Year in Review: 2022 Book List
I’m proud of that number, even though it’s far less than 2021’s 63 or 2020’s 70. My excuses are decent: starting a seasonal full-time job at Washington National Cathedral from mid-March to the end of June, a cross-country move at June’s end, starting another new job at City of Santa Barbara Public Works, and the packing and learning curves that came with such large life changes. (Not to mention querying my second book and writing my third!) Through the ups and downs, there was always a book on my nightstand. In Washington, D.C., I spent many lunch breaks in Bishop’s Garden with a book. And in Santa Barbara, I spent hours reading on the beach. Honestly, it’s been another wild year, with much uncertainty, and 2023 promises to be no different. No settling yet. So thank goodness for books.
12 books came from Book of the Month, and 12 from libraries (six from D.C., six from Santa Barbara). I won one in a Goodreads giveaway, and my dad gave me one. Four came from independent bookstores on opposite sides of the country: Kramers, Loyalty Bookstores, and Chaucer’s Books.
First, the complete list, then, it’s a top nine this year.
The Autobiography of Malcolm X ~ Malcolm X and Alex Haley
Beautiful Country ~ Qian Julie Wang
Big Magic: Creative Living Beyond Fear ~ Elizabeth Gilbert
Black Cake ~ Charmaine Wilkerson
Book Lovers ~ Emily Henry
The Cartographers ~ Peng Shepherd
Cloud Cuckoo Land ~ Anthony Doerr
Don’t Cry for Me ~ Daniel Black
Ecstatic Nation: Confidence, Crisis, and Compromise, 1848-1877 ~ Brenda Wineapple
Gender Queer: A Memoir ~ Maia Kobabe
A History of Wild Places ~ Shea Ernshaw
I Came All This Way to Meet You: Writing Myself Home ~ Jami Attenberg
I Kissed Shara Wheeler ~ Casey McQuiston
In Every Mirror She’s Black ~ Lọlá Ákínmádé Åkerström
Lessons in Chemistry ~ Bonnie Garmus
The Love Hypothesis ~ Ali Hazelwood
Love on the Brain ~ Ali Hazelwood
The Many Daughters of Afong Moy ~ Jamie Ford
Not That I’d Kiss a Girl: A Kiwi Girl’s Tale of Coming Out and Coming of Age ~ Lil O’Brien
Ocean’s Echo ~ Everina Maxwell
Oona Out of Order ~ Margarita Montimore
People We Meet on Vacation ~ Emily Henry
Quantum: Einstein, Bohr, and the Great Debate about the Nature of Reality ~ Manjit Kumar
Sea of Tranquility ~ Emily St. John Mandel
Split Second ~ Douglas E. Richards
The Verifiers ~ Jane Pek
Woman of Light ~ Kali Fajardo-Anstine
Yerba Buena ~ Nina LaCour
Reread
The Fire Next Time ~ James Baldwin
Black Cake ~ Charmaine Wilkerson
I absolutely loved Black Cake. I read it almost a year ago now, and it still stands out. It’s a masterful delve into a complicated brother/sister relationship, and how their mother’s long-held secret past impacts them in the present. I loved the characters. I loved the settings. The writing was incredible. All-around, a simply magnificent read.
Cloud Cuckoo Land ~ Anthony Doerr
Doerr’s characters make his books. I loved the intersections of their lives throughout centuries, and how Doerr created a gripping centuries-spanning narrative. He infuses feelings into descriptions, and is a master of show, don’t tell. And one final twist absolutely blew my mind.
Ecstatic Nation: Confidence, Crisis, and Compromise, 1848-1877 ~ Brenda Wineapple
I told Aaron I wanted to read history from the perspective of not just the people in power, but everyone around at the time, and this was the book he recommended. It's a large tome and it took me a while to get through it, but it was well worth the effort. Not only did I learn so much about the Civil War and Reconstruction, but Wineapple’s writing was gorgeous. Highly recommend.
Gender Queer: A Memoir ~ Maia Kobabe
I started Kobabe’s book because it’s been the target of unwise book bans across the country. I didn’t realize that I personally needed to read it. I’m so glad I did.
Lessons in Chemistry ~ Bonnie Garmus
The word that comes to mind to describe this book is powerhouse. I loved Garmus’ writing, and I loved her main character. The novel was entertaining, maddening, and thoroughly inspiring.
The Many Daughters of Afong Moy ~ Jamie Ford
Another book that stands out to me months later. Ford’s story was elegantly written, heartbreaking, and absolutely sucked me in from the first chapter. The novel has so many layers — I don’t want to get too deep into it and give any of them away — and does so much with so many story threads. Brilliant.
Oona Out of Order ~ Margarita Montimore
Read this one as I thought it might be a good comp title for my second book queries. And it was a perfect comp title, as well as thought-provoking and fascinating, with complicated characters, deft sci-fi elements, and some great twists.
Sea of Tranquility ~ Emily St. John Mandel
The third of Mandel’s books I’ve read, and the third to make my year-end top list. She’s one of my all-time favorite writers; her prose is astonishing. And her handling of a well-trodden sci-fi theme in this book was agile and scintillating. I’m obsessed.
The Verifiers ~ Jane Pek
I honestly may never have picked this one out had I not ordered it through Book of the Month, and oh my goodness. It was fantastic. The Verifiers reminded me of my unexpected Sherlock Holmes binge of 2014; turns out I love detective novels. And Pek’s was beyond excellent. Her writing is crazy good, and she’s doing so much with The Verifiers. It’s not just a mystery novel; it’s social commentary and immigrant family story and lesbian twentysomething coming-of-age and more. I eagerly await the opportunity to devour everything else Pek ever writes.
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