2022 Booklist

My bookkeeping was spotty this year so I think I’ve left a few reads off the list unintentionally, but here’s most of what I read in 2022! My two absolute favorites of the year in fiction were Tomorrow and Tomorrow and Tomorrow and Lessons in Chemistry. On the non-fiction side, I added some history to my reading stack in 2022 (unusual for me) and surprised myself by really enjoying The Guns of August and SPQR. My selection of books was haphazard but I had some mini-themes based on current events in Ukraine, geography and travel to Italy, Egypt, Greece, and France, and the Booker Prize shortlist.

Ratings are based on what resonated with me at the time of reading; sometimes I was just in a funky mood or not feeling a topic, and my rating actually has little to do with the quality of the book. But I stand by my 5-star recommendations.

1. The Year of Magical Thinking, Joan Didion ⭐⭐⭐⭐
2. Land of Big Numbers, Te-Ping Chen ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
3. My Body, Emily Ratajkowski ⭐⭐⭐⭐
4. In the Country of Others, Leila Slimani ⭐⭐⭐⭐
5. Notes on an Execution, Danya Kukafka ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
6. The Night Watchman, Louise Erdrich ⭐⭐⭐⭐
7. Free Food for Millionaires, Min Jin Lee ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
8. Station Eleven, Emily St. John Mandel ⭐⭐⭐⭐
9. A Burning, Megha Majumdar ⭐⭐⭐⭐
10. Good Economics for Hard Times, Abhijit V. Banerjee and Esther Duflo ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
11. Open Water, Calb Azumah Nelson ⭐⭐⭐⭐
12. Before the Coffee Gets Cold, Toshikazu Kawaguchi ⭐⭐⭐⭐
13. Seven and a Half Lessons About the Brain, Lisa Feldman Barrett ⭐⭐⭐⭐
14. The Last Story of Mina Lee, Nancy Jooyoun Kim ⭐⭐⭐
15. Black Cake, Charmaine Wilkerson ⭐⭐⭐⭐
16. The King Is Always Above the People, Daniel Alarcón ⭐⭐⭐
17. Fuzz: When Nature Breaks the Law, Mary Roach ⭐⭐⭐⭐
18. The Ministry for the Future, Kim Stanley Robinson ⭐⭐⭐⭐
19. The Guns of August, Barbara Tuchman ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
20. War: How Conflict Shaped Us, Margaret MacMillan ⭐⭐⭐
21. Grey Bees, Andrey Kurkov ⭐⭐⭐⭐
22. Bestiary, K-Ming Chang ⭐⭐⭐
23. The Immortalists, Chloe Benjamin ⭐⭐⭐⭐
24. Red Notice: A True Story of High Finance, Murder, and One Man’s Fight for Justice, Bill Browder ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
25. Strong Female Lead: Lessons from Women in Power, Arwa Mahdawi ⭐⭐⭐⭐
26. My Year Abroad, Chang-Rae Lee ⭐⭐⭐
27. How Beautiful We Were, Imbolo Mbue ⭐⭐⭐
28. The Dinner Guest, Gabriela Ybarra ⭐⭐⭐
29. Wolf Hall, Hilary Mantel ⭐⭐⭐
30. Violeta, Isabel Allende ⭐⭐⭐⭐
31. With This Kiss, Carrie Hope Fletcher ⭐⭐
32. A Short History of Tractors in Ukrainian, Marina Lewycka ⭐⭐⭐⭐
33. The Sleeping Beauties, and Other Stories of Mystery Illness, Suzanne O’Sullivan ⭐⭐⭐⭐
34. I, Mona Lisa, Natasha Solomons ⭐⭐⭐
35. Portrait of a Thief, Grace D. Li ⭐⭐⭐⭐
36. Booth, Karen Joy Fowler ⭐⭐⭐⭐
37. Daughter of the Moon Goddess, Sue Lynn Tan ⭐⭐⭐⭐
38. Gold Diggers, Sanjena Sathian ⭐⭐⭐⭐
39. What My Bones Know, Stephanie Foo ⭐⭐⭐⭐
40. Swimmer Among the Stars, Kanishk Tharoor ⭐⭐⭐⭐
41. The Life of an MP, Jess Phillips ⭐⭐⭐
42. The Swimmers, Julie Otsuka ⭐⭐⭐⭐
43. The Talented Mr. Ripley, Patricia Highsmith ⭐⭐⭐⭐
44. Elektra, Jennifer Saint ⭐⭐⭐⭐
