful Country – 4/5
The Gardner Heist – 3/5
The Feather Thief – 4/5
Unfamiliar Fishes – 3/5
The Making of Biblical Womanhood – 5/5
Stealing Rembrandts – 3/5
Codependent No More – 3/5
Under the Banner of Heaven –3/5
Nowhere Girl – 4/5
Think Again – 5/5
I Miss You When I Blink – 4/5
Where the Deer and the Antelope Play – 3/5
Thoughts of a Dying Worship Pastor – 5/5
Cultish – 4/5
Comedy Comedy Comedy Drama – 3/5
Do You Mind If I Cancel? – 3/5
Empire of Pain – 5/5
Call Us What We Carry – 5/5
How the Word Is Passed – 5/5
Prayer in the Night – 5/5
Fly Girl – 4/5
Going There – 4/5
Modern Romance – 4/5 We Were Dreamers – 5/5
Bomb Shelter – 5/5
The Anthropocene Reviewed – 4/5
I'm Glad My Mom Died – 5/5
A Curious Faith – 5/5
The Crane Wife – 4/5
The Devil in the White City – 3/5
Destiny of the Republic – 5/5
Bird by Bird – 5/5
Happy-Go-Lucky – 5/5
My Body – 4/5
River of the Gods – 4/5
You'll Never Believe What Happened to Lacey – 5/5
Friends, Lovers, and the Big Terrible Thing – 5/5
Directed by James Burrows – 2/5
She Said – 5/5
Have I Told You This Already? – 4/5