I decided to just do a Top 10 and not separate fiction from nonfiction this year. Nonfiction definitely dominates the list. 2022 wasn't a great year for me for fiction.
My favorites in no particular order:
- Sometimes I Trip on How Happy We Could Be, by Nichole Perkins. Her collection of essays about love, life and young adulthood was moving, genuine and very relatable for me. I love her voice and can't wait to read more.
- When They Come for Us, We;ll be Gone, by Gal Beckerman. This book was about the effort to get Soviet Jews out of the Soviet Union. It alternated between efforts within the Soviet Union to mobilize and motivate Jewish people and the efforts of American activists and politicians to convince Soviet regimes from the 1960s forward to allow them to leave. It was page-turning and fascinating and filled in a lot of gaps for me.
- After All, by Edward St. Aubyn. St. Aubyn's finale to his Patrick Melrose series was fitting and moving and wonderful. What a rewarding experience it was to read this series, which I recommend highly to all readers of adult fiction but please be warned about the extreme unlikeableness of some/most of the characters.
- Summer Half, by Angela Thirkell. A delightful little trifle. If you think adult fiction is just depressed people having affairs you should read more Thirkell.
- Catherine the Great, by Robert K. Massie. Fascinating biography of one of the great women of world history by a masterful, engaging writer.
- The Pisces, by Melissa Broder. One of my emo favorites, a great comfort read but not for everyone please.
- Birthday, by César Aira. If I read an Aira (and I always will) it will end up on my favorites list because it has to. If you know, you know- and if you don't, what are you waiting for?
- The Covenant of Water, by Abraham Verghese. Beautiful, heartbreaking novel by a writer who consistently knocks it out of the park. Look for it in late May.
- El Chapo, by Noah Hurowitz. Alternately depressing and page-turning, I keep coming back to this when I think about my favorite books of 2022. Great true-crime about the Mexican drug trade and the costs on both sides of the border.
- The Member of the Wedding, by Carson McCullers. Wonderful and more modern than I expected, this coming of age story from the author of The Heart is a Lonely Hunter is one of the best things I've ever read.
What were your favorites this year? I don't like doing posts about what I'm looking forward to, because then I never end up reading those books and I feel like a fraud. Lol.
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