Top Reads of 2022
Want more? You can check out my husband’s favorite books of the year too!
I’m definitely a little late on getting this published, but better late than never! Once again, its the time of the year when I look back at all the books I read and pick my favorites to share. It’s also a chance to look back on what the books I read tell me about the year that’s past, in how much I read, what I read, and when I read it.
In the middle of all the madness of this year, I still managed to keep reading, in however small amounts, and that brought an element of normalcy into those seasons. I wish I could say I gave myself the strength to keep reading, but the credit lies with someone else. Or rather, a group of someones. This year I joined a virtual book club, at the invitation of one of my dearest friends. I didn’t know anyone else in the group, but over the months our group of five book lovers and our regular Zoom calls became one of the best parts of 2022.
Books open you up to people unlike anything else I’ve seen, because reading is so personal. We each read the same story and yet a different one, because we all bring ourselves to the books we read, our memories, our fears, our hopes, our anxieties, our dreams. For each book we shared, we would all bring a unique perspective to our semi-monthly calls. As the months past, we learned things about each other that I never anticipated, sharing how our experiences of marriage, motherhood (or lack of motherhood), in-laws, work, faith, femineity in general, and so much more that’s not coming to mind impacted the books we read. And we read a little of everything - mystery, historical fiction, psychological fantasy, literary fiction. Sometimes our takes on these books would be similar and align, and other times they would be completely opposed, but no matter the book and how I experienced it, I found myself looking forward to hearing what the other members of the group would think of the same novel. In fact, some of my favorite conversations were the ones when we read completely different themes and meaning in the books, each of them enriching my entire experience with the story. That’s the real power of reading — it’s a deeply personal relationship between the author and the reader. The beauty of sharing that relationship with others is how it brings you into relationship with them too.
Without further ado, here are some of my favorite books from the last year. Once again, it’s a mixture of fiction and non-fiction, a blend of genres, and listed in the order in which I read them. And if you have read or do read any of these, let me know. I want to know what you saw that I didn’t, what you heard the author say that I missed. I want to share this experience with you.
My Top Books of 2022
The Night Circus, Erin Morenstern:
This was the first book I read in 2022. I’d heard nothing but good things about this book and it entirely lived up to the hype. A fantasy wrapped in the magical trappings of an otherworldly circus, The Night Circus left no detail abandoned. Everything dropped by the author comes back around, tying the various plot points in a fantastical bow that was unlike any fantasy I’ve ever read.
How to be Perfect, Michael Schur:
That’s right, the Michael Schur of such beloved sitcoms as The Office, Parks and Rec, and, naturally, The Good Place. When writing the sitcom and philosophical examination of the afterlife, Schur worked with a philosopher to learn about the various schools of thought and then penned his own introduction to the world of philosophy. I never expected an overview of philosophy to be such a genuinely fun experience, but that’s exactly what Schur does. And don’t skip the footnotes — they made me laugh out loud every time! The genius of this book isn’t that it’s just amusing and fun; what sets it apart is that it is also quite profound without losing Schur’s delightful sense of humor.
Revelation of the Divine Love, Julien of Norich:
Julien of Norich is a 13th-century nun and mystic, who shared her spiritual revelations in the volume Revelation of the Divine Love. Her visions are graphic and powerful, expressing the deep beauty of God’s enduring love for creation. She reveals the depth of the love that exists in God, and how that love changes each of us when we interact with it.
Prayer in the Night, Tish Harrison-Warren:
If you haven’t read Tish Harrison-Warren, her books or her opinion pieces in the New York Times, stop what you’re doing and go read something by her. And then go read Prayer in the Night. Her meditation on one of the prayers in the ancient Anglican nighttime prayer service of compline honestly changed my life. She walked through each line of the prayer, and blended her own experiences in with theology as she dwelled on each line. Each chapter digs deep into what it means that God experiences the messiness of life alongside us, feeling every pain and sorrow, no matter how long the night lasts. Her book is a balm for the soul, and while I didn’t know it at the time, reading it back in March prepared my heart for the sorrow that awaited me down the road in June, when we lost our first pregnancy.
“Keep watch dear Lord, with those who work or watch or weep this night, and give your angels charge over those who sleep. Tend the sick, Lord Christ; give rest to the weary, bless the dying, soothe the suffering, pity the afflicted, shield the joyous; and all for your love’s sake. Amen.”