45. The Exhibitionist, Charlotte Mendelson ⭐⭐⭐
46. Beasts of a Little Land, Juhea Kim ⭐⭐⭐⭐
47. The Burning Chambers, Kate Mosse ⭐⭐⭐⭐
48. The Book of Form & Emptiness, Ruth Ozeki ⭐⭐⭐
49. Seeing Ghosts: A Memoir, Kat Chow ⭐⭐⭐⭐
50. The Summer I Turned Pretty, Jenny Han ⭐⭐⭐
51. It’s Not Summer Without You, Jenny Han ⭐⭐⭐
52. We’ll Always Have Summer, Jenny Han ⭐⭐⭐
53. The Plot, Jean Hanff Korelitz ⭐⭐⭐⭐
54. The City of Tears, Kate Mosse ⭐⭐⭐⭐
55. The Wolf Den, Elodie Harper ⭐⭐⭐⭐
56. Storyland: A New Mythology of Britain, Amy Jeffs ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
57. This Time Tomorrow, Emma Straub ⭐⭐⭐⭐
58. The Land Where Lemons Grow, Helena Attlee ⭐⭐⭐⭐
59. Murder by the Seaside, Arthur Conan Doyle, Anthony Berkeley, John Dickson Carr, Gladys Mitchell, Cyril Hare, and more ⭐⭐⭐⭐
60. The Invisible Circus, Jennifer Egan ⭐⭐⭐
61. Say Nothing: A True Story of Murder and Memory in Northern Ireland, Patrick Radden Keefe ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
62. Tomorrow and Tomorrow and Tomorrow, Gabrielle Zevin ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
63. Marathon: The Ultimate Training Guide, Hal Higdon ⭐⭐⭐⭐
64. The Family Chao, Lan Samantha Chang ⭐⭐⭐
65. Home Fire, Kamila Shamsie ⭐⭐⭐⭐
66. The Library Book, Susan Orlean ⭐⭐⭐⭐
67. If We Were Villains, M. L. Rio ⭐⭐⭐
68. Matrix, Lauren Groff ⭐⭐⭐
69. Lobby Life: Inside Westminster’s Secret Society, Carole Walker ⭐⭐⭐
70. Lessons in Chemistry, Bonnie Garmus ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
71. How to Kill Your Family, Bella Mackie ⭐⭐⭐
72. Heatwave, Victor Jestin ⭐⭐⭐
73. Sorrow and Bliss, Meg Mason ⭐⭐⭐⭐
74. The Immortal King Rao, Vauhini Vara ⭐⭐⭐
75. Carrie Soto Is Back, Taylor Jenkins Reid ⭐⭐⭐⭐
76. The Marriage Portrait, Maggie O’Farrell ⭐⭐⭐⭐
77. The Fixer: My Adventures Saving Startups from Death by Politics, Bradley Tusk ⭐⭐⭐⭐
78. SPQR: A History of Ancient Rome, Mary Beard ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
79. Maps of Our Spectacular Bodies, Maddie Mortimer ⭐⭐⭐
80. I’m Glad My Mom Died, Jennette McCurdy ⭐⭐⭐⭐
81. The Rabbit Hutch, Tess Gunty ⭐⭐⭐
82. All That’s Left Unsaid, Tracey Lien ⭐⭐⭐⭐
83. Let Your Mind Run: A Memoir of Thinking My Way to Victory, Deena Kastor ⭐⭐
84. Joan, Katherine J. Chen ⭐⭐⭐⭐
85. Fleishman Is in Trouble, Taffy Brodesser-Akner ⭐⭐⭐⭐
86. The Family Outing: A Memoir, Jessi Hempel ⭐⭐⭐⭐
87. Good to Go: What the Athlete in All of Us Can Learn from the Strange Science of Recovery, Christie Aschwanden ⭐⭐⭐⭐
88. A Helping Hand, Celia Dale ⭐⭐⭐
89. The Seven Moons of Maali Almeida, Shehan Karunatilaka ⭐⭐⭐⭐
90. The Girl on the Train, Paula Hawkins ⭐⭐
91. Dog Years, Melissa Yancy ⭐⭐⭐⭐
92. We Show What We Have Learned & Other Stories, Clare Beams ⭐⭐⭐
93. All the Ugly and Wonderful Things, Bryn Greenwood ⭐⭐⭐⭐
94. Who’s Irish?: Stories, Gish Jen ⭐⭐⭐
95. The Paris Library, Janet Skeslien Charles ⭐⭐⭐
96. The Buried Giant, Kazuo Ishiguro ⭐⭐⭐
97. Intact: A Defence of the Unmodified Body, Clare Chambers ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
98. Love Marriage, Monica Ali ⭐⭐⭐⭐
99. Glory, NoViolet Bulawayo ⭐⭐⭐⭐
100. Small Things Like These, Claire Keegan ⭐⭐⭐⭐
101. Oh William!, Elizabeth Strout ⭐⭐⭐⭐
102. The Twyford Code, Janice Hallett ⭐⭐
103. Death on the Nile, Agatha Christie ⭐⭐⭐⭐