Every year I start this blog post thinking that I’m getting to it late only to realize that the previous year, I wrote it even later. Maybe one of these years I’ll get to it in January, or, I don’t know, maybe I’ll even get it prepped in December, but for now, I’ll be satisfied with mid-February. The year’s still young enough.
I had a fun time with my reading this year. I read a lot more non-fiction than I typically do, which was more of a challenge than my typical genre fair, but I enjoyed the books I read and I feel like they expanded my horizons. I also did a Jane Austen read-through for the first time in a long time and that was a delightful exercise. I won’t, however, be including Austen on this list as those are books I’ve read before and have been favorites since childhood. For this list, I’ll focus on books that were new to me this year, though not necessarily published in 2022. So without further exposition, let’s get into the list.
1.) Hearstopper by Alice Oseman
(Published 2019-2021by Hachette Children’s Books)
This is a bit of a cheat since I’ve been reading the Heartstopper series for years online, but with the release of the Netflix show, I decided it was time for a reread and so I bought the four volumes that are currently out in print.
Heartstopper is a sweet, queer, coming-of-age story that gives me warm fuzzies every time I read it. I’m so glad that this webtoon has gotten the recognition it deserves and that Netflix brought this story to a wider audience. This is a series I come back to whenever I’m in need of cheering up and it never fails to bring a smile to my face.
2.) She Who Became the Sun by Shelley Parker-Chan
(Published 2021 by Mantel)
Shelley Parker-Chan was awarded the 2022 Hugo Award for Best New Writer for She Who Became the Sun, a fantasy re-imagining of 14th-century Chinese history. This is one of those books that abducted me and wouldn’t let me go until I’d read every last word.
It tells the story of an ambitious peasant girl who steals her brother’s identity after his death in order to survive. She’s not just swept up in historical events, she makes them happen and it’s glorious. She Who Became the Sun is epic, yet intimate and queer as all get out. It gave me the same feeling I get when watching Chinese historical dramas on Netflix. I am very much looking forward to the sequel.
3.) The Liar’s Knot by M.A. Carrick
(Published 2022 by Orbit)
I enjoyed this second installment of the Rook and Rose series as much as the first. Written by co-authors Marie Brennan and Alyc Helms, The Liar’s Knot delves further into the intrigues that began in The Mask of Mirrors. I’ve grown to love these characters and this series checks all the boxes for what I love in a high fantasy with political intrigue. I eagerly await the next installment.
If you’re looking to delve into a series ripe with juicy political intrigue, lush intrigue, and well-drawn characters, I highly recommend checking out the Rook and Rose series. It gives me similar vibes to The Lies of Locke Lamora by Scott Lynch.
4.) Under the Whispering Door by T.J. Klune
(Published 2021 by Tor Books)
T.J. Klune is rapidly becoming an auto-read author for me. I adored The House on the Cerulean Sea and Under the Whispering Door was just as delightful a read. There is something so comforting about these books and the message that it’s never too late to change and become the person you want to be.
Klune’s characters are some of my favorites that I’ve come across in recent years. He makes you care so much about each character and they are all so lovely. These are books that I want to linger in and spend as much time as possible absorbing while at the same time, I want to read them as quickly as possible because I need to know what happens. I can’t wait to see what Klune brings us next.
Also, this book has a ghost dog in it. What’s not to love about a ghost dog.
5.) Nettle & Bone by T. Kingfisher
(Published 2022 by Tor Books)
T. Kingfisher is another one of those authors who I will read no matter what they put out. Nettle & Bone is a gothic fairy tale that takes all the fairy tale tropes and tosses them out the window. This is a story where the princess teams up with the witch to kill the prince and it is poignant and marvelous and full of feminine anger in the most satisfying way.
And keeping in the theme of undead dogs, this story features a bone dog, who is a very good skeletal friend whom I love dearly.
6.) Where the Drowned Girls Go by Seanan McGuire
(Published 2022 by Tordotcom)
Seanan McGuire returns once more to her Hugo and Nebula award-winning Wayward Children’s series. Where the Drowned Girls Go follows Cora as she struggles against the pull of ancient gods who want to yank her into a world that isn’t the one she belongs to. In her efforts to escape these gods, Cora leaves the school for a place where the students try to forget their doors, and something even darker than the ancient gods is at work. I loved how this book expanded on the world we’ve been following for so many years and added a layer of complexity to the plot. I look forward to seeing how things develop further in the subsequent books of the series.
7.) A Prayer for the Crown-Shy by Becky Chambers
(Published 2022 by Tordotcom)
The second installment in Becky Chambers’s Monk & Robot series is just as sweet and lovely as the first. I’m living for this style of optimistic, back-to-nature style science fiction. This is the type of science fiction that I wanted to read as a kid, not the stuff that’s full of chrome and laser guns. I want stories of a kind, gentle future where humans have figured out how to live in the world without destroying it and Chambers presents exactly that type of vision of the future. And I am HERE for it.
8.) The Thursday Murder Club by Richard Osman
(Published 2020 by Penguin)
I read all three of the books contained within Richard Osman’s Thursday Murder Club series this year and I adored them all, but The Thursday Murder Club was exactly the book I needed to read at the time that I read it. This murder mystery set in a retirement community gave me so much comfort in a time of grief. Perhaps it’s odd to find comfort in a murder mystery, but I did. The characters are simply lovely and they are so tenderly written that even with all the bodies, I felt an overwhelming sense of security as I followed their adventures. I highly recommend listening to the audio versions as well as they are fantastically narrated and contain an interview with the author at the end of each one.
9.) Wendy, Darling by A.C. Wise
(Published 2021 by Titan Books)
This retelling of Peter Pan focuses on digging into all the uncomfortable aspects of the source material. Wise transforms Peter Pan from a mischievous boy who refuses to grow up into a far more sinister being and it is marvelous. This is a beautiful novel that is not afraid to address the horrors of womanhood in Victorian and Edwardian England. It felt very rooted in reality for all that it was a fantasy novel.
10.) From Here to Eternity: Traveling the World to Find the Good Death by Caitlin Doughty
(Published 2017 by Hachette Australia)
Mortician and death industry educator Caitlin Doughty travels the world to learn about the death and funerary traditions of various cultures. Funny and informative, I really enjoyed this book despite its morbid subject matter. Though to be fair, I’ve been into morbid stuff for a very long time. As a ten-year-old I was fascinated by all the gory details of unification and not much has really changed since then. Anyway, I really like Doughty’s attitude towards death: the idea that it doesn’t need to be this distant, scary thing. That death can be intimate and lovely and that we can take care of our loved ones as they pass out of this world. If you also like to think about these types of things, you might want to give this book a read.
Anyway, these were ten of my favorite reads in 2022. Let me know in the comments if you’ve read any of these and what you thought. What were your favorite reads last year?
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