The Thursday Murder Club, Richard Osman:
I loved this book. This was the first book I read with my delightful book club, and it was a crowd favorite. It follows the story of a group of eccentric English retirees living in a retirement home in the English countryside as they meet to solve cold cases they’ve pulled from the local police department. One of the group is a retired MI6 agent, and soon enough they’re on the case of a more recent murder. It’s one of those books where every detail matters, and kept me guessing right up to the final pages. In between the excitement and ridiculousness, there’s also a reflection on past mistakes and what we do with our remaining time. It’s truly a delight to read, and if you can’t get enough, you’re in luck, because there are two sequels — and counting!
The Three-Body Problem, Cixin Liu:
I have a lot of thoughts about this book but ultimately decided to include it on this list because it does do things in science fiction that were so unlike anything I’d ever read before. It’s the first of the trilogy that will blow your mind. It plays with ideas that I hadn’t experienced before, and, according to my physicist husband, up to a certain point, the science holds up. It does run away with itself and then the science becomes much more fiction than science, but it’s still fascinating. That said, it definitely has notes of Chinese Nationalism, and after reflecting on the trilogy as a whole, it seems to believe that totalitarian governments are the only ones that can hold the world together. It also overall leans towards a nihilistic view of the world, which I simply don’t believe. Even though there are things I disagree with, it still was a fascinating book (and trilogy) and entirely worth reading.
A Curious Faith, Lore Wilbert:
Okay, I know I’ve already written about this, but it’s so good and I just can’t not include this in my end-of-year reading wrap-up. A Curious Faith is a powerful invitation to engage with our doubts about our faith. Lore Wilbert helps us ask what are the questions that God is asking of us, and the questions we are asking of Him. She reminds us that faith can grow and deepen through doubts; God wants us to wrestle with them and to find peace amid our questions.
The Stardust Thief, Chelsea Abdullah:
I love a good retelling of a myth or fairytale, and The Stardust Thief hits all my marks for a good book — rich characters, an unexpected plot, lush world. It’s a loose retelling of a Thousand and One Nights and Aladdin and the Lamp and is utterly captivating. The world of Islamic mythology is an underappreciated pantheon, but one that is just as rich and full of tales as the Norse or Greek myths, if not more so. The Stardust Thief is a celebration of these ancient tales, inviting the reader into a world of magic, secrets, and betrayal, where nothing is quite what it seems.
The Golden Enclaves, Naomi Novik:
The final book in the Scholomance trilogy came out this September it was my favorite book of 2022. Novik’s lush world-building does more than invite her into her magical world, it has a massive impact on the overall plot in clever and poignant ways. This dark academia trilogy is set in a darker, more high-stakes version of Hogwarts (more or less), where monsters lurk, feeding off the magical powers of young wizards. And, from time to time, wizards also feed off each other too. Our main character El spends the first two books grappling with her own magical abilities and turning away from temptation for her natural affinity for destruction, but in this final volume, the central question of the trilogy, whether the ends ever justify the means, is pushed to its extreme. While the context may allude to a Harry Potter-like world, the content of the trilogy is more inspired by Tolkien, with its characters dwelling on the question of moral victories and whether or not an ultimate evil can ever be manipulated for good.
Babel, R. F. Kuang:
Babel was another much-hyped book of 2022, and it also lived up to the expectations. Its sweeping chronicle of a young boy from Canton, plucked from illness and obscurity by an Oxford professor, is a powerful deconstruction of Western dark academia fantasy. It reveals a layered examination of colonialism and racism within the context of a magical school in Oxford through the eyes of its main character, as he wrestles with his appreciation for the world in which he was raised, his loyalty to the one into which he was born, and cognitive dissonance he struggles with as he realizes that the western world that he though embraced him may only be using him after all. It doesn’t shy away from the impacts of gender, colorism, and privilege as the main characters discover the ends to which they will go and the loyalties that they can never give up. While I didn’t love the ending, I understood why it had to end as it did, and the ending didn’t prevent me from genuinely enjoying this chronicle, feeling for its characters, or pondering long and hard about its themes.
Notable Mentions:
The Other Bennet Sister, Janice Hadlow
The Ocean at the End of the Lane, Neil Gaimon
The Fifth Season, N. K. Jemisin
Project Hail Mary, Andy Weir
Liturgy of the Ordinary, Tish Harrison-Warren